Toward A Genetics of Language
Toward A Genetics of Language

Author: Mabel L. Rice

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 1134789181

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The past decade has brought important new advances in the fields of genetics, behavioral genetics, linguistics, language acquisition, studies of language impairment, and brain imaging. Although these advances are each highly relevant to the determination of what a child is innately prepared to bring to language acquisition, the contributing fields of endeavor have traditionally been relatively self-contained, with little cross communication. This volume was developed with the belief that there is considerable value to be gained in the creation of a shared platform for a dialogue across the disciplines. Leading experts in genetics, linguistics, language acquisition, language impairment, and brain imaging are brought together for the purpose of exploring the current evidence, theoretical issues, and research challenges in a way that bridges disciplinary boundaries and points toward future developments in the search for the genetic and environmental bases of language acquisition and impairments. This collection provides discussions and summaries of: *breakthrough findings of the genetic underpinnings of dyslexia; *theoretical and empirical developments in the specification of a phenotype of language acquisition and impairment; *evidence of familiarity and twin concordances of specific language impairment; and *new evidence from brain imaging. It concludes with a critical response from an advocate of rational empiricism.

Telicity in the Second Language
Telicity in the Second Language

Author: Roumyana Slabakova

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9789027224941

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Annotation Slabakova (U. of Iowa) examines the second language acquisition of English telicity marking by native speakers of Bulgarian. Particular attention is paid to subtle differences between English and Slavic telic and atelic sentences. Slabakova contends that Vendler's lexical classes of verbs can be represented in four phrase structure templates, where lexical properties of the verb and of the object compositionally determine telicity. The text is a revised version of the author's Ph.D. thesis (1997, McGill U.) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2008
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2008

Author: Reineke Bok-Bennema

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010-11-24

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 9027287619

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This volume assembles a significant number of selected papers that were presented at the 22nd edition of Going Romance, held at the University of Groningen in December 2008. Though it contains a variety of topics, 'tense, mood and aspect' is represented most extensively. This volume contains a rich variety of Romance languages: Cape Verdean, European Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Spanish. The collection of papers is representative of the research carried out nowadays on Romance languages within theoretical linguistics and shows the vitality of this research.

Topics in African Linguistics
Topics in African Linguistics

Author: Salikoko S. Mufwene

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1993-10-07

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 9027277109

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The 16 papers in this volume are revised versions of papers presented at the conference; they represent the state of the art in various subfields of African linguistics into which the book is organized: (1) morphosyntax, (2) semantics, (3) phonology, and (4) language contact. The last part covers topics such as code-switching and mixing, pidginization/creolization, and language planning.The papers in Part I: Morphosyntax focus particularly on the verb and verb phrase in a variety of Niger-Congo languages, discussing several aspects of the verb morphology. The specific languages discussed include Kinande, Kilega, Kinyarwanda (Larry Hyman), Kikongo-Kituba (M. Ngalasso), Duala (E. Bilao), Yoruba (S.A. Lawal), Ewe (A.S. Allen), and Gbaya 'Bodoe (P. Roulon-Doko). The papers in Part II: Semantics discuss foundational questions regarding the proper/common noun distinction in two geographically very distant African languages, Gborbo Krahn (Janet Bing) in the west and Luo (Ben G. Blount) in the east, which follow yet very similar principles. And, despite differences in the titles, the papers on Kivunjo (Lioba Moshi) and Emai (Schaefer and Egbokhare) address the question of the semantic basis for assigning property concepts to different lexical categories. There are two papers in Part III: Phonology, which are mostly on the prosodic features of Chiyao (Al Mtenje) and Manding (J. Tourville). In Part IV: Language Contact, Eyamba Bokamba's and C. Meyers-Scotton's papers discuss speech variation and mostly formal constraints associated with them, while Helma Pasch compares segmental features of Sango and Yakoma in the Central African Republic to determine whether the former is a creole. Edmun Richmond focuses on the choice of national official language in sub-Saharan Africa. Except for Pasch all of them cover several languages and geographical areas.

Discontinuous Syntax
Discontinuous Syntax

Author: A. M. Devine

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2000-01-13

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0195344006

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The interface between syntax and meaning, both semantic and pragmatic, has emerged as perhaps the richest and most fascinating area of current linguistics theory. This study applies some of these ideas to hyperbaton, offering an original new theory with broad applications for our understanding of Greek syntax. Students of epic will find a fresh perspective on orality in Homer while the general classicist will discover a more precise and explicit framework for the analysis of textual meaning in literary research.