First published in 1987. Most introductory textbooks in phonetics are designed to turn the people who use them into phoneticians. People who take phonetics courses, on the other hand, do not in general wish to become specialists, but rather need to know what the study of phonetics has to offer in some other field. This book is intended for those involved in any way with the study of the English language: for students of linguistics or literature, teachers of English, and those involved with the study of literacy, or the analysis of dis course or conversation.
This text is a compendium of information about the pronunciation of casual English (English as it is used un-self-consciously in informal situations). It does not depend on prior knowledge of any particular phonological theory, but does require basic knowledge of linguistics.
Speakers of British and American English display some striking differences in their use of grammar. In this detailed survey, John Algeo considers questions such as: •Who lives on a street, and who lives in a street? •Who takes a bath, and who has a bath? •Who says Neither do I, and who says Nor do I? •After 'thank you', who says Not at all and who says You're welcome? •Whose team are on the ball, and whose team isn't? Containing extensive quotations from real-life English on both sides of the Atlantic, collected over the past twenty years, this is a clear and highly organized guide to the differences - and the similarities - between the grammar of British and American speakers. Written for those with no prior knowledge of linguistics, it shows how these grammatical differences are linked mainly to particular words, and provides an accessible account of contemporary English in use.
You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.
This book brings together a number of empirical studies that use corpora to study discourse patterns in speech and writing. It explores new trends in the area of text and discourse characterized by the alliance between text linguistics and areas such as corpus linguistics, genre analysis, literary stylistics and cross-linguistic studies. The contributions to the volume show how established corpora can be used to ask a number of new questions about the interface between speech and writing, the relation between grammar and discourse, academic discourse, cohesive markers, stylistic devices such as metaphor, deixis and non-verbal communication. The corpora used for text-analysis can also be tailor-made for the study of particular genres such as journal article abstracts, lectures, e-mailing list messages, headlines and titles. A recent development is to bring in contrastive data from bilingual corpora to show what is language-specific in the organization of the text.
Language is more than words: it includes the prosodic features and patterns that we use, subconsciously, to frame meanings and achieve our goals in our interaction with others. Here, Nigel G. Ward explains how we do this, going beyond intonation to show how pitch, timing, intensity and voicing properties combine to form meaningful temporal configurations: prosodic constructions. Bringing together new findings and hitherto-scattered observations from phonetic and pragmatic studies, this book describes over twenty common prosodic patterns in English conversation. Using examples from real conversations, it illustrates how prosodic constructions serve essential functions such as inviting, showing approval, taking turns, organizing ideas, reaching agreement, and evoking action. Prosody helps us establish rapport and nurture relationships, but subtle differences in prosody across languages and subcultures can be damagingly misunderstood. The findings presented here will enable both native speakers of English and learners to listen more sensitively and communicate more effectively.
Sound Patterns of Spoken English is a concise, to-the-point compendium of information about the casual pronunciation of everyday English as compared to formal citation forms. Concise, to-the-point compendium of information about casual pronunciation of English as compared to citation forms. Covers varieties of English language including General American and Standard Southern British. Overlaps the boundaries of several areas of study including sociolinguistics, lexicography, rhetoric, and speech sciences. Examines English pronunciation as found in everyday speech. Accompanied by website at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/shockey featuring examples from different accents.
Patterns in Languageaddresses the real needs of students in modular systems who may not have a background either in traditional literature or in linguistic theory. This student-friendly textbook uses the principles of linguistic analysis to investigate the aesthetic use of language in literary (and non-literary) texts. Written in straightforward, accessible language with imaginative examples and humour, it shows how linguistic knowledge can enhance and enrich the analysis of texts. The authors borrow from traditional stylistics but focus primarily on the recurring linguistic patterns which are used by writers of poetry, fiction and drama. Textual examples include canonical literature and modern literary texts, as well as references to popular fiction, television and the language of advertising. Tasks, including textual analysis, are provided at every stage, and sample answers are also included.
Presents a comprehensive introduction to linguistics, This book includes chapters on variation and change in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. It also covers topics such as pidgins and creoles, first and second language acquisition, development of language in the human species, growth of writing, printing in information technology and others.
