Selected Working Papers from the Tense-Mood-Aspect Project
Author: Östen Dahl
Publisher:
Published: 1985
Total Pages: 214
ISBN-13:
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Tense, Aspect and Action
Author: Carl Bache
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2011-12-01
Total Pages: 437
ISBN-13: 3110883074
DOWNLOAD EBOOKResearch on language universals and research on linguistic typology are not antagonistic, but rather complementary approaches to the same fundamental problem: the relationship between the amazing diversity of languages and the profound unity of language. Only if the true extent of typological divergence is recognized can universal laws be formulated. In recent years it has become more and more evident that a broad range of languages of radically different types must be carefully analyzed before general theories are possible. Typological comparison of this kind is now at the centre of linguistic research. The series empirical approaches to language typology presents a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. The distinctive feature of the series is its markedly empirical orientation. All conclusions to be reached are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. General problems are focused on from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Special emphasis is given to the analysis of phenomena from little known languages, which shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics. The series is open to contributions from different theoretical persuasions. It thus reflects the methodological pluralism that characterizes the present situation. Care is taken that all volumes be accessible to every linguist and, moreover, to every reader specializing in some domain related to human language. A deeper understanding of human language in general, based on a detailed analysis of typological diversity among individual languages, is fundamental for many sciences, not only for linguists. Therefore, this series has proven to be indispensable in every research library, be it public or private, which has a specialization in language and the language sciences. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.
Adverbs and Functional Heads
Author: Guglielmo Cinque
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 288
ISBN-13: 0195115279
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis text presents evidence locating adverb phrases in the specifiers of distinct functional projections within a theory of the clause. In this theory, both adverbs and heads, which encode the functional notions of the clause, are ordered in a rigid sequence. The author's proposal suggests that the structure of natural language sentences is much richer than previously assumed.
Nominalizations
Author: Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2002-09-11
Total Pages: 346
ISBN-13: 1134928459
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBased on extensive and diverse material from 70 languages, and covering a range of previously undiscussed problems, this book provides a thorough analysis of how nominalization types interact with other structural features. It focuses on action nominal constructions, and in particular, the comparison of their syntactic structure with that of finite clauses and of other noun phrases, a problem which has claimed much attention in current syntactic theories. Supported by rich empirical material and clearly illustrated with examples from all the sample languages, the book provides a detailed and consistent basis for constructing a typology of derived constructions and for presenting cross-linguistic comparisons.
Quotative Indexes in African Languages
Author: Tom Güldemann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2008-11-06
Total Pages: 707
ISBN-13: 3110211459
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe book represents the results of a synchronic and diachronic cross-African survey of quotative indexes. These are linguistic expressions that signal in the ongoing discourse the presence of a quote (often called "direct reported speech"). For this purpose, 39 African languages were selected to represent the genealogical and geographical diversity of the continent. The study is based primarily on this language sample, in particular on the analysis of quotative indexes and related expressions from a text corpus of each sample language, but also includes a wide range of data from the published literature on other African as well as non- African languages. It is the first typological investigation of direct reported discourse of this magnitude in a large group of languages. The book may thus serve as a starting point of similar studies in other geographical areas or even with a global scope, as well as stimulate more detailed investigations of particular languages. The results of the African survey challenge several prevailing cross-linguistic generalizations regarding quotative indexes and reported discourse constructions as a whole, of which two are of particular interest. In the syntactic domain, where reported discourse has mostly been dealt with under so- called sentential complementation, the study supports the minority view that direct reported discourse and also a large portion of indirect reported discourse show hardly any evidence for the claim that the reported clause is a syntactic object complement of some matrix verb. With respect to grammaticalization, the work concludes that speech verbs are, against common belief, not a frequent source of quotatives, complementizers, and other related markers. Far more frequent sources are markers of similarity and manner; generic verbs of equation, inchoativity, and action; and pronominals referring to the quote or the speaker. Another more general conclusion of the study is that especially direct reported discourse can be fruitfully analyzed as part of a larger linguistic domain called "mimesis". This comprises expressions which represent a state of affairs by means of enactment/ performance rather than with the help of "canonical" linguistic signs and includes, besides reported discourse, world-referring bodily gestures, ideophone-like signs, and non-linguistic sound.
Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages
Author: Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Published: 2001-02-12
Total Pages: 500
ISBN-13: 9027275459
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBasic notions in the field of creole studies, including the category of “creole languages” itself, have been questioned in recent years: Can creoles be defined on structural or on purely sociohistorical grounds? Can creolization be understood as a graded process, possibly resulting in different degrees of “radicalness” and intermediate language types (“semi-creoles”)? If so, by which linguistic structures are these characterized, and by which extralinguistic conditions have they been brought about? Which are the linguistic mechanisms underlying processes of restructuring, and how did grammaticalization and reanalysis shape the reorganization of linguistic, specifically morphosyntactic structures commonly called “creolization”? What is the role of language contact, language mixing, substrates and superstrates, or demographic factors in these processes? This volume provides select and revised papers from a 1998 colloquium at the University of Regensburg in which these questions were addressed. 19 contributions by renowned scholars discuss structural, sociohistorical and theoretical aspects, building upon case studies of both Romance-based and English-oriented creoles. This book marks a major step forward in our understanding of the nature of creolization.
The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax
Author: Marcel den Dikken
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2013-07-25
Total Pages: 1412
ISBN-13: 1107354587
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSyntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.
The Bantu Bibliography
Author: Jouni Maho
Publisher:
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 888
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPidgin and Creole Linguistics in the Twenty-first Century
Author: Glenn G. Gilbert
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 400
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCreolistics, an important branch of language contact theory and sociolinguistics, is one of the most socially engaged areas of language study today. Pidgin and Creole Linguistics in the Twenty-First Century explores where the field is headed in the new century, in the judgment of eleven leading scholars. At the same time, the authors look backward toward the migrations starting five hundred years ago of Old World people to the Western Hemisphere and elsewhere, and the strange turns the European colonial languages underwent here. Their analyses underscore our belief that language change can only be understood in its social context, even though those changes often took place under horrifying conditions that were illegal even under the laws of the time.
