Functional Explanations in Linguistics

Functional Explanations in Linguistics PDF Author: Alain Bossuyt
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Functional Explanations in Linguistics

Functional Explanations in Linguistics PDF Author: Alain Bossuyt
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description


A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on a General Linguistic Basis

A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on a General Linguistic Basis PDF Author: Vilém Mathesius
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110813297
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar

The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar PDF Author: Ian G. Roberts
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199573778
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
''This handbook provides a critical guide to the most central proposition in modern linguistics: the notion, generally known as universal grammar, that a universal set of structural principles underlies the grammatical diversity of the world's languages. It will be a vital reference for linguists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists.''--

Functional Approaches to Language

Functional Approaches to Language PDF Author: Shannon Bischoff
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110285320
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Functionalism, as characterized by Allen, (2007:254) "holds that linguistic structures can only be understood and explained with reference to the semantic and communicative functions of language, whose primary function is to be a vehicle for social interaction among human beings." Since the 1970s, inspired by the work of Jespersen, Bolinger, Dik, Halliday, and Chafe, functionalism has been attached to a variety of movements and models making major contributions to linguistic theory and to various subfields within linguistics, such as syntax, discourse, language acquisition, cognitive linguistics, typology, and documentary linguistics. Further, functional approaches have had a major impact outside linguistics in fields such as psychology and education, both in terms of theory and application. The main goal of functionalist approaches is to clarify the dynamic relationship between form and function (Thompson 2003:53). Functionalist perspectives have gained more ground over the past decades with more linguists resorting to functional explanations to account for linguistic structure. The authors in this volume present the current state of functional approaches to linguistic inquiry expanding our knowledge of language and linguistics.

Language Change and Functional Explanations

Language Change and Functional Explanations PDF Author: Jadranka Gvozdanovic
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110813750
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

Functionalism in Linguistics

Functionalism in Linguistics PDF Author: René Dirven
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027215243
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
This volume offers a variety of viewpoints on the functional approach to the study of language. After an exposition of the Prague School functionalism, and Dik's and Halliday's functional approaches, it presents a wider area of text-linguistic, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, theoretical, descriptive and applied issues from a functional point of view, testifying of the very wide-spread and in-depth impact of functionalist thought on the present-day linguistic scene.

Explanation in typology

Explanation in typology PDF Author: Karsten Schmidtke-Bode
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961101477
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This volume provides an up-to-date discussion of a foundational issue that has recently taken centre stage in linguistic typology and which is relevant to the language sciences more generally: To what extent can cross-linguistic generalizations, i.e. statistical universals of linguistic structure, be explained by the diachronic sources of these structures? Everyone agrees that typological distributions are the result of complex histories, as “languages evolve into the variation states to which synchronic universals pertain” (Hawkins 1988). However, an increasingly popular line of argumentation holds that many, perhaps most, typological regularities are long-term reflections of their diachronic sources, rather than being ‘target-driven’ by overarching functional-adaptive motivations. On this view, recurrent pathways of reanalysis and grammaticalization can lead to uniform synchronic results, obviating the need to postulate global forces like ambiguity avoidance, processing efficiency or iconicity, especially if there is no evidence for such motivations in the genesis of the respective constructions. On the other hand, the recent typological literature is equally ripe with talk of "complex adaptive systems", "attractor states" and "cross-linguistic convergence". One may wonder, therefore, how much room is left for traditional functional-adaptive forces and how exactly they influence the diachronic trajectories that shape universal distributions. The papers in the present volume are intended to provide an accessible introduction to this debate. Covering theoretical, methodological and empirical facets of the issue at hand, they represent current ways of thinking about the role of diachronic sources in explaining grammatical universals, articulated by seasoned and budding linguists alike.

The Functional Analysis of English

The Functional Analysis of English PDF Author: Thomas Bloor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135971099
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
The Functional Analysis of English is an introduction to the analysis and description of English, based on the principles of systemic functional linguistics. It sets out the tools and analytic techniques of Hallidayan grammar with clear explanations of terminology and illustrates these with examples from a variety of texts, including science, travel, history and literary sources. This revised third edition incorporates references to recent research, better explanations of complex problems, and additional exercises. Key features: an updated overview of applications to real world issues revised sections on the current historical position of systemic functional grammar simple introductions to agnation, grammatical metaphor, and information structure chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading, exercises with answers and a glossary of terms a companion website with additional activities, exercises and supplementary readings for students and instructors This third edition is an indispensable introduction to systemic functional linguistics, which can be used independently or in preparation for M.A.K. Halliday and C.M.I.M. Matthiessen’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. The book is an ideal text for students of linguistics, applied linguistics and grammar- those new to the field, or who have a background in traditional grammar, as well as teachers of English language.

Verb and Noun Number in English

Verb and Noun Number in English PDF Author: Wallis Hoch Reid
Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780582086166
Category : Anglais (Langue) - Nom
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
The author presents an account of the principles shaping the morphological form of the verb. This book aims to exemplify contemporary linguistic theory. The analysis proceeds from the view that the structure of language is determined by its function as an instrument of human communication. This position breaks with sentence-based theory to return to Saussurean conception of a language as an inventory of signs. It expands the programmatic Saussurean picture by emphasizing the pervasive influence of general human psychological characteristics on both linguistic structure and language use. In contrast to sentence-based theory, sign-based theory contains no formal component of syntactic rules. It must re-characterize linguistic structure in functional, not syntactic terms.

Verbal Art and Systemic Functional Linguistics

Verbal Art and Systemic Functional Linguistics PDF Author: Donna R. Miller
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781795347
Category : Functionalism (Linguistics)
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book provides an overview of the dialectic of theory and practice through which SFL positions itself as an appliable linguistics with reference to the theory of Verbal Art. A concise history of the linguistic study of literature tout court is sketched, as well as the roots of specifically SFL approaches to it. A detailed theoretical description is given of the emergence of systemic functional stylistics and, in particular, of the overall architecture of Systemic Socio-Semantic Stylistics (SSS), the central descriptive-analytical model created by Ruqaiya Hasan. Subsequently, the correspondences between Hasan's framework and what Jakobson theorized as the empirical linguistic evidence of his 'poetic function', grammatical parallelism and with what he calls 'pervasive parallelism', are delineated and illustrated via the analysis of one poem by D.H. Lawrence, 'Bei Hennef' (1913). Further, the teaching of the language in literature with the tools of SFL/SSS is addressed, and a case study of the experience of guiding students towards this 'special' register awareness in an undergraduate EFL curriculum in Bologna, Italy is offered. Aiming to provide as wide-ranging a view of systemic functional stylistics studies as possible, the volume also presents a synopsis of stylistics research wedded to multimodal/multisemiotic, corpus and translation approaches, broaching certain of the many theoretical issues intrinsically entailed. With special attention to Hasan's stylistic legacy, in closing the author speaks to the future directions systemic functional stylistic studies might take.