Discourse Features of Ten Languages of West-Central Africa

Discourse Features of Ten Languages of West-Central Africa PDF Author: Stephen H. Levinsohn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Central
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description

Discourse Features of Ten Languages of West-Central Africa

Discourse Features of Ten Languages of West-Central Africa PDF Author: Stephen H. Levinsohn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Central
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description


Analyzing Discourse, Revised Edition

Analyzing Discourse, Revised Edition PDF Author: Robert A Dooley
Publisher: SIL International
ISBN: 1556714912
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 123

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Book Description
Rather than applying a rigid theory or surveying a variety of approaches, Analyzing Discourse provides a methodology that has been refined over years of use. As an introduction to discourse analysis for linguistic field workers, it is practical, addressing issues commonly confronted by field linguists. The material follows a functional and cognitive approach that seems to be a good approximation of how discourse is actually produced and understood. Since the aim of the manual is introductory rather than comprehensive, most chapters are relatively short, and the whole can be covered in fifteen classroom hours. References are provided for further reading on the topics discussed. The manual can be used individually or in group sessions, such as in a formal course or a linguistic seminar. In a group setting, concepts can be illustrated by examining texts beyond those provided in the manual. This revision corrects the errata of the classic first edition, which remains a solid presentation of the basic concepts for analyzing discourse.

Reference in Discourse

Reference in Discourse PDF Author: A. A. Kibrik
Publisher: Oxford Studies in Typology and
ISBN: 0199215804
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 683

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Book Description
This is the first full study of how people refer to entities in natural discourse. It contributes to the understanding of both linguistic diversity and the cognitive underpinnings of language and it provides a framework for further research in both fields. Andrej Kibrik focuses on the way specific entities are mentioned in natural discourse, during which about every third word usually depends on referential choice. He considers reference as an overt representation of underlying cognitive processes and combines a theoretically-oriented cognitive approach with empirically-based cross-linguistic analysis. He begins by introducing the cognitive approach to discourse analysis and by examining the relationship between discourse studies and linguistic typology. He discusses reference as a linguistic phenomenon, in connection with the traditional notions of deixis, anaphora, givenness, and topicality, and describes the way his theoretical approach is centered on notions of referent activation in working memory. He argues that the speaker is responsible for the shape of discourse and that referential expressions should be understood as choices made by speakers rather than as puzzles to be solved by addressees. Kibrik examines the cross-linguistic aspects of reference and the typology of referential devices, including referring expressions per se, such as free and bound pronouns, and referential aids that help to tell apart the concurrently activated entities. This discussion is based on the data from about 200 languages from around the world. He then proposes a comprehensive model of referential choice, in which he draws on concepts from cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, and applies this to Russian and English. He also draws together his empirical analyses in order to examine what light his analysis of discourse can shed on the way information is processed in working memory. In the final part of the book Andrej Kibrik offers a wider perspective, including deixis, referential aspects of gesticulation and signed languages. This pioneering work will interest linguists and cognitive scientists interested in discourse, reference, typology, and the operations of working memory in linguistic communication.

Quotative Indexes in African Languages

Quotative Indexes in African Languages PDF Author: Tom Güldemann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110211459
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 707

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Book Description
The 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.

Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation

Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation PDF Author: Stephen H Levinsohn
Publisher: SIL International
ISBN: 1556715528
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
With simplified language and terminology, this coursebook assists Bible translators with limited linguistics training to recognize differences in natural structures of the target and source languages for both narrative and behavioral genres. Concepts are carefully introduced with illustrative examples from both the Old and New Testaments followed by questions, exercises, and applications that effectively engage translation teams and individual translators to improve their draft translations and provide reasons for their decisions. These exercises and assignments promote careful scholarship by empowering translators to confidently present biblical truth in natural and accurate ways in the target language. As relevant, sections are addressed specifically to speakers of verb-initial, verb-medial, and verb-final languages.

Semantics - Sentence and Information Structure

Semantics - Sentence and Information Structure PDF Author: Paul Portner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110589869
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
Read this book to get a deeper understanding of a wide range of semantics research on complex sentences and meaning in discourse. These in-depth articles from leading names in their fields cover the core concepts of sentential semantics such as tense, modality, conditionality, propositional attitudes, scope, negation, and coordination. The highly cited material, covers questions, imperatives, copular clauses, and existential sentences. It also includes essential research on sentence types, and explains central concepts in the theory of information structure and discourse structure, such as topics, cohesion and coherence, accessibility and discourse particles.

Language Typology and Language Universals 2.Teilband

Language Typology and Language Universals 2.Teilband PDF Author: Martin Haspelmath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110194260
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1013

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Book Description
This handbook provides a comprehensive and thorough survey of our current insights into the diversity and unity found across the 6000 languages of this planet. The 125 articles include inter alia chapters on the patterns and limits of variation manifested by analogous structures, constructions and linguistic devices across languages (e.g. word order, tense and aspect, inflection, color terms and syllable structure). Other chapters cover the history, methodology and the theory of typology, as well as the relationship between language typology and other disciplines. The authors of the individual sections and chapters are for the most part internationally known experts on the relevant topics. The vast majority of the articles are written in English, some in French or German. The handbook is not only intended for the expert in the fields of typology and language universals, but for all of those interested in linguistics. It is specifically addressed to all those who specialize in individual languages, providing basic orientation for their analysis and placing each language within the space of what is possible and common in the languages of the world.

Introduction to Typology

Introduction to Typology PDF Author: Lindsay J. Whaley
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780803959637
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Ideal in introductory courses dealing with grammatical structure and linguistic analysis, Introduction to Typology overviews the major grammatical categories and constructions in the world's languages. Framed in a typological perspective, the constant concern of this primary text is to underscore the similarities and differences which underlie the vast array of human languages.

Tense and Aspect in Bantu

Tense and Aspect in Bantu PDF Author: Derek Nurse
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199239290
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Derek Nurse looks at variations in the form and function of tense and aspect in Bantu, a branch of Niger-Congo, the world's largest language phylum. His account is based on data from more than 200 Bantu languages and varieties, a representative sample of which is freely available on the publisher's website.

Discourse Features of New Testament Greek

Discourse Features of New Testament Greek PDF Author: Stephen H. Levinsohn
Publisher: Sil International, Global Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Preface -- Introduction -- Abbreviations. Part I: Constituent Order. Coherence and Discontinuities -- Points of Departure -- Constituent Order in the Comment -- More on Constituent Order -- Part II: Sentence Conjunctions. Kai and Ae in Narrative -- Tote, Non-Conjunctive Kai, and Te Solitarium -- Thematic Development in Non-Narrative Text. Part III: Patterns of Reference. Participant Reference -- The Article with Substantives. Part IV: Backgrounding and Highlighting Devices. Backgrounding of Sentences -- Backgrounding Within Sentences -- Highlighting and the Historical Present. Part V: The Reporting of Conversation. The Default Strategy for Reporting Conversations -- More on Reported Conversations in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts -- Reported Conversations in John s Gospel -- Three Ways of Reporting Speech.