Flexible Word Classes

Flexible Word Classes PDF Author: Jan Rijkhoff
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191645478
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of 'flexible words', i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. Flexible words can - without special morphosyntactic marking - serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, 'specialised' word classes. Thus, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like 'predicating' (verbal function), 'referring' (nominal function) or 'modifying' (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though linguists have been aware of flexible world classes for more than a century, the phenomenon has not played a role in the development of linguistic typology or modern grammatical theory. The current volume aims to address this gap by offering detailed studies on flexible word classes, investigating their properties and what it means for the grammar of a language to have such a word class. It includes new cross-linguistic studies of word class systems as well as original descriptive and theoretical contributions from authors with an expert knowledge of languages that have played - or should play - a role in the debate about flexible word classes, including Kharia, Riau Indonesian, Santali, Sri Lanka Malay, Lushootseed, Gooniyandi, and Late Archaic Chinese.

Flexible Word Classes

Flexible Word Classes PDF Author: Jan Rijkhoff
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191645478
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book

Book Description
This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of 'flexible words', i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. Flexible words can - without special morphosyntactic marking - serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, 'specialised' word classes. Thus, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like 'predicating' (verbal function), 'referring' (nominal function) or 'modifying' (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though linguists have been aware of flexible world classes for more than a century, the phenomenon has not played a role in the development of linguistic typology or modern grammatical theory. The current volume aims to address this gap by offering detailed studies on flexible word classes, investigating their properties and what it means for the grammar of a language to have such a word class. It includes new cross-linguistic studies of word class systems as well as original descriptive and theoretical contributions from authors with an expert knowledge of languages that have played - or should play - a role in the debate about flexible word classes, including Kharia, Riau Indonesian, Santali, Sri Lanka Malay, Lushootseed, Gooniyandi, and Late Archaic Chinese.

Flexible Word Classes

Flexible Word Classes PDF Author: Johannes Nicolaas Maria Rijkhoff
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191748707
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This is a major cross-linguistic study of 'flexible words', i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories verb, noun, adjective or adverb. It includes new cross-linguistic studies of word class systems as well as original descriptive and theoretical contributions

Word Classes

Word Classes PDF Author: Raffaele Simone
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027269769
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
The universal and typological status of the notion of word class — closely related to part-of-speech systems, morphology, syntax and the lexicon-syntax interface — continues to be of major linguistic theoretical interest. The papers included in this volume offer a fresh look at the variety of current theoretical and descriptive approaches to word class issues, and present original analyses and new data from a number of languages. The primary focus is on methods (including computational ones) and criteria for identifying and representing major word classes and subclasses in specific languages, with considerable attention also directed towards the characterization of the nature and role of minor — or neglected — word classes, including trans-categorization processes. The range of topics and perspectives covered makes this volume of considerable interest to both theoretical linguists and typologists.

Word-Class Flexibility in Classical Chinese

Word-Class Flexibility in Classical Chinese PDF Author: Lukas Zadrapa
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004206310
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This book seeks to interpret the notorious word-class flexibility in Classical Chinese in a new way, based on a multi-disciplinary perspective and the theoretical background of cognitive linguistics. It focuses on the case of verbal and adverbial functions of nouns.

The Oxford Handbook of Word Classes

The Oxford Handbook of Word Classes PDF Author: Eva van Lier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192594362
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1137

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Book Description
This handbook explores multiple facets of the study of word classes, also known as parts of speech or lexical categories. These categories are of fundamental importance to linguistic theory and description, both formal and functional, and for both language-internal analyses and cross-linguistic comparison. The volume consists of five parts that investigate word classes from different angles. Chapters in the first part address a range of fundamental issues including diversity and unity in word classes around the world, categorization at different levels of structure, the distinction between lexical and functional words, and hybrid categories. Part II examines the treatment of word classes across a wide range of contemporary linguistic theories, such as Cognitive Grammar, Minimalist Syntax, and Lexical Functional Grammar, while the focus of Part III is on individual word classes, from major categories such as verb and noun to minor ones such as adpositions and ideophones. Part IV provides a number of cross-linguistic case studies, exploring word classes in families including Afroasiatic, Sinitic, Mayan, Austronesian, and in sign languages. Chapters in the final part of the book discuss word classes from the perspective of various sub-disciplines of linguistics, ranging from first and second language acquisition to computational and corpus linguistics. Together, the contributions showcase the importance of word classes for the whole discipline of linguistics, while also highlighting the many ongoing debates in the areas and outlining fruitful avenues for future research.

Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech PDF Author: Umberto Ansaldo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902722255X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Parts of Speech are a central aspect of linguistic theory and analysis. Though a long-established tradition in Western linguistics and philosophy has assumed the validity of Parts of Speech in the study of language, there are still many questions left unanswered. For example, should Parts of Speech be treated as descriptive tools or are they to be considered universal constructs? Is it possible to come up with cross-linguistically valid formal categories, or are categories of language structure ultimately language-specific? Should they be defined semantically, syntactically, or otherwise? Do non-Indo-European languages reveal novel aspects of categorical assignment? This volume attempts to answer these and other fundamental questions for linguistic theory and its methodology by offering a range of contributions that spans diverse theoretical persuasions and contributes to our understanding of Parts of Speech with analyses of new data sets. These articles were originally published in "Studies in Language" 32:3 (2008).

A Grammar of Vurës, Vanuatu

A Grammar of Vurës, Vanuatu PDF Author: Catriona Malau
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501503642
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 805

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Book Description
This book is a comprehensive grammatical description of the Vurës language, spoken on the island of Vanua Lava, in the Banks group of islands, northern Vanuatu. Vurës is a previously undescribed language, with very few minor published works referring to the language.

Flexibility in the Parts-of-Speech System of Classical Chinese

Flexibility in the Parts-of-Speech System of Classical Chinese PDF Author: Linlin Sun
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110660792
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Based on empirical data from five classical texts, this study investigates flexibility of parts of speech in Classical Chinese. The findings suggest that flexibility in a parts-of-speech system can only be fully understood by integrating a wide range of aspects. The components needed to account for it include constructions, semantics, metonymies, metaphors, pragmatic implicatures – and world knowledge as reflected within a given culture.

The Flexible ELA Classroom

The Flexible ELA Classroom PDF Author: Amber Chandler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317189655
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Find out how to differentiate your middle school ELA instruction so that all students can become better readers, writers, and critical thinkers. Author Amber Chandler invites you into her classroom and shows how you can adjust your lessons to suit different learning needs while still meeting state standards and keeping your students accountable. She provides a wide variety of helpful tools and strategies, ranging from easy options that you can try out immediately to deeper-integration ideas that will reshape your classroom as a flexible, personalized learning environment. Topics include: Using choice boards and menus to teach vocabulary, reading, and presentation skills in fun and interactive ways; Grouping students strategically to maximize learning outcomes and encourage collaboration; Making vocabulary learning interesting and memorable with visual aids, tiered lists, and personalized word studies; Designing your own Project Based Learning lessons to unleash your students’ creativity; Assessing students’ progress without the use of one-size-fits-all testing; And more! Bonus: downloadable versions of some of the rubrics and handouts in this book are available on the Routledge website at http://www.routledge.com/9781138681040. Also, check out the book’s website, doyoudifferentiate.com, for additional articles and strategies.

Recent Contributions to Quantitative Linguistics

Recent Contributions to Quantitative Linguistics PDF Author: Arjuna Tuzzi
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110420295
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Quantitative Linguistics is a rapidly developing discipline covering more and more areas of linguistic and textological research. The book represents an overview of the state of the art in Quantitative Linguistics, its scope and reach. Some of the topics: linguistic laws, frequency analyses, synergetic models of language, networks, part-of-speech systems, authorship attribution, polyfunctionality and polysemy, and opinion target identification.