Storyline Concerns and Word Order Typology in East and West Africa

Storyline Concerns and Word Order Typology in East and West Africa PDF Author: Robert E. Longacre
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Eastern
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
"This volume considers data from some forty African languages on the East and West sides of the continent in an effort to answer the question, 'How do languages of different word order typologies tell a story?' The evidence suggests that the ordering of constituents on the clause level, i.e. subject, verb, and object/complement, often determines differences in the mechanics of story telling. Furthermore, in some (perhaps all) languages, storyline clauses are the most typical and diagnostic of the word order typology itself, perhaps because the story (anecdote) is the most basic form of monologue discourse."--Page [1].

Storyline Concerns and Word Order Typology in East and West Africa

Storyline Concerns and Word Order Typology in East and West Africa PDF Author: Robert E. Longacre
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Eastern
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
"This volume considers data from some forty African languages on the East and West sides of the continent in an effort to answer the question, 'How do languages of different word order typologies tell a story?' The evidence suggests that the ordering of constituents on the clause level, i.e. subject, verb, and object/complement, often determines differences in the mechanics of story telling. Furthermore, in some (perhaps all) languages, storyline clauses are the most typical and diagnostic of the word order typology itself, perhaps because the story (anecdote) is the most basic form of monologue discourse."--Page [1].

Word Order in Discourse

Word Order in Discourse PDF Author: Pamela A. Downing
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027284946
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 607

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Book Description
This volume brings together a collection of 18 papers dealing with the problem of word order variation in discourse. Word order variation has often been treated as an essentially unpredictable phenomenon, a matter of selecting randomly one of the set of possible orders generated by the grammar. However, as the papers in this collection show, word order variation is not random, but rather governed by principles which can be subjected to scientific investigation and are common to all languages.The papers in this volume discuss word order variation in a diverse collection of languages and from a number of perspectives, including experimental and quantitative text based studies. A number of papers address the problem of deciding which order is 'basic' among the alternatives. The volume will be of interest to typologists, to other linguists interested in problems of word order variation, and to those interested in discourse syntax.

Studies in African Linguistic Typology

Studies in African Linguistic Typology PDF Author: F. K. Erhard Voeltz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027293570
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The twenty-one papers that make up this volume reflect the broad perspective of African linguistic typology studies today. Where previous volumes would present language material from a very restricted area and perspective, the present contributions reflect the global interest and orientation of current African linguistic studies. The studies are nearly all implicational in nature. Based upon a detailed survey of a particular linguistic phenomenon in a given language or language area conclusions are drawn about the general nature about this phenomenon in the languages of Africa and beyond. They represent as such a first step that may ultimately lead to a more thorough understanding of African linguistic structures. This approach is well justified. Taking the other road, attempting to pick out linguistic details from often fairly superficially documented languages runs the risk that the data and its implications for the structure investigated might be misunderstood. Consequentially only very few studies of this nature giving the very broad perspective, the overview of a particular structure type covering the whole African continent are represented here.

Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility

Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility PDF Author: Doris L. Payne
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027229058
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
For some time the assumption has been widely held that for a majority of the world's languages, one can identify a "basic" order of subject and object relative to the verb, and that when combined with other facts of the language, the "basic" order constitutes a useful way of typologizing languages. New debate has arisen over varying definitions of "basic," with investigators encountering languages where branding a particular order of grammatical relations as basic yielded no particular insightfulness. This work asserts that explanatory factors behind word order variation go beyond the syntactic and are to be found in studies of how the mind grammaticizes forms, processes information, and speech act theory considerations of speakers' attempts to get their hearers to build one, rather than another, mental representation of incoming information. Thus three domains must be distinguished in understanding order variation: syntactic, cognitive and pragmatic. The works in this volume explore various aspects of this assertion.

Language Typology

Language Typology PDF Author: Alice Caffarel
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9781588115591
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 726

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Book Description
This book is intended as a systemic functional contribution to language typology both for those who would like to understand and describe particular languages against the background of generalizations about a wide range of languages and also for those who would like to develop typological accounts that are based on and embody descriptions of the systems of particular languages (rather than isolated constructions). The book is a unique contribution in at least two respects. On the one hand, it is the first book based on systemic functional theory that is specifically concerned with language typology. On the other hand, the book combines the particular with the general in the description of languages: it presents comparable sketches of particular languages while at the same time identifying generalizations based on the languages described here as well as on other languages. The volume explores eight languages, covering seven language families: French, German, Pitjantjatjara, Tagalog, Telugu, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese.

Toward a Typology of European Languages

Toward a Typology of European Languages PDF Author: Johannes Bechert
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110863170
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.

Modality in Underdescribed Languages

Modality in Underdescribed Languages PDF Author: Jozina Vander Klok
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110721473
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Current semantic fieldwork research has shown that the study of modality cannot be conducted via translation alone, yet much of what we know about modal expressions across the world’s language is still translation-based. This book aims to facilitate the study of modality across more diverse languages and a wider participant base by explaining and illustrating a nuanced set of methods, including storyboards, questionnaires, corpora research, experimental tasks, as well as a discussion of practical semantic fieldwork techniques. The methodological protocols tested and employed by the authors on underdescribed languages - spanning seven different language families - are intended to be applicable as cross-linguistic tools, while also indicating the successes and challenges of their contributions. Expanding the study of modality to a wider set of underdescribed languages will undoubtedly bring new insights into our theoretical understanding of modality and deepen our understanding of a cross-linguistic typology of modal expressions.

The Leopard's Spots

The Leopard's Spots PDF Author: Gerrit Dimmendaal
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004224149
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
In The Leopard’s Spots, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal discusses the interaction between language, cognition, and culture in an African context with special focus on the cultural construction of meaning through language. Such constructions are constrained by our cognitive system, but leave lots of space for culture-specific interpretations and thereby for tremendous typological diversity between languages. This variation reflects the adaptive nature of human language in the same way that the spots of the leopard reflect selective advantages for its natural habitat. But whereas science has essentially one explanation for the rosettes of the leopard, the non-scientific mind may attach meaning to his or her cultural environment by way of language through a plethora of strategies.

Relations and Functions Within and Around Language

Relations and Functions Within and Around Language PDF Author: David Lockwood
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826478757
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Currently there is a movement in linguistics towards careful use of corpora in linguistic and text analysis, which has involved both written and spoken corpora and those which combine spoken and written text. Most text analyses address written texts - often literary works - but detailed discussion of the language of a single oral text from multiple perspectives has rarely been published. This book is among the first to integrate the analysis of the language of spoken and written texts. It describes language as a network of functional relations involving a context which is also a network of functional relations. The essays in Part One present several perspectives on the theory of language as functional relations; those in Part Two discuss a single oral text using a variety of functional perspectives. All of the essays are by linguists interested in oral and written texts, who have achieved international recognition in their fields. Illustrated in this book are cognitive, social construction, social praxis and anthropological approaches to the description of text.

A Paradigm Shift for Language Education

A Paradigm Shift for Language Education PDF Author: Gulbahar H. Beckett
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040100406
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
This book investigates the argument for the significance and necessity of project-based learning and teaching (PBLT), as it becomes increasingly important in language education. Drawing on research and professional literature spanning over 100 years, it explores the research foundations and the historical and theoretical antecedents of PBLT, articulating the application of PBLT as a valuable approach for second language education pedagogy and research. Utilizing qualitative classroom research conducted in Canada, it then moves to address key concerns surrounding the difficulties of effectively implementing PBLT with existing curriculum and keeping track of content acquisition, cognitive and social skills development, and language learning. Authoritatively written, and offering fresh insight into how the field can be advanced by engaging second language (L2) students in deeper learning and higher order thinking with 21st-century PBLT contextually, situationally, and multimodally, it makes a valuable pedagogical and research contribution that benefits practitioners and researchers in the field. As such, it will appeal to researchers, faculty, and L2 professionals with interests in L2 education, multimodal teaching and learning, and applied linguistics.