Exploring Linguistic Science

Exploring Linguistic Science PDF

Author: Allison Burkette

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-03-15

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1108696252

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Exploring Linguistic Science introduces students to the basic principles of complexity theory and then applies these principles to the scientific study of language. It demonstrates how, at every level of linguistic study, we find evidence of language as a complex system. Designed for undergraduate courses in language and linguistics, this essential textbook brings cutting-edge concepts to bear on the traditional components of general introductions to the study of language, such as phonetics, morphology and grammar. The authors maintain a narrative thread throughout the book of 'interaction and emergence', both of which are key terms from the study of complex systems, a new science currently useful in physics, genetics, evolutionary biology, and economics, but also a perfect fit for the humanities. The application of complexity to language highlights the fact that language is an ever-changing, ever-varied product of human behavior.

Exploring Linguistic Science: Language Use, Complexity, and Interaction

Exploring Linguistic Science: Language Use, Complexity, and Interaction PDF

Author: Prafull D Kulkarni

Publisher:

Published: 2023-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781774698969

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The book entitled, "Linguistic Science Theories Complexity, Applications, and Interactions" introduces students to the complexity of linguistic science and applies it to the scientific research of language. It demonstrates that there is evidence of language as a complex system at every level of linguistic study. This crucial volume, written for researchers and students of language and linguistics, employs cutting-edge ideas on topics like morphology, grammar, and phonetics that are typically covered in the general introduction to language research. Interaction and emergence are two key terminologies from complex system studies, a novel science that is presently useful in topics such as evolutionary biology, but also perfectly suited to the humanities. The author discusses this theme throughout the book. Since language is a by-product of human behaviour that is constantly emerging, evolving, changing, and sometimes, endangering itself due to the lack of social and cultural interactions, the level of complexity applied to it also varies across time and societies. Considering the prevalent pedagogical policies and practices, this volume also provides a critical review of the current state of language, its flux, its applications, and its social and cultural interactions. The contents of the book also focus on second language teaching and learning and the flux in its use of dialects in society and schools. The variety of syllabi, curriculum, materials development, and related quality issues, as well as various types of schools, systems, and typologies of teaching situations, are all methodologically analyzed. Several pedagogically significant implications have been investigated, and suggestions have been made to raise the quality and standards of language education in schools on the grounds of the critical perspectives and insights of the linguistic science theories presented herein. The book, therefore, may help students, teachers, and scholars of linguistics because of its novel scholastic content.

Exploring Linguistic Science

Exploring Linguistic Science PDF

Author: Allison Burkette

Publisher:

Published: 2018-03-15

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1108424805

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Introduces students to the scientific study of language, using the basic principles of complexity theory.

Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity I

Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity I PDF

Author: Francesca Di Garbo

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published:

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 3961101787

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The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world’s languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. Contributors demonstrate how the complexity of gender systems can be studied synchronically, both in individual languages and over large cross-linguistic samples, and diachronically, by exploring how gender systems change over time. In addition to three chapters on the theoretical foundations of gender complexity, volume one contains six chapters on grammatical gender and complexity in individual languages and language families of Africa, New Guinea, and South Asia. This volume is complemented by volume two, which consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity.

Language and Complex Systems

Language and Complex Systems PDF

Author: William A. Kretzschmar, Jr

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-05-28

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1316368807

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An understanding of language as a complex system helps us to think differently about linguistics, and helps us to address the impact of linguistic interaction. This book demonstrates how the science of complex systems changes every area of linguistics: how to make a grammar, how to think about the history of language, how language works in the brain, and how it works in social settings. Kretzschmar argues that to construct the best grammars of languages it is necessary to understand the complex system of speech. Each chapter makes specific recommendations for how linguists should manage empirical data in order to form better generalizations about a language and its varieties. The book will be welcomed by students and scholars working in linguistics and English language, especially the study of language variation and the historical development of English.

Studies in the History of the English Language VIII

Studies in the History of the English Language VIII PDF

Author: Peter Grund

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-11-09

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 3110643286

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This volume collects essays that approach notions of creating, maintaining, and crossing boundaries in the history of the English language. The concept of boundaries is variously defined within linguistics depending on the theoretical framework, from formal and theoretical perspectives to specific fields and more empirical, physical, and perceptual angles. The contributions to this volume do not take one particular theoretical or methodological approach but, instead, explore how examining various types of boundaries—linguistic, conceptual, analytical, generic, physical—helps us illuminate and account for historical use, variation, and change in English. In their exploration of various topics in the history of English, contributions ask a range of questions: what does it mean to set up boundaries between time periods? When do language varieties have distinct boundaries and when do they overlap? Where do language users draw up clausal, constructional, semantic, phonetic/phonological boundaries? Thus, the chapters explore not only how boundaries illustrate synchronic and diachronic features in the history of the English language but also what we can discover by questioning perceived or actual boundaries.

Language in Complexity

Language in Complexity PDF

Author: Francesco La Mantia

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-16

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 3319294830

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This contributed volume explores the achievements gained and the remaining puzzling questions by applying dynamical systems theory to the linguistic inquiry. In particular, the book is divided into three parts, each one addressing one of the following topics: 1) Facing complexity in the right way: mathematics and complexity 2) Complexity and theory of language 3) From empirical observation to formal models: investigation of specific linguistic phenomena, like enunciation, deixis, or the meaning of the metaphorical phrases The application of complexity theory to describe cognitive phenomena is a recent and very promising trend in cognitive science. At the time when dynamical approaches triggered a paradigm shift in cognitive science some decade ago, the major topic of research were the challenges imposed by classical computational approaches dealing with the explanation of cognitive phenomena like consciousness, decision making and language. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field but the book may also be beneficial for graduate and post-graduate students who want to enter the field.

Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable

Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable PDF

Author: Geoffrey Sampson

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2009-02-26

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0191567663

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This book presents a challenge to the widely-held assumption that human languages are both similar and constant in their degree of complexity. For a hundred years or more the universal equality of languages has been a tenet of faith among most anthropologists and linguists. It has been frequently advanced as a corrective to the idea that some languages are at a later stage of evolution than others. It also appears to be an inevitable outcome of one of the central axioms of generative linguistic theory: that the mental architecture of language is fixed and is thus identical in all languages and that whereas genes evolve languages do not. Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable reopens the debate. Geoffrey Sampson's introductory chapter re-examines and clarifies the notion and theoretical importance of complexity in language, linguistics, cognitive science, and evolution. Eighteen distinguished scholars from all over the world then look at evidence gleaned from their own research in order to reconsider whether languages do or do not exhibit the same degrees and kinds of complexity. They examine data from a wide range of times and places. They consider the links between linguistic structure and social complexity and relate their findings to the causes and processes of language change. Their arguments are frequently controversial and provocative; their conclusions add up to an important challenge to conventional ideas about the nature of language. The authors write readably and accessibly with no recourse to unnecessary jargon. This fascinating book will appeal to all those interested in the interrelations between human nature, culture, and language.

Theoretical and Practical Developments in English Speech Assessment, Research, and Training

Theoretical and Practical Developments in English Speech Assessment, Research, and Training PDF

Author: Veronica G. Sardegna

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-06-03

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 3030982181

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This edited book presents and discusses theoretical, practical, and research developments in English pronunciation in order to establish evidence-based directions and recommendations for best practices in English speech assessment, research, and training. It features leading pronunciation experts from diverse contexts who share cutting-edge research and valuable insights. The collection consists of six parts. Part 1 introduces the aims, focus, and structure of the book, and describes its intended audience. Part 2 reviews, provides empirical evidence, and offers critical analyses guiding different aspects of English speech assessment. Parts 3 and 4 report empirical findings and research perspectives on the perception and production of English speech. Part 5 shares current practices in phonetic training and their effect on learners and listeners. Part 6 presents theoretical perspectives on the acquisition of phonology in multilinguals.

English with an Accent

English with an Accent PDF

Author: Rusty Barrett

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-30

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 100077449X

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Since its original publication in 1997, English with an Accent has inspired generations of scholars to investigate linguistic discrimination, social categorization, social structures, and power. This new edition is an attempt to retain the spirit of the original while enriching and expanding it to reflect the greater understanding of linguistic discrimination that it has helped create. This third edition has been substantially reworked to include: An updated concept of social categories, how they are constructed in interaction, and how they can be invoked and perceived through linguistic cues or language ideologies Refreshed accounts of the countless social and structural factors that go into linguistic discrimination Expanded attention to specific linguistic structures, language groups, and social domains that go beyond those provided in earlier editions New dedicated chapter on American Sign Language and its history of discrimination QR codes linking to external media, stories, and other forms of engagement beyond the text A revamped website with additional material English with an Accent remains a book that forces us to acknowledge and understand the ways language is used as an excuse for discrimination. The book will help readers to better understand issues of cross-cultural communication, to develop strategies for successful interactions across social difference, to recognize patterns of language that reflect implicit bias, and to gain awareness of how mistaken beliefs about language create and nurture prejudice and discrimination.