Theoretical Linguistics and Disordered Language (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar)

Theoretical Linguistics and Disordered Language (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar) PDF

Author: Martin J. Ball

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1317933370

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The rapid increase of interest in disordered speech and language among linguists over the past decade or so has resulted in many books of practical help to speech pathologists in terms of assessment and remediation. Little, however, has appeared to examine the theoretical implications of the interaction between these two fields. This book aims to fill this gap, by showing how speech pathology can inform linguistic theory and vice versa.

Production and Comprehension of Utterances

Production and Comprehension of Utterances PDF

Author: I. M. Schlesinger

Publisher: Routledge Library Editions: Linguistics

Published: 2015-12-18

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781138983861

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In this volume, the author reviews the results of research on language performance and proposes a model of production and comprehension. Although recent developments in linguistics are taken into account, consideration of other requirements of a performance model leads to the conclusion that the grammar the speaker has in mind differs from the grammar as currently conceived of by most linguists. The author is also critical of recent computer simulations of language performance on the basis that they fall short of describing what goes on in human production and comprehension. The author therefore proposes that the basic issues must be rethought and new theoretical foundations reformulated, in order to arrive at a viable theory of language functioning. In developing the framework of the model presented in this book, requirements of flexibility in the performance mechanisms, the probabilistic nature of comprehension processes, and the interleaving of linguistic rules with context and knowledge of the world are emphasized.

Studies in Discourse Analysis (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar)

Studies in Discourse Analysis (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar) PDF

Author: Malcolm Coulthard

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1317933400

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The book explores ways in which the formal methods of linguistics can cast light on the structure of verbal interaction, and in particular considers how successive utterances cohere together in continuous spoken discourse. Beginning with an earlier model of discourse analysis elaborated to deal with teacher-pupil interaction in the classroom, it then reviews attempts to extend this model to a variety of discourses such as committee talk, doctor-patient interviews, broadcast discussions and the monologue of lectures. The extension of the original model to other situations has prompted a number of innovations and additional insights which are expounded in a series of contributions linked by complimentary themes. There are contributions on the role of intonation and of kinetics in discourse analysis; explorations of the problems of the analytic category ‘sentence’ and of the problems raised by casual conversation; and there is extended discussion of the structural properties underlying exchanges of utterances. The book moves easily between data and theory, forming a unified whole. It sums up a continuing and lively debate within a common tradition of discourse analysis and may well serve as a programmatic statement for future work in the field.

Foundations of General Linguistics

Foundations of General Linguistics PDF

Author: Martin Atkinson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1134741189

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The first edition of this major introduction to linguistics rapidly established itself as an important student textbook, and a reference tool for those who already have some acquaintance with linguistics. This second edition has been updated and revised and includes new chapters on syntax and on current developments in generative grammar, as well as new material on the nature of language and on morphology. This book first provides a comprehensive critical review of the analytic tools and theories of linguistics and systematically surveys major concepts in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Having established the basic nature and structure of language, the final part of the book engages some of the wider issues concerning the use of language in speaking and understanding (psycholinguistics), language development in children, social aspects of language (sociolinguistics), and historical language choice.

The Formal Grammar of Switch-Reference (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar)

The Formal Grammar of Switch-Reference (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar) PDF

Author: Daniel L Finer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-03

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1317933680

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This book studies the syntax of switch-reference and its implications for the theory of grammar. Switch-reference, found in many genetically and geographically diverse languages, is a phenomenon whereby referential identity between subjects of hierarchically adjacent clauses is encoded by the presence of a morpheme, usually suffixed to the verb of the subordinate clause. This book argues that switch-reference should be analysed as a syntactic rather than a purely pragmatic or functional feature of language.

Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory

Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory PDF

Author: Britta Stolterfoht

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1614510881

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The mental representation of language cannot be directly observed but must be inferred and modelled from its effects at second hand. Linguists have traditionally responded to this in two ways, either going for a fairly data-light approach and valuing theoretical creativity, or pursuing just those goals for which data is available and trusting to data-driven descriptive work. More recently, advances in technology and experimental techniques have made data gathering easier and more accessible, so that a theoretically informed but empirically based approach is rapidly growing in popularity. This synthesis permits linguists to combine the intellectual hypothesis generation of the theoreticians with the ability to deliver hard answers of the empiricist. This volume is a collection of papers in this direction, using mostly experiment methods to yield insights into syntactic and semantic structures, language processing, and acquisition. Papers report corpus data, neurological investigations, child language studies, and fieldwork from minority languages.

A Linguistic Description and Computer Program for Children's Speech (RLE Linguistics C)

A Linguistic Description and Computer Program for Children's Speech (RLE Linguistics C) PDF

Author: Geoffrey J. Turner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1317933109

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This book presents a framework for the linguistic analysis of speech and a computer program to process the results of this analysis. The model of description for the linguistic analysis is that known as ‘scale-and-category’ grammar. It is particularly suited for a study of how people use their language, and especially for a sociologically-oriented study of linguistic behaviour. By incorporating a concept of ‘delicacy’, it enables the investigator to vary, according to his particular interests, the amount of detail he enters into at various points in the description. The present authors have made use of this facility and discuss the special interests, sociological and psychological, that influenced their choice of detail. The computer program analyzes the grammatical structures written in a linear notation. A second version has been written which allows easy modification to handle a variety of grammatical schemes, and the program has application to the processing of the analysis of sequential behaviour in general, especially where there are complex relations between the units analyzed.

A Theory of Syntax for Systemic Functional Linguistics

A Theory of Syntax for Systemic Functional Linguistics PDF

Author: Robin P. Fawcett

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2000-11-13

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9027275505

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This book describes and evaluates alternative approaches within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to representing the structure of language at the level of form. It assumes no prior knowledge of SFL, and can therefore be read as an introduction to current issues within the theory. It will interest any linguist who takes a functional approach to understanding language. Part 1 summarizes the major developments in the forty years of SFL’s history, including alternative approaches within Halliday’s own writings and the emergence of the “Cardiff Grammar” as an alternative to the “Sydney Grammar”. It questions the theoretical status of the ‘multiple structure’ representations in Halliday’s influential Introduction to Functional Grammar (1994), demonstrating that Halliday’s model additionally needs an integrating syntax such as that described in Part 2. Part 2 specifies and discusses the set of ‘categories’ and ‘relationships’ that are needed in a theory of syntax for a modern, computer-implementable systemic functional grammar. The theoretical concepts are exemplified at every point, usually from English but occasionally from other languages. The book is both a critique of Halliday’s current theory of syntax and the presentation of an alternative version of SFL that is equally systemic and equally functional.

Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 1

Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 1 PDF

Author: R. M. W. Dixon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 9780199571062

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In Basic Linguistic Theory R. M. W. Dixon provides a comprehensive guide to the nature of human languages and their description and analysis. The books are a one-stop text for undergraduate and graduate students, the triumphant outcome of a lifetime's immersion in every aspect of language, and a lasting monument to innovative scholarship.