Download or read book Language Classification written by Lyle Campbell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-26 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are relationships established between the world's languages? This is one of the most topical and most controversial questions in contemporary linguistics. The central aims of this book are to answer this question, to cut through the controversies, and to contribute to research in distant genetic relationships. In doing this the authors aim to: (1) show how the methods have been employed; (2) reveal which methods, techniques, and strategies have proven successful and which ones have proven ineffective; (3) determine how particular language families were established; (4) evaluate several of the most prominent and more controversial proposals of distant genetic relationship (such as Amerind, Nostratic, Eurasiatic, Proto-World, and others); and (5) make recommendations for practice in future research. This book will contribute significantly to understanding language classification in general.
Download or read book Language and Classification written by Allison Burkette and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume adopts a practice-based approach to examine the different ways in which classification is communicated and negotiated in different environments within archaeology. The book looks specifically at the archaeological classification of ceramics as a lens through which to examine the discursive and social practices inherent in the classification and categorization process, with perspectives from such areas as corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology forming the foundation of the book's theoretical framework. The volume then looks at the process of classification in practice in a variety of settings, including a university course on ceramics classification, an archaeological field school, an intensive petrography course, and archaeometry laboratory at a nuclear research reactor, and highlights participant observation and audiovisual data taken from fieldwork practice completed in these environments. This volume offers a valuable contribution to the growing literature on language and material culture, making this a key resource for students and scholars in sociolinguistic, anthropological linguistics, archaeology, discourse analysis, and anthropology.
Download or read book The Diachrony of Classification Systems written by William B. McGregor and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-05-14 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classification is a popular topic in typological, descriptive and theoretical linguistics. This volume is the first to deal specifically with the diachrony of linguistic systems of classification. It comprises original papers that examine the ways in which linguistic classification systems arise, change, and dissipate in both natural circumstances and in circumstances of attrition. The role of diffusion in such processes is explored, as well as the question of what can be diffused. The volume is not restricted to nominal systems of classification, but also includes papers dealing with the less well-known phenomenon of verbal classification. Languages from a wide spread of world regions are examined, including Africa, Amazonia, Australia, Eurasia, Oceania, and Mesoamerica. The volume will be of interest to linguistic typologists, descriptive linguists, historical linguists, and grammaticalization theorists.
Download or read book Analogical classification in formal grammar written by Matías Guzmán Naranjo and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The organization of the lexicon, and especially the relations between groups of lexemes is a strongly debated topic in linguistics. Some authors have insisted on the lack of any structure of the lexicon. In this vein, Di Sciullo & Williams (1987: 3) claim that “[t]he lexicon is like a prison – it contains only the lawless, and the only thing that its inmates have in commonis lawlessness”. In the alternative view, the lexicon is assumed to have a rich structure that captures all regularities and partial regularities that exist between lexical entries.Two very different schools of linguistics have insisted on the organization of the lexicon. On the one hand, for theories like HPSG (Pollard & Sag 1994), but also some versions of construction grammar (Fillmore & Kay 1995), the lexicon is assumed to have a very rich structure which captures common grammatical properties between its members. In this approach, a type hierarchy organizes the lexicon according to common properties between items. For example, Koenig (1999: 4, among others), working from an HPSG perspective, claims that the lexicon “provides a unified model for partial regularties, medium-size generalizations, and truly productive processes”. On the other hand, from the perspective of usage-based linguistics, several authors have drawn attention to the fact that lexemes which share morphological or syntactic properties, tend to be organized in clusters of surface (phonological or semantic) similarity (Bybee & Slobin 1982; Skousen 1989; Eddington 1996). This approach, often called analogical, has developed highly accurate computational and non-computational models that can predict the classes to which lexemes belong. Like the organization of lexemes in type hierarchies, analogical relations between items help speakers to make sense of intricate systems, and reduce apparent complexity (Köpcke & Zubin 1984). Despite this core commonality, and despite the fact that most linguists seem to agree that analogy plays an important role in language, there has been remarkably little work on bringing together these two approaches. Formal grammar traditions have been very successful in capturing grammatical behaviour, but, in the process, have downplayed the role analogy plays in linguistics (Anderson 2015). In this work, I aim to change this state of affairs. First, by providing an explicit formalization of how analogy interacts with grammar, and second, by showing that analogical effects and relations closely mirror the structures in the lexicon. I will show that both formal grammar approaches, and usage-based analogical models, capture mutually compatible relations in the lexicon.
Download or read book The Virtual Linguistics Campus written by Jürgen Handke, Peter Franke and published by Waxmann Verlag. This book was released on 2006 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Languages and Linguistics of Africa written by Tom Güldemann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-09-10 with total page 1085 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics.
Download or read book Australian Languages written by Claire Bowern and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses controversial issues in the application of the comparative method to the languages of Australia which have recently come to international prominence. Are these languages 'different' in ways that challenge the fundamental assumptions of historical linguistics? Can subgrouping be successfully undertaken using the Comparative Method? Is the genetic construct of a far-flung 'Pama-Nyungan' language family supportable by classic methods of reconstruction? Contrary to increasingly established views of the Australian scene, this book makes a major contribution to the demonstration that traditional methods can indeed be applied to these languages. These studies, introduced by chapters on subgrouping methodology and the history of Australian linguistic classification, rigorously apply the comparative method to establishing subgroups among Australian languages and justifying the phonology of Proto-Pama-Nyungan. Individual chapters can profitably be read either for their contribution to Australian linguistic prehistory or as case studies in the application of the comparative method. Contributions by: B. Alpher; B. Baker; C. Bowern; C. Bowern & H. Koch; G. Breen; L. Campbell; I. Green & R. Nordlinger; L. Hercus & P. Austin; H. Koch; P. McConvell & M. Laughren; L. Miceli; G. O'Grady & K. L. Hale; J. Simpson & L. Hercus.
Download or read book The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia written by Paul Sidwell and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-08-23 with total page 983 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The handbook will offer a survey of the field of linguistics in the early 21st century for the Southeast Asian Linguistic Area. The last half century has seen a great increase in work on language contact, work in genetic, theoretical, and descriptive linguistics, and since the 1990s especially documentation of endangered languages. The book will provide an account of work in these areas, focusing on the achievements of SEAsian linguistics, as well as the challenges and unresolved issues, and provide a survey of the relevant major publications and other available resources. We will address: Survey of the languages of the area, organized along genetic lines, with discussion of relevant political and cultural background issues Theoretical/descriptive and typological issues Genetic classification and historical linguistics Areal and contact linguistics Other areas of interest such as sociolinguistics, semantics, writing systems, etc. Resources (major monographs and monograph series, dictionaries, journals, electronic data bases, etc.) Grammar sketches of languages representative of the genetic and structural diversity of the region.
Download or read book A Guide to the World s Languages written by Merritt Ruhlen and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first of three pathbreaking volumes that will constitute a wide-ranging analytical guide to the world's approximately 5,000 languages. The volumes are written for both linguists and general readers, and this first volume in particular assumes no background in linguistics. A postscript prepared for this paperback edition takes research data to 1990. The book is illustrated with 21 maps.
Download or read book Verb Classification in Australian Languages written by William B. McGregor and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-06-10 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with systems of verb classification in Australian Aboriginal languages, with particular focus on languages of the north-west. It proposes a typology of the systems according to their main formal and semantic characteristics. It also makes some proposals concerning the historical origins and grammaticisation of these systems, and suggestions regarding the grammatical relations involved. In addition, an attempt is made to situate the phenomenon of verb classification within the context of related verbal phenomena such as serial verb constructions, nominal incorporation, and complex predicates.
Download or read book Language Universals and Linguistic Typology written by Bernard Comrie and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1989-07-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, Comrie (linguistics, U. of Southern Cal.) is particularly concerned with syntactico-semantic universals, devoting chapters to word order, case marking, relative clauses, and causative constructions. This second edition takes full account of new research into generative grammatical theory. Acidic paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Introduction to Human Geography written by David Dorrell and published by . This book was released on 2018-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Genealogical Classification of Semitic written by Leonid Kogan and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first of its kind to offer a detailed, monographic treatment of Semitic genealogical classification. The introduction describes the author's methodological framework and surveys the history of the subgrouping discussion in Semitic linguistics, and the first chapter provides a detailed description of the proto-Semitic basic vocabulary. Each of its seven main chapters deals with one of the key issues of the Semitic subgrouping debate: the East/West dichotomy, the Central Semitic hypothesis, the North West Semitic subgroup, the Canaanite affiliation of Ugaritic, the historical unity of Aramaic, and the diagnostic features of Ethiopian Semitic and of Modern South Arabian. The book aims at a balanced account of all evidence pertinent to the subgrouping discussion, but its main focus is on the diagnostic lexical features, heavily neglected in the majority of earlier studies dealing with this subject. The author tries to assess the subgrouping potential of the vocabulary using various methods of its diachronic stratification. The hundreds of etymological comparisons given throughout the book can be conveniently accessed through detailed lexical indices.
Download or read book Language written by Edward Sapir and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Sapir analyzes, for student and common reader, the elements of language. Among these are the units of language, grammatical concepts and their origins, how languages differ and resemble each other, and the history of the growth of representative languages--Cover.
Download or read book Introducing Linguistic Research written by Svenja Voelkel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, conducting empirical research in linguistics has become increasingly popular. The first of its kind, this book provides an engaging and practical introduction to this exciting versatile field, providing a comprehensive overview of research aspects in general, and covering a broad range of subdiscipline-specific methodological approaches. Subfields covered include language documentation and descriptive linguistics, language typology, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics, cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. The book reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of each single approach and on how they interact with one-another across the study of language in its many diverse facets. It also includes exercises, example student projects and recommendations for further reading, along with additional online teaching materials. Providing hands-on experience, and written in an engaging and accessible style, this unique and comprehensive guide will give students the inspiration they need to develop their own research projects in empirical linguistics.
Download or read book Classification and Modeling with Linguistic Information Granules written by Hisao Ishibuchi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2004-11-19 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many approaches have already been proposed for classification and modeling in the literature. These approaches are usually based on mathematical mod els. Computer systems can easily handle mathematical models even when they are complicated and nonlinear (e.g., neural networks). On the other hand, it is not always easy for human users to intuitively understand mathe matical models even when they are simple and linear. This is because human information processing is based mainly on linguistic knowledge while com puter systems are designed to handle symbolic and numerical information. A large part of our daily communication is based on words. We learn from various media such as books, newspapers, magazines, TV, and the Inter net through words. We also communicate with others through words. While words play a central role in human information processing, linguistic models are not often used in the fields of classification and modeling. If there is no goal other than the maximization of accuracy in classification and model ing, mathematical models may always be preferred to linguistic models. On the other hand, linguistic models may be chosen if emphasis is placed on interpretability.
Download or read book Speech Language Processing written by Dan Jurafsky and published by Pearson Education India. This book was released on 2000-09 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
