Download or read book The Explanation of Linguistic Causes written by Kees Versteegh and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995-05-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate aim of every linguistic tradition is to go beyond the purely descriptive level and seek an explanation for linguistic phenomena. Traditions differ, however, with regard to the class of linguistic phenomena they wish to explain and the framework in which they define their explanation. In this volume the English translation is presented of the treatise on linguistic explanation by the 10th-century Arab grammarian az-Zağğāğī, one of the most original thinkers of the Arabic tradition. He worked in a period in which the influence of Greek logic and philosophy made itself felt in almost all Arabo-Islamic disciplines. Some of the problems he deals with are familiar to modern linguists (e.g., morphological segmentation, categorization of parts of speech), others are comprehensible only within the frame of reference of Arabic linguistics (e.g., the declension of the verb). An extensive commentary on the text analyzes the problems discussed, both within the Arabic tradition and from the point of view of modern linguistics. Apart from the index of names and terms, there is an index of subjects which enables the general reader to consult text and comments on specific key notions.

Download or read book The Explanation of Linguistic Causes written by Kees Versteegh and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate aim of every linguistic tradition is to go beyond the purely descriptive level and seek an explanation for linguistic phenomena. Traditions differ, however, with regard to the class of linguistic phenomena they wish to explain and the framework in which they define their explanation. In this volume the English translation is presented of the treatise on linguistic explanation by the 10th-century Arab grammarian az-Za?????, one of the most original thinkers of the Arabic tradition. He worked in a period in which the influence of Greek logic and philosophy made itself felt in almost all Arabo-Islamic disciplines. Some of the problems he deals with are familiar to modern linguists (e.g., morphological segmentation, categorization of parts of speech), others are comprehensible only within the frame of reference of Arabic linguistics (e.g., the declension of the verb). An extensive commentary on the text analyzes the problems discussed, both within the Arabic tradition and from the point of view of modern linguistics. Apart from the index of names and terms, there is an index of subjects which enables the general reader to consult text and comments on specific key notions.

Download or read book The Explanation of Linguistic Causes written by ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq Zajjājī and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate aim of every linguistic tradition is to go beyond the purely descriptive level and seek an explanation for linguistic phenomena. Traditions differ, however, with regard to the class of linguistic phenomena they wish to explain and the framework in which they define their explanation. In this volume the English translation is presented of the treatise on linguistic explanation by the 10th-century Arab grammarian az-Zağğāğī, one of the most original thinkers of the Arabic tradition. He worked in a period in which the influence of Greek logic and philosophy made itself felt in almost all Arabo-Islamic disciplines. Some of the problems he deals with are familiar to modern linguists (e.g., morphological segmentation, categorization of parts of speech), others are comprehensible only within the frame of reference of Arabic linguistics (e.g., the declension of the verb). An extensive commentary on the text analyzes the problems discussed, both within the Arabic tradition and from the point of view of modern linguistics. Apart from the index of names and terms, there is an index of subjects which enables the general reader to consult text and comments on specific key notions.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis written by Bernd Heine and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 1217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook compares the main analytic frameworks and methods of contemporary linguistics. It offers a unique overview of linguistic theory, revealing the common concerns of competing approaches. By showing their current and potential applications it provides the means by which linguists and others can judge what are the most useful models for the task in hand. Distinguished scholars from all over the world explain the rationale and aims of over thirty explanatory approaches to the description, analysis, and understanding of language. Each chapter considers the main goals of the model; the relation it proposes from between lexicon, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology; the way it defines the interactions between cognition and grammar; what it counts as evidence; and how it explains linguistic change and structure. The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis offers an indispensable guide for everyone researching any aspect of language including those in linguistics, comparative philology, cognitive science, developmental philology, cognitive science, developmental psychology, computational science, and artificial intelligence. This second edition has been updated to include seven new chapters looking at linguistic units in language acquisition, conversation analysis, neurolinguistics, experimental phonetics, phonological analysis, experimental semantics, and distributional typology.

Download or read book Meaning Use and Interpretation of Language written by Rainer Bäuerle and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-02-13 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Explanation in typology written by Karsten Schmidtke-Bode and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an up-to-date discussion of a foundational issue that has recently taken centre stage in linguistic typology and which is relevant to the language sciences more generally: To what extent can cross-linguistic generalizations, i.e. statistical universals of linguistic structure, be explained by the diachronic sources of these structures? Everyone agrees that typological distributions are the result of complex histories, as “languages evolve into the variation states to which synchronic universals pertain” (Hawkins 1988). However, an increasingly popular line of argumentation holds that many, perhaps most, typological regularities are long-term reflections of their diachronic sources, rather than being ‘target-driven’ by overarching functional-adaptive motivations. On this view, recurrent pathways of reanalysis and grammaticalization can lead to uniform synchronic results, obviating the need to postulate global forces like ambiguity avoidance, processing efficiency or iconicity, especially if there is no evidence for such motivations in the genesis of the respective constructions. On the other hand, the recent typological literature is equally ripe with talk of "complex adaptive systems", "attractor states" and "cross-linguistic convergence". One may wonder, therefore, how much room is left for traditional functional-adaptive forces and how exactly they influence the diachronic trajectories that shape universal distributions. The papers in the present volume are intended to provide an accessible introduction to this debate. Covering theoretical, methodological and empirical facets of the issue at hand, they represent current ways of thinking about the role of diachronic sources in explaining grammatical universals, articulated by seasoned and budding linguists alike.

Download or read book The Meaning of Language second edition written by Heidi Savage and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of a comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of language, substantially updated and reorganized. The philosophy of language aims to answer a broad range of questions about the nature of language, including “what is a language?” and “what is the source of meaning?” This accessible comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of language begins with the most basic properties of language and only then proceeds to the phenomenon of meaning. The second edition has been significantly expanded and reorganized, putting the original content in a contemporary context and offering substantial new material, with extended discussions and entirely new chapters. After establishing the basics, the book discusses general criteria for an adequate theory of meaning, takes a first pass at describing meaning at an abstract level, and distinguishes between meaning and other related phenomena. Building on this, the book then addresses various specific theories of meaning, beginning with early foundational theories and proceeding to more contemporary ones. New to this edition are expanded discussions of Chomsky's work and compositional semantics, among other topics, and new chapters on such subjects as propositions, Montague grammar, and contemporary theories of language. Each chapter has technical terms in bold, followed by definitions, and offers a list of main points and suggested further readings. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in philosophy and linguistics. Some background in philosophy is assumed, but knowledge of philosophy of language is not necessary.

Download or read book Explanation in Historical Linguistics written by Garry W. Davis and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1992-10-15 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first of two volumes deriving from papers presented at the Nineteenth Annual UVM Linguistics Symposium held in Milwaukee in April 1990. The contributions in this volume investigate the general question of what constitutes an explanation of diachronic change, and illustrate their proposals in the context of various specific problems in historical linguistics. The present volume also includes a solicited paper by Eric P. Hamp (“On remote reconstruction”) that addresses the validity of distant reconstructions like those of Nostratic and Proto-World.

Download or read book Language Production and Interpretation Linguistics meets Cognition written by Henk Zeevat and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An utterance is normally produced by a speaker in linear time and the hearer normally correctly identifies the speaker intention in linear time and incrementally. This is hard to understand in a standard competence grammar since languages are highly ambiguous and context-free parsing is not linear. Deterministic utterance generation from intention and n-best Bayesian interpretation, based on the production grammar and the prior probabilities that need to be assumed for other perception do much better. The proposed model uses symbolic grammar and derives symbolic semantic representations, but treats interpretation as just another form of perception. Removing interpretation from grammar is not only empirically motivated, but also makes linguistics a much more feasible enterprise. The importance of Henk Zeevat's new monograph cannot be overstated. Its combination of breadth, formal rigor, and originality is unparalleled in work on the form-meaning interface in human language...Zeevat's is the first proposal which provides a computationally feasible integrated treatment of production and comprehension for pragmatics, semantics, syntax, and even phonology. I recommend it to anyone who combines interests in language, logic, and computation with a sense of adventure. David Beaver, University of Texas at Austin

Download or read book Linguistic Meaning written by Keith Allan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-03 with total page 826 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Keith Allan presents a coherent, consistent and comprehensive account of linguistic meaning, centred around an informally presented theory of meaning. It is intended for graduate and undergraduate students of linguistics, or any linguist curious about what a theory of meaning should seek to accomplish and the way to achieve that aim. The work assumes that the primary task of a theory of linguistic meaning is to describe the meaning of speech acts. This in turn presupposes a theory of semantics and a theory of prosodic meaning, as well as a proper treatment of the co-operative principle, context and background information. These matters are dealt with in detail. The second task of a theory of linguistic meaning is to identify what meaning is, to explain the relationships between sense and denotation, and to explicate the nature of meaningful properties and meaning relations. These matters are fully covered, and the work concludes with a summary of the principle arguments presented.

Download or read book The Meaning of Language written by Hans Götzsche and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-07 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Meaning of Language illustrates the diversity of approaches in linguistics. The volume revolves around two main chapters authored by two internationally acknowledged Scandinavian scholars, Hans Basbøll and Stig Eliasson. Basbøll’s contribution is the most detailed and coherent English-language presentation of the pioneering Danish 18th century linguist Jens Pedersen Høysgaard and his work, and Eliasson explores the intricacy of the issue of whether morphology can be borrowed between languages and the mechanisms of actual borrowings. The other contributions illustrate which topics may be taken up by language scholars today, from metaphor, regional phonology, morphology and syntax, language learning, discourse analysis, intensifier semantics, and Indo-European, to the interface between language and logic. The approaches invoke a wide spectrum of theoretical models and assumptions.

Download or read book An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory written by Dominique Sportiche and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory offers beginning students a comprehensive overview of and introduction to our current understanding of the rules and principles that govern the syntax of natural languages. Includes numerous pedagogical features such as 'practice' boxes and sidebars, designed to facilitate understanding of both the 'hows' and the 'whys' of sentence structure Guides readers through syntactic and morphological structures in a progressive manner Takes the mystery out of one of the most crucial aspects of the workings of language – the principles and processes behind the structure of sentences Ideal for students with minimal knowledge of current syntactic research, it progresses in theoretical difficulty from basic ideas and theories to more complex and advanced, up to date concepts in syntactic theory

Download or read book On What We Know We Don t Know written by Sylvain Bromberger and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of essays, Bromberger explores the centrality of questions and predicaments they create in scientific research. He discusses the nature of explanation, theory, and the foundations of linguistics.

Download or read book Explanation in Linguistics written by Norbert Hornstein and published by Longman Publishing Group. This book was released on 1981 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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 Meaning in English written by Lesley Jeffries and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1998-05-20 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible and lively introduction to semantics and the multi-faceted nature of language guides the student and non-specialist through the major ways in which the English language makes meaning. The author discusses the meaning of linguistic units at all levels of language, from sound to discourse, while studying also the role of theories and models themselves in helping us to understand human linguistic behaviour. Through examples and exercises, readers are encouraged to think through and evaluate complex ideas and theories for themselves.

Download or read book Explanation and Linguistic Change written by Willem F. Koopman and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1987 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents the outcome of a workshop, held in Amsterdam in 1985, on the nature, even possibility, of explanation in Historical Linguistics: why changes take place and others do not, and why they occur at a particular time and place. The workshop, and this volume, aim to explore questions such as i) are the factors which explain the actuation of a change different from those that explain its implementation?; ii) is it possible to give a typology of changes?; iii) should linguistic explanation hope to meet the same requirements as explanation in the pure sciences?; iv) are all linguistic changes necessarily the product of variation?; v) should there be a formal theory of change apart from a general thoery of grammar?