Download or read book The Justification of Linguistic Hypotheses written by Rudolf P. Botha and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-12-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Conduct of Linguistic Inquiry written by Rudolf P. Botha and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-12-04 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Focusing Hypothesis written by Alison Wray and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1992 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the nature of the control of language processing by the hemispheres of the neocortex. The author expounds a novel hypothesis, “The Focusing Hypothesis”, which holds that language processing in the brain is achieved through analytic and holistic systems, the former through left and the latter through right hemisphere processing. This hypothesis differs from current thinking in so far as it proposes that the involvement of the two systems (and two hemispheres) depends on the strategy selected by the speaker and that the engagement by one hemisphere over another will depend upon the communicative intent of the speaker and the propositionality of the utterance under production.Throughout the book there are useful and important discussions on such topics as the value of laboratory-based psycholinguistic experiments — given their tendency to encourage a “metalinguistic” strategy on the part of subjects, the nature of propositionality in language and brain and the difficulties of testing this hypothesis given the research approaches currently available.The Focusing Hypothesis is tested by comprehensive review of the existing experimental psycholinguistic, neuropsychological and neurophysiological literature, and a range of predictions which follow from the hypothesis are detailed.

Download or read book Evidence for Linguistic Relativity written by Susanne Niemeier and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2000-04-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume has arisen from the 26th International LAUD Symposium on “Humboldt and Whorf Revisited. Universal and Culture-Specific Conceptualizations in Grammar and Lexis”. While contrasting two or more languages, the papers in this volume either provide empirical evidence confirming hypotheses related to linguistic relativity, or deal with methodological issues of empirical research.These new approaches to Whorf’s hypotheses do not focus on mere theorizing but provide more and more empirical evidence gathered over the last years. They prove in a very sophisticated way that Whorf’s ideas were very lucid ones, even if Whorf’s insights were framed in a terminology which lacked the flexibility of linguistic categories developed over the last quarter of this century, especially in cognitive linguistics. To date, there is sufficient proof to claim that linguistic relativity is indeed a vital issue, and the current volume confirms a more general trend for rehabilitating Whorf’s theory complex and also offers evidence for it. It contains articles written by scholars from various fields of linguistics including phonology, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, historical linguistics, anthropological linguistics and (cross-)cultural semantics, which all contribute to a re-evaluation and partial reformulation of Whorf’s thinking.

Download or read book Fossilized Second Language Grammars written by Florencia Franceschina and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2005-12-22 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the mechanisms and causes of successful and unsuccessful adult second language acquisition.Couched within a generative framework, the study explores how a learner’s first language and the age at which they acquire their second language may contribute to the L2 knowledge that they can ultimately attain. The empirical study focuses on a group of very advanced L2 speakers, and through a series of tests aims to discover what underpins their near mastery of grammatical gender and other grammatical properties.The book explores an account of persistent selective divergence based on the idea that child and adult learners are fundamentally similar, except that in adults the L1 plays the role of a fairly rigid filter of the linguistic input. The impossibility of representing the new target language other than by using the building blocks of the previously established L1 is argued to be the main reason why near but not totally native like language representations are formed and become established in adult L2 learners.

Download or read book The Transitivity Hypothesis Investigation on the importance of transitivity in grammar and discourse written by Conny Schibisch and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-01-15 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Department of English Language and Linguistics), course: Seminar: English Functional Syntax, language: English, abstract: As a learner of languages in general and of English in particular, sooner or later one comes across transitive and intransitive verbs. For most of the learners this only means that there are these verbs, which take a direct object (transitive) and those, which do not (intransitive). (1) Susan left. (2) He is writing something. When comparing example (1) and (2), the average student of EFL 1 would claim the second one to be transitive, while the first one would be described as intransitive. For learners at school this explanation might be sufficient, but as a linguist the notion of Transitivity goes far beyond the simple declaration of verbs to be object-taking or not. In this paper special interest will focus on the notion of Transitivity. The observations are based on a study made by Paul J. Hopper and Sandra A. Thompson 2 published in 1980, which focuses on the importance of Transitivity in grammar and discourse 3 . The first part of the paper presented here will explain the notion of Transitivity according to the results of the study by Hopper/Thompson. The second part will draw attention to the universality of Transitivity. The question arises in how far Transitivity is essential to language. Why does the speaker of a language use Transitivity within a speech and how does he do so? Therefore, the main focus of the third part will lie on the pragmatic function of Transitivity, which means the importance of it as a discourse determiner. Especially the role of Transitivity in Foregrounding in discourse will be looked at. The writer of this paper tries to find own examples, if possible, but when it comes to universality and the corpus investigation, only examples of the original study can guarantee the verification of the theory. [...]

Download or read book Testing Linguistic Hypotheses written by David Cohen and published by Hemisphere Pub. This book was released on 1975 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers from the 3rd UWM Linguistics Group Annual Symposium, May 10 - 11, 1974, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Epistemology written by Paul K. Moser and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference work discusses one of the core topics of philosophy - the theory of knowledge. Connecting to virtually every other subfield, epistemology is central to mainstream philosophy. This book explains the ideas and problems of the field while avoiding overly technical detail.

Download or read book The Language of Thought written by Jerry A. Fodor and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1975 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a compelling defense of the speculative approach to the philosophy of mind, Jerry Fodor argues that, while our best current theories of cognitive psychology view many higher processes as computational, computation itself presupposes an internal medium of representation. Fodor's prime concerns are to buttress the notion of internal representation from a philosophical viewpoint, and to determine those characteristics of this conceptual construct using the empirical data available from linguistics and cognitive psychology.

Download or read book Twentieth Century Conceptions of Language written by Rudolf P. Botha and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1993-01-04 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How linguists, philosophers and psychologists view the essence of language Since scholars study the conceptions of language, Twentieth Century Conceptions of Language, provides analysis of these conceptions, including identifying their issues and merits. The book touches on the thinking of a range of notable linguists, philosophers and psychologists, including Bloomfield, Chomsky, Dummett, Fodor, Katz, Labov, Popper, Quine, Sapir, Saussure, Skinner and Wittgenstein.

Download or read book Psycholinguistic Research PLE Psycholinguistics written by Doris Aaronson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1979, this book represents an effort to bring together the two disciplines at the core of psycholinguistics, psychology and linguistics. It discusses a broad variety of theoretical approaches to psycholinguistics as well as covering a wide range of topics. At the time the book had four goals: to discuss many of the important contemporary issues in psycholinguistics; to explore the different views on major theoretical controversies; to provide an analysis of background literature as a framework in which to evaluate the issues and controversies; and to describe interesting high-quality research currently being done by the authors and some of their colleagues. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context, with many of the chapters still relevant in psycholinguistic research today.

Download or read book Rethinking Linguistic Relativity written by John J. Gumperz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-07-11 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linguistic relativity is the claim that culture, through language, affects the way in which we think, and especially our classification of the experienced world. This book reexamines ideas about linguistic relativity in the light of new evidence and changes in theoretical climate. The editors have provided a substantial introduction that summarizes changes in thinking about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in the light of developments in anthropology, linguistics and cognitive science. Introductions to each section will be of especial use to students.

Download or read book Through the Language Glass written by Guy Deutscher and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterpiece of linguistics scholarship, at once erudite and entertaining, confronts the thorny question of how—and whether—culture shapes language and language, culture Linguistics has long shied away from claiming any link between a language and the culture of its speakers: too much simplistic (even bigoted) chatter about the romance of Italian and the goose-stepping orderliness of German has made serious thinkers wary of the entire subject. But now, acclaimed linguist Guy Deutscher has dared to reopen the issue. Can culture influence language—and vice versa? Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? Could our experience of the world depend on whether our language has a word for "blue"? Challenging the consensus that the fundaments of language are hard-wired in our genes and thus universal, Deutscher argues that the answer to all these questions is—yes. In thrilling fashion, he takes us from Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, from how to name the rainbow to why Russian water—a "she"—becomes a "he" once you dip a tea bag into her, demonstrating that language does in fact reflect culture in ways that are anything but trivial. Audacious, delightful, and field-changing, Through the Language Glass is a classic of intellectual discovery.

Download or read book Origins of Language written by Sverker Johansson and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the student or researcher who prefers solid data and well-supported conclusions, over speculative scenarios. Much that has been written on the origins of language is characterized by hypothesizing largely unconstrained by evidence. But empirical data do exist, and the purpose of this book is to integrate and review the available evidence from all relevant disciplines, not only linguistics but also, e.g., neurology, primatology, paleoanthropology, and evolutionary biology. The evidence is then used to constrain the multitude of scenarios for language origins, demonstrating that many popular hypotheses are untenable. Among the issues covered: (1) Human evolutionary history, (2) Anatomical prerequisites for language, (3) Animal communication and ape "language", (4) Mind and language, (5) The role of gesture, (6) Innateness, (7) Selective advantage of language, (8) Proto-language.

Download or read book Treatise on Basic Philosophy written by M. Bunge and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Phonology in the 1980 s written by Didier L. Goyvaerts and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a number of ground-breaking papers in the theory of phonology.

Download or read book Data and Evidence in Linguistics written by András Kertész and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-09 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of what types of data and evidence can be used is one of the most important topics in linguistics. This book is the first to comprehensively present the methodological problems associated with linguistic data and evidence. Its originality is twofold. First, the authors' approach accounts for a series of unexplained characteristics of linguistic theorising: the uncertainty and diversity of data, the role of evidence in the evaluation of hypotheses, the problem solving strategies as well as the emergence and resolution of inconsistencies. Second, the findings are obtained by the application of a new model of plausible argumentation which is also of relevance from a general argumentation theoretical point of view. All concepts and theses are systematically introduced and illustrated by a number of examples from different linguistic theories, and a detailed case-study section shows how the proposed model can be applied to specific linguistic problems.