Kate Burridge follows the international success of Blooming English with another entertaining excursion into the ever-changing nature of the complex and captivating English language. If language is a glorious garden, filled with exotic hybrids as well as traditional heritage specimens, then weeds will also thrive on its fertile grounds. Linguistic weeds may be defined as pronunciations or constructions that are no longer used. For example, Burridge points out how "aint" or double negatives were at one time quite acceptable in everyday speaking and writing but are now classified as "weeds" that should no longer have a place in our vocabulary. And, as she so deftly accomplished in Blooming English, Burridge goes on here to further celebrate our capacity to play with language, and to examine the ways we use it: in slang and jargon, swearing, speaking the unspeakable, or concealing unpleasant or inconvenient facts. In this new volume she gives us another fun and informative work for enjoyable browsing; for discovering intriguing trivia about language, history, and social customs; and for employing as a peerless weapon in word games. Kate Burridge is the Chair of Linguistics at Monash University and a regular presenter of segments on the Australian Broadcast Company.
Livro
European Portuguese, like other Romance languages, display a great amount of word order variation. Out of the six logically possible permutations between Subject, Verb and Complement in a transitive sentence, five are possible: SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS and OSV. The primary goal of this book is to provide an analysis of the several positions where the subject may surface in European Portuguese. Departing from an architecture of the clause as sketched in early minimalist work, containing two subject-related functional categories above VP (AgrP and TP), it is shown that the subject may surface in all potential landing sites: Spec,AgrP, Spec,TP and Spec,VP. Moreover, just like any other argument of the clause, it is claimed that subjects also have the possibility of surfacing in a left-dislocated position, arguably adjoining to the clause's left periphery.
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The triumph of English in the Renaissance--the successful efforts to advance the status of English over Latin and the continental vernaculars--has long been considered the major linguistic event of the period. Too often, Paula Blank argues, this has obscured the fact that English itself was divided by internal contests. By investigating the ways that early modern writers represented dialects, Blank reveals how "English" itself was a construct of the Renaissance, produced by discriminations made among alternative then-current "Englishes". Blank shows how dialect conditioned the production of reform, and examines how Renaissance literature became a major arena for competing Englishes of the period. Renaissance authors such as Spenser, Shakespeare and Jonson, Blank argues, produced the idea of a national language, variously known as "true" English, "pure" English, or the "King's" English, by distinguishing its dialect--and sometimes by creating those dialects themselves. Broken English shows how the Renaissance invention helped forge modern alliances of language and cultural authority.
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Including Bosnian, Russian, Polish and Slovak, the Slavic group of languages is the fourth largest Indo-European sub-group. Spoken by 297 million people, it is one of the major language families of the modern world. This book presents a survey of all aspects of the linguistic structure of the Slavic languages. Roland Sussex and Paul Cubberley cover Slavic dialects and sociolinguistic issues, and the socio-historical evolution of the Slavic languages, in addition to general linguistic topics.
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The Dravidian languages are spoken by nearly 200 million people in South Asia and in diaspora communities around the world. They include Tamil, Malayalam, Kannadaand Telugu, as well as over 20 non-literary languages. Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, one of the most eminent Dravidianists of our time, provides a linguistic overview of the Dravidian language family. He describes its history and writing system, discusses its structure and typology, and considers its lexicon. Distant and more recent contacts between Dravidian and other language groups are also covered.
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Germanic - one of the largest sub-groups of the Indo-European language family - comprises 37 languages with an estimated 470 million speakers worldwide. This book presents a comparative linguistic survey of the full range of Germanic languages, both ancient and modern, including major world languages such as English and German (West Germanic), the Scandinavian (North Germanic) languages, and the extinct East Germanic languages. Unlike previous studies, it does not take a chronological or a language-by-language approach, organized instead around linguistic constructions and subsystems. Considering dialects alongside standard varieties, it provides a detailed account of topics such as case, word formation, sound systems, vowel length, syllable structure, the noun phrase, the verb phrase, the expression of tense and mood, and the syntax of the clause. Authoritative and comprehensive, this much-needed survey will be welcomed by scholars and students of the Germanic languages, as well as linguists across the many branches of the field.
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The Indo-European language family consists of many of the modern and ancient languages of Europe, India and Central Asia, including Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English. Spoken by an estimated three billion people, it has the largest number of native speakers in the world today. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the study of the Indo-European languages. It clearly sets out the methods for relating the languages to one another, presents an engaging discussion of the current debates and controversies concerning their classification, and offers sample problems and suggestions for how to solve them. Complete with a comprehensive glossary, almost 100 tables in which language data and examples are clearly laid out, suggestions for further reading, discussion points, and a range of exercises, this text will be an essential toolkit for all those studying historical linguistics, language typology and the Indo-European languages for the first time.
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The books in this new series examine the history of English and its use in a variety of contemporary contexts: the learning and teaching of English in different parts of the world; the position of English in relation to other languages and its use as a language of international communication. Each book in the series examines the social and political aspects of the English language, includes source material, case studies and activities and assumes no prior linguistic knowledge.The story of English is often presented as one of progress: from a set of Germanic dialects to a fully-fledged national and international language. The scope of this book is much wider, emphasizing the diversity of English throughout its history and the changing social meanings of different varieties of English. Topics discussed include the history of English from old English to the present day, the development of English as a world language, English grammar and accents, style shifting and codeswitching and the notion of good and bad English. English: History, Diversity and Change includes contributions from Nik Coupland, David Graddol, Paul Kerswill, Marie-Noelle Lamy, Dick Leith, Joan Swann, Linda Thomas and Susan Wright, as well as readings from a range of sources.
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This volume comprises refereed papers and abstracts from the 7th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG7), held in Barcelona in March 2008. As the leading international conference in the field, the biennial EVOLANG meeting is characterized by an invigorating, multidisciplinary approach to the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many fields including anthropology, archeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, computer science, ethology, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, paleontology, primatology, psychology and statistical physics. The latest theoretical, experimental and modeling research on language evolution is presented in this collection. It includes contributions from leading scientists such as Derek Bickerton, Rudolf Botha, Camilo Cela Conde, Francesco d'Erico, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Simon Kirby, Gary Marcus, Steven Pinker, Friedemann Pulvermuller and Juan Uriagereka.
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This practical and informative course book leads the student through the development of the language from Old English, through Middle and Early Modern English to the establishment of Standard English in the eighteenth century. At the core of the book is a series of nearly two hundred historical texts, of which more than half are reproduced in facsimile, exemplifying the progressive changes in the language. The book is firmly based upon linguistic description, with commentaries forming a series of case studies which demonstrate the evidence for language change at every level - handwriting, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, grammar and meaning.Various activities are offered throughout the book to encourage the students to study data at first hand, using texts and facsimiles, and to consider possible reasons for what they observe.
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Books published by Dover tend to have certain similarities: they tend to be books that were considered primary reference sources in their (usually eccentric) field at one time, but are now outdated and while their contents are frequently interesting, possibly useful and occasionally enlightening, they should not be considered authoritative except in the sense that they reflect scholarly opinion of several generations past.Fr. Wieger's book should be treated in this manner. We have a great deal more resources regarding the evolution of the Chinese writing system at our disposal now than when he wrote a hundred years ago. The book is interesting in that it reflects the accepted wisdom of Chinese scholars of the nineteenth century on the subject, and in this sense it resembles James Legge's translations of the Chinese classics - they're considered almost unreadable nowadays (as is Wieger) but Legge had the benefit of real mandarins of the old regime to consult with. Fr. Wieger's book is a reflection of the sholarship that put together the Kang Xi dictionary, which despite its drawbacks in retrospect was a monumental work in its time.If you're looking for a dictionary don't waste your time with Wieger - in this respect he was inaccurate even when he was new, and it's doubtful that preparing a dictionary was his major concern anyway. If you're looking for a history of Chinese writing, you should look elsewhere for accuracy, but Wieger's comments are worth a read as well, for no other reason than that he goes into so much detail over every character, and provides us with the received wisdom on the derivation of so many of them.
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Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 40,000 years, speaking about 250 languages. Through examination of published and unpublished materials on each of the individual languages, Dixon surveys the ways in which the languages vary typologically and presents a profile of this long-established linguistic area. The areal distribution of most features is illustrated with more than 30 maps and an index of languages and language groups is provided.
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The Andean and Pacific regions of South America are home to a remarkable variety of languages and language families, with a range of typological differences. Documenting the indigenous languages of this region, as well as of adjacent areas, Willem Andelaar and Pieter Muysken provide historical as well as contemporary information about the languages of the Andes. Illustrated with detailed grammatical sketches, their book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of linguistics and anthropology.
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Intermediate German is designed for learners who have achieved basic proficiency and wish to progress to more complex language. Each of the units combines concise grammar explanations with examples and exercises to help build confidence and fluency.
Features include:
- clear explanations of the similarities and differences in English and German grammar
- authentic language examples from a range of contemporary media
- checklists at the end of each unit to consolidate what you have learnt
- full cross-referencing throughout
- extra tips on language learning and learning specific grammar points
Suitable for students learning with or without a teacher, Intermediate German, together with its sister volume, Basic German, forms a structured course of the essentials of German grammar.
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Basic German: A Grammar and Workbook comprises an accessible reference grammar and related exercises in a single volume.
It introduces German people and culture through the medium of the language used today, covering the core material which students would expect to encounter in their first year of learning German.
Each of the 28 units presents one or more related grammar topics, illustrated by examples which serve as models for the exercises that follow. These wide-ranging and varied exercises enable the student to master each grammar point thoroughly.Basic German is suitable for independent study and for class use.
Features include:
Clear grammatical explanations with examples in both English and German
Authentic language samples from a range of media
Checklists at the end of each unit to reinforce key points
Cross referencing to other grammar chapters
Full exercise answer key
Glossary of grammatical terms.
Basic German is the ideal reference and practice book for beginners, but also for students with some knowledge of the language.
Livro
Kate Burridge follows the international success of Blooming English with another entertaining excursion into the ever-changing nature of the complex and captivating English language. If language is a glorious garden, filled with exotic hybrids as well as traditional heritage specimens, then weeds will also thrive on its fertile grounds. Linguistic weeds may be defined as pronunciations or constructions that are no longer used. For example, Burridge points out how "aint" or double negatives were at one time quite acceptable in everyday speaking and writing but are now classified as "weeds" that should no longer have a place in our vocabulary. And, as she so deftly accomplished in Blooming English, Burridge goes on here to further celebrate our capacity to play with language, and to examine the ways we use it: in slang and jargon, swearing, speaking the unspeakable, or concealing unpleasant or inconvenient facts. In this new volume she gives us another fun and informative work for enjoyable browsing; for discovering intriguing trivia about language, history, and social customs; and for employing as a peerless weapon in word games. Kate Burridge is the Chair of Linguistics at Monash University and a regular presenter of segments on the Australian Broadcast Company.
