Physical Linguistics


Book Description

Invented in the University of California at Berkeley, respectively in 1997 and 1965, computational verb theory and fuzzy theory achieved the same goal of making natural languages measurable. While computer verb theory provides measurements to verbs and adverbs, fuzzy theory provides measurements to nouns and adjectives. Since nouns and verbs are two indispensable grammatical centers of all natural languages, computer verb theory and fuzzy theory must be used together to make a natural language measurable. Computer verb theory and fuzzy theory constitute a measurable linguistics called physical linguistics. A natural language without cognition is impossible. Therefore, to build a measurable linguistics we must first build a measurable cognition. In this book, the measurements of cognition are developed based on the Universe-Cognition Duality that provides a metric system for the Cognition. Based on the Universe-Cognition Duality, linguistic structures in natural languages can be mapped into topological structures of electronic circuits such that electronic circuits can be used to calculate cognitions directly by using voltages and currents. The industrial and commercial applications of physical linguistics to automatic control and image processing are presented. Written by the founding father of computational verb theory, this is a lucid, solid and timely monograph for professionals, scientists, academic researchers and students in information sciences, linguistics, fuzzy logic, computer sciences, signal processing and control engineering.




Promoting Language Through Physical Education


Book Description

Our society has never been more diverse, and teachers need to be culturally responsive educators in order to be most competent. But being culturally responsive is no simple task. Promoting Language Through Physical Education makes that task easier. This text offers strategies that physical education teachers can use to integrate non-English speakers and Deaf children in their classes. Sign language and Spanish are used as examples of how teachers can integrate students of any language background into classes. The use of sign language and Spanish phrases not only enhances communication among students and between students and teachers but promotes learning, open-mindedness, and appreciation for other cultures. Physical education is the ideal setting for integrating other languages because play fosters language development; children interact so much with each other and have ample opportunity to express themselves in physical education. With this book, teachers can expertly guide that development--even if they don't have a Spanish-speaking or Deaf child in their class. Promoting Language Through Physical Education grounds teachers in the importance of language and the value of learning about other cultures. Teachers will also * use games and strategies that help them infuse language into their daily classes; * have access to Spanish and sign language dictionaries, with vocabulary organized by movement concepts, games, and activities; and * use a DVD-ROM to facilitate both their teaching and their students' learning. The DVD includes video footage of key physical education terms and common words and phrases in Spanish and American Sign Language. Students can follow along as teachers play the footage, thus taking pressure off teachers who are not familiar with sign language or Spanish. The DVD also contains reproducibles and assessment tools that teachers can print and use, saving preparation time. With this practical text, teachers can promote language development and cultural appreciation while offering developmentally appropriate games and activities for students from elementary grades through high school. The games and strategies blend into and enhance regular physical education curricula. And the book includes appendixes of resources that can augment students' learning and ability to overcome language barriers.




What Counts as Evidence in Linguistics


Book Description

What counts as evidence in linguistics? This question is addressed by the contributions to the present volume (originally published as a Special Issue of Studies in Language 28:3 (2004). Focusing on the innateness debate, what is illustrated is how formal and functional approaches to linguistics have different perspectives on linguistic evidence. While special emphasis is paid to the status of typological evidence and universals for the construction of Universal Grammar (UG), this volume also highlights more general issues such as the roles of (non)-standard language and historical evidence. To address the overall topic, the following three guiding questions are raised: What type of evidence can be used for innateness claims (or UG)?; What is the content of such innate features (or UG)?; and, How can UG be used as a theory guiding empirical research? A combination of articles and peer commentaries yields a lively discussion between leading representatives of formal and functional approaches.




Physical Language Learning Spaces in the Digital Age


Book Description

How do we intentionally design physical environments for language learning and teaching? How can we build spaces that are inclusive, accessible, safe and equitable? While the Covid-19 pandemic has advanced notions of online education, it has also revealed the benefits and affordances of human-to-human interaction in physical learning spaces. This book explores the design of physical spaces intended for language learning specifically. From residential learning spaces to active classrooms, from social and experiential spaces to zoom rooms and language centers, from mobile community-based learning to hybrid makerspaces, language learners and educators have more choices than ever regarding their possible learning environments. Changing pedagogies and new technologies provide ever more alternatives to the normalized technology of the classroom. With a focus on creating new awareness of the affordances and benefits of physical spaces as active agents in the language learning and teaching processes, this book takes a practical approach to introduce readers without any prior knowledge of design or architecture to the topic. As language learning spaces need to consider stakeholders from diverse cultures, Felix Kronenberg provides examples from language centers around the world, including Asia, Europe and the United States. Readers will learn how to conceptualize and create supportive, resilient, flexible, inclusive, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and safe physical learning spaces. The book is an interdisciplinary introduction to this emerging field, drawing from research in disciplines such as architecture, learning spaces design, second language acquisition, pedagogy, history, and sociology.




Syntax with oscillators and energy levels


Book Description

This book presents a new approach to studying the syntax of human language, one which emphasizes how we think about time. Tilsen argues that many current theories are unsatisfactory because those theories conceptualize syntactic patterns with spatially arranged structures of objects. These object-structures are atemporal and do not lend well to reasoning about time. The book develops an alternative conceptual model in which oscillatory systems of various types interact with each other through coupling forces, and in which the relative energies of those systems are organized in particular ways. Tilsen emphasizes that the two primary mechanisms of the approach – oscillators and energy levels – require alternative ways of thinking about time. Furthermore, his theory leads to a new way of thinking about grammaticality and the recursive nature of language. The theory is applied to a variety of syntactic phenomena: word order, phrase structure, morphosyntax, constituency, case systems, ellipsis, anaphora, and islands. The book also presents a general program for the study of language in which the construction of linguistic theories is itself an object of theoretical analysis.




Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching


Book Description

In addition to the approaches and methods covered in the first edition, this edition includes new chapters, such as whole language, multiple intelligences, neurolinguistic programming, competency-based language teaching, co-operative language learning, content-based instruction, task-based language teaching, and The Post-Methods Era.




Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching


Book Description

In addition to the approaches and methods covered in the first edition, this edition includes new chapters, such as whole language, multiple intelligences, neurolinguistic programming, competency-based language teaching, co-operative language learning, content-based instruction, task-based language teaching, and The Post-Methods Era.




New Perspectives on English Historical Linguistics: Syntax and morphology


Book Description

This is the first of two volumes of papers selected from those given at the 12th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics. The second is New Perspectives on English Historical Linguistics (2): Lexis and Transmission. Together the volumes provide an overview of many of the issues that are currently engaging practitioners in the field. In this volume, the primary concern is with the historical grammar of English. Some papers take a broad overview of the subject, positioning it within current advances in linguistic theory, while others deal with specific points of syntax and morphology in a historical context. There is a recurrent emphasis on data collection and analysis, with a chronological range from Old to Present Day English, and a geographical spread from Scotland to Newfoundland. Contributions from scholars around the world remind us that not only English itself but the history of English is now an international possession.




How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention


Book Description

A Buzzfeed Gift Guide Selection “Few books on the biological and cultural origin of humanity can be ranked as classics. I believe [this] will be one of them.” — Edward O. Wilson At the time of its publication, How Language Began received high acclaim for capturing the fascinating history of mankind’s most incredible creation. Deemed a “bombshell” linguist and “instant folk hero” by Tom Wolfe (Harper’s), Daniel L. Everett posits that the near- 7,000 languages that exist today are not only the product of one million years of evolution but also have allowed us to become Earth’s apex predator. Tracing 60,000 generations, Everett debunks long- held theories across a spectrum of disciplines to affi rm the idea that we are not born with an instinct for language. Woven with anecdotes of his nearly forty years of fi eldwork amongst Amazonian hunter- gatherers, this is a “completely enthralling” (Spectator) exploration of our humanity and a landmark study of what makes us human. “[An] ambitious text. . . . Everett’s amiable tone, and especially his captivating anecdotes . . . , will help the neophyte along.”— New York Times Book Review




Expanding the Linguistic Landscape


Book Description

This book provides a forum for theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to research on language(s), multimodality and public space, which will advance new ways of understanding the sociocultural, ideological and historical role of communication practices and experienced lives in a globalised world. Linguistic Landscape is viewed as a metaphor and expanded to include a wide variety of discursive modalities: imagery, non-verbal communication, silence, tactile and aural communication, graffiti, smell, etc. The chapters in this book cover a range of geographical locations, and capture the history, motives, uses, causes, ideologies, communication practices and conflicts of diverse forms of languages as they may be observed in public spaces of the physical environment. The book is anchored in a variety of theories, methodologies and frameworks, from economics, politics and sociology to linguistics and applied linguistics, literacy and education, cultural geography and human rights.