Connectives and Discourse Relations


Book Description

Provides a cutting-edge yet accessible introduction to connectives and discourse relations, with examples from a range of languages.




Corpus Linguistics, Computer Tools, and Applications - State of the Art


Book Description

Contents: Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk: PALC 2007: Where are we now? - Paul Rayson/Dawn Archer/Alistair Baron/Nicholas Smith: Travelling through time with corpus annotation software - Eugene H. Casad: Parsing texts and compiling a dictionary with shoebox - Belinda Maia/Rui Silva/Anabela Barreiro/Cecília Fróis: 'N-grams in search of theories' - Piotr Pęzik/Jung-jae Kim/Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann: MedEvi - A permuted concordancer for the biomedical domain - Patrick Hanks: Why the «word sense disambiguation problem» can't be solved, and what should be done instead - Rafał




Coherence in Spoken and Written Discourse


Book Description

Until very recently, coherence (unlike cohesion) was widely held to be a 'rather mystical notion'. However, taking account of new trends representing a considerable shift in orientation, this volume aims at helping relieve coherence of its mystifying aura. The general bibliography which concludes the book bears witness to this intriguing development and the rapidly changing scene in coherence research. Preceding this comprehensive up-to-date Bibliography on Coherence are 13 selected papers from the 1997 International Workshop on Coherence at the University of Augsburg, Germany. They share a number of theoretical and methodoligical assumptions and reflect a trend in text and discourse analysis to move away from reducing coherence to a product of (formally represented) cohesion and/or (semantically established) connectivity. Instead, they start from a user- and context-oriented interpretive understanding and rely on authentic data throughout in relating micro-linguistic to macro-linguistic issues. The first group of papers looks at the (re-)creation of coherence in, inter alia, reported speech, casual conversation, argumentative writing, news reports and conference contributions. The second group describes the negotation of coherence in oral examinations, text summaries and other situations that require special efforts on the part of the recipient to overcome misunderstandings and other disturbances. The third group discusses theoretical approaches to the description of coherence.




Discourse Markers Across Languages


Book Description

This book offers a corpus-based comparative study of an almost entirely unexplored set of multi-word lexical items serving pragmatic or text-structuring functions. Part One provides a descriptive account of multi-word discourse markers in written English, French and German, focussing on dicussion of interlingual equivalence. Part Two examines the use of multi-word markers by non-native speakers of English and discusses lexicographical and pedagogical implications.




The Acquisition of Chinese as a First and Second Language


Book Description

This volume, through highly selective and rigorous review processes, has collected eight empirical studies showcasing research advances in multiple domains including child first language, adult additional language, and heritage language acquisition. The studies are theoretically motivated and have adopted a spectrum of innovative methodological strategies to achieve a broader understanding of the nature of learning and the learning process. The volume encompasses a wide range of contents: 1) The L1 and L2 acquisition of syntax, semantics, phonetics, and the syntax-discourse interface; 2) Data comparisons across different learner groups: L1 Chinese children, L2 Chinese learners, and Chinese heritage speakers; 3) Acquisition of language skills: speaking, listening, and writing; and last but not least, 4) Instructional interventions including consciousness-raising and metacognitive strategy training. The volume is intended to bridge the gap between research and instruction by helping teachers understand their students and their learning. Informed by research, teachers can opt for appropriate pedagogical approaches and instructional conditions for their students. The volume is guest-edited by Xiaohong Wen, Professor in Applied Linguistics and Chinese language Acquisition at the University of Houston.







Lexical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind


Book Description

The concept of theory of mind (ToM), a hot topic in cognitive psychology for the past twenty-five years, has gained increasing importance in the fields of linguistics and pragmatics. However, even though the relationship between ToM and verbal communication is now recognized, the extent, causality and full implications of this connection remain mostly to be explored. This book presents a comprehensive discussion of the interface between language, communication, and theory of mind, and puts forward an innovative proposal regarding the role of discourse connectives for this interface. The proposed analysis of connectives is tested from the perspective of their acquisition, using empirical methods such as corpus analysis and controlled experiments, thus placing the study of connectives within the emerging framework of experimental pragmatics.




Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native English Discourse


Book Description

While discourse markers have been examined in some detail, little is known about their usage by non-native speakers. This book provides valuable insights into the functions of four discourse markers (so, well, you know and like) in native and non-native English discourse, adding to both discourse marker literature and to studies in the pragmatics of learner language. It presents a thorough analysis on the basis of a substantial parallel corpus of spoken language. In this corpus, American students who are native speakers of English and German non-native speakers of English retell and discuss a silent movie. Each of the main chapters of the book is dedicated to one discourse marker, giving a detailed analysis of the functions this discourse marker fulfills in the corpus and a quantitative comparison between the two speaker groups. The book also develops a two-level model of discourse marker functions comprising a textual and an interactional level.




A Sarcee Grammar


Book Description

Likely to become one of the classic works in Amerindian linguistics, this book presents a comprehensive grammar of Sarcee, an Athapaskan language spoken in southern Alberta. Based on the voluminous notes collected by Edward Sapir in 1922 and supplemented by extensive data from Cook's own work with the few remaining speakers of Sarcee, the book not only deals with all major areas of linguistic structure but also offers insights into linguistic changes which have occurred during this century. Primarily descriptive, with numerous examples drawn from text materials to support claims about grammatical structure or rule, the book also contains many accounts of Sarcee and Athapaskan data which bear significantly on current theoretical issues. Although the over-all approach is generative transformational, the material is presented in contemporary analytical and descriptive terminology. Preceded by an introduction defining the orthographic conventions and abbreviations used throughout the book, the following chapters are devoted to a thorough discussion of syntax, phonology, and morphology. The chapters on syntax constitute the only in-depth presentation of such material for any northern Athapaskan language. A major documentation of the geographically and linguistically important Sarcee language, this book will be welcomed by scholars in Athapaskan studies as well as by linguists in general as a significant contribution to the general knowledge of language and linguistic theory.