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Re-assessing the Present Perfect

Author : Valentin Werner

Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Page : 324 pages

File Size : 24,76 MB

Release : 2016-09-12

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 3110435322

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Book Description

It is a well-known fact that the area of the present perfect has always been a hotly contested ground, but recent corpus analyses have shown that grammatical variation in this realm in English is far more pervasive than previously assumed. This volume is the first ever book-length treatment dedicated to corpus-based work on the present perfect. It offers fresh theoretical insights resting on a solid empirical footing and investigates central aspects of language contact and change, grammaticalization, typology, and dialect formation. It sheds light on this morphosyntactic area from different angles, as it comprises both diachronic and synchronic viewpoints. Contributions explore variation in the expression of perfect meaning and the multifunctionality of perfect forms in a number of native and non-native varieties, thus going beyond the traditional British/American English paradigm, while a second focus lies on cross-variety comparisons. Bringing together the knowledge of leading experts in the field, this book represents the state of the art in data-driven research on the present perfect and will be of interest for those working in the fields of language variation and change, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, and typology.



Re-assessing the Present Perfect

Author : Valentin Werner

Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Page : 363 pages

File Size : 25,46 MB

Release : 2016-09-12

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 3110443538

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Book Description

It is a well-known fact that the area of the present perfect has always been a hotly contested ground, but recent corpus analyses have shown that grammatical variation in this realm in English is far more pervasive than previously assumed. This volume is the first ever book-length treatment dedicated to corpus-based work on the present perfect. It offers fresh theoretical insights resting on a solid empirical footing and investigates central aspects of language contact and change, grammaticalization, typology, and dialect formation. It sheds light on this morphosyntactic area from different angles, as it comprises both diachronic and synchronic viewpoints. Contributions explore variation in the expression of perfect meaning and the multifunctionality of perfect forms in a number of native and non-native varieties, thus going beyond the traditional British/American English paradigm, while a second focus lies on cross-variety comparisons. Bringing together the knowledge of leading experts in the field, this book represents the state of the art in data-driven research on the present perfect and will be of interest for those working in the fields of language variation and change, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, and typology.



The Present Perfect and the Preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English

Author : Xinyue Yao

Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company

Page : 255 pages

File Size : 38,11 MB

Release : 2024-03-15

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 9027248605

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Book Description

This book examines developments in the use of the present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and contemporary English, with a focus on American and British English. Drawing on neo-Gricean pragmatics, it proposes a novel and principled analysis of the verb forms’ context-independent meanings and context-dependent inferences. State-of-the-art corpus linguistic methods are used to track their functional changes over two and a half centuries. The book presents new evidence of grammatical change and offers a compelling, contact-based account of regional variation. It brings together the insights of various fields, including formal semantics, historical linguistics, linguistic typology, and variationist sociolinguistics.



Grammar – Discourse – Context

Author : Kristin Bech

Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Page : 404 pages

File Size : 19,84 MB

Release : 2019-12-20

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 3110682664

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Book Description

This collected volume brings together a wide array of international linguists working on diachronic language change with a specific focus on the history of English, who work within usage-based frameworks and investigate processes of grammatical change in context. Although usage-based linguistics emphasizes the centrality of the discourse context for language usage and cognition, this insight has not been fully integrated into the investigation of processes of grammatical variation and change. The structuralist heritage as well as corpus linguistic methodologies have favoured de-contextualized analytical perspectives on contemporary and historical language data and on the mechanisms and processes guiding grammatical variation and change. From a range of different perspectives, the contributions to this volume take up the challenge of contextualization in the investigation of grammatical variation and change in different stages of English language history and discuss central theoretical notions such as gradable grammaticality, motivation in hypervariation, and hypercharacterization. The book will be relevant to students and linguists working in the field of diachronic and variational linguistics and English language history.



Mysteries of English Grammar

Author : Andreea S. Calude

Publisher : Routledge

Page : 150 pages

File Size : 24,46 MB

Release : 2021-09-30

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 1000451720

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Book Description

Despite a history of hundreds of years of research analysing aspects of English grammar, there are still open problems which continue to baffle language researchers today. Such ‘grammar mysteries’ arise for a number of reasons: because the language is changing; because different speakers of the language adhere to distinct norms and thus introduce and maintain variation in the system; because there are differences between the grammar of spoken and written English. This book illuminates some of the complexities of the subject, the areas where new discoveries await and why it matters. Through a series of accessible and engaging case studies on various aspects of grammar, from multiple negation to possession, the authors present grammar as an intellectual challenge. This book brings out into the open questions about language usage to which we still do not have good answers in a bid to make variation overt and to revel in the mystery of the English language. Both aimed at the interested general reader and the beginning student of English language and linguistics, this is a fresh take on grammar.



Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes

Author : Alexandra U. Esimaje

Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company

Page : 415 pages

File Size : 19,22 MB

Release : 2019-02-15

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 9027262934

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Book Description

Corpus linguistics has become one of the most widely used methodologies across the different linguistic subdisciplines; especially the study of world-wide varieties of English uses corpus-based investigations as one of the chief methodologies. This volume comprises descriptions of the many new corpus initiatives both within and outside Africa that aim to compile various corpora of African Englishes. Moreover, it contains cutting-edge corpus-based research on African Englishes and the use of corpora in pedagogic contexts within African institutions. This volume thus serves both as a practical introduction to corpus compilation (Part I of the book), corpus-based research (Part II) and the application of corpora in language teaching (Part III), and is intended both for those researchers not yet familiar with corpus linguistics and as a reference work for all international researchers investigating the linguistic properties of African Englishes.



Grammaticalising the Perfect and Explanations of Language Change

Author : Bozhil Hristov

Publisher : BRILL

Page : 384 pages

File Size : 21,65 MB

Release : 2019-11-26

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 9004414053

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Book Description

In Grammaticalising the Perfect and Explanations of Language Change: Have- and Be-Perfects in the History and Structure of English and Bulgarian, Bozhil Hristov investigates key aspects of the verbal systems of two distantly related Indo-European languages, highlighting similarities as well as crucial differences between them and seeking a unified approach. The book reassesses some long-held notions and functionalist assumptions and shines the spotlight on certain areas that have received less attention, such as the role of ambiguity in actual usage. The detailed analysis of rich, contextualised material from a selection of texts dovetails with large-scale corpus studies, complementing their findings and enhancing our understanding of the phenomena. This monograph thus presents a happy marriage of traditional philological techniques and recent advances in theoretical linguistics and corpus work.



Grammatical Categories in Linguistics and Education

Author : Holden Härtl

Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Page : 306 pages

File Size : 24,95 MB

Release : 2024-11-04

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 3111140806

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Book Description

This volume explores how grammatical categories, as defined by theoretical linguistics, are effectively implemented in language education. Aiming to bridge the gap between linguistic research and language pedagogy, it offers a detailed inquiry that spans theoretical frameworks and empirical data. By presenting a series of insightful studies, this work illustrates how findings from theoretical linguistics can be applied to enhance practical language instruction, demonstrating the reciprocal enrichment of both fields. Essential for linguists, language educators, and researchers interested in the intersections of grammar, cognition, and pedagogy, the volume is organized into four engaging sections. Each section illuminates the nuances of grammar teaching and language acquisition. It begins with a theoretical analysis of linguistic categories across diverse languages, progresses through the links between linguistic research and teaching methodologies, and delves into the role of empirical data in classroom applications. The final section focuses on the practical implementation of linguistic categories in language teaching, promoting a deeper understanding of grammar as a dynamic component of language learning.



The Perfect Volume

Author : Kristin Melum Eide

Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company

Page : 495 pages

File Size : 38,21 MB

Release : 2021-07-15

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 9027259992

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Book Description

Drawing on the data and history from a wide range of languages, from Atayal to Zapotec, this volume brings together leading scholars in the field of tense and aspect research resulting in 18 contributions on the perfect and some of its close relatives (e.g. iamitives). Different approaches complement each other to shed light on the source, emergence, grammaticalization, and the typological extension of perfect constructions cross-linguistically. One focal point is the so-called aoristic drift, where the perfect comes to resemble the simple past or aorist (often via the hodiernal ‘today’ reading). The semantics and pragmatics of perfects are also investigated through their interaction with other categories (e.g. negation, mood). Over time some perfects undergo auxiliary doubling or omission, or the auxiliary becomes subject to selection. These facts also receive special attention in this book, presenting new insights on perfects in both well-studied as well as very understudied languages.



World Englishes

Author : Elena Seoane

Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company

Page : 295 pages

File Size : 13,48 MB

Release : 2016-05-25

Category : Language Arts & Disciplines

ISBN : 9027267065

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Book Description

This book provides a collection of articles that reflect the current state of affairs in the blossoming field of World Englishes by bringing together several innovative synchronic and diachronic approaches. It contributes to the ongoing theoretical discussion concerning the criteria that make a low-frequency item represent an incipient change and examines the suitability of the sociolinguistics of globalisation theory for the study of non-traditional avenues for the spread of vernacular varieties of English (recent migrations, the entertainment industry, the web). It explores crucial aspects of language change and dialect evolution through the study of grammatical phenomena and the particular linguistic and socio-historical factors conditioning them. Together with theoretical questions, the volume shows a concern for methodological issues, such as sociolinguistic interviews, map-task experiments, metalinguistic comments, acceptability judgments and corpus-based methods. This volume represents the latest trends in the field and will undoubtedly set the agenda for the years ahead.