Linguistics

For Roy Harris, the fundamental problem about linguistics is that it has been led astray by the fact that we are capable intellectually of ‘decontextualising’ our own verbal behaviour. A whole interlocking system of doctrines about forms, meanings and communication has arisen designed to support the..

Data from a variety of languages are offered in support of the claim that although there are several processes by which languages commonly add to an already existing stock of long vowels, there is only one mechanism by which a language without a distinction of vocalic length commonly introduces such..

In compiling this bibliography, the main purpose was to assemble references to published material of a sociolinguistic nature concerning the Irish language. The intent was not to cover publications treating language per se, but rather to consider those dealing with language in its social context. Re..

From introducing the key theories of language acquisition to children's hand-written stories, with emails and records of babies' first words, this new text explores the language of children from a range of backgrounds and abilities...

From introducing the key theories of language acquisition to children's hand-written stories, with emails and records of babies' first words, this new text explores the language of children from a range of backgrounds and abilities...

Explores the pragmatics of word play, using frameworks normally adopted in descriptive linguistics. Examines the structure of jokes, quips, riddles, asides, and the extent to which they can be universal and specific to one culture...

First published in 1988, this book provides an easily accessible handbook of knowledge about the languages of Ghana; their geographical distribution, their relationships with each other, the social patterns of their use, and their structures. Besides the general introduction, it contains chapters on..

The study of opacity falls under the general programme of showing how the meaning of any complex sentence is composed from the meanings of its constituent clauses, phrases and words. Opaque constructions are special from this point of view because the compositional principles that determine their me..

Perhaps more than any other group of languages those of the Caucasus are famous for their enormous and difficult consonantal systems. It is by no means exceptional for one of these languages to have as many as 50 consonants, and of these languages those from the Northwest Caucasus have the largest a..

This book clarifies and exemplifies how pragmatic considerations are relevant to any study of style and stylistics, in the conviction that pragmastylistics is more interesting and useful than stylistics on its own. There are two separate levels of study: one, a general, methodical and scientific dis..

This book provides a theory of first language acquisition in the syntactic framework of the theory of Universal Grammar. It addresses issues related to the earliest stage of development which ends roughly around the child’s second birthday. The theory put forward capitalises on the traditional obser..

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary English Pronunciation provides a comprehensive survey of this field covering both theoretical and practical perspectives on pronunciation...