Discontinuous Syntax

Discontinuous Syntax
Author: Andrew M. Devine
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2000
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780195132700

The interface between syntax and meaning, both semantic and pragmatic, has emerged as an area of linguistics theory. This study applies some of these ideas to hyperbaton, offering a new theory with broad applications for our understanding of Greek syntax.

Discontinuous Constituency

Discontinuous Constituency
Author: Geoffrey J. Huck
Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
Total Pages: 451
Release: 1987
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780126135206

Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition

Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition
Author: Stefano Rastelli
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2014
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1783092467

With a focus on the morphosyntactic features of second language, this book discusses the idea that language acquisition is a discontinuous and 'quantized' process due to the existence of two different - albeit interconnected - ways of learning: Statistical Learning and Grammatical Learning. It describes how the switch between ways of learning could take place and its developmental implications for adult SLA.

The Emergence of Order in Syntax

The Emergence of Order in Syntax
Author: Jordi Fortuny
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2008-01-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027291543

The syntactic component of the faculty of language is argued to be a rewiring of a few independently motivated components: features, the conjunction of a successive operation of union-formation (‘Merge’) and of derivational records (‘nests’), and principles of analysis. Since nests linearize terminals (Kuratowski 1921), Kayne’s (1994) LCA becomes dispensable. The study of how features are ordered in discontinuous, analytic and syncretic patterns, governed by the Full Interpretation Condition and the Maximize Matching Effects Principle, provides a simple account for several syntactic phenomena, like the C-Infl connection, certain cartographic observations due to Cinque (1999), the A’-status of preverbal subjects in Null Subject Languages (Solà 1992), the alleviation of wh-island effects in English when the embedded wh-phrase is a subject (Chomsky 1986) and the dynamic V2 patterns in double agreement dialects observed by Zwart (1993). The possibility that Comp-trace effects derive from the contraction of the C-Infl discontinuity is explored and subject islands and wh-islands are derived from the Relativized Opacity Principle, an alternative to Chomsky’s PIC.

French Applied Linguistics

French Applied Linguistics
Author: Dalila Ayoun
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 580
Release: 2007-01-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027292884

This state-of-the-art volume on French Applied Linguistics includes two introductory chapters, the first summarizes the past, present and future of French in applied linguistics, and the second reviews the history of French from a sociolinguistic perspective. The six chapters of the first part cover the core aspects of the second language acquisition of French: phonology, semantics/syntax, syntax/morphology, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and grammatical gender. The seven chapters of the second part explore the contribution of French in various subfields of applied linguistics such as language ideology and foreign language pedagogy, corpus linguistics, and French Sign Language. A chapter studies the role of affective variables on language learning, while another investigates natural language and lexical creativity. The chapters on creole studies and applied linguistics in West Africa address issues in first and second language acquisition in complex sociolinguistic and political contexts. The last chapter serves as an epilogue focusing on Louisiana, a region rich in linguistic history.

The Syntax of Chichewa

The Syntax of Chichewa
Author: Sam Mchombo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2004-10-14
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780521573788

This comprehensive book provides a detailed description of the major syntactic structures of Chichewa. Assuming no prior knowledge of current theory, it covers topics such as relative clause and question formation, interactions between tone and syntactic structure, aspects of clause structure such as complementation, and phonetics and phonology. It also provides a detailed account of argument structure, in which the role of verbal suffixation is examined. Sam Mchombo's description is supplemented by observations about how the study of African languages, specifically Bantu languages, has contributed to progress in grammatical theory, including the debates that have raged within linguistic theory about the relationship between syntax and the lexicon, and the contributions of African linguistic structure to the evaluation of competing grammatical theories. Clearly organised and accessible, The Syntax of Chichewa will be an invaluable resource for students interested in linguistic theory and how it can be applied to a specific language.

A Theory of Syntax for Systemic Functional Linguistics

A Theory of Syntax for Systemic Functional Linguistics
Author: Robin P. Fawcett
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027237131

This book describes and evaluates alternative approaches within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to representing the structure of language at the level of form. It assumes no prior knowledge of SFL, and can therefore be read as an introduction to current issues within the theory. It will interest any linguist who takes a functional approach to understanding language.Part 1 summarizes the major developments in the forty years of SFL's history, including alternative approaches within Halliday's own writings and the emergence of the "Cardiff Grammar" as an alternative to the "Sydney Grammar." It questions the theoretical status of the 'multiple structure' representations in Halliday's influential "Introduction to Functional Grammar" (1994), demonstrating that Halliday's model additionally needs an integrating syntax such as that described in Part 2.Part 2 specifies and discusses the set of 'categories' and 'relationships' that are needed in a theory of syntax for a modern, computer-implementable systemic functional grammar. The theoretical concepts are exemplified at every point, usually from English but occasionally from other languages.The book is both a critique of Halliday's current theory of syntax and the presentation of an alternative version of SFL that is equally systemic and equally functional.

Categorial Grammar

Categorial Grammar
Author: Glyn Morrill
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2010-09-22
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0199589852

This book provides a state-of-the-art introduction to categorial grammar, a type of formal grammar which analyses expressions as functions or according to a function-argument relationship. The book's focus is on linguistic, computational, and psycholinguistic aspects of logical categorial grammar, i.e. enriched Lambek Calculus. Glyn Morrill opens with the history and notation of Lambek Calculus and its application to syntax, semantics, and processing. Successive chapters extend the grammar to a number of significant syntactic and semantic properties of natural language. The final part applies Morrill's account to several current issues in processing and parsing, considered from both a psychological and a computational perspective. The book offers a rigorous and thoughtful study of one of the main lines of research in the formal and mathematical theory of grammar, and will be suitable for students of linguistics and cognitive science from advanced undergraduate level upwards.

Language and Automata Theory and Applications

Language and Automata Theory and Applications
Author: Frank Drewes
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2017-02-14
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3319537334

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Language and Automata Theory and Applications, LATA 2017, held in Umeå, Sweden, in March 2017. The 31 revised full papers presented together with 4 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 73 submissions. The papers cover the following topics: algorithmic learning and semantics; automata and logics; combinatorics on words, compression, and pattern matching; complexity; finite automata; grammars, languages, and parsing; graphs and Petri Nets; non-classical automata; and pushdown automata and systems.