Language Structure and Environment

Language Structure and Environment
Author: Rik De Busser
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027268738

Language Structure and Environment is a broad introduction to how languages are shaped by their environment. It makes the argument that the social, cultural, and natural environment of speakers influences the structures and development of the languages they speak. After a general overview, the contributors explain in a number of detailed case studies how specific cultural, societal, geographical, evolutionary and meta-linguistic pressures determine the development of specific grammatical features and the global structure of a varied selection of languages. This is a work of meticulous scholarship at the forefront of a burgeoning field of linguistics.

Social Environment and Cognition in Language Development

Social Environment and Cognition in Language Development
Author: F. Nihan Ketrez
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2017-07-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027265380

Language development is driven by multiple factors involving both the individual child and the environments that surround the child. The chapters in this volume highlight several such factors as potential contributors to developmental change, including factors that examine the role of immediate social environment (i.e., parent SES, parent and sibling input, peer interaction) and factors that focus on the child’s own cognitive and social development, such as the acquisition of theory of mind, event knowledge, and memory. The discussion of the different factors is presented largely from a crosslinguistic framework, using a multimodal perspective (speech, gesture, sign). The book celebrates the scholarly contributions of Prof. Ayhan Aksu-Koç – a pioneer in the study of crosslinguistic variation in language acquisition, particularly in the domain of evidentiality and theory of mind. This book will serve as an important resource for researchers in the field of developmental psychology, cognitive science, and linguistics across the globe.

Ecolinguistics Reader

Ecolinguistics Reader
Author: Alwin Fill
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2006-05-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1847140831

Thirty years ago a new linguistic paradigm was created when Einar Haugen combined language with ecology. For Haugen, 'the ecology of language' meant the study of the interrelations between languages in the human mind and in the multilingual community. Since then a special branch of linguistics, named Ecolinguistics, has developed in which the connection between language and ecology has been established in a variety of ways and using a multitude of methods and approaches. In addition to the original ecolinguistic topics of language interrelation, language endangerment and language pressure, Ecolinguistics Reader also gives due consideration to the themes of biological and linguistic diversity as well as the ecocritical aspect.

The Language Of Environment

The Language Of Environment
Author: George Myerson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2014-03-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1317821629

First published in 1996. “Environment” challenges modern knowledge and its institutions: academic disciplines, research groups, journals and presses, syllabuses and texts, professions and data banks, media experts and policy advisors. The language of environment makes no policy proposals, it is not prescriptive. But it is an attempt to think about the cultural context of all proposals and prescriptions, the cultures of authority and expertise in our time. How is knowledge made to count, and how do all the different claims connect, or collide?

The Language Environment of First Century Judaea

The Language Environment of First Century Judaea
Author: Randall Buth
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2014-03-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004264418

The articles in this collection demonstrate that a change is taking place in New Testament studies. Throughout the twentieth century, New Testament scholarship primarily worked under the assumption that only two languages, Aramaic and Greek, were in common use in the land of Israel in the first century. The current contributors investigate various areas where increasing linguistic data and changing perspectives have moved Hebrew out of a restricted, marginal status within first-century language use and the impact on New Testament studies. Five articles relate to the general sociolinguistic situation in the land of Israel during the first century, while three articles present literary studies that interact with the language background. The final three contributions demonstrate the impact this new understanding has on the reading of Gospel texts.

The Role of Language in the Climate Change Debate

The Role of Language in the Climate Change Debate
Author: Kjersti Flottum
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2017-03-03
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1315456923

This volume takes a distinctive look at the climate change debate, already widely studied across a number of disciplines, by exploring the myriad linguistic and discursive perspectives and approaches at play in the climate change debate as represented in a variety of genres. The book focuses on key linguistic themes, including linguistic polyphony, lexical choices, metaphors, narration, and framing, and uses examples from diverse forms of media, including scientific documents, policy reports, op-eds, and blogs, to shed light on how information and knowledge on climate change can be represented, disseminated, and interpreted and in turn, how they can inform further discussion and debate. Featuring contributions from a global team of researchers and drawing on a broad array of linguistic approaches, this collection offers an extensive overview of the role of language in the climate change debate for graduate students, researchers, and scholars in applied linguistics, environmental communication, discourse analysis, political science, climatology, and media studies.

Current Perspectives on Child Language Acquisition

Current Perspectives on Child Language Acquisition
Author: Caroline F. Rowland
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027261008

In recent years the field has seen an increasing realisation that the full complexity of language acquisition demands theories that (a) explain how children integrate information from multiple sources in the environment, (b) build linguistic representations at a number of different levels, and (c) learn how to combine these representations in order to communicate effectively. These new findings have stimulated new theoretical perspectives that are more centered on explaining learning as a complex dynamic interaction between the child and her environment. This book is the first attempt to bring some of these new perspectives together in one place. It is a collection of essays written by a group of researchers who all take an approach centered on child-environment interaction, and all of whom have been influenced by the work of Elena Lieven, to whom this collection is dedicated.

Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment

Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment
Author: Miranda Hamilton
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2013-04-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1441189807

Digitalised learning with its promise of autonomy, enhanced learner choice, independence and freedom, is an intuitive and appealing construct but closer examination reveals it to be a rather simplistic proposition, raising the following questions. -What do we mean by autonomy? -What are we implying about the role of the teacher, the classroom, and interaction between learners? -What do we understand about the impact of technology on the ecology of the learning environment? This book describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by a group of advanced English language learners in Mexico, comparing what students thought and what they did in response to the technology. The theoretical aim of the book is to work towards the construction of a theory of the development of autonomy and virtual learning in an EFL context. Enhanced understanding about the relationship between autonomy and technology has the potential to inform academics, software designers, materials writers, teacher educators, and teachers and to help learners in their quest to acquire a foreign language.

Researching Second Language Acquisition in the Study Abroad Learning Environment

Researching Second Language Acquisition in the Study Abroad Learning Environment
Author: Christina L. Isabelli-García
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2019-09-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030251578

This book is intended to introduce novice student researchers to second language acquisition in the study abroad learning environment. It reviews the existing literature and provides the emerging researcher an overview of the important factors to consider, informs them where to begin, and how to move forth an agenda for future research in this field. The book recognizes that aside from the academic advantages, study abroad programmes are an excellent tool for fostering extended and relevant interaction with native speakers. It provides reflection questions and activities, and guides the novice researcher in critically analysing existing research and to eventually carry out their own study. The book will be of use to beginning researchers who are new to linguistics in the areas of study abroad and second language acquisition.