Typological Discourse Analysis

Typological Discourse Analysis
Author: John Myhill
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1992
Genre: Discourse analysis
ISBN: 0631176144

This book gives the first account of a field of fast increasing importance in both theoretical and descriptive linguistics. The aim of Typological Discourse Analysis is to establish a universally valid framework for the objective description of linguistic function and so make it possible to compare directly the functions of constructions in different languages. For linguists working on grammars of specific languages this book provides both methodological tools for objective description and a wealth of ideas about functional parameters which have been found to be significant in the languages of the world. For linguists interested in language typology, this book gives data from a wide variety of languages which allow for a more direct cross-linguistic comparison of function than is possible from consulting reference grammars alone. For qualitative discourse analysts, this book describes in basic terms some quantitative methods of linguistic analysis, and includes discussion of word order and voice alternations, grammaticalization, aspect, topic and focus marking, clause-chaining and noun incorporation.

Discourse Grammar and Typology

Discourse Grammar and Typology
Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027230307

This volume combines papers selected for their affinity with work on discourse analysis and language typology. The methodological platform is the authors' conviction that all linguistic work needs to be empirical in the sense that (1) generalizations are to be made on the basis of spoken texts in larger contexts, (2) generalizations are correct only as long as pertinent linguistic material does not contradict them, and (3) that linguistic categories and rules are of a temporal nature. In this sense, the contributions represent 'functional typological' comparison, often of languages not frequently investigated. The papers are arranged in 5 groups: Transitivity and voice; Clausal modality; Typology and discourse categories; Language and Culture; Functionality.

Reference in Discourse

Reference in Discourse
Author: A. A. Kibrik
Publisher: Oxford Studies in Typology and
Total Pages: 683
Release: 2011-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199215804

This is the first full study of how people refer to entities in natural discourse. It contributes to the understanding of both linguistic diversity and the cognitive underpinnings of language and it provides a framework for further research in both fields. Andrej Kibrik focuses on the way specific entities are mentioned in natural discourse, during which about every third word usually depends on referential choice. He considers reference as an overt representation of underlying cognitive processes and combines a theoretically-oriented cognitive approach with empirically-based cross-linguistic analysis. He begins by introducing the cognitive approach to discourse analysis and by examining the relationship between discourse studies and linguistic typology. He discusses reference as a linguistic phenomenon, in connection with the traditional notions of deixis, anaphora, givenness, and topicality, and describes the way his theoretical approach is centered on notions of referent activation in working memory. He argues that the speaker is responsible for the shape of discourse and that referential expressions should be understood as choices made by speakers rather than as puzzles to be solved by addressees. Kibrik examines the cross-linguistic aspects of reference and the typology of referential devices, including referring expressions per se, such as free and bound pronouns, and referential aids that help to tell apart the concurrently activated entities. This discussion is based on the data from about 200 languages from around the world. He then proposes a comprehensive model of referential choice, in which he draws on concepts from cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, and applies this to Russian and English. He also draws together his empirical analyses in order to examine what light his analysis of discourse can shed on the way information is processed in working memory. In the final part of the book Andrej Kibrik offers a wider perspective, including deixis, referential aspects of gesticulation and signed languages. This pioneering work will interest linguists and cognitive scientists interested in discourse, reference, typology, and the operations of working memory in linguistic communication.

Pragmatic Organization of Discourse in the Languages of Europe

Pragmatic Organization of Discourse in the Languages of Europe
Author: Giuliano Bernini
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 657
Release: 2011-12-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110892227

The volume is a collection of papers reporting the results of investigations on the interaction of discourse and sentence structure in the languages of Europe. The subjects discussed in the book include: morphosyntactic characteristics of spontaneous spoken texts; different patterns of word order in a pragmatic perspective; the coding of the pragmatic functions topic and focus in sentences with non-canonical word orders (e.g. dislocations, clefts); the range of functions of verb-subject order in declarative clauses and the notion of theticity; prosodic patterns of de-accenting of given information; deixis and anaphora; coding of definiteness and article systems. The book provides the empirical basis for the comparative survey of major phenomena found in the languages of Europe which have pragmatic relevance. Beside traditional areas of investigation at the interface between syntax and pragmatics such as dislocations, new areas are explored, such as the prosody of given information. Data are considered within a functional-typological approach.

Introduction to Typology

Introduction to Typology
Author: Lindsay J. Whaley
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1997
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780803959637

Ideal in introductory courses dealing with grammatical structure and linguistic analysis, Introduction to Typology overviews the major grammatical categories and constructions in the world's languages. Framed in a typological perspective, the constant concern of this primary text is to underscore the similarities and differences which underlie the vast array of human languages.

Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective

Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective
Author: Alessandra Barotto
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2023-03-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027254885

This book aims at investigating discourse phenomena (i.e., linguistic elements and constructions that help to manage the organization, flow, and outcome of communication) from a typological and cross-linguistic perspective. Although it is a well-established idea in functional-typological approaches that grammar is shaped by discourse use, systematic typological cross-linguistic investigations on discourse phenomena are relatively rare. This volume aims at bridging this gap, by integrating different linguistic subfields, such as discourse analysis, pragmatics, and typology. The contributions, both theoretically and empirically oriented, focus on a broad variety of discourse phenomena (ranging from discourse markers to discourse function of grammatical markers, to strategies that manage the discourse and information flow) while adopting a typological perspective and considering typologically distant languages.

The Handbook of Discourse Analysis

The Handbook of Discourse Analysis
Author: Deborah Schiffrin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 872
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0470751983

The Handbook of Discourse Analysis makes significant contributions to current research and serves as a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the central issues in contemporary discourse analysis. Features comprehensive coverage of contemporary discourse analysis. Offers an overview of how different disciplines approach the analysis of discourse. Provides analysis of a wide range of data, including political speeches, everyday conversation, and literary texts. Includes a varied range of theoretical models, such as relevance theory and systemic-functional linguistics; and methodology, including interpretive, statistical, and formal methodsFeatures comprehensive coverage of contemporary discourse analysis.

Explanation in typology

Explanation in typology
Author: Karsten Schmidtke-Bode
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 278
Release:
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961101477

This volume provides an up-to-date discussion of a foundational issue that has recently taken centre stage in linguistic typology and which is relevant to the language sciences more generally: To what extent can cross-linguistic generalizations, i.e. statistical universals of linguistic structure, be explained by the diachronic sources of these structures? Everyone agrees that typological distributions are the result of complex histories, as “languages evolve into the variation states to which synchronic universals pertain” (Hawkins 1988). However, an increasingly popular line of argumentation holds that many, perhaps most, typological regularities are long-term reflections of their diachronic sources, rather than being ‘target-driven’ by overarching functional-adaptive motivations. On this view, recurrent pathways of reanalysis and grammaticalization can lead to uniform synchronic results, obviating the need to postulate global forces like ambiguity avoidance, processing efficiency or iconicity, especially if there is no evidence for such motivations in the genesis of the respective constructions. On the other hand, the recent typological literature is equally ripe with talk of "complex adaptive systems", "attractor states" and "cross-linguistic convergence". One may wonder, therefore, how much room is left for traditional functional-adaptive forces and how exactly they influence the diachronic trajectories that shape universal distributions. The papers in the present volume are intended to provide an accessible introduction to this debate. Covering theoretical, methodological and empirical facets of the issue at hand, they represent current ways of thinking about the role of diachronic sources in explaining grammatical universals, articulated by seasoned and budding linguists alike.

Applying Cognitive Linguistics

Applying Cognitive Linguistics
Author: Ana María Piquer-Píriz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2018-08-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027263450

In recent years, Cognitive Linguistics (CL) has established itself not only as a solid theoretical approach but also as an important source from which different applications to other fields have emerged. In this volume we identify some of the current, most relevant topics in applied CL-oriented studies – analyses of figurative language (both metaphor and metonymy) in use, constructions and typology –, and present high-quality research papers that illustrate best practices in the research foci identified and their application to different fields including intercultural communication, the psychology of emotions, second and first language acquisition, discourse analysis and translation studies. It is also shown how different methodologies –the use of linguistic corpora, psycholinguistic experiments or discourse analytic procedures– can shed some light on the basic premises of CL as well as providing insights into how CL can be applied in real world contexts. Finally, all the studies included in the volume are based on empirical data and there are some analyses of languages other than English (Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Danish, German and Polish), thus overcoming the contentions that CL-theoretically-based research is often based on linguistic intuition and focused only on the English language. We hope that the present volume will not only contribute to a better understanding of how CL can be applied but that it will also help to encourage, even further, more robust empirical research in this field. Originally published as a special issue of Review of Cognitive Linguistics 14:1 (2016).

Introducing Language Typology

Introducing Language Typology
Author: Edith A. Moravcsik
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2013
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0521193400

This textbook provides an introduction to language typology which assumes minimal prior knowledge of linguistics.