Semantics of the English Subjunctive

Semantics of the English Subjunctive
Author: Francis James
Publisher: Vancouver, B.C. : University of British Columbia Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 1986
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

In this book, Francis James develops his theory that the Englishsubjunctive has one meaning. Explaining how modality expresses therelation between a representation and what is represented, Jamescompares the subjunctive to a 'blueprint,' a plan of what thearchitect intends the world to match, and the indicative to anartist's sketch of the same building, a 'record' to matchthe world. The subjunctive thus signifies the practicalworld-to-match-words modality, and the indicative, the theoreticalwords-to-match-world modality. In individual chapters, the author gives a unified account ofcurrent and earlier uses of the present and past subjunctive andcomments on how historical changes have affected the syntax of themoods. He extends his argument to demonstrate how the theory ofmodality can be applied to other modal forms in English and to moods inother languages.

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Author: Lester Kaufman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-04-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1119652847

The bestselling workbook and grammar guide, revised and updated! Hailed as one of the best books around for teaching grammar, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation includes easy-to-understand rules, abundant examples, dozens of reproducible quizzes, and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar to middle and high schoolers, college students, ESL students, homeschoolers, and more. This concise, entertaining workbook makes learning English grammar and usage simple and fun. This updated 12th edition reflects the latest updates to English usage and grammar, and includes answers to all reproducible quizzes to facilitate self-assessment and learning. Clear and concise, with easy-to-follow explanations, offering "just the facts" on English grammar, punctuation, and usage Fully updated to reflect the latest rules, along with even more quizzes and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar Ideal for students from seventh grade through adulthood in the US and abroad For anyone who wants to understand the major rules and subtle guidelines of English grammar and usage, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation offers comprehensive, straightforward instruction.

Change in Contemporary English

Change in Contemporary English
Author: Geoffrey N. Leech
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2009-10-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0521867223

Based on the systematic analysis of large amounts of computer-readable text, this book shows how the English language has been changing in the recent past, and discusses the linguistic and social factors that are contributing to this process.

The Semantics of Grammar

The Semantics of Grammar
Author: Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 632
Release: 1988-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027230196

"The semantics of grammar" presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology which makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither "autonomous" nor "arbitrary," but that it follows from "semantics." It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

Subjunctive Conditionals

Subjunctive Conditionals
Author: Michela Ippolito
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0262019485

A proposal for a compositional semantics for subjunctive (or would) conditionals in English. In this book, Michela Ippolito proposes a compositional semantics for subjunctive (or would) conditionals in English that accounts for their felicity conditions and the constraints on the satisfaction of their presuppositions by capitalizing on the occurrence of past tense morphology in both antecedent and consequent clauses. Very little of the extensive literature on subjunctive conditionals tries to account for the meaning of these sentences compositionally or to relate this meaning to their linguistic form; this book fills that gap, connecting the different lines of research on conditionals. Ippolito's proposal will be of interest both to linguists and to philosophers concerned with conditionals and modality more generally. Ippolito reviews previous analyses of counterfactuals and subjunctive conditionals in the work of David Lewis, Robert Stalnaker, Angelika Kratzer, and others; considers the contrast between future simple past subjunctive conditionals and future past perfect subjunctive conditionals; presents a proposal for subjunctive conditionals that addresses puzzles left unsolved by previous proposals; reviews a number of presupposition triggers showing that they fit the pattern predicted by her proposal; and discusses an asymmetry between the past and the future among subjunctive conditionals, arguing that the best account of our linguistic intuitions must include an indeterministic view of the world.

History of the Present English Subjunctive

History of the Present English Subjunctive
Author: Lilo Moessner
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-06-18
Genre: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES
ISBN: 1474438016

Locating the subjunctive at the interface of mood and modality, this book presents a systematic description of the use of the English subjunctive in main clauses, noun clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses. It explores the factors which governed its competition with other verbal expressions in texts ranging from the 9th to the beginning of the 18th century. Employing close reading alongside analysis of corpus data and the use of descriptive statistics, it offers new insights into the research landscape of English subjunctive use and into the fields of historical English linguistics and corpus linguistics.

The Semantics of Grammar

The Semantics of Grammar
Author: Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 629
Release: 1988-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027286124

“The semantics of grammar” presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology which makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither “autonomous” nor “arbitrary”, but that it follows from “semantics”. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writers, Second Edition

Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writers, Second Edition
Author: Nigel A. Caplan
Publisher: University of Michigan Press ELT
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2019-01-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0472037315

Grammar Choices is a different kind of grammar book: It is written for graduate students, including MBA, master’s, and doctoral candidates, as well as postdoctoral researchers and faculty. Additionally, it describes the language of advanced academic writing with more than 300 real examples from successful graduate students and from published texts, including corpora. Each of the eight units in Grammar Choices contains: an overview of the grammar topic; a preview test that allows students to assess their control of the target grammar and teachers to diagnose areas of difficulty; an authentic example of graduate-student writing showing the unit grammar in use; clear descriptions of essential grammar structures using the framework of functional grammar, cutting-edge research in applied linguistics, and corpus studies; vocabulary relevant to the grammar point is introduced—for example, common verbs in the passive voice, summary nouns used with this/these, and irregular plural nouns; authentic examples for every grammar point from corpora and published texts; exercises for every grammar point that help writers develop grammatical awareness and use, including completing sentences, writing, revising, paraphrasing, and editing; and a section inviting writers to investigate discipline-specific language use and apply it to an academic genre. Among the changes in the Second Edition are: new sections on parallel form (Unit 2) and possessives (Unit 5) revised and expanded explanations, but particularly regarding verb complementation, complement noun clauses, passive voice, and stance/engagement a restructured Unit 2 and significantly revised/updated Unit 7 new Grammar Awareness tasks in Units 3, 5, and 6 new exercises plus revision/updating of many others self-editing checklists in the Grammar in Your Discipline sections at the end of each unit representation of additional academic disciplines (e.g., engineering, management) in example sentences and texts and in exercises.

Modality–Aspect Interfaces

Modality–Aspect Interfaces
Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2008-06-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027290199

The main topics pursued in this volume are based on empirical insights derived from Germanic: logical and typological dispositions about aspect-modality links. These are probed in a variety of non-related languages. The logically establishable links are the following: Modal verbs are aspect sensitive in the selection of their infinitival complements – embedded infinitival perfectivity implies root modal reading, whereas embedded infinitival imperfectivity triggers epistemic readings. However, in marked contexts such as negated ones, the aspectual affinities of modal verbs are neutralized or even subject to markedness inversion. All of this suggests that languages that do not, or only partially, bestow upon full modal verb paradigms seek to express modal variations in terms of their aspect oppositions. This typological tenet is investigated in a variety of languages from Indo-European (German, Slavic, Armenian), African, Asian, Amerindian, and Creoles. Seeming deviations and idiosyncrasies in the interaction between aspect and modality turn out to be highly rule-based.

Spanish Second Language Acquisition

Spanish Second Language Acquisition
Author: Barbara Armstrong Lafford
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2003
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780878409075

This book is a reference that provides an overview of the major work done in Spanish second language acquisition. It contains a section on the major theoretical approaches (generative, cognitive, and sociocultural), a section on the major elements of language (phonemes, morphemes, tense, syntax, discourse, pragmatics), and a concluding chapter on the effects of different instructional approaches. We are publishing it primarily for its potential course use, but the quality of the contributors will also attract attention from scholars.