Metaphor is a fascinating phenomenon, but it is also complex and multi-faceted, varying in how it is manifested in different modes of expression, languages, cultures, or time-scales. How then can we reliably identify metaphors in different contexts? How does the language or culture of speakers and hearers affect the way metaphors are produced or interpreted? Are the methods employed to explore metaphors in one context applicable in others?
This handbook for German/English/German technical translators at all levels from student to professional covers the root terminologies of the spectrum of scientific and engineering fields. The work is designed to give technical translators direct insight into the main error sources occurring in their profession, especially those resulting from a poor understanding of the subject matter and the usage of particular terms to designate different concepts in different branches of technology.
A union of Cognitive Linguistics and Sociolinguistics was bound to happen. Both proclaim a usage-based approach to language and aim to analyse actual language use in objective ways. Whereas Sociolinguistics is by nature on the outlook for language in its variety, CL can no longer afford to ignore social variation in language as it manifests itself in the usage data. Nor can it fail to adopt an empirical methodology that reflects variation as it actually occurs, beyond the limited knowledge of the individual observer.
This book argues that the assumption that grammatical relations are both necessary and universal is an unwarranted generalization. The grammatical relations of subject and object are required in the case of the Indian language of Kannada. Furthermore, the notion of transitivity or transference which forms the basis for postulating grammatical relations does not play the expected central role in all languages: in the case of another Indian language, Manipuri, it is volitionality and transitivity which plays the central role in clause structure.
The verb-particle construction (in the following abbreviated as VPC) is here regarded as a class of lexical items which have a common morpho-syntactic surface structure. The present study aims to develop methods for the description of the underlying semantic structures. At the same time it attempts to describe the surface structure as thoroughly as possible. The results of the empirical investigation are also intended to provide data for theoretical considerations of semantic problems. This leads to the postulation of semantic formulas consisting of formators and designators.
