Variation, Selection, Development: Probing the Evolutionary Model of Language Change (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs)
Can language change be modelled as an evolutionary process? Can notions like variation, selection and competition be fruitfully applied to facts of language development? The present volume ties together various strands of linguistic research which can bring us towards an answer to these questions. In one of the youngest and rapidly growing areas of linguistic research, mathematical models and simulations of competition based developments have been applied to instances of language change.
Evaluative Semantics proposes a strongly postmodernist theory of cognition, ideology and discourse in which the structure and internal consistency of ideology resemble those of evaluative knowledge of the mind. The strength of this book is that it goes beyond purely theoretical claims to propose an original connectionist model of evaluative interpretation. Malrieu's new semantics makes a unique contribution to the literature of cognitive science, linguistics, and discourse analysis.
In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition
Added by: littlecrabpig | Karma: 227.82 | Only for teachers, Linguistics | 6 February 2011
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In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition
More than five thousand languages are currently spoken around the globe. Learning to speak one of them is virtually effortless for most of us, so why is it commonly so difficult to learn a second language? Unraveling this mystery, two top researchers in the field explain how language acquisition can be an odyssey of self-discovery.
Cohesion in English is concerned with a relatively neglected part of the linguistic system: its resources for text construction, the range of meanings that are speciffically associated with relating what is being spoken or written to its semantic environment. A principal component of these resources is 'cohesion'. This book studies the cohesion that arises from semantic relations between sentences. Reference from one to the other, repetition of word meanings, the conjunctive force of but, so, then and the like are considered. Further, it describes a method for analysing and coding sentences, which is applied to specimen texts.
This is the first large-scale investigation on how multilinguals feel about their languages and use them to communicate emotion. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, Jean-Marc Dewaele looks at the factors that affect multilinguals' self-perceived competence, attitudes, communicative anxiety, language choice and code-switching when expressing feelings, anger and when swearing. Nearly 1,600 multilinguals from all over the world participated in the research.
