This book is the first comprehensive presentation of Functional Discourse Grammar, a new and important theory of language structure. The authors set out its nature and origins and show how it relates to contemporary linguistic theory. They demonstrate and test its explanatory power and descriptive utility against linguistic facts from over 150 languages across a wide range of linguistic families. After a full introduction the book is divided into chapters concerned with the four levels of grammatical representation - pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic, and phonological - each of which has its own hierarchical structure. Functional Discourse Grammar offers a thorough account of how the use and meaning of language influence linguistic form by conditioning two levels of formulation which feed into two levels of encoding, all with their own specific characteristics. The book offers an ideal introduction to the theory and its applications in typology and description for scholars in linguistics and related fields from graduate students upwards.
Step-by-step instructions, phonics and vocabulary, reading comprehension (main idea, figures of speech, fact or opinion, context clues, summarizing,fairy tales, poetry, fiction, nonfiction and much more) Grammar, research skills, Test practice, answer key - includes Stickers, Puzzles and Poster.
This text-based reference and practice book is ideal for learners working towards the CAE and Proficiency examinations. It gives learners access to real language through a rich mixture of highly readable authentic texts selected from recently published sources, both British and American, reflects the stylistic variety that advanced learners have to be able to deal with, gives practice in specific points of grammar to consolidate and extend learners’ existing knowledge.
The notion `construction' has become indispensable in present-day linguistics and in language studies in general. This volume extends the traditional domain of Construction Grammar (CxG) in several directions, all with a cognitive basis. Addressing a number of issues (such as coercion, discourse patterning, language change), the contributions show how CxG must be part and parcel of cognitively oriented studies of language, including language universals. The volume also gives informative accounts of how the notion `construction' is developed in approaches that are conceptually close to, and relatively compatible with, CxG: Conceptual Semantics, Word Grammar, Cognitive Grammar, Embodied Construction Grammar, and Radical Construction Grammar.
