This book is the result of a joint project on lexical and semantic typology which gathered together field linguists, semanticists, cognitivists, typologists, and an NLP specialist. These cross-linguistic studies concern semantic shifts at large, both synchronic and diachronic: the outcome of polysemy, heterosemy, or semantic change at the lexical level. The first part presents a comprehensive state of the art of a domain typologists have long been reluctant to deal with. Part two focuses on theoretical and methodological approaches: cognition, construction grammar, graph theory, semantic maps, and data bases. These studies deal with universals and variation across languages ...

This book brings together twelve studies, all written by scholars who identify themselves primarily as rhetoricians, that employ theory and/or method fromlinguistic discourse analysis. The studies make use of a variety of discourse analytic resources, including those of critical discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, narrative analysis, and computer-aided corpus analysis.

Postcolonial studies have transformed how we think about subjectivity, national identity, globalization, history, language, literature, and international politics. Until recently, the emphasis has been almost exclusively within an Anglophone context, but the focus of postcolonial studies is shifting to a more comparative approach.

This new volume on language contact and contact languages presents current research of distinguished scholars in the field as well as highly talented young scientists. It has two principal aims. Firstly, it ventures to analyze language contact from different perspectives, notably language typology, diachronic linguistics, language acquisition and translation studies. Secondly, it places special emphasis on the description, elaboration and explanation of universal constraints on language contact.

This fully revised and updated new edition reflects a changed higher education environment, addressing issues of quality, standards and professional development in today’s universities. The book includes new research findings and suggestions for further reading, while case studies of exemplary teaching connect ideas to practice. The book is essential reading for new and experienced lecturers.