Cognition and Pragmatics (Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights)
The ten volumes of Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While other volumes select philosophical, grammatical, social, variational, interactional, or discursive angles, this third volume focuses on the interface between language and cognition. Language use is impossible without the mobilization of a large variety of cognitive processes, each serving a different purpose.
Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) is an area of increasing interest to those involved in language teacher education. This book provides an introduction to the nature of TLA, assesses its impact upon teaching and its potential impact on learning. The book focuses specifically on grammar. It aims to encourage teachers and others involved in language education to think more deeply about the importance of TLA ad to adopt a more principled approach to the planning of those parts of their programmes assosciated with it.
When trying to explain any success or failure in second language (L2) learning, the term 'motivation' is often used by teachers and students alike. Indeed, motivation is one of the key learner factors that determines the rate and success of L2 attainment: it provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later the driving force to sustain the long learning process. Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term goals. This book takes a practical approach to teaching motivational strategies
Humans never run out of things to say. We explain, we cajole, we gossip, and we flirt--all with the help of language. But how in the space of several million years did we evolve from an ordinary primate that that could not talk to the strange human primate that can't shut up? In this fascinating, thought-provoking book, Robbins Burling presents the most convincing account of the origins of language ever published, shedding new light on how speech affects the way we think, behave, and relate to each other, and offering us a deeper understanding of the nature of language itself.
Human language is a weird communication system: it has more in common with birdsong than with the calls of other primates. Jean Aitchison explores the origins of human language and how it has evolved. She likens the search to a vast prehistoric jigsaw puzzle, in which numerous fragments of evidence must be assembled. Such evidence is pieced together from a mixture of linguistic and nonlinguistic sources such as evolution theory, archaeology, psychology, and anthropology. This is an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the origins and evolution of human language.
