Bøger i Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics serien

Corpus linguistics is the study of language data on a large scale - the computer-aided analysis of very extensive collections of transcribed utterances or written texts. This textbook outlines the basic methods of corpus linguistics, explains how the discipline of corpus linguistics developed and surveys the major approaches to the use of corpus data. It uses a broad range of examples to show how corpus data has led to methodological and theoretical innovation in linguistics in general. Clear and detailed explanations lay out the key issues of method and theory in contemporary corpus linguistics. A structured and coherent narrative links the historical development of the field to current topics in 'mainstream' linguistics. Practical tasks and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter encourage students to test their understanding of what they have read and an extensive glossary provides easy access to definitions of technical terms used in the text.

In most languages we find 'little words' which resemble a full word, but which cannot stand on their own. Instead they have to 'lean on' a neighbouring word, like the 'd, 've and unstressed 'em of Kim'd've helped'em ('Kim would have helped them'). These are clitics, and they are found in most of the world's languages. In English the clitic forms appear in the same place in the sentence that the full form of the word would appear in but in many languages clitics obey quite separate rules of placement. This book is the first introduction to clitics, providing a complete summary of their properties, their uses, the reasons why they are of interest to linguists and the various theoretical approaches that have been proposed for them. The book describes a whole host of clitic systems and presents data from over 100 languages.

Stylistics is the linguistic study of style in language. It aims to account for how texts project meaning, how readers construct meaning and why readers respond to texts in the way that they do. This book is an introduction to stylistics that locates it firmly within the traditions of linguistics. Organised to reflect the historical development of stylistics from its origins in Russian formalism, the book covers key principles such as foregrounding theory, as well as more recent developments in cognitive stylistics. It includes an examination of both literary and non-literary texts, and substantial coverage of methodologies for stylistic analysis. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on the practicalities of producing stylistic analyses that are objective, replicable and falsifiable. Comprehensive in its coverage and assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, Stylistics will be essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students new to this fascinating area of language study.

This is an updated and substantially revised edition of Peter Matthews's well-known Morphology, first published in 1974. It includes chapters on inflectional and lexical morphology, derivational processes and productivity, compounds, paradigms, and much new material on markedness and other aspects of iconicity. As in the first edition, the theoretical discussion is eclectic and critical: its scope ranges from the ancient grammarians to the work of Chomsky and his followers, the disintegration of the classical Chomskyan scheme, and the renewed standing of morphology and historical linguistics in recent years. The examples are drawn from English and other European languages, ancient and modern. The work will appeal both to specialists in particular languages - it contains much original material - and students of general linguistics. For this new edition much now obsolete discussion has been removed and replaced by discussion of current trends, and the further reading sections have been thoroughly updated.

This new edition of Richard Hudson's widely acclaimed textbook Sociolinguistics will be welcomed by students and teachers alike. To reflect changes in the field since publication of the first edition in 1980, the author has added new sections on politeness, accommodation, and prototypes; and he has expanded discussion of sex differences, culture and general theory. There remains coverage of classic topics such as varieties of language, speech as social interaction, the quantitative study of speech, and linguistic and social inequality. Like the first, the second edition of Sociolinguistics is an exceptionally clear and helpful overview of the relationship of language and society.

Interest in word-formation is probably as old as interest in language itself. As Dr Bauer points out in his Introduction, many of the questions that scholars are asking now were also being asked in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, there is still little agreement on methodology in the study of word-formation or theoretical approaches to it; even the kind of data relevant to its study is open to debate. Dr Bauer here provides students and general linguists alike with a new perspective on what is a confused and often controversial field of study, providing a resolution to the terminological confusion which currently reigns in this area. In doing so, he clearly demonstrates the challenge and intrinsic fascination of the study of word-formation. Linguists have recently become increasingly aware of the relevance of word-formation to work in syntax and semantics, phonology and morphology, and Dr Bauer discusses - within a largely synchronic and transformational framework - the theoretical issues involved. He considers topics where word-formation has a contribution to make to other areas of linguistics and, without pretending to provide a fully-fledged theory of word-formation, develops those points which he sees as being central to its study. The book draws on a wide range of sources, and general points are illustrated from a variety of languages. As the title suggests, though, the exposition is principally illustrated with material drawn from English, including close analysis of a number of sets of neologisms. A survey of the types of word-formation found in English is also included. Some background in linguistics is assumed, but students of linguistics and English language with no previous knowledge of word-formation or of morphology at all will find English Word-Formation an accessible and stimulating textbook.

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the study of word-formation, that is, the ways in which new words are built on the bases of other words (e.g. happy - happy-ness), focusing on English. The book's didactic aim is to enable students with little or no prior linguistic knowledge to do their own practical analyses of complex words. Readers are familiarized with the necessary methodological tools to obtain and analyze relevant data and are shown how to relate their findings to theoretical problems and debates. The book is not written in the perspective of a particular theoretical framework and draws on insights from various research traditions, reflecting important methodological and theoretical developments in the field. It is a textbook directed towards university students of English at all levels. It can also serve as a source book for teachers and advanced students, and as an up-to-date reference concerning many word-formation processes in English.

Binding theory seeks to explain how different kinds of nominal expressions such as names, noun phrases and pronouns have anaphoric relations amongst one another, and how they come to have reference to things in the world. This textbook provides a thorough and comprehensive introduction to modern binding theory. Starting at a very basic level, it introduces the reader to a huge variety of nominal and especially pronominal expressions from the world's languages, the ways they can be used, and current theorising about their grammatical properties and their interpretation. Daniel Buring discusses a wide range of cross-linguistic data and theoretical approaches, and unlike in existing introductions, pairs the discussion of syntactic facts with a detailed introduction to the semantic interpretation of binding structures. Written in a clear and accessible style, and with numerous exercises and examples, this textbook will be invaluable to graduate and advanced undergraduate students of syntax and semantics.

This textbook is directed towards university students of English and linguistics at all levels. It can also serve as a source book for teachers and advanced students, and as an up-to-date reference concerning many word-formation processes of English and state-of the-art methodologies.

The Indo-European language family comprises several hundred languages and dialects spoken across Europe and Asia. This textbook provides a clear introduction to their study, complete with a glossary, discussion points, and exercises. An essential toolkit for anyone studying historical linguistics, language typology and the Indo-European languages for the first time.

What biological factors make human communication possible? How do we process and understand language? How does brain damage affect these mechanisms, and what can this tell us about how language is organized in the brain? This textbook, first published in 2007, discusses these questions, which are central to linguistics, psychology and speech pathology alike.

The authors offer a clear, succinct and basic introduction to set theory and formal logic. There is also a discussion of the relation between linguistics and logical analysis and between logic and natural language. This book is particularly intended for linguists and others interested in languages.

This is an introduction to the phonology of present-day English, dealing with three varieties of English: 'General American', Southern British 'Received Pronunciation' and 'Scottish Standard English'.

Semantics is a bridge discipline between linguistics and philosophy; but students are rarely able to reach that bridge, let alone cross it to inspect and assess the activity on the other side. Professor Kempston's textbook deals with the standard linguistic topics such as componential analysis, semantic universals and the syntax-semantics controversy.

Agreement in language relates to the correspondence between words in a sentence, in terms of gender, case, person, or number. This textbook offers an insight into how agreement works, and how it varies cross-linguistically. It will be essential reading for all those studying the structure and mechanisms of natural languages.

This text discusses the meaning of words. The author establishes the descriptive and generalizable facts about lexical relations that any formal theory of semantics will have to encompass, then goes on to discuss such topics as idiomaticity, lexical ambiguity, and synonymy.

Clear and concise, this textbook is an introduction to phonology for students which assumes no prior knowledge of this area of linguistics and provides an overall view of the field which can be covered within one year.

Andrew Radford's textbook is principally for students with little or no background in syntax who need an introduction to contemporary work on transformational grammar. It covers four main topics - the goals of linguistic theory, syntactic structure, the nature and role of the lexicon, and the function of transformations and the principles governing their application.

Principles of Phonetics is a major new textbook for all serious students of speech and language. It includes a total of eleven chapters on phonetic classification, and also discussion of other issues such as the relationship between phonetics and phonology. There are illustrations from over 500 of the world's languages.

When first published in 1980, Dialectology broke new ground by integrating urban dialectology (sociolinguistics), dialect geography and spatial variation into a cohesive discipline. As a comprehensive account of all aspects of dialectology this updated edition makes an ideal introduction to the subject.