Voor de taalgebruiker spreekt taal vanzelf, maar de taalonderzoeker staat voor raadsels. Woordvormen lijken in niets op hun betekenis. En taalconstructies lijken onlogisch in elkaar te zitten. Toch kunnen we in een enkele zin onze bedoelingen tot in de subtielste nuances duidelijk maken. We hebben geen toegang tot het bewustzijn van de Ander maar kunnen desondanks gedachten met elkaar uitwisselen. We kunnen de werkelijkheid met elkaar bespreken en fictieve werelden met elkaar delen alsof ze t...

This handbook provides a critical state-of-the-art overview of work in linguistic typology. It examines the directions and challenges of current research and shows how these reflect and inform work on the development of linguistic theory. It describes what typologists have revealed about language in general and discovered (and continue to discover) about the richly various ways in which meaning and expression are achieved in the world's languages.

Typological research extends across all branc...

This book provides an introduction to compositional semantics and to the syntax/semantics interface. It is rooted within the tradition of model theoretic semantics, and develops an explicit fragment of both the syntax and semantics of a rich portion of English. Professor Jacobson adopts a Direct Compositionality approach, whereby the syntax builds the expressions while the semantics simultaneously assigns each a model-theoretic interpretation.

Alongside this approach, the author also presents...

This engagingly written textbook provides a unique ‘hands-on’ introduction to sociolinguistics, which equips readers with the tools to start their own sociolinguistic research project. The book begins by outlining the historical, theoretical and cultural space in which language use occurs, before delving into the key topics and concepts of today’s field. It examines the choices speakers make in everyday life and assesses language and status across the world, by investigating variation i...

Attitudes towards spoken, signed, and written language are of significant interest to researchers in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, communication studies, and social psychology. This is the first interdisciplinary guide to traditional and cutting-edge methods for the investigation of language attitudes. Written by experts in the field, it provides an introduction to attitude theory, helps readers choose an appropriate method, and guides through research planning and design, data colle...

An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory offers beginning students a comprehensive overview of and introduction to our current understanding of the rules and principles that govern the syntax of natural languages. Includes numerous pedagogical features such as 'practice' boxes and sidebars, designed to facilitate understanding of both the 'hows' and the 'whys' of sentence structure. Guides readers through syntactic and morphological structures in a progressive manner. Takes the myster...

Introduction to Pragmatics guides students through traditional and new approaches in the field, focusing particularly on phenomena at the elusive semantics/pragmatics boundary to explore the role of context in linguistic communication. Offers students an accessible introduction and an up-to-date survey of the field, encompassing both established and new approaches to pragmatics. Addresses the traditional range of topics - such as implicature, reference, presupposition, and speech acts - as we...

The Ruslan 2 course book (160 pages in full colour) continues the exciting Ruslan 1 story line with Ivan, Lyudmila, Peter and Vadim. There are 10 lessons with lively dialogues, clear grammar explanations, lots of reading, listening and writing exercises and language games for the classroom or for online training. Ruslan 2 takes you to a very good GCSE level, and is easily equivalent to the Council of Europe A2 standard.

Müssen oder dürfen auch Sie sich in Ihrem Studium mit germanistischer Linguistik beschäftigen? Ralf Methling bringt mit anschaulichen Beispielen und verständlichen Erklärungen Leben in diese scheinbar trockene Materie. Er macht Sie mit den Teilbereichen der Linguistik vertraut: mit der Semiotik, die sich mit Zeichen, der Phonetik und Phonologie, die sich mit Lauten, der Morphologie, die sich mit Wörtern, und der Syntax, die sich mit Satzbau beschäftigt. Auch die Semantik, die Lehre de...