Although what language users in different cultures say about their own language has long been recognized as of potential interest, its theoretical importance to the study of language has typically been thought to be no more than peripheral. Theorizing Language is the first book to place the reflexive character of language at the very centre both of its empirical study and of its theoretical explanation.Language can only be explained as a cultural product of the reflexive application of its own creative powers to construct, regulate, and give conceptual form to objects of understanding. Language is itself, first and foremost, an object of cultural understanding. Theoretical analyses of language which have neglected its reflexive character, or simply taken its effects for granted, merely impose their own artificial structures on their analytical object.The first part of this book discusses the consequences of neglecting this reflexive character for the technical concepts and methods which are used in analysing different types of communicational phenomena. In the second part, normativity - a crucial aspect of language's reflexive nature - is examined. The book's third and final part focuses on particular issues in the history of linguistic thought which bear witness to the rhetoric of language theorizing as a reflexive form of inquiry.

Theorizing Language: Analysis, Normativity, Rhetoric, History

Politics & Social Sciences

Taylor, Louise G T Cooley Professor of English and Linguistics Talbot J

Philosophy

BRILL

This collection of readings is complementary to Introduction to Integrational Linguistics (Language & Communication Library, Vol.17), but can be used independently. It brings together for the first time 24 key papers in integrational linguistics, and is intended to serve as a basic reading list for students and others making the first acquaintance with the subject. Originally published in sources that are for the most part out of print, these papers have been revised and updated by their authors where necessary. They are arranged in six sections: Language and Communication, Language and the Language Myth, Language and Meaning, Language and Discourse, Language and Writing, and Language and Society. An editorial introduction discusses the individual contributions and their relevance to integrationist theory.Also available in paperback.

Integrational Linguistics (Language & Communication Library)

Manoliu-Manea, Maria

Science & Math

Debates about the nature of literacy and literacy practices have been conducted extensively in the last fifteen years or so. The fact that both previous and current British governments have effectively suppressed any real debate makes the publication of this book both timely and important. Here, Urszula Clark stresses the underlying ideological character of such debates and shows that they have deep historical roots. She also makes the point that issues regarding the relationship between language and identity, especially national identity, become sharply focused at times of crisis in that identity. By undertaking a comparison with other major English-speaking countries, most notably Australia, New Zealand and the USA, Clark shows how these times of crisis reverberate around the globe.

War Words: Language, History and the Disciplining of English

Clark, Urszula

Social Sciences

It is now widely expected that scientific evidence and theory should be used to describe aphasia and aphasia therapy. This book provides review chapters on controversial research and clinical issues in aphasia and aphasia therapy.

The Sciences of Aphasia: From Therapy to Theory

Papathanasiou, Ilias

De Bleser, Ria

This fourth volume in the Studies in Pragmatics (SIP) series is a fittingly solid, well-illustrated and theoretical account of Mitigation (as a form of Politeness). The main goal of this book is to present a new integrated pragmatic approach to communication. The approach has been called pragmatics of identity. It's major feature is that it aims at integrating pragmatic views (research on politeness, face-work, etc.) with insights from different research fields into an extended framework where psychological aspects of communication in context also can be taken into account.

Mitigation (Studies in Pragmatics)

Caffi, Claudia

Digital media has become an increasingly powerful force in modern society. This volume brings together outstanding European, American and Australian research in "writing and digital media" and explores its cognitive, social and cultural implications. 
The book is divided into five sections, covering major areas of research: writing modes and writing environments (e.g. speech technology), writing and communication (e.g. hypervideos), digital tools for writing research (e.g. web analysis tools, keystroke logging and eye-tracking), writing in online educational environments (e.g. collaborative writing in L2), and social and philosophical aspects of writing and digital media (e.g. CMC, electronic literacy and the global digital divide). In addition to presenting programs of original research by internationally known scholars from a variety of disciplines, each chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art in the field and suggests directions for future research. 
This wide-ranging international volume presents the very best of current thinking in the field and will be indispensable to anyone doing or contemplating work in the area, both for established researchers as well as newcomers, including graduate students.

Writing and Digital Media (Studies in Writing)

Computer keystroke logging is an exciting development in writing research methodology that allows a document's evolution to be logged and then replayed as if the document were being written for the first time. Computer keystroke logged data allows analysis of the revisions and pauses made by authors during the writing of texts. Computer Keystroke Logging and Writing: Methods and Applications is the first book to successfully collect a group of leading computer keystroke logging researchers into a single volume and provide an invaluable introduction and overview of this dynamic area of research. This volume provides the reader unfamiliar with writing research an introduction to the field and it provides the reader unfamiliar with the technique a sound background in keystroke logging technology and an understanding of its potential in writing research.

Computer Key-Stroke Logging and Writing (Studies in Writing)

Computers & Technology

Networking & Cloud Computing

This volume presents articles by formal linguists on quantification in (relatively) understudied languages. The ten contributions provide analysis of quantificational phenomena in languages from nine different families: Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian, Na-Dene, Austronesian, Basque, Quechua, Otomanguean, Bantu, and Chadic. Approximately half of the papers present systematic overviews of quantificational phenomena in the respective languages; the remainder of the papers present theoretical analyses of specific quantificational constructions. The cross-linguistic focus of this volume enables standard theories of quantification to be challenged by languages other than those for which they were originally designed.This book will be of interest to semanticists and syntacticians working on quantification, to specialists in the languages discussed, and to semantic and syntactic fieldworkers.

Quantification: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective (North Holland Linguistic Series: Linguistic Variations)

Matthewson, Lisa

In the early 80s, largely due to Chomsky's Lectures on Government and Binding and ensuing research, a kind of encompassing theory of empty elements had emerged. This theory was largely concerned with silent subjects, silent pronominals, and various kinds of traces of movement. Since then, however, the picture has become more blurred. More types of empty elements were proposed, ellipsis phenomena began to receive some attention, and interface issues arose: are silent elements silent due to deletion (or failure to be spelled out) at the phonetic interface or are they independently existing items in the lexicon that simply fail to have a phonetic form? Furthermore, silent elements are also ubiquitous in phonology and similar questions arise: can syllables have empty nuclei, can segments fail to be pronounced when they are not properly attached to a slot in a (supra-) segmental structure? Sounds of Silence is an attempt to bring together a number of original contributions that all address such questions. And while a new encompassing theory is not yet in sight, this book helps pave the way. This book offers a study of "empty elements" in language use. The original contributions are from an international list of authors.

Sounds of Silence: Empty Elements in Syntax and Phonology (North Holland Linguistic Series: Linguistic Variations)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Hartmann, Jutta

Psychology & Counseling

Divided into three parts, the first of which provides a linguistic definition of professional documents, describing their different types and genres. This definition necessarily takes into account both the formal characteristics of these types of document (e.g. nature of linguistic units involved) and their functional goals (the way these linguistic units are used to fulfill the text's communicative aim). The second part focuses on the mental mechanisms involved in written production in the workplace. One of the aims of a professional writer is to compose a text which can be understood. Text composition involves specific processes and strategies that can be enhanced. One way of doing this is to give the writer suitable instructions, while another is to provide him/her with a suitable writing environment. This last aspect leads us to devote the third and final section to the comprehension of written documents in the workplace. Awareness of the strategies implemented by different readers (with more or less domain expertise) in order to understand technical and professional documents can enhance the latter's readability. *Contributions from linguists, psychologists and ergonomists from various countries ensure international scope and comprehensiveness*Bridges the gap between fundamental research into writing and reading and the issue of the efficiency of written communication in the workplace*Enables better content creation for professional writers

Written Documents in the Workplace (Studies in Writing)

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the BRILL publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by BRILL