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English mediopassive constructions
This book provides the first empirical study of the history and spread of mediopassive constructions. It investigates the productivity of the pattern, the spread of the construction in Modern English, and looks into text type-specific preferences for the construction. On a more abstract level, it combines the corpus-based description of mediopassive constructions with cognitive linguistic models, drawing largely on notions such as ‘prototype’, ‘family resemblances’, ‘patch’ and ‘construction’. The theoretical modelling is largely based on data from real texts. These come from publicly available machine-readable corpora, text-databases and a single-register ‘corpus’ (American mail-order catalogues). The study combines the corpus-based approach with cognitive theories and is therefore of interest to both empirical and theoretical linguists.
Comparative Studies in Australian and New Zealand English
This anthology brings together fresh corpus-based research by international scholars. It contrasts southern and northern hemisphere usage on variable elements of morphology and syntax. The nineteen invited papers include topics such as irregular verb parts, pronouns, modal and quasimodal verbs, the perfect tense, the progressive aspect, and mandative subjunctives. Lexicogrammatical elements are discussed: light verbs (e.g. "have a look)," informal quantifiers (e.g. "heaps of)," "no"-collocations, concord with "government "and other group nouns, alternative verb complementation (as with "help, prevent)," zero complementizers and connective adverbs (e.g. "however)." Selected information-structuring devices are analyzed, e.g. "there is/are," "like" as a discourse marker, final "but "as a turn-taking device, and swearwords. Australian and New Zealand use of hypocoristics and changes in gendered expressions are also analyzed. The two varieties pattern together in some cases, in others they diverge: Australian English is usually more committed to colloquial variants in speech and writing. The book demonstrates linguistic endonormativity in these two southern hemisphere Englishes.
Re-assessing the Present Perfect
It is a well-known fact that the area of the present perfect has always been a hotly contested ground, but recent corpus analyses have shown that grammatical variation in this realm in English is far more pervasive than previously assumed. This volume is the first ever book-length treatment dedicated to corpus-based work on the present perfect. It offers fresh theoretical insights resting on a solid empirical footing and investigates central aspects of language contact and change, grammaticalization, typology, and dialect formation. It sheds light on this morphosyntactic area from different angles, as it comprises both diachronic and synchronic viewpoints. Contributions explore variation in ...
Educated Fiji English
This volume contains a comprehensive corpus-based study of prepositional constructions in written Fiji English. It explores the endo- and exonormative dynamics of norm-giving and norm-developing varieties and contributes to our understanding of structural nativization and variety formation in a multi-ethnic setting. The book provides an account of the sociolinguistic development of English in Fiji against the backdrop of the country's colonial and post-independence history, with special focus on the Indo-Fijian part of the population. Drawing on the written sections of the Indian, Great Britain, New Zealand and preliminary Fiji components of the International Corpus of English, quantitative and qualitative analyses of prepositional phenomena are conducted on the word level (frequency, semantic effects and stylistic variation), phrase level (productivity in verb-particle combinations), and pattern level (prepositions and -ing clauses). The book will be relevant to scholars interested in lexico-grammar, variety and corpus linguistics, and sociolinguistics in general.
Organisational Transformation and Scientific Change
The first part of this book deals with the transformation of universities as strategic organisational actors - in some cases creating them as such - while the second shows how governance and authority shifts are affecting the kinds of research goals being pursued by academics in different public science systems.
Grammatical Change in English World-Wide
The contributions to this volume apply and extend the techniques of corpus linguistics and diachronic linguistics to the challenge of describing and explaining grammatical change in varieties of English world-wide. The book is divided into two parts, with ten chapters on ‘Inner Circle’ varieties such as Australian, Canadian, and Irish English, and eight on ‘Outer Circle’ varieties such as Philippine, Indian, and Nigerian English. Contributors examine a range of topics including the progressive aspect, modal auxiliaries, do-support, verb morphology, and quotatives, using a wide variety of corpus resources. Overarching research questions addressed include the following: Do diachronic tendencies observed in a particular variety converge with, diverge from, or run in parallel with, those in the parent variety? What are the possible causes of changes observed (e.g. English teaching traditions, Americanisation, internal changes in registers)? This book will appeal to linguists, particularly those interested in grammatical description, corpus linguistics and World Englishes.
Language Studies
As a defining characteristic of what it means to be human, the use of language plays a central role in almost all human activity. Language functions as a cornerstone in the construction of our identity and in the relationships we build. It takes a central role in facilitating every enterprise we undertake, creates the thread which forms our own biographies, and enables us to play a part in the transmission and maintenance of our culture. This pervasive nature of language means that it may form the starting point for an investigation into virtually any aspect of social life. In recent years, this has led to a stretching of the boundaries of language studies, prompted by an intense cross-ferti...
English as a Contact Language
Recent developments in contact linguistics suggest considerable overlap of branches such as historical linguistics, variationist sociolinguistics, pidgin/creole linguistics, language acquisition, etc. This book highlights the complexity of contact-induced language change throughout the history of English by bringing together cutting-edge research from these fields. Special focus is on recent debates surrounding substratal influence in earlier forms of English (particularly Celtic influence in Old English), on language shift processes (the formation of Irish and overseas varieties) but also on dialects in contact, the contact origins of Standard English, the notion of new epicentres in World English, the role of children and adults in language change as well as transfer and language learning. With contributions from leading experts, the book offers fresh and exciting perspectives for research and is at the same time an up-to-date overview of the state of the art in the respective fields.
A Handbook of Varieties of English: Morphology and syntax
The Handbook is by far the most thorough reference work on phonology and the first-ever comprehensive overview of the morphology and syntax of varieties of English in the world. The Handbook consists of a two volume book accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM. The genuine speech samples and interactive maps of the CD-ROM not only supplement the printed articles by offering lively illustrations of the varieties of English around the world, but the material offered can also be used for linguistic research. The multimedia material is now also available online. Survey Articles The books feature descriptive survey articles that are authored by widely acclaimed specialists in the field and that cove...
