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Language and Linguistics > Linguistics
Autonomy and Creativity
Kingsley Bolton
The dominant view of many linguists and educators has been that Hong Kong English is a variety of the language that is derived from, and dependent on, the metropolitan norm of British English.
Sex, Race, and Faith in a College Town
Chaise LaDousa
It's no secret that fun is important to American college students, but it is unusual for scholars to pay attention to how undergraduates represent and reflect on their partying. Linguist and anthropologist Chaise LaDousa explores the visual manifestations of collegiate fun in a Midwestern college town where house signs on off-campus student residences are a focal point of college culture. With names like Boot 'N Rally, The Plantation, and Crib of the Rib, house signs reproduce consequential categories of gender, sexuality, race, and faith in a medium students say is benign. Through his analysis of house signs and what students say about them, LaDousa introduces the reader to key concepts and approaches in cultural analysis.
Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Adaptation
Murray J. Leaf
In the 1930s, George Herbert Mead and other leading social scientists established the modern empirical analysis of social interaction and communication, enabling theories of cognitive development, language acquisition, interaction, government, law and legal processes, and the social construction of the self. However, they could not provide a comparably empirical analysis of human organization. _x000B__x000B_The theory in this book fills in the missing analysis of organizations and specifies more precisely the pragmatic analysis of communication with an adaptation of information theory to ordinary unmediated communications. The study also provides the theoretical basis for understanding the success of pragmatically grounded public policies, from the New Deal through the postwar reconstruction of Europe and Japan to the ongoing development of the European Union, in contrast to the persistent failure of positivistic and Marxist policies and programs.
Nationalizing Language in Modern Japan
Lee Yeounsuk and translated by Maki Hirano Hubbard
Available for the first time in English, The Ideology of Kokugo: Nationalizing Language in Modern Japan (1996) is Lee Yeounsuk’s award-winning look at the history and ideology behind the construction of kokugo (national language). Prior to the Meiji Period (1868–1912), the idea of a single, unified Japanese language did not exist. Only as Japan was establishing itself as a modern nation-state and an empire with expanding colonies did there arise the need for a national language to construct and sustain its national identity.
Re-examining debates and controversies over genbun itchi (unification of written and spoken languages) and other language reform movements, Lee discusses the contributions of Ueda Kazutoshi (1867–1937) and Hoshina Koichi (1872–1955) in the creation of kokugo and moves us one step closer to understanding how the ideology of kokugo cast a spell over linguistic identity in modern Japan. She examines the notion of the unshakable homogeneity of the Japanese language—a belief born of the political climate of early-twentieth-century Japan and its colonization of other East Asian countries—urging us to pay attention to the linguistic consciousness that underlies "scientific" scholarship and language policies. Her critical discussion of the construction of kokugo uncovers a strain of cultural nationalism that has been long nurtured in Japan’s education system and academic traditions. The ideology of kokugo, argues Lee, must be recognized both as an academic apparatus and a political concept
The Ideology of Kokugo was the first work to explore Japan’s linguistic consciousness at the dawn of its modernization. It will therefore be of interest to not only linguists, but also historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and scholars in the fields of education and cultural studies.
Conditions, Processes, and Knowledge in SLA and Bilingualism
Cristina Sanz and Ronald P. Leow, Editors
Over the last several decades, neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, and psycholinguists have investigated the implicit and explicit continuum in language development and use from theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives. This book addresses these perspectives in an effort to build connections among them and to draw pedagogical implications when possible.
The volume includes an examination of the psychological and neurological processes of implicit and explicit learning, what aspects of language learning can be affected by explicit learning, and the effects of bilingualism on the mental processing of language. Rigorous empirical research investigations probe specific aspects of acquiring morphosyntax and phonology, including early input, production, feedback, age, and study abroad. A final section explores the rich insights provided into language processing by bilingualism, including such major areas as aging, third language acquisition, and language separation.
A Study of Pronominal Agreement
Chris Collins and Paul M. Postal
A study of pronominal agreement with imposters, third person DPs (this reporter, yours truly, my lord, Madam) that denote the speaker or addressee.
Written by William A. Read and revised edition by James B. McMillan
"What is the 'meaning' of names like Coosa and Tallapoosa? Who named the Alabama and Tombigbee and Tennessee rivers? How are Cheaha and Conecuh and Talladega pronounced? How did Opelika and Tuscaloosa get their names? Questions like these, which are asked by laymen as well as by historians, geographers, and students of the English language, can be answered only by study of the origins and history of the Indian names that dot the map of Alabama.—from the Foreword
Originally published by Professor Read in 1937, this volume was revised, updated, and annotated in 1984 by James B. McMillan and remains the single best compedium on the topic.
Rachel Locker McKee and Jeffrey E. Davis, Editors
Nineteen international interpreting authorities contribute their research and findings to Interpreting in Multilingual, Multicultural Contexts, the seventh volume in the Studies in Interpretation series. These experts probe the complex nature of interpreted interaction involving Deaf and hearing people of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. They also analyze the contextualized interpreting practices and considerations that transpire from this diversity.
In three parts, this trenchant collection shows how Deaf and hearing people use language in fluctuating ways to connect with each other. The chapters in Part 1C Expanding Frontiers: ASL-English-Spanish Interpreting in the United States C consider sign language interpreting at the border between Baja California and the state; trilingual video relay service (VRS) interpreting; and constructing a valid, reliable trilingual interpreting testing instrument. Part 2 C Mediating Indigenous Voices C explores how to construct roles in a Mori Deaf trilingual context; considerations for interpreting signed languages of American Indian Communities; and interpreting for indigenous Deaf clients in far north Queensland, Australia.
In the final section, Part 3 C Globalizing: Interpreting in International Contexts C protocols for interpreting in multilingual international conferences are analyzed. The last chapter describes the arduousness of sign language interpreting in multilingual, international settings. It acts as a fitting conclusion to this examination of the challenges to the sociolinguistic repertoire of interpreters mediating across multiplex combinations of culture and language.
Politeness in American Sign Language
Jack Hoza
The general stereotype regarding interaction between American Sign Language and English is a model of oversimplification: ASL signers are direct and English speakers are indirect. Jack Hoza’s study It’s Not What You Sign, It’s How You Sign It: Politeness in American Sign Language upends this common impression through an in-depth comparison of the communication styles between these two language communities. Hoza investigates relevant social variables in specific contexts and explores the particular linguistic strategies ASL signers and English speakers employ when they interact in these contexts.
It’s Not What You Sign, It’s How You Sign It is framed within politeness theory, an apt model to determine various interpretations of what speakers or signers mean in respect to the form of that which they say or sign. The variations reveal how linguistic and cultural differences intersect in ways that are often misinterpreted or overlooked in cross-c+AP23ultural communication. To clarify these cross-linguistic differences, this volume explores two primary types of politeness and the linguistic strategies used by English speakers and ASL signers to express politeness concerns in face-to-face interaction. Hoza’s final analysis leads to a better understanding of the rich complexity of the linguistic choices of these language groups.
Language and Culture Contact
James Stanlaw
This book gives an in-depth analysis of the use of the English language in modern Japan. It explores the many ramifications the Japanese-English language and culture contact situation has for not only Japanese themselves, but also others in the international community.