By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English by David Crystal

$16.00 NZD

Category: Travel | Reading Level: very good

A delightfully discursive, Bill Bryson-esque and personal journey through the groves and the thickets of the English language, by our foremost scholar of the history and structure of the English language. First published 2007. David Crystal has been described as a sort of 'latter day Dr Johnson', a populist linguist who has promoted the study of the English language in an academic and broadcasting career that has so far spanned 40 years and nearly 100 books. Now, in his first book for Harper Press, he has written an engaging travel book of more general appeal. Inspired by W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and by Bill Bryson's books, he has combined personal reflections, historical allusions and traveller observations to create a mesmerising (and entertaining) narrative account of his encounters with the English language and its speakers throughout the world - from Bangor to Bombay and from Stratford to San Francisco. By Hook or by Crook is an attempt to capture the exploratory, seductive, teasing, tantalising nature of language study. As such, it will appeal to the ever - growing market who like to be entertained as well as instructed. ...Show more

Structuralism & Semiotics by Terence Hawkes

$8.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Series: New Accents Ser. | Reading Level: very good

A Theory of Semiotics by Umberto Eco

$16.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Series: Critical Social Studies | Reading Level: very good

" . . . the greatest contribution to [semiotics] since the pioneering work of C. S. Peirce and Charles Morris." --Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism " . . . draws on philosophy, linguistics, sociology, anthropology and aesthetics and refers to a wide range of scholarship . . . raises many fascinati ng questions." --Language in Society " . . . a major contribution to the field of semiotic studies." --Robert Scholes, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism " . . . the most significant text on the subject published in the English language that I know of." --Arthur Asa Berger, Journal of Communication Eco's treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signs--communication and signification--and offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production. ...Show more

Optimality Theory by Rene Kager; S. R. Anderson (Contribution by); J. Bresnan (Contribution by); B. Comrie (Contribution by); W. Dressler (Contribution by); C. J. Ewen (Contribution by)

$15.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Series: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics Ser. | Reading Level: very good

This is an introduction to Optimality Theory, whose central idea is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. A surface form is optimal if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of constraints, taking into account their hierarchical ranking. Languages differ in the ranking of constraints; and any violations must be minimal. The book does not limit its empirical scope to phonological phenomena, but also contains chapters on the learnability of OT grammars; OT s implications for syntax; and other issues such as opacity. It also reviews in detail a selection of the considerable research output which OT has already produced. Exercises accompany chapters 1-7, and there are sections on further reading. Optimality Theory will be welcomed by any linguist with a basic knowledge of derivational Generative Phonology." ...Show more

Vowels and Consonants by Peter Ladefoged

$16.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Reading Level: very good

This popular and accessible introduction to phonetics is now available in a fully updated second edition. Peter Ladefoged describes how languages use a variety of different sounds, many of them quite unlike any that occur in well-known languages. Important topics covered in Vowels and Consonants includ e: * The main forces operating on the sounds of languages * The acoustic components of speech and speech synthesis * Computers and Text-To-Speech systems and speech recognition systems * Descriptions of the sounds of a wide variety of languages that are reproduced on the accompanying CD. This revised edition includes a new chapter on how we listen to speech and the greatly expanded CD now contains data on 100 languages to reinforce learning and bring the descriptions to life. ...Show more

Conversation Analysis - An Introduction by Jack Sidnell

$20.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Series: Language in Society Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Combining the main findings, methods and analytic techniques ofthis central approach to language and social interaction, alongwith real-life examples and step-by-step explanations,Conversation Analysis is the ideal student guide to thefield. Introduces the main findings, methods and analytic techniques of conversation analysis (CA) ? a growing interdisciplinaryfield exploring language and social interaction Provides an engaging historical overview of the field, alongwith detailed coverage of the key findings in each area of CA and aguide to current research Examines the way talk is composed, and how conversationstructures highlight aspects of human behavior Focuses on the most important domains of organization inconversation, including turn-taking, action sequencing, repair,stories, openings and closings, and the effect of context Includes real-life examples and step-by-step explanations,making it an ideal guide for students navigating this growingfield ...Show more

Pragmatics by Yan Huang

$25.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Series: Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Yan Huang's highly successful textbook on pragmatics - the study of language in use - has been fully revised and updated in this second edition. It includes a brand new chapter on reference, a major topic in both linguistics and the philosophy of language. Chapters have also been updated to include new material on upward and downward entailment, current debates about conversational implicature, impoliteness, emotional deixis, contextualism versus semantic minimalism,and the elimination of binding conditions.The book draws on data from English and a wide range of the world's languages, and shows how pragmatics is related to the study of semantics, syntax, and sociolinguistics and to such fields as the philosophy of language, linguistic anthropology, and artificial intelligence. Professor Huang includes exercises and essay topics at the end of each chapter, and offers guidance and suggested solutions at the end of the volume. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, this new edition willcontinue to be an ideal textbook for students of linguistics, and a valuable resource for scholars and students of language in philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and computer science. ...Show more

A Comparative Germanic Grammar by E. Prokosch

$20.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Series: William Dwight Whitney Linguistic series | Reading Level: very good

A History of the English Language by Elly van Gelderen

$15.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Reading Level: very good

THIS INFORMATION REFERS TO AN OLD EDITION. This exceptionally clear text focuses on internal changes in the English language. It outlines the history of English from pre-Old English times to the present. Not only does it present the traditional morphological descriptions of the various stages of the lan guage, it provides many example sentences, texts, and cartoons that are analyzed for the benefit of the student and which make this book ideal for class use. Some language-external topics are covered such as early printing and authorship debates. Tables and figures complement the material covered and exercises review the main points as well as ask further, more challenging, questions. Answers to the exercises are provided, as is a time line listing some of the external events, and some guidance on how to use the OED. Complementary web site information is provided throughout the book, and a companion web site accompanies the book.This book has a companion website: http: //dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.183.website ...Show more

Claiming Power in Doctor-Patient Talk by Nancy Ainsworth-Vaughn

$20.00 NZD

Category: Medicine | Series: Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Nancy Ainsworth-Vaughn studied stories, topic control, "true" questions, and rhetorical questions in 101 medical encounters in US private-practice settings. In exceptionally lucid and accessible style, Ainsworth-Vaughn explains how power was claimed by and co-constructed for both patients and doctors (p revious studies have focused upon doctors' power). The discourse varied along a continuum from interview-like talk to conversational talk. Six chapters are organized around data and include extended examples of actual talk in detailed transcription; four of these data-oriented chapters focus upon dynamic, moment-to-moment use of speech activities in emerging discourse, such as doctors' and patients' stories that co-constructed selves, and a patient's sexual rhetorical questions. Two more chapters offer non-statistical quantitative data on the frequency of questioning and sudden topic changes in relation to gender, diagnosis, and other factors. Contributing to discourse theory, Ainsworth-Vaughn significantly modifies previous definitions for topic transitions and rhetorical questions and discovers the role of storytelling in diagnosis. The final chapter provides implications for physicians and medical educators. ...Show more

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel Everett

$14.00 NZD

Category: Travel | Reading Level: very good

Daniel Everett took his family to convert the Pirahas (pronounced pee-da-HAN), a remote people of the Amazonian jungle whose language no outsider had yet been able to understand. They encountered malaria, snakes, jaguars, spiders, insects, and a plot to kill them as they slept. But Everett gradually gai ned entry to this curious culture, and gave up trying to Christianise it. Along the way he discovered a language which disproved the most established tenets of linguistics.Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahas, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers' startlingly original perceptions of the world. He describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Piraha language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won.Adventure, personal enlightenment and the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny and moving book. First published 2008. ...Show more

After Babel - Aspects of Language and Translation by George Steiner

$12.00 NZD

Category: Linguistics | Reading Level: gvery ood

"A brilliant work . . . A dazzling meditation on the very nature of language itself" from the world-renowned scholar and author of The Poetry of Thought (Kirkus Reviews). In his classic work, literary critic and scholar George Steiner tackles what he considers the Babel "problem" Why, over the course of history, have humans developed thousands of different languages when the social, material, and economic advantages of a single tongue are obvious? Steiner argues that different cultures' desires for privacy and exclusivity led to each developing its own language. Translation, he believes, is at the very heart of human communication, and thus at the heart of human nature. From our everyday perception of the world around us, to creativity and the uninhibited imagination, to the often inexplicable poignancy of poetry, we are constantly translating--even from our native language. ...Show more