Advanced Language Construction

The sequel to the Language Construction Kit: learn more about constructed languages and about linguistics: logic, pidgins and creoles, sign languages, the linguistic life cycle, and a meaty step-by-step survey of morphosyntax. Create detailed and plausible languages for RPGs, fantasy and science fiction, movies, or video games... or just learn more about how languages work with the same accurate yet fun approach as the original LCK.

A guide to creating realistic languages for RPGs, fantasy and science fiction, movies or video games, or international communication... or just an unusual way to learn about how languages work.

Construction Grammar explains how knowledge of language is organized in speakers' minds. The central and radical claim of Construction Grammar is that linguistic knowledge can be fully described as knowledge of constructions, which are defined as symbolic units that connect a linguistic form with meaning.

How can insights from Construction Grammar (CxG) be applied to foreign language learning (FLL) and foreign language teaching (FLT)? This volume explores several aspects of Pedagogical Construction Grammar, with a specific look at issues relevant to second language acquisition, FLL, and FLT. The contributions in this volume discuss a wide range of constructions, as well as different resources, methodologies, and data used to learn constructions in the language classroom. More specifically, they seek to provide answers to the following questions: What do new constructional approaches to teaching and learning foreign language look like that take the insights of CxG seriously? What should electronic resources using constructions and semantic frames for foreign language instruction look like? How should constructions (pairings of form with meaning/function) in the foreign language classroom be introduced? What role does frequency play in learning constructions in the language classroom? What types of strategies does CxG offer to facilitate the acquisition of a second language? This volume is relevant for anyone interested in second language acquisition, foreign language pedagogy, Construction Grammar, and Cognitive Linguistics. Endorsements: If first language learning flows forth from language use, teaching language should be based on relevant usage-patterns, modified in accordance with the advanced cognitive and linguistic knowledge of older learners. The current volume shows how insights from first and second language learning and usage-based Construction Grammar can be turned into evidence-based teaching strategies. Heike Behrens, University of Basel Usage-based Construction Grammar has changed our view of language learning, but it is only recently that researchers have begun to apply the insights of the constructionist approach to language pedagogy. This volume brings together a collection of articles in which experts of Construction Grammar and Usage-based Linguistics make concrete proposals for teaching constructions by using corpora and other resources. A must read for everybody interested in grammar teaching. Holger Diessel, University of Jena With Directions for Pedagogical Construction Grammar, Boas has produced an impressive and much-needed volume which excels at illustrating the immense potential of constructionist approaches to improve language pedagogy. The contributions to this volume, all authored by leading cognitive and corpus linguists, convincingly describe what a successful future of language teaching could look like—one that is founded in usage-based linguistics and takes language patterns seriously. I consider this volume essential reading for any applied linguist. Ute Römer, Georgia State University

Advanced Construction Technology offers a comprehensive, practical, illustrative guide to many aspects of construction practice used for industrial and commercial buildings.

Is construction grammar a useful framework for the study of language change? Hilpert combines the current linguistic theory of construction grammar with advanced corpus-based methodology in order to study language change in a new way. This new perspective has wide-ranging consequences for the way historical linguists think about language change.

Advanced language learning has only recently begun to capture the interest and attention of applied linguists and professionals in language education in the United States. In this breakthrough volume, experts in the field lay the groundwork for approaching the increasingly important role of advanced language learning in the larger context of multilingual societies, globalization, and security. This volume presents both general and theoretical insights and language-specific considerations in college classrooms spanning a range of languages, from the commonly taught languages of English, French, and German to the less commonly taught Farsi, Korean, Norwegian, and Russian. Among theoretical frameworks likely to be conducive to imagining and fostering instructed "advancedness" in a second language, this volume highlights a cognitive-semantic approach. The theoretical and data-based findings make clear that advanced learners in particular are characterized by the capacity to make situated choices from across the entire language system, from vocabulary and grammar to discourse features, which suggests the need for a text-oriented, meaning-driven approach to language teaching, learning, and research. This volume also considers whether and how information structuring in second-language composition reveals first-language preferences of grammaticized concepts. Other topics include curricular and instructional approaches to narrativity, vocabulary expansion, the demands on instructed programs for efficiency and effectiveness in order to assure advanced levels, and learners' ability to function in professional contexts with their diverse oral and written genre requirements. Finally, the volume probes the role and nature of assessment as a measurement tool for both researching and assessing advanced language learning and as an essential component of improving programs.