Frequency Of Use And The Organization Of Language

This volume collects three decades of articles by distinguish linguist Joan Bybee. Her articles essentially argue for the importance of frequency of use as a factor in the analysis and explanation of language structure. Her work has been very influential for a broad range of researchers in linguistics, particularly in discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, phonology, phonetics, and historical linguistics.

Language demonstrates structure while also showing considerable variation at all levels: languages differ from one another while still being shaped by the same principles; utterances within a language differ from one another while exhibiting the same structural patterns; languages change over time, but in fairly regular ways. This book focuses on the dynamic processes that create languages and give them their structure and variance. It outlines a theory of language that addresses the nature of grammar, taking into account its variance and gradience, and seeks explanation in terms of the recurrent processes that operate in language use. The evidence is based on the study of large corpora of spoken and written language, what we know about how languages change, as well as the results of experiments with language users. The result is an integrated theory of language use and language change which has implications for cognitive processing and language evolution.

Provides a dynamic network model of grammar that explains how linguistic structure is shaped by language use.

This volume features nine articles, covering various aspects of Maltese linguistics: Part I, mostly dedicated to the Maltese lexicon, opens with Bednarowicz’s comparison of Maltese and Arabic adjectives. Fabri then categorizes various types of constructions involving the preposition ta’ ‘of’. The paper by Lucas and Spagnol discusses Maltese words containing an innovative final /n/. Part II deals with the syntax of Maltese: Azzopardi’s paper focuses on a construction in Maltese which consists of a sequence of two or more finite verbs. Just and Čéplö present the first corpus based study of differential object indexing in Maltese. In Part III on morphosyntax, Turek analyzes Arabic prepositions in Classical/Modern Standard Arabic and Arabic dialects and contrasts them with their Maltese equivalents. Stolz and Vorholt then analyze the structural and functional similarities and differences of spatial interrogatives in Maltese and Spanish. Vorholt then investigates the adpositions of sixteen European languages including Maltese and examines the relationship between length and frequency. The volume is closed with Part IV on phonology and Avram’s paper, in which the diachrony of voicing assimilation in consonant clusters is reconstructed.

Implicit learning is a fundamental feature of human cognition. Many essential skills, including language comprehension and production, intuitive decision making, and social interaction, are largely dependent on implicit (unconscious) knowledge. Given its relevance, it is not surprising that the study of implicit learning plays a central role in the cognitive sciences. The present volume brings together eminent researchers from a variety of fields (e.g., cognitive psychology, linguistics, education, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology) in order to assess the progress made in the study of implicit and explicit learning, to critically evaluate key concepts and methodologies, and to determine future directions to take in this interdisciplinary enterprise. The eighteen chapters in this volume are written in an accessible and engaging fashion; together, they provide the reader with a comprehensive snapshot of the exciting current work on the implicit and explicit learning of languages.

The Bloomsbury Companion to Cognitive Linguistics is a comprehensive and accessible reference resource to research in contemporary cognitive linguistics. Written by leading figures in the field, the volume provides readers with an authoritative overview of methods and current research topics and future directions. The volume covers all the most important issues, concepts, movements and approaches in the field. It devotes space to looking specifically at the major figures and their contributions. It is a complete resource for postgraduate students and researchers working within cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics and those interested more generally in language and cognition.

This book puts cognition back at the heart of the language learning process and challenges the idea that language acquisition can be meaningfully understood as a purely linguistic phenomenon. For each domain placed under the spotlight - memory, attention, inhibition, categorisation, analogy and social cognition - the book examines how they shape the development of sounds, words and grammar. The unfolding cognitive and social world of the child interacts with, constrains, and predicts language use at its deepest levels. The conclusion is that language is special, not because it is an encapsulated module separate from the rest of cognition, but because of the forms it can take rather than the parts it is made of, and because it could be nature’s finest example of cognitive recycling and reuse.

The last decade has seen a rise in popularity in construction-based approaches to grammar. The various approaches within the rubric 'construction grammar' all see language as a network of constructions-pairings of form and meaning. Construction Grammar, as a kind of cognitive linguistics, differs significantly from mainstream generative grammar as espoused by Chomsky and his followers. Advocates of Construction Grammar see it as a psychologically plausible theory of human language. As such, it is capable of providing a principled account of language acquisition, language variation and language change. Research in Construction Grammar also includes multidisciplinary cognitive studies in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics. The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar is the first authoritative reference work solely dedicated to Construction Grammar. Divided into five sections, the book will be an invaluable resource that students and scholars alike can turn to for a comprehensive account of current work on Construction Grammar, its theoretical foundations, and its applications to and relationship with other kinds of linguistic enquiry.