Language In Use

Language in Use creatively brings together, for the first time, perspectives from cognitive linguistics, language acquisition, discourse analysis, and linguistic anthropology. The physical distance between nations and continents, and the boundaries between different theories and subfields within linguistics have made it difficult to recognize the possibilities of how research from each of these fields can challenge, inform, and enrich the others. This book aims to make those boundaries more transparent and encourages more collaborative research. The unifying theme is studying how language is used in context and explores how language is shaped by the nature of human cognition and social-cultural activity. Language in Use examines language processing and first language learning and illuminates the insights that discourse and usage-based models provide in issues of second language learning. Using a diverse array of methodologies, it examines how speakers employ various discourse-level resources to structure interaction and create meaning. Finally, it addresses issues of language use and creation of social identity. Unique in approach and wide-ranging in application, the contributions in this volume place emphasis on the analysis of actual discourse and the insights that analyses of such data bring to language learning as well as how language shapes and reflects social identity—making it an invaluable addition to the library of anyone interested in cutting-edge linguistics.

Introducing Language in Use is a comprehensive coursebook for students new to the study of language and linguistics. Written by a highly experienced team of teachers, this coursebook is lively and accessible, interactive and above all produced with students firmly in mind. Drawing on a vast range of data and examples of language in its many forms, the book provides students with the tools they need to analyse real language in diverse contexts. Designed to be highly adaptable for course use, the authors suggest a range of different routes through the book. Introducing Language in Use: covers all the core areas and topics of language study: language, semiotics and communication, grammar, phonetics, words, semantics, variety in language, history of English, world Englishes, multilingualism, psycholinguistics, child language acquisition, conversation analysis, pragmatics, power and politeness, language in education has chapters contributed by John Field and Sushie Dobbinson, expanding the range of expertise adopts a 'how to' approach, encouraging students to apply their knowledge as they learn it presents many examples, drawn from varied domains (including conversation, advertising and text messaging), always giving precedence to real language in use includes activities throughout the text with commentaries, summaries, suggestions for further reading and an extensive glossary of terms features a final unit which offers students further practice in analysing language in use is supported by a companion website, offering extra resources for students and instructors This will be an essential coursebook for all introductory courses in English language, language and communication and linguistics.

The ten volumes of Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While the other volumes select specific philosophical, cognitive, grammatical, cultural, variational, interactional, or discursive angles, this seventh volume underlines the mutually constitutive relation between society and language use. It highlights a number of the most prominent approaches of this relation and it draws attention to a selected number of topics that the study of language in its social context has characteristically brought to bear. Despite their theoretical and methodological differences, each of the chapters in this book assumes that it is necessary to look at society and language use as interdependent phenomena, and that by attending to microscopic linguistic phenomena one is also keeping a finger on the pulse of broader, macroscopic social tendencies that at the same time facilitate and constrain language use. The introduction provides a sketch of the intellectual antecedents of the volume’s two ‘mother disciplines’, viz., linguistics and social theory before pointing at recent common ground in the rising attention for discourse and what has come to be called ‘late-modernity’.

When we think of the ways we use language, we think of face-to-face conversations, telephone conversations, reading and writing, and even talking to oneself. These are arenas of language use—theaters of action in which people do things with language. But what exactly are they doing with language? What are their goals and intentions? By what processes do they achieve these goals? In these twelve essays, Herbert H. Clark and his colleagues discuss the collective nature of language—the ways in which people coordinate with each other to determine the meaning of what they say. According to Clark, in order for one person to understand another, there must be a "common ground" of knowledge between them. He shows how people infer this "common ground" from their past conversations, their immediate surroundings, and their shared cultural background. Clark also discusses the means by which speakers design their utterances for particular audiences and coordinate their use of language with other participants in a language arena. He argues that language use in conversation is a collaborative process, where speaker and listener work together to establish that the listener understands the speaker's meaning. Since people often use words to mean something quite different from the dictionary definitions of those words, Clark offers a realistic perspective on how speakers and listeners coordinate on the meanings of words. This collection presents outstanding examples of Clark's pioneering work on the pragmatics of language use and it will interest psychologists, linguists, computer scientists, and philosophers.

Designed for introductory students, this collection of key readings in language and linguistics will take readers beyond their introductory textbook and introduce them to the thoughts and writings of many esteemed authorities. The reader includes seminal papers, new or controversial pieces to stimulate discussion and reports on applied work. Language in Use: is split into four parts – ‘Language and Interaction’, ‘Language Systems’, ‘Language and Society’ and ‘Language and Mind’ covers all the topics of language study including conversation analysis, pragmatics, power and politeness, semantics, grammar, phonetics, multilingualism, child language acquisition and psycholinguistics has readings from authorities including Pinker, Fairclough, Crystal, Le Page and Tabouret-Keller, Hughes, Trudgill and Watt, Halliday, Sacks, Mills, Obler and Gjerlow provides comprehensive editorial support for each reading with introductions, activities or discussion points to follow and further reading Is supported by a companion website, offering extra resources for students including additional activities, useful weblinks and advice from the authors Designed for use as a companion to Introducing Language in Use (Routledge, 2005), but also highly usable as a stand-alone text, this Reader will introduce readers to the wide world of linguistics and applied linguistics.

The ten volumes of "Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights" focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While other volumes select philosophical, cognitive, grammatical, social, variational, interactional, or discursive angles, this second volume reviews basic topics and traditions that place language use in its cultural context. As emphasized in the introduction, and as revealed in the choice of articles, culture is by no means to be seen as standing in opposition to society and cognition; on the contrary, the notion cannot be understood without insight into the intricate interactions of social and cognitive structures and processes. In addition to the topical articles, a number of contributions to this volume is devoted to aspects of methodology. Others highlight the role of eminent scholars who have made the study of cultural dimensions of language use into what it is today."

This book presents a view of human language as social interaction, illustrating its implications for language learning and second language teaching. // The volume advocates for researchers, practitioners, and administrators to rethink and reconceptualize an understanding of language beyond that of the written word to one encompassing social and interactional activity built on co-construction, collaboration, and negotiation. The book emphasizes the ways in which this view of language can shed light on the language learning process as one which draws on discrete linguistic units and constructions in conjunction with a range of temporal, sequential, and embodied resources across a variety of social contexts. In turn, these insights prompt further reflection and discussion on their implications for advancing second language teaching practice. // This book will be key reading for scholars interested in second language teaching research, as well as active second language teachers and language program administrators.