The Nature Of The Word

A collection of essays on the word by colleagues, students, and teachers of linguist Paul Kiparsky that reflects his distinctive focus and his influence on the field. Paul Kiparsky's work in linguistics has been wide-ranging and fundamental. His contributions as a scholar and teacher have transformed virtually every subfield of contemporary linguistics, from generative phonology to poetic theory. This collection of essays on the word--the fundamental entity of language--by Kiparsky's colleagues, students, and teachers reflects the distinctive focus of his own attention and his influence in the field. As the editors of the volume observe, Kiparsky approaches words much as a botanist approaches plants, fascinated equally by their beauty, their structure, and their evolution. The essays in this volume reflect these multiple perspectives. The contributors discuss phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics bearing on the formal composition of the word; historical linguistic developments emphasizing the word's simultaneous idiosyncratic character and participation in a system; and metrical and poetic forms showing the significance of Kiparsky's ideas for literary theory. Collectively they develop the overarching idea that the nature of the word is not directly observable but nonetheless inferable. Contributors Stephen R. Anderson, Arto Anttila, Juliette Blevins, Geert Booij, Young-mee Yu Cho, Cleo Condoravdi, B. Elan Dresher, Andrew Garrett, Carlos Gussenhoven, Morris Halle, Kristin Hanson, Bruce Hayes, Larry M. Hyman, Sharon Inkelas, S. D. Joshi, René Kager, Ellen Kaisse, Aditi Lahiri, K. P. Mohanan, Tara Mohanan, Cemil Orhan Orgun, Christopher Piñón, William J. Poser, Douglas Pulleyblank, J. A. F. Roodbergen, Háj Ross, Patricia Shaw, Galen Sibanda, Donca Steriade, John Stonham, Stephen Wechsler, Dieter Wunderlich, Draga Zec

The theme of Nature Word is the intelligence of the heart, the innate, functional consciousness, or way of thinking, that is in harmony with nature and able to understand life and living things.

The universal and typological status of the notion of word class — closely related to part-of-speech systems, morphology, syntax and the lexicon-syntax interface — continues to be of major linguistic theoretical interest. The papers included in this volume offer a fresh look at the variety of current theoretical and descriptive approaches to word class issues, and present original analyses and new data from a number of languages. The primary focus is on methods (including computational ones) and criteria for identifying and representing major word classes and subclasses in specific languages, with considerable attention also directed towards the characterization of the nature and role of minor — or neglected — word classes, including trans-categorization processes. The range of topics and perspectives covered makes this volume of considerable interest to both theoretical linguists and typologists.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2016 Landmarks is Robert Macfarlane's joyous meditation on words, landscape and the relationship between the two. Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature, and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to describe land, nature and weather. Travelling from Cumbria to the Cairngorms, and exploring the landscapes of Roger Deakin, J. A. Baker, Nan Shepherd and others, Robert Macfarlane shows that language, well used, is a keen way of knowing landscape, and a vital means of coming to love it. Praise for Robert Macfarlane: 'He has a poet's eye and a prose style that will make many a novelist burn with envy' John Banville, Observer "I'll read anything Macfarlane writes" David Mitchell, Independent 'Every movement needs stars. In [Macfarlane] we surely have one, burning brighter with each book.' Telegraph '[Macfarlane] is a godfather of a cultural moment' Sunday Times