Unity And Diversity Of Languages

The Permanent International Committee of Linguists (Comité International Permanent des Linguistes, CIPL) has organized the 18th Congress of Linguists in Seoul (July 21-26, 2008), in close collaboration with the Linguistic Society of Korea. In this book one finds the invited talks which address hot topics in various subdisciplines presented by outstanding and internationally well known experts. In addition, the state-of-the-art papers provide an overview of the most important research areas of contemporary linguistics.

An overview of the major grammatical categories and constructions in the world's languages, Introduction to Typologyprovides a thorough and comprehensive coverage of typology in the areas of morphology and syntax, while underscoring the similarities and differences that underlie the vast array of human languages. Pedagogically sound, this introductory text includes a glossary and highlights and defines each new term as it appears. Each chapter concludes with a summary of new terminology and concepts as well as a list of additional, related readings. Introduction to Typology assumes neither prior knowledge of typology nor extensive background in linguistics, making it useful as a primary or supplementary text for a variety of courses, particularly those dealing with grammatical structure and linguistic universals.

Unlike other multi-ethnic nations, such as Myanmar and India, where official language policy has sparked bloody clashes, Thailand has maintained relative stability despite its eighty languages. In this study of the relations among politics, geography, and language, William A. Smalley shows how Thailand has maintained national unity through an elaborate social and linguistic hierarchy. Smalley contends that because the people of Thailand perceive their social hierarchy as the normal order, Standard Thai, spoken by members of the higher levels of society, prevails as the uncontested national language. By examining the hierarchy of Thailand's diverse languages and dialects in light of Thai history, education, culture, and religion, Smalley shows how Thailand has been able to keep its many ethnic groups at peace. Linguistic Diversity and National Unity explores the intricate relationship between language and power and the ways in which social and linguistic rank can be used to perpetuate order.

Unlike other multi-ethnic nations, such as Myanmar and India, where official language policy has sparked bloody clashes, Thailand has maintained relative stability despite its eighty languages. In this study of the relations among politics, geography, and language, William A. Smalley shows how Thailand has maintained national unity through an elaborate social and linguistic hierarchy. Smalley contends that because the people of Thailand perceive their social hierarchy as the normal order, Standard Thai, spoken by members of the higher levels of society, prevails as the uncontested national language. By examining the hierarchy of Thailand's diverse languages and dialects in light of Thai history, education, culture, and religion, Smalley shows how Thailand has been able to keep its many ethnic groups at peace. Linguistic Diversity and National Unity explores the intricate relationship between language and power and the ways in which social and linguistic rank can be used to perpetuate order.

The central focus of each chapter is language policy and how it accomplishes-or fails to accomplish-the task of maintaining national unity in the face of linguistic diversity. Included among the nations considered are examples of postcolonial cultures, as well as nations that have sheltered linguistic minorities within their borders throughout their history, countries fragmented into tribal groups, and those divided by a plethora of local dialects.

The papers in this collection, drawn from the 34th Annual Conference of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, reflect a number of different perspectives within the field of applied linguistics at the start of the twenty-first century. While addressing the theme of unity and diversity, each paper prompts critical reflection on tensions within the discipline between stability and change, consensus and controversy, similarity and variation. The interpretation of language use is broad and varied, taking both macro- and micro-perspectives. Topics addressed range from issues of global communication in a world of shifting demographies and technological advances to analyses of specific contexts of interaction, both professional and personal. Contexts of language use frequently coincide with settings of language acquisition, both within and beyond the language classroom, and this opens up discussion of the focus, scope and appropriateness of research stances in applied linguistics and practices in language pedagogy. Futhermore, variation is considered from a number of social-cultural, gender-related, linguistic and discourse perspectives, calling into question terminology, definitions and the nature of evidence at the heart of applied linguistic theory and practice.

The aim of this book is to bring together research on telephone conversations in different languages, to compare and contrast people's methods of handling telephone conversational tasks indifferent communities, and to explore the relationship between telephone conversational practice and cultural settings.

The volume contains a selection of papers originally presented at the symposium on “Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios” held on 12-14 March 2015 at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. The papers, written by leading scholars combining expertise in historical linguistics and grammaticalization research, study variation in grammaticalization scenarios in a variety of language families (Slavic, Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Bantu, Mande, "Khoisan", Siouan, and Mayan). The volume stands out in the vast literature on grammaticalization by focusing on variation in grammaticalization scenarios and areal patterns in grammaticalization. Apart from documenting new grammaticalization paths, the volume makes a methodological contribution as it addresses an important question of how to reconcile universal outcomes of grammaticalization processes with the fact that the input to these processes is language-specific and construction-specific.