Case studies provide detailed comparisons, arranged alphabetically by title for ease of reference, of 26 problems in Modern English grammar, from both the old grammar (OG) and new grammar (NG) viewpoints. This A-Z approach juxtaposes contributions made by OG and NG to the description of Modern English grammar. Part I surveys large OG and NG…

Linguistics is the empirical study of language; linguistic philosophy is an approach to understanding the underlying nature of the phenomena that linguists study. The discussion here of linguistic philosophy is designed for linguists, but presupposes no prior acquaintance with either the philosophy of language or linguistic theory. It is concerned…

Learnability theory is an attempt to illuminate the concept of learnability using a mathematical model of learning. Two models of learning of categorial grammars are examined here: the standard model, in which sentences presented to the learner are flat strings of words, and one in which sentences are presented in the form of functor-argument…

A survey of the history of linguistic theory concerning grammar in the United States traces the development of theory since 1910. It begins with a general historical review of American linguistics. The subsequent three chapters focus on grammar. The first of these deals with morphology, beginning with Leonard Bloomfield's ideas in both his early…

The introduction to systemic functional linguistics explores the social semiotic approach to language most closely associated with the work of Michael Halliday and his colleagues. An approach that views language as a strategic, meaning-making resource, systemic linguistics focuses on the analysis of authentic, everyday texts and asks both how…

This book unites speech act theory and conversation analysis to advance a theory of conversational competence, called the Dynamic Speech Act Theory (DSAT). In contrast to traditional speech act theory that focuses almost exclusively on intuitive assessments of isolated, constructed examples, this theory is predicated on the assumption that speech…

This treatise on the theoretical and historical foundations of distinctive feature theory traces the evolution of the distinctive features concept in the context of related notions current in linguistic theory, discusses the evolution of individual distinctive features, and criticizes certain acoustic and perceptual correlates attributed to these…

This brief survey of the field of psycholinguistics is intended for both students and anyone interested in language. It contains a summary overview of the main features of this area of language study: scope and principles of inquiry; basic concerns; and key concepts. Chapter topics include: language acquisition (first words, the birth of grammar,…

This volume is one in a series of studies in linguistics that is intended to supplement the "International Review of Applied Linguistics." Discourse analysis, or looking at language as text in context, is presented in the first chapter. This is correlated with what is known about the differences between languages in a second chapter on contrastive…

The book is an introduction to the field of contrastive rhetoric, an area of research in second language learning that identifies learners' problems in composition and attempts to explain them by referring to the rhetorical strategies of the first language. It traces the history of contrastive approaches to the study of second language writing and…

An approach to reading instruction based on a socio-psycholinguistic theory of the language learning process is presented in this book. Chapter 1 provides an overview of oral and written language development; identifies language processes, language systems, and cultural setting; and describes a socio-psycholinguistic model of language learning and…

A major synthesis of the latest research on early language acquisition, this book explores what gives infants the remarkable capacity to progress from babbling to meaningful sentences, and what inclines a child to speak. The book examines the neurological, perceptual, social, and linguistic aspects of language acquisition in young children, from…

The fact that some people learn a second language more easily than others has prompted numerous studies designed to link one factor or another with successful language learning. This work examines a large number of these studies to assess the importance of various factors involved in language learning. The influencing factors suggested are grouped…

The revised second edition of a 1976 book explores the literature of research on memory, creation of meaning in language learning, and second language teaching methodology, incorporating results of recent work in those areas. Each of the 12 chapters begins with a series of questions to be addressed and ends with further questions. Chapter topics…

Discussion of speech instruction in bilingual education for deaf children refutes the assumption that speech is acquired automatically by hearing children and examines a program in which deaf children are taught alongside hearing children. The first part looks at how speech functions and how children acquire it: including the nature of the…