The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.
This book marks a new development in the field of second language acquisition research. It explores the way in which language processing mechanisms shape the course of language development. Language Processing and Second Language Development thus adds one major psychological component to the search for a theory of second language acquisition. The core of the book is Pienemann’s Processability Theory which spells out which second language forms are processable at which developmental stage. The theory is based on recent research into language processing and is formalised within Lexical-Functional Grammar.
Remember the third-grade teacher you learned never to hang prepositions from? Well, it turns out that some are now acceptable while others are not, and Takami, in a revised version of his 1990 doctoral dissertation for Tokyo Metropolitan University, explains some of the linguistic theories for which is which, and why. He considers preposition stranding in verb and noun phrases, pseudo- passives, tough-movement, the violin-sonata paradox, displaced prepositions, and analogies in Danish and Swedish. Among the linguists he reviews are Chomsky, Tuyn, Cureton, and Fodor. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This study investigates the way in which the speaker's attitude to what is said is implicitly coded in grammar. Using a wealth of material from earlier stages of English as well as present-day English, the author sheds new light on a set of six grammatical constructions, a subset of which belongs to the most important and most widely investigated grammatical phenomena. culture-specific and universal factors.
This work is essentially based on grammaticalization theory a branch of linguistics which has gained prominence since the 1980s. It focuses on the interaction between diachrony and synchrony, langue and parole or, for that matter, competence and performance, I language and ? language. It does not see these levels as distinct linguistic domains, as much structurally oriented work does. It is important for the present purposes that such an interactionist view entails that performance effects may over time cause new grammatical code relations. Hence the importance of statistical empirical research, which led the author to adopt a predominantly corpus-based approach."
