Jeffrey P. Williams – författare

This volume investigates the methods and techniques used to investigate expressivity, a term used to describe linguistic phenomena that serve an expressive function and deliver sensory information about an event, entity, or other culturally-determined category through a set of grammatical resources. The study of expressivity has gradually grown in stature over the last decade in particular; while there are much earlier accounts of expressivity, particularly within descriptive traditions of African, East Asian, and European linguistics, modern linguistic theory has been rather slow to incorporate information regarding these forms and processes into contemporary dialogue. In many earlier grammars, discussion of expressive elements such as ideophones and mimetics was relegated to footnotes at best. This is no longer the case in modern linguistic documentation and description, necessitating new fieldwork methods and analytical tools. The chapters in this book represent a new stage in the history of the study of expressivity: they explore a variety of different expressive items from a wide range of languages, focusing on the question of how to 'capture' expressivity in language and culture.

Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia explores the intricacies of the grammars of several of the languages of the South Asian subcontinent. Specifically, the contributors to this volume examine grammatical resources for shaping elaborative, rhyming, and alliterative expressions, conveying the emotions, states, conditions and perceptions of speakers. These forms, often referred to expressives, remain relatively undocumented, until now.It is clear from the evidence on contextualized language use that the grammatically artistic usage of these forms enriches and enlivens both every day and ritualized genres of discourse. The contributors to this volume provide grammatical and sociolinguistic documentation through a typological introduction to the diversity of expressive forms in the languages of South Asia.This book is suitable for students and researchers in South Asian Languages, and language families of the following; Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Sino-Tibetan and Austro-Asiatic.

This is the first ever volume to compile sociolinguistic and historical information on lesser-known, and relatively ignored, native varieties of English around the world. Exploring areas as diverse as the Pacific, South America, the South Atlantic and West Africa, it shows how these varieties are as much part of the big picture as major varieties and that their analysis is essential for addressing some truly important issues in linguistic theory, such as dialect obsolescence and death, language birth, dialect typology and genetic classification, patterns of diffusion and transplantation and contact-induced language change. It also shows how close interwoven fields such as social history, contact linguistics and variationist sociolinguistics are in accounting for their formation and maintenance, providing a thorough description of the lesser-known varieties of English and their relevance for language spread and change.

This is the first ever volume to compile sociolinguistic and historical information on lesser-known, and relatively ignored, native varieties of English around the world. Exploring areas as diverse as the Pacific, South America, the South Atlantic and West Africa, it shows how these varieties are as much part of the big picture as major varieties and that their analysis is essential for addressing some truly important issues in linguistic theory, such as dialect obsolescence and death, language birth, dialect typology and genetic classification, patterns of diffusion and transplantation and contact-induced language change. It also shows how close interwoven fields such as social history, contact linguistics and variationist sociolinguistics are in accounting for their formation and maintenance, providing a thorough description of the lesser-known varieties of English and their relevance for language spread and change.

The languages of mainland Southeast Asia evidence an impressive array of elaborate grammatical resources, such as echo words, phonaesthetic words, chameleon affixes, chiming derivatives, onomatopoeic forms, ideophones and expressives. Speakers of these languages fashion grammatical works of art in order to express and convey emotions, senses, conditions and perceptions that enrich discourse. This book provides a detailed comparative overview of the mechanisms by which aesthetic qualities of speech operate as part of speakers' grammatical knowledge. Each chapter focuses on a different language and explores the grammatical information of a number of well- and lesser-known languages from mainland Southeast Asia. It will be of great interest to syntacticians, morphologists, linguistic anthropologists, language typologists, cognitive scientists interested in language, and instructors of Southeast Asian languages.

This volume follows on from The Lesser-Known Varieties of English (Cambridge, 2010), by documenting a further range of varieties that have been overlooked and understudied. It explores varieties spoken by small groups of people in remote regions as diverse as Malta, Bermuda, the Netherlands Antilles, Brazil, the Cook Islands, and Palau. The varieties explored are as much a part of the big picture as major varieties and it is the intention of this collection to spark further interest in the sociolinguistic documentation of minority Englishes in a postcolonial world. Language endangerment is a very real factor for the vast majority of lesser-known varieties of English, and this book aims to highlight that documentation and archiving are key initial steps in revitalization and reclamation efforts. This book will be of interest to historians of English, and scholars in dialectology, language birth and death, language contact, typology, and variation and change.

This volume follows on from The Lesser-Known Varieties of English (Cambridge, 2010), by documenting a further range of varieties that have been overlooked and understudied. It explores varieties spoken by small groups of people in remote regions as diverse as Malta, Bermuda, the Netherlands Antilles, Brazil, the Cook Islands, and Palau. The varieties explored are as much a part of the big picture as major varieties and it is the intention of this collection to spark further interest in the sociolinguistic documentation of minority Englishes in a postcolonial world. Language endangerment is a very real factor for the vast majority of lesser-known varieties of English, and this book aims to highlight that documentation and archiving are key initial steps in revitalization and reclamation efforts. This book will be of interest to historians of English, and scholars in dialectology, language birth and death, language contact, typology, and variation and change.

The languages of mainland Southeast Asia evidence an impressive array of elaborate grammatical resources, such as echo words, phonaesthetic words, chameleon affixes, chiming derivatives, onomatopoeic forms, ideophones and expressives. Speakers of these languages fashion grammatical works of art in order to express and convey emotions, senses, conditions and perceptions that enrich discourse. This book provides a detailed comparative overview of the mechanisms by which aesthetic qualities of speech operate as part of speakers' grammatical knowledge. Each chapter focuses on a different language and explores the grammatical information of a number of well- and lesser-known languages from mainland Southeast Asia. It will be of great interest to syntacticians, morphologists, linguistic anthropologists, language typologists, cognitive scientists interested in language, and instructors of Southeast Asian languages.

There is an emerging perspective in the discipline of linguistics that takes expressivity as one of the key components of human communication and grammatical structure. Expressivity refers to the use of grammar in natural languages to convey sensory information in a creative way, for example through reduplication, iconicity, ideophones and onomatopoeia. Expressives are more commonly associated with non-European languages, so their presence in European languages has so far been under-documented. With contributions from a team of leading scholars, this pioneering book redresses that balance by providing copious, detailed information about the expressive systems of a set of European languages. It comprises a collection of original surveys of expressivity in languages as diverse as Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish, Scots, German, Greek, Italian, Catalan, Breton and Basque, all with the common goal of challenging structuralist assumptions about the role of syntax, and showing how expressivity is both typologically diverse and universal.