Books From University Presses

This book considers how and why forms and meanings of different languages at different times may resemble one another. Its editors and authors aim to explain and identify the relationship between areal diffusion and the genetic development of languages, and to discover the means of distinguishing what may cause one language to share the characteristics of another.

If language puzzles you, especially how context shapes understanding and learning, this collection is an academic treasure trove. It offers a multitude of perspectives, diving into speech communities, personal interactions, and linguistic nuances, all under the scrutinizing lens of top scholars in fields from linguistics to psycholinguistics. For anyone intrigued by the intricate dance between language and context, this volume not only enlightens but also challenges the reader to think deeply about how we interpret and use language.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of linguistics available. Written by Peter Matthews, Professor of Linguistics at Cambridge University, the book provides concise and informative entries across the whole field of linguistics. With entries ranging from epiglottal and morpheme to Austronesian and Navajo, this dictionary is an ideal reference for students and anyone with an interest in language and its study. • Over 3,000 entries from phonetics to formal semantics• Grammatical terms in English and grammatical categories in other languages• World-wide coverage of language families and major languages• The theory of language and language history• Important figures and ideas in linguistics • Directory of symbols included for quick and easy reference

The papers in this volume represent the views of a range of experts in a variety of language-related disciplines on the role which context plays in language learning and language understanding. The authors provide various theoretical constructs which help impose order on the apparent chaos of contextual factors which may have an influence on the production and comprehension of speech events. They focus on a variety of types of context, including the context established by different speech communities, interpersonal contexts, the classroom context, and the context provided by the linguistic code itself. The papers illustrate how the treatment of context varies across the disciplines of linguistics, historical stylistics, applied linguistics, and psycholinguistics. Each paper is prefaced by an editorial introduction to help the reader trace out common themes and points of conflict.