Foreign Language Guide

In sign languages of the deaf, now recognized as fully legitimate human languages, some signs can meaningfully point toward things or can be meaningfully placed in the space ahead of the signer. This book focuses on American Sign Language to examine the grammatical and conceptual purposes served by these signs.

This new edition of the Modern French Grammar: A Practical Guide is an innovative reference guide to French, combining traditional and function-based grammar in a single volume.

Features the structure of the French language, including new information on register, pronunciation, gender, number, foreign words, adjectives and past participles used as nouns, texting, word order, frequency of occurrence of words, and usage with all geographical names.

A concise introduction to French grammar, designed specifically for English-speaking undergraduates. Illustrating each grammatical point with examples from everyday life, it explains the fundamentals in simple terms, contains a range of exercises, and has a clear, user-friendly indexing system. The perfect accompaniment to any first or second year undergraduate course.

A Student Grammar of Spanish is a concise introduction to Spanish grammar, designed for English-speaking undergraduates. Assuming no prior knowledge of grammatical terminology, it explains each aspect of Spanish grammar in clear and simple terms, provides a wealth of glossed examples to illustrate them, and helps students to put their learning into practice through a range of fun and engaging exercises.""Clearly organized into thirty units, each covering a different aspect of the grammar, the book functions as both an essential reference guide and a comprehensive wordbook. Individual topics can be looked up via a user-friendly cross-referencing system, and concise definitions are provided in a useful glossary of grammatical terms. The exercises, which include paired and group activities, are suitable for both classroom use and self-study. Each unit is split into two levels, basic and intermediate, making this grammar the perfect accompaniment to any first-or second-year undergraduate course."--Jacket

A clear and jargon-free student reference guide to the grammar of German.

List of Illustrations -- "I asked the falcon on my forearm" -- Horizontal iconicity -- Substitutive depiction -- Iconic brain #1 -- Iconic brain #2 -- Metaphorical brain -- LIKE -- FILE CABINET simile -- TRAIN simile -- ASL "cartoon" simile segment -- THREE-O'CLOCK -- COFFEE -- PRESIDENT -- DRIVE -- Cumulative metaphtonymy -- Spatialization mapping -- KNOWLEDGEABLE -- KNOWLEDGE-STORE -- Spatial orientations -- IDEAS ARE OBJECTS TO BE MANIPULATED -- Manipulation of thoughts -- Metaphorical and literal classifiers -- IDEAS ARE OBJECTS TO BE GRASPED -- "Pool-ideas-into-book."

IDEAS ARE OBJECTS TO BE CAREFULLY DISCRIMINATED/ SELECTED -- Discriminating and selecting series -- IDEAS IN EXISTENCE ARE STRAIGHT -- Mappings -- IDEA-DISAPPEAR-PERMANENT -- THINK-PENETRATE -- "Plural-thoughts-stream-from-head" -- PUZZLED -- *INVENT -- IDEAS ARE OBJECTS -- A frozen sign -- Prototype GIVE1 -- Handshape variations used in the giving frame -- GIVE2 -- LSF money-related signs -- GIVE2-concede -- Social constraint = Physical constraint -- Involuntary social unity = Involuntary physical connectedness -- Negative social unit = Negative physical unit.

Conventional and unconventional RELEASE -- Acknowledgments -- List of Typographical Treatments -- Introduction -- What Is a Metaphor? -- Removing the Shroud of Iconicity -- An Ethnographic Approach to Signed Language Data Collection -- Reviewing the Tropes in American Sign Language -- Metaphorical Mapping in American Sign Language -- Crossing a Metaphorical Ocean -- Two Dogs and a Metaphorical Chain -- References -- Index.

DVD contents -- Preface to the fifth edition -- Introduction -- pt. 1: Introduction. Defining language -- Defining linguistics -- pt. 2: Phonology. Signs have parts -- The Stokoe system -- The concept of sequentiality in the description of signs -- The Liddell and Johnson Movement-Hold Model -- Phonological processes -- Summary -- pt. 3: Morphology. Building new signs -- Deriving nouns from verbs -- Compounds -- Fingerspelling -- Numeral incorporation -- part 4: Syntax. Introduction -- Basic sentence types -- Lexical categories -- Word order -- Time and aspect -- Verbs -- The function of space -- pt. 5: Semantics. The meaning of individual signs -- The meaning of sentences -- pt. 6: Language in use. Variation and historical change -- ASL discourse -- Bilingualism and language contact -- Language as art -- pt. 7: Supplemental readings. Analyzing signs / Robbin Battison -- File 1.1: Why study language? -- File 1.2: Course objectives -- File 1.3: "Good" language file -- 1.4: Arbitrariness in language -- Signs have parts : a simple idea / Robbin Battison -- Introduction to A dictionary of American Sign Language / William C. Stokoe, Dorothy C. Casterline, and Carl G. Croneberg -- File 3.1: What is phonetics? -- File 3.2: Representing speech sounds -- File 4.1: What is phonology? -- File 4.2: The value of sounds : phonemes -- File 4.3: Phonological rules -- American Sign Language : the phonological base / Scott K. Liddell and Robert E. Johnson -- File 5.1: Morphology : words and word formation -- File 5.3: The hierarchical structure of derived words -- File 5.4: Morphological processes -- The confluence of space and language in signed languages / Karen Emmorey -- Indicating verbs and pronouns : pointing away from agreement / Scott K. Liddell -- Body partitioning and real-space blends / Paul G. Dudis -- Syntax : the analysis of sentence structure / Edward Finegan and Niko Besnier -- Syntax : the analysis of sentence structure / William O'Grady -- Semantics : the analysis of meaning / William O'Grady -- File 10.1: Introduction to language variation -- File 10.2: Variation at different levels of linguistic structure -- File 10.3: Language and socioeconomic status -- Analyzing variation in sign languages : theoretical and methodological issues / Rob Hoopes, Mary Rose, Robert Bayley, Ceil Lucas, Alyssa Wulf, Karen Petronio, and Steven Collins -- Variation in American Sign Language / Ceil Lucas and Robert Bayley -- Variation : basic concepts / Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, and Clayton Valli -- Discourse analysis / Melanie Metzger and Ben Bahan -- Language contact in the American Deaf community / Ceil Lucas and Clayton Valli.

What is the role of meaning in linguistic theory? Generative linguists have severely limited the influence of meaning, claiming that language is not affected by other cognitive processes and that semantics does not influence linguistic form. Conversely, cognitivist and functionalist linguists believe that meaning pervades and motivates all levels of linguistic structure. This dispute can now be resolved conclusively by evidence from signed languages. Signed languages are full of iconic linguistic items: words, inflections, and even syntactic constructions with structural similarities between their physical form and their referents' form. Iconic items can have concrete meanings and also abstract meanings through conceptual metaphors. Language from the Body rebuts the generativist linguistic theories which separate form and meaning and asserts that iconicity can only be described in a cognitivist framework where meaning can influence form.

With the rise of Spanish language media around the world, no reference work is available that provides an overview of the field or its emerging issues. The Handbook of Spanish Language Media is intended to fill that need. The goal is to establish a Handbook that will become the definitive source for scholars interested in this emerging field of study; not only to provide background knowledge of the various issues and topics relevant to Spanish Language media, but also to establish directions for future research in this rapidly growing area.

"The Spanish Language Today describes the varied and changing Spanish language in the world today." "The Spanish Language Today contains numerous extracts from contemporary texts, a glossary of technical linguistic terms and selected translations. It is suitable for those engaged with the modern Spanish language, from beginning students with no prior linguistic knowledge to researchers."--Jacket

This linguistic exploration delves into the language as it is spoken by the Hispanic population of New Mexico and southern Colorado.