The volume brings together a selection of papers from a symposium on Conditionality held in the University of Duisburg on 25-26 March 1994. Ten years after the Stanford symposium, the Proceedings of which were edited by Traugott et al. (1986), the area of conditionality is revisited in a synthesis of issues and aspects with insights drawn from the wider framework of general processes of conceptualisation. One major question is therefore what conceptual categories fall under conditionality or how far the notion of conditionality can be extended. The volume represents the up-to-date research on most aspects of conditionality some of which include the relationship between conditionality, hypotheticality and counterfactuality, polarity, historical perspectives, concessives, the acquisition of conditionals.

The book examines conditionals in the Greek Pentateuch from the point of view of the study of translation syntax. It takes seriously into account the double character of Septuagintal Greek, both as a translation from Hebrew and as vernacular Greek. Methodologically, the underlying Hebrew is taken as the point of departure in close comparison with the resultant translation, with the purpose of examining major features in the translators? handling of this complex construction. These include the rendering of verbal and non-verbal forms in the protasis and apodosis, the question of sense-division between the two constituent clauses, the influence of genre or discourse type and interference from the underlying form or structure. Detailed analyses of the resultant translation displays features that are natural Greek, on the one hand, and features that betray the character of "translation-language", on the other hand, owing to interference from the source text. The latter manifests itself most conspicuously in renderings that are ungrammatical or unnatural, and, in a more subtle way, through equivalents which are grammatically acceptable but occur with a strikingly high frequency in the Septuagint as compared with original Greek compositions contemporary with the Septuagint.

Conditionals encode speculation. They convey how events could have been different in the past or present, or might be different in the future if particular conditions had been or will be met. While all languages afford the means to speculate or hypothesize about possible events, the ways in which they do so vary. This work explores some of this variation through an analysis of the stucture and semantics of complex conditional sentences in Russian and Macedonian. It addresses typological questions about the general properties of natural language conditionals and examines the role of the grammatical categories tense, aspect, mood and status in the coding of conditional meaning. The book also discusses the relationship between the use of these categories and the shape of a language's conditional system. For example, the use of tense in counterfactual contexts in Macedonian correlates with the grammaticalization of more shades of conditional meaning than are grammaticalized in Russian, which does not employ tense forms in this way. The study draws on data from a rich variety of sources and thus includes kinds of conditionals overlooked in many other studies. The book addresses issues of concern to Slavists and raises questions for those interested in conditionals and the coding of hypothetical meaning.

The application of philosophy to language study, and language study to philosophy, has experienced demonstrable intellectual growth and diversification in recent decades. Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics comprehensively analyzes and evaluates many of the most interesting facets of this vibrant field. An edited collection of articles taken from the award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, this volume acts as a single-stop desk reference resource for the field, comprising contributions from the foremost scholars of philosophy of linguistics in their various interdisciplinary specializations. From Plato's Cratylus to Semantic and Epistemic Holism, this fascinating work authoritatively unpacks the diverse and multi-layered concepts of meaning, expression, identity, truth, and countless other themes and subjects straddling the linguistic-philosophical meridian, in 175 articles and over 900 pages. - Authoritative review of this dynamic field placed in an interdisciplinary context - Approximately 175 articles by leaders in the field - Compact and affordable single-volume format

Gain a deeper understanding of essential research on the semantics of noun phrases and verb phrases. Clear explanations of significant recent research bring complex issues to life, with expert guidance on topics of debate within the field. The book gives readers valuable insights into topics such as definiteness, specificity, genericity aspect, aktionsart and mood. It also discusses directions for future research. Written by a world-class team of authors, these highly cited articles are here in paperback for the first time since their original publication. An essential reference for researchers in the area.

Many SLA professionals remain unaware of what CL and Applied Cognitive Linguistics are and of the tremendous potential these approaches offer for our understanding of L2 learning and pedagogy. The volume addresses this gap by presenting theoretically-grounded, empirically-based studies which illustrate the application of key concepts of CL and demonstrate the efficacy of using the concepts in the classroom or in basic L2 research.

This handbook provides a comprehensive and thorough survey of our current insights into the diversity and unity found across the 6000 languages of this planet. The 125 articles include inter alia chapters on the patterns and limits of variation manifested by analogous structures, constructions and linguistic devices across languages (e.g. word order, tense and aspect, inflection, color terms and syllable structure). Other chapters cover the history, methodology and the theory of typology, as well as the relationship between language typology and other disciplines. The authors of the individual sections and chapters are for the most part internationally known experts on the relevant topics. The vast majority of the articles are written in English, some in French or German. The handbook is not only intended for the expert in the fields of typology and language universals, but for all of those interested in linguistics. It is specifically addressed to all those who specialize in individual languages, providing basic orientation for their analysis and placing each language within the space of what is possible and common in the languages of the world.

Counterfactual thinking is a universal cognitive process in which reality is compared to an imagined view of what might have been. This type of reasoning is at the center of daily operations, as decision-making, risk preventability or blame assignment. More generally, non-factual scenarios have been defined as a crucial ingredient of desire and modern love. If the areas covered by this reasoning are so varied, the L2 learner will be led to express 'what might have been' at some point of her acquisitional itinerary. How is this reasoning expressed in French, Spanish and Italian? By the use of what lexical, syntactic and grammatical devices? Will the learner combine these devices as the native French speakers do? What are the L1 features likely to fossilize in the L2 grammar? What are the information principles governing a communicative task based on the production of counterfactual scenarios? These are some of the questions addressed by the present volume.

The purpose of this book is to explore the overlapping area of study that discourse linguists and cognitive linguists are interested in. In doing so, the volume contributes to bridging the gap between these two large groups of linguists who share an interest in discourse processing but approach the area from very different perspectives and frames of reference. The starting point of this volume is text and discourse. The book includes an overview section and a number of carefully selected contributions which highlight central issues in the study of text and discourse attempting to give them cognitive explanations. In responding to the current interest in the area of discourse and cognition, the volume has adopted a wide scope which allows its individual chapters to focus on textual and situational contexts as well as the context of culture and society at large. The volume also provides its readership with a useful selection of methods used in the studies which form the basis of its chapters. The contributions, all by established linguists with highest qualifications, present new findings which have important theoretical implications. They offer unique and fresh analyses of central discourse phenomena in cognitive light and revealing discussions of the avenues opened to us at this stage of the development of the study of discourse and cognition. This accessible research volume will be essential reading for scholars and advanced students of linguistics and languages.