"Le présent ouvrage a été préfiguré par la tenue, à L'Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot, d'un colloque co-organisé par le Centre Interlangues d'Études en lexicologie (Paris 7), le Centre d'histoire culturelle des société contemporaines (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines) et le laboratoire Métadif (Université de Cergy-Pointoise)."_Contracub.

What are place names? From where do they originate? How are they structured? What do they signify? How important are they in our life? This groundbreaking book explores these compelling questions and more by providing a thorough introduction to the assumptions, theories, terminology, and methods in toponymy and toponomastics – the studies of place names, or toponyms. It is the first comprehensive resource on the topic in a single volume, and explores the history and development of toponyms, focusing on the conceptual and methodological issues pertinent to the study of place names around the world. It presents a wide range of examples and case studies illustrating the structure, function, and importance of toponyms from ancient times to the present day. Wide ranging yet accessible, it is an indispensable source of knowledge for students and scholars in linguistics, toponymy and toponomastics, onomastics, etymology, and historical linguistics.

The Syntax of Vietnamese Tense, Aspect, and Negation investigates familiar grammatical phenomena including Tense, Aspect, and Negation in a theoretically under-studied language, Vietnamese. The purpose of this book is to thoroughly examine how these categories are realised and how they interact with one another in Vietnamese in the spirit of Generative Grammar, in particular, the Cartographic approach to syntax and its most recently developed lexicalisation technique, Nanosyntax. It is concluded that despite lacking inflectional tense, Vietnamese does have syntactic tense, i.e., Vietnamese has those structural positions which are dedicated to Tense and Aspect. In fact, Tense and Aspect in Vietnamese are realised via a rigid fine-grained functional sequence which syntacticises subtle semantic distinctions both preverbally and postverbally. There is a two-way complicated relationship between Negation and Aspect in Vietnamese, which can be explained in a principled way by taking into consideration how the internal syntax of the temporal, aspectual and negative markers derives their clausal syntax. This book also discusses how Vietnamese Tense, Aspect, and Negation pattern with, and differ from, their counterparts in Western Indo-European languages, and how this study contributes to a better understanding of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages more generally, as well as of language universally. This book will be of interest to both undergraduate and postgraduate students of contemporary linguistics, and for scholars interested in contemporary approaches to Vietnamese linguistics, and Southeast Asian languages more generally.

For millennia humans have used visible marks to communicate information. Modern examples of conventional graphical symbols include written language, and non-linguistic symbol systems such as mathematical symbology or traffic signs. The latter kinds of symbols convey information without reference to language.
This book presents the first systematic study of graphical symbol systems, including a history of graphical symbols from the Paleolithic onwards, a taxonomy of non-linguistic systems – systems that are not tied to spoken language – and a survey of more than 25 such systems. One important feature of many non-linguistic systems is that, as in written language, symbols may be combined into complex “messages” if the information the system represents is itself complex. To illustrate, the author presents an in-depth comparison of two systems that had very similar functions, but very different structure: European heraldry and Japanese kamon.
Writing first appeared in Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago and is believed to have evolved from a previous non-linguistic accounting system. The exact mechanism is unknown, but crucial was the discovery that symbols can represent the sounds of words, not just the meanings. The book presents a novel neurologically-inspired hypothesis that writing evolved in an institutional context in which symbols were “dictated”, thus driving an association between symbol and sound, and provides a computational simulation to support this hypothesis. The author further discusses some common fallacies about writing and non-linguistic systems, and how these relate to widely cited claims about statistical “evidence” for one or another system being writing. The book ends with some thoughts about the future of graphical symbol systems.
The intended audience includes students, researchers, lecturers, professionals and scientists from fields like Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Archaeology and Semiotics, as well as general readers interested in language and/or writing systems and symbol systems.

This dictionary describes Tocharian A, one of two Tocharian languages documented in manuscripts of Buddhist texts from the second half of the 1st millennium CE, excavated in the oases of the Tarim basin. The dictionary contains also a thesaurus, based on all the identified texts in Tocharian A, including previously published and unpublished texts from various collections (Paris, Berlin). All forms of words, including variants occurring in the texts, are listed separately with reference to all occurrences and a sample of passages in transcription and translation. The meaning of a number of words has been better defined and, when necessary, corrected against previous glossaries. Much focus has been laid on phraseology and literary parallels with other Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Uighur. The description of the verbal forms has been listed according to the stems of the paradigms. The sources of loanwords, e.g., from Tocharian B, Old and Middle Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Old Turkic, and Chinese, as well as the corresponding words in Tocharian B, are also given.

This dictionary aims to cover the whole lexicon of Tocharian A, one of the two Tocharian languages, which form a distinct branch in the Indo-European language family. These languages are documented in manuscripts found mostly in Buddhist monasteries located in the oases of the Tarim Basin, in Xinjiang, China, and dated in the second half of the 1st millennium CE. The dictionary contains a thesaurus based on all the identified texts in Tocharian A, published as well as unpublished, which are kept in various collections. It covers much more data than the dictionary published by Pavel Poucha in 1955, which was based on the Tocharian A manuscripts from the so-called Turfan collection (Berlin), edited by Emil Sieg and Wilhelm Siegling in 1921. The book includes a thorough revision of the Dictionary and Thesaurus of Tocharian A. Volume 1 (2009), which covered only the beginning of the lexicon (letters A to J). All forms of words, including variants, occurring in the texts are listed separately with reference to the occurrences and a sample of passages in transcription and translation. The meaning of a number of words has been better defined and corrected against previous glossaries. When possible, the lemmas include the corresponding items attested in Tocharian B. The references given for each lemma aim to retrieve the previous secondary literature. Many lemmas contain philological contributions pertaining to the interpretation of critical passages. Much focus has been laid on phraseology and literary parallels with other Buddhist texts from Central Asia. The sources of loanwords, from Tocharian B, Old and Middle Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Old Turkic, and Chinese, are given as much as they can be traced.

Information structure is a relatively new field to linguistics and has only recently been studied for smaller and less described languages. This book is the first of its kind that brings together contributions on information structure in Austronesian languages. Current approaches from formal semantics, discourse studies, and intonational phonology are brought together with language specific and cross-linguistic expertise of Austronesian languages. The 13 chapters in this volume cover all subgroups of the large Austronesian family, including Formosan, Central Malayo-Polynesian, South Halmahera-West New Guinea, and Oceanic. The major focus, though, lies on Western Malayo-Polynesian languages. Some chapters investigate two of the largest languages in the region (Tagalog and different varieties of Malay), others study information-structural phenomena in small, underdescribed languages. The three overarching topics that are covered in this book are NP marking and reference tracking devices, syntactic structures and information-structural categories, and the interaction of information structure and prosody. Various data types build the basis for the different studies compiled in this book. Some chapters investigate written texts, such as modern novels (cf. Djenar’s chapter on modern, standard Indonesian), or compare different text genres, such as, for example, oral narratives and translations of biblical narratives (cf. De Busser’s chapter on Bunun). Most contributions, however, study natural spoken speech and make use of spoken corpora which have been compiled by the authors themselves. The volume comprises a number of different methods and theoretical frameworks. Two chapters make use of the Question Under Discussion approach, developed in formal semantics (cf. the chapters by Latrouite & Riester; Shiohara & Riester). Riesberg et al. apply the recently developed method of Rapid Prosody Transcription (RPT) to investigate native speakers’ perception of prosodic prominences and boundaries in Papuan Malay. Other papers discuss theoretical consequences of their findings. Thus, for example, Himmelmann takes apart the most widespread framework for intonational phonology (ToBI) and argues that the analysis of Indonesian languages requires much simpler assumptions than the ones underlying the standard model. Arka & Sedeng ask the question how fine-grained information structure space should be conceptualized and modelled, e.g. in LFG. Schnell argues that elements that could be analysed as “topic” and “focus” categories, should better be described in terms of ‘packaging’ and do not necessarily reflect any pragmatic roles in the first place.

What is a language? What do scientific grammars tell us about the structure of individual languages and human language in general? What kind of science is linguistics? These and other questions are the subject of Ryan M. Nefdt's Language, Science, and Structure.

Linguistics presents a unique and challenging subject matter for the philosophy of science. As a special science, its formalisation and naturalisation inspired what many consider to be a scientific revolution in the study of mind and language. Yet radical internal theory change, multiple competing frameworks, and issues of modelling and realism have largely gone unaddressed in the field. Nefdt develops a structural realist perspective on the philosophy of linguistics which aims to confront the aforementioned topics in new ways while expanding the outlook toward new scientific connections and novel philosophical insights. On this view, languages are real patterns which emerge from complex biological systems. Nefdt's exploration of this novel view will be especially valuable to those working in formal and computational linguistics, cognitive science, and the philosophies of science, mathematics, and language.

Cette grammaire fournit dans une synchronie large, outre un aperçu phonologique, une description aussi complète que possible de la morphologie et de la syntaxe de l'ancien français, en prêtant attention aux diversités géographiques et stylistiques. Elle s'appuie sur des fondements théoriques prenant en compte les recherches récentes et débouche sur un aperçu typologique. Recourant à un vaste corpus d'exemples peuisés dans des œuvres et documents varié, elle se veut une grammaire de référence. De nombreux renvois dans le texte même, deux index - grammatical et terminologique - et une riche bibliographie facilitent et complètent sa consultation.

Assortie d'une double introduction, linguistique et littéraire, ainsi que d'un glossaire, cette nouvelle anthologie propose quelque cinquante textes, faisant chacun l'objet d'une rapide présentation et d'annotations grammaticales et lexicologiques. Prioritairement destinés aux étudiants de licence et de master ainsi qu'aux candidats aux concours de recrutement du professorat du second degré, les extraits mis à disposition du lecteur visent à lui fournir un panorama aussi fidèle que possible de la variété de la production médiévale, littéraire et non littéraire, depuis les premiers témoins jusqu'à la fin du Moyen Âge.

Peut-on être Français et parler une autre langue que le français ? Au XVIe siècle, la réponse est évidente : la vitalité, à l’oral, des langues de France (occitan, basque, breton, dialectes d’oïl, francoprovençal) fait partie de l’expérience quotidienne. C’est pourtant bien à ce moment-là que s’établit, dans l’espace culturel français, la hiérarchie qui prévaut encore de nos jours entre le français, langue haute comme le latin, et les langues locales, réputées basses. Cette répartition intervient moins sous l’effet de la fameuse ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539) qui impose de rédiger en français « et non autrement » tous les actes administratifs que selon des critères sociaux. Dès le milieu du siècle précédent, les élites abandonnent peu à peu leur langue locale et épousent la cause d’une langue qui est à la fois celle du roi, du droit et de la culture dominante. La réflexion qui s’engage au XVIe siècle autour de la norme du français est menée par les théoriciens de la langue (grammairiens, auteurs d’arts poétiques) et elle se trouve relayée par des praticiens de la littérature (Rabelais et ses épigones). Globalement, la tendance qui s’impose est celle de la dévalorisation des parlers de France et du refus de la variation.

Cette marginalisation de la différence linguistique se heurte à la réalité de terrain pour l’Église de la Contre-Réforme qui développe des stratégies différentes selon les régions, engagée au Pays basque, mitigée, voire hostile, ailleurs. Finalement, ce sont les poètes qui choisissent d’écrire dans ces langues, comme l’occitan, qui en assurent la défense la plus efficace, posant cependant la question de l’autonomie de cette production littéraire par rapport aux schémas dominants français.

本書は、戦前日本の帝国主義による領土拡大の影響からアジア・太平洋に広がった日本語の過去と現在を記述するものである。長年各地で調査研究を進めてきた著者陣による3部構成の論考であり、「残存する日本語」「接触言語」「日本語からの借用」の3つの側面を記述している。近年研究が進んだ同分野の研究の全体像を明らかにする1冊である。

執筆者:今村圭介、ダニエル・ロング、朝日祥之、甲斐ますみ、黄永熙、甲賀真広、合津美穂、真田信治、髙木丈也、張守祥、白暁萌、李舜炯

If you read a work by Cicero or Seneca and then open The Pilgrimage of Egeria, Augustine, or Gregory of Tours, you will soon notice that Late Latin authors quote authorities differently. They provide a perfect example of synthesising two potentially conflicting traditions – “classical” and “biblical”. This book examines how the system of direct discourse marking developed over the centuries. It focuses on selecting marking means, presents the dynamics of change and suggests factors that might have been at play. The author guides the reader on the path that goes from the Classical prevalence of inquit to the Late innovative mix of marking words including the very classical inquit, an increased use of dico, the newly recruited ait, and dicens, influenced by biblical translations. The book suggests that Late authors tried to make reading and understanding easier by putting quotative words before quotations and increasing the use of redundant combinations (e.g. “he answered saying”).

A Grammar of Meskwaki: This book is a grammar of Meskwaki, an Algonquian language spoken today in Tama County, Iowa. There are two factors that make Meskwaki of particular interest and importance. It is arguably the most archaic language of the Algonquian family in preserving the word shapes of the ancestral Algonquian language that is reconstructed as Proto-Algonquian by linguists. And it is documented by a very large collection of texts written by numerous native speakers more than a century ago that is kept in the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution. Meskwaki is a highly inflected language with extremely free word order. This grammar includes separate chapters on phonology (the sound system), grammatical categories, inflections, the derivation of stems, sentence structure, and some aspects of how sentences are connected to form longer utterances and narratives (discourse). The uses of the proximate and obviative third person categories are described and illustrated with numerous examples. The use of discontinuous compound words, phrases, and clauses is also described. Extensive reference is made throughout to the published and unpublished textual sources. An appendix lists and analyzes all the inflectional endings in the two long texts that have been published with interlinearized analysis, "The Autobiography of a Meskwaki Woman" and "The Owl Sacred Pack." Meskwaki is the heritage language of the Meskwaki Nation (the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa).

A comprehensive introduction to the linguistic fundamentals of modern Arabic, ideal for Arabic language learners as well as speakers interested in developing a richer understanding of language use and behavior Introduction to Arabic Linguistics presents a clear and engaging overview of the core linguistic aspects of modern Arabic, focusing on Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine Arabic. Designed to be welcoming for undergraduates without fluency in Arabic and for students with only limited familiarity with linguistics, this textbook covers all fundamental areas of Arabic linguistics. Detailed yet accessible chapters include comprehension and analysis questions, critical thinking exercises, application examples with authentic data, reading assignments, and classroom and homework projects. This valuable textbook is organized into three units which cover sounds and sound systems, word structure and meaning, and phrases and phrase structure. Author Youssef Haddad draws from both the Arabic grammatical tradition and recent linguistic research to provide students with a solid foundation in the linguistic features and structures of Arabic sounds, words, and phrases. Topics include phonological processes, derivational morphology, noun and verb phrases, sentence structure, structural ambiguity, and more. Discusses key topics in the formal study of Arabic linguistics, suitable for Arabic speakers and language learners Encourages students to investigate a dialect not covered in the book at different levels of linguistic analysis Answers many of the most common and relevant questions in the field of Arabic linguistics Includes a typological and historical overview of the Arabic language Offers an instructor’s website with additional exercises, practice questions, PowerPoint presentations, and answer keysIntroduction to Arabic Linguistics is the perfect textbook for undergraduates in modern language and linguistic courses and a valuable resource for graduate students in Arabic studies or linguistics programs.

A textbook exploring predictive modes of linguistic development and analysis.

During the last two decades, computational linguists, in concert with other researchers in AI, have turned to machine learning and statistical techniques to capture features of natural language and aspects of the learning process that are not easily accommodated in classical algebraic frameworks. These developments are producing a revolution in linguistics in which traditional symbolic systems are giving way to probabilistic and deep learning approaches. This collection features articles that provide background to these approaches, and their application in syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and dialogue modeling. Each chapter provides a self-contained introduction to the topic that it covers, making this volume accessible to graduate students and researchers in linguistics, NLP, AI, and cognitive science.