LINGUIST List 9.1238

Tue Sep 8 1998

Books: Lang acq, Ling anthropology

Editor for this issue: Helen Dry <hdryemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. linguistlist.org, Universal grammar, Ling anthropology

LANG ACQUISITION (Universal Grammar)

Investigations in Universal Grammar: 
A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics

Stephen Crain and Rosalind Thornton

This introductory guide to language acquisition research is presented
within the framework of Universal Grammar, a theory of the human
faculty for language. The authors focus on two experimental techniques
for assessing children's linguistic competence: the Elicited Production
task, a production task, and the Truth Value Judgment task, a
comprehension task. Their methodologies are designed to overcome the
numerous obstacles to empirical investigation of children's language
competence. They produce research results that are more reproducible
and less likely to be dismissed as an artifact of improper experimental
procedure.

In the first section of the book, the authors examine the fundamental
assumptions that guide research in this area; they present both a
theory of linguistic competence and a model of language processing. In
the following two sections, they discuss in detail their two
experimental techniques.

Stephen Crain is Professor of Linguistics and Rosalind Thornton is
Assistant Professor of Linguistics, both at the University of Maryland
at College Park.

Language, Speech, and Communication series
A Bradford Book
May 1998
$55.00 cloth
7 x 10, 368 pp., 46 illus.
ISBN 0-262-03250-3

For more information please visit 
http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/CRAIHS98



LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Linguistic Anthropology 

Alessandro Duranti (U. of California, Los Angeles)

ISBN: 0-521-44536-1; Hardback, 6 X 9, 420 pp.; Pub. Date: 8/30/97;
PUBLISHER:Cambridge University Press; $64.95;

Alessandro Duranti introduces linguistic anthropology as an
interdisciplinary field that studies language as a cultural resource
and speaking as a cultural practice. The theories and methods of
linguistic anthropology are introduced through a discussion of
linguistic diversity, grammar in use, the role of speaking in social
interaction, the organization and meaning of conversational
structures, and the notion of participation as a unit of
analysis. 

Linguistic Anthropology will appeal to undergraduate and
graduate students.

Contents: 1. The scope of linguistic anthropology; 2. Theories of
culture; 3. Linguistic diversity; 4. Ethnographic methods;
5. Transcription: from writing to digitized images; 6. Meaning in
linguistic forms; 7. Speaking as social action; 8. Conversational ex!
changes; 9. Units of participation; 10. Conclusions; Appendix:
practical tips on recording interaction; References; Indexes

Order Info: www.cup.org/order.html

The following contributing LINGUIST publishers have made their backlists available on the World Wide Web:

1998 Contributors