Ilse Depraetere Knihy

With more than 50 years of teaching experience between them, Ilse Depraetere and Chad Langford present a grammar pitched precisely at advanced learners of English who need to understand how the English language really works without getting lost in the complex specifics.Now fully updated and revised throughout, the second edition of this book pulls from linguistic theory all the relevant notions that will enable the language student to fully grasp English grammar. After introducing form and function, the authors cover verbs, nouns, aspect and tense, modality and discourse. Readers are led through the underlying principles of language use, with the book presupposing only a basic grasp of linguistic terminology and focusing on the critical issues. Full of challenging exercises and supported by a companion website featuring an extensive answer key, a glossary and further exercises for study, this is the reference grammar of choice for both native and non-native English speakers.

Modal verbs in English communicate delicate shades of meaning, there being a large range of verbs both on the necessity side ( must , have to , should , ought to , need , need to ) and the possibility side ( can , may , could , might , be able to ). They therefore constitute excellent test ground to apply and compare different methodologies that can lay bare the factors that drive the speaker’s choice of modal verb. This book is not merely concerned with a purely grammatical description of the use of modal verbs, but aims at advancing our understanding of lexical and grammatical units in general and of linguistic methodologies to explore these. It thus involves a genuine effort to compare, assess and combine a variety of approaches. It complements the leading descriptive qualitative work on modal verbs by testing a diverse range of quantitative methods, while not ignoring qualitative issues pertaining to the semantics-pragmatics interface. Starting from a critical assessment of what constitutes the meaning of modal verbs, different types of empirical studies (usage-based, data-driven and experimental), drawing considerably on the same data sets, shows how method triangulation can contribute to an enhanced understanding. Due attention is also given to individual variation as well as the degree to which modals can predict L2 proficiency level.

This book delves into the intersection of semantics and pragmatics, reassessing various linguistic phenomena in light of recent advancements in pragmatic theory. It features insights from experts such as Kent Bach, Philippe de Brabanter, Max Kölbel, and François Recanati. The authors begin by redefining four key theoretical concepts: saturation, free pragmatic enrichment, completion, and expansion. They engage with (sub)disciplines that have tackled similar issues, albeit without close interaction, and explore topics related to reported speech, modality, indirect requests, and prosody. The chapters examine lexical pragmatics, cognitive lexical semantics, and other interactions involving experimental pragmatics, construction grammar, clinical linguistics, and the distinction between mental and linguistic content. By bridging gaps between various disciplines and methodologies, the authors promote the cross-fertilization of ideas and highlight the empirical studies necessary for testing and advancing theoretical concepts. Readers will encounter overviews of concept definitions, empirical data illustrations, and theoretical frameworks. This stimulating exchange of ideas originated from a workshop series on the semantics/pragmatics interface held at the University of Lille 3 in 2012-13, making it a valuable resource for scholars in linguistics, logic, and philosophy, particularly those interested in pragmatic theory or semantics.

The volume is a collection of papers that deal with the issue of translation quality from a number of perspectives. It addresses the quality of human translation and machine translation, of pragmatic and literary translation, of translations done by students and by professional translators. Quality is not merely looked at from a linguistic point of view, but the wider context of QA in the translation workflow also gets ample attention. The authors take an inductive approach: the papers are based on the analysis of translation data and/or on hands-on experience. The book provides a bird's eye view of the crucial quality issues, the close collaboration between academics and industry professionals safeguarding attention for quality in the 'real world'. For this reason, the methodological stance is likely to inspire the applied researcher. The analyses and descriptions also include best practices for translation trainers, professional translators and project managers.

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies, which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics. For further publications in English linguistics see also our Dialects of English book series. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Natalie Fecher.