This volume concerns the structure and use of fixed expressions in a range of typologically, genetically and areally distinct languages. The chapters consider the use contexts of fixed expressions, at the same time taking seriously the need to account for their structural aspects. Formulaicity is taken here as a central feature of everyday language use, and fixed expressions as a basic utterance building resource for interaction. Our crosslinguistic investigation suggests that humans have the propensity to automatize ways to handle various discourse-level needs for specific sequential contexts by creating (semi-)fixed expressions based on frequent patterns. The chapters examine topics such as the degrees and types of fixedness, the emergence of fixed expressions, their connection to social action, the new understanding of traditional linguistic categories in light of fixedness, crosslinguistic variation in types of fixed expressions, as well as their non-verbal aspects. The volume situates the notion of ‘units’ of language at the intersection of interaction and formal structure as part of a larger effort to replace rule-based conceptions of language with a more dynamic, realistic and pragmatically based model of language. The articles are based on naturally occurring data, mostly everyday conversation, in English, Estonian, Finnish, Japanese, and Mandarin, with some crosslinguistic comparison.

This book is intended for academics and postgraduate students of lexicology, lexicography, and corpus linguistics.

Despite its importance for language and cognition, the theoretical concept of »pattern« has received little attention in linguistics so far. The articles in this volume demonstrate the multifariousness of linguistic patterns in lexicology, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, text linguistics, pragmatics, construction grammar, phonology and language acquisition and develop new perspectives on »pattern« as a linguistic concept.

Long regarded as a peripheral issue, phraseology is now taking centre stage in a wide range of fields. This recent explosion of interest undoubtedly has a great deal to do with the development of corpus linguistics research, which has both demonstrated the key role of phraseological expressions in language and provided researchers with automated methods of extraction and analysis. The aim of this volume is to take stock of current research in phraseology from a variety of perspectives: theoretical, descriptive, contrastive, cultural, lexicographic and computational. It contains overview chapters by leading experts in the field and a series of case studies focusing on a wide range of multiword units: collocations, similes, idioms, routine formulae and recurrent phrases. The volume is an invitation for experienced phraseologists to look at the field with different eyes and a useful introduction for the many researchers who are intrigued by phraseology but need help in finding their way in this rich but complex domain.

This study represents the first critical examination of the contexts and ways in which idioms and fixed expressions of two or more words (phraseological units) such as let sleeping dogs lie, try one's luck or at hand were collected, commented upon and also analysed by English language scholars between about 1440 and 1800. The large-scale investigation surveys theoretical and practical approaches including proverb studies, treatises on rhetoric and style, foreign-language teaching, collections of phrases, bilingual and monolingual lexicography, translation, universal and philosophical language schemes, shorthand systems and English grammar books. This pioneering study is intended to contribute to the formation of English historical phraseology as a new subdiscipline in English linguistics.

Vocabulary has been one of the growth areas of language study over the past three decades. In the second edition of this definitive study, Ronald Carter updates progress in key areas of language description and applied linguistics. This new edition includes new material on the relationship between vocabulary, grammar and discourse and the implications of new insights into vocabulary for the study of speech and writing in English. It also has updated chapters on vocabulary and language teaching, dictionaries and lexicography, and the literary study of vocabulary. Vocabulary: Applied Linguistic Perspectiveshas been widely praised since first publication for the breadth, depth and clarity of its approach. This new edition builds upon these foundations and develops further understanding of this key area of applied linguistics.

This book looks at current research and future directions in e-lexicography. Online dictionaries and reference tools are increasingly prevalent in a digitized and internet-led era in language study that has embraced computational linguistics. This book responds with theoretical and practical analysis of key topics, from a global range of contributors. Since COBUILD in the 1980s, lexicographers have found it essential to engage with and utilize electronic computational tools. Internet dictionaries, online reference tools and even search engine optimization demand a knowledge of electronic lexicography and force a reassessment of the field. This volume looks at, amongst other topics: • Polyfunctional versus monofunctional dictionary tools • Developing theories of lexicography for electronic mediums • Distinguishing between the database and the dictionary • Online dictionaries not as data repositories but as sophisticated search engines This volume will appeal to scholars in lexicography and to practicing lexicographers.

The existence of corpus-based linguistic research in Japan has until now mainly been hidden from the view of overseas researchers - partly by the language barrier, and partly by the continuing dominance of generative grammar in Japan. At last, this volume lifts the veil to reveal the current condition of corpus-based research in Japan. English Corpus Linguistics in Japan contains a collection of twenty papers written by Japanese linguists, reflecting the state of art in English corpus linguistics in Japan. The volume covers an impressively wide range, showcasing the diversity and creativity of corpus-based research in this country, from studies drawing on the ‘old faithful’ Brown and LOB Corpora as well as the more recent Frown, FLOB, the Bank of English and the British National Corpus to studies based on more specific historical, literary, spoken, and learner corpora; from investigations of major levels of language description, including prosody, lexis, morphology, syntax, and semantics to investigations of language variation; from explorations of single variables to those of multivariant dimensions; and from pedagogical applications to software applications. The papers are grouped into four sections: 1) Corpus-based studies of contemporary English, 2) Historical and diachronic studies of English, 3) English corpora and English language teaching, 4) Software for analyzing corpora. This volume will inspire still further corpus explorations in the future both in Japan and abroad.

The lexicon represents the building blocks of language: words and vocabulary. Most of us think of language in terms of words, and words are also integral to the way in which linguists approach language as an object of study. The lexicon and lexical issues must be taken in consideration in every domain of language study and, conversely, the lexicon cannot be viewed in isolation from other aspects of language. 'Language and the Lexicon' provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of lexicology, introducing the reader to the lexicon by exploring the lexical aspects of a range of different areas of language: syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, language variation, language change, language acquisition and language processing. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the book introduces the key concepts employing examples from a wide variety of languages in order to illustrate the points made. This book is ideally suited to those approaching lexicology for the first time. With its wide breadth of focus and diverse topics, it can equally serve as a first introduction to linguistics.

This book is a course in contrastive linguistics and translation which introduces the basics of linguistic analysis as applied to translation. Translation is presented as a problem-solving activity and linguistic analysis is proposed as a useful methodological tool to identify a wide range of translation problems. The course adopts a method which starts with the translation of words and goes up, step by step, through the different levels of linguistic structure to the level of pragmatic context. Myriad examples and a wide variety of exercises enable readers to acquire and practise some of the most common strategies translators use to solve the problems encountered at the different levels of linguistic analysis. The book aims at providing students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to reinforce their linguistic and textual competence in the languages involved and make adequate progress along the translation process. As theoretical tools, students are given an overview of basic translation concepts and linguistic tools central to contrastive linguistics and textual analysis. As methodological tools, students are presented with a working method that, at the beginning, will allow them to grasp the principles and strategies that govern general translation, and which they could later extrapolate to specialised translation.