Exploring the German Language

Exploring the German Language pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2026

出版者:
作者:Johnson, Sally/ Braber, Natalie
出品人:
页数:312
译者:
出版时间:2008-7
价格:$ 129.95
装帧:
isbn号码:9780521872089
丛书系列:
图书标签:
  • German language
  • Language learning
  • German grammar
  • German vocabulary
  • German culture
  • Self-study
  • Beginner German
  • Intermediate German
  • Language textbook
  • Linguistics
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具体描述

If we want to understand how German speakers think about themselves and the world in which they live, then a useful place to begin is by looking at the language they use. This fully revised and updated edition provides a systematic approach to the study of the German language and an introduction to the social aspects of the language, including its dialects, its history and the uses of the language today. No previous knowledge of linguistics is assumed, and each chapter is accompanied by a series of practical exercises. This edition includes a brand new section on gender, purism and German unification, fresh examples for analysis and an updated chapter on the geography of Germany today. The book will help students not only to find new ways of exploring the German language, but also of thinking and talking about German-speaking cultures.

The Grand Tapestry of Human Communication: A Journey Through Linguistics and Cultural Exchange This volume embarks on an expansive and meticulously detailed exploration of the fundamental nature of language itself, charting its evolution, dissecting its intricate structures, and examining its profound impact on human cognition and societal organization. Far removed from focusing on any single linguistic system, this work adopts a broad, comparative, and deeply theoretical approach, treating language as a universal yet infinitely varied human phenomenon. Part I: Foundations of Speech and Mind – The Architecture of Language The initial section establishes the theoretical bedrock for understanding how humans acquire, process, and utilize complex symbolic systems. It delves into the cognitive neuroscience underpinning language production and comprehension, contrasting innate linguistic capacities with environmental influence. Chapter 1: The Biological Imperative: Evolution and Universals. This chapter scrutinizes the evolutionary timeline of human language capacity, analyzing fossil evidence and comparative primate communication studies. It critically evaluates the concept of a Universal Grammar (UG), presenting diverse perspectives on whether syntactic structures are hardwired or emergent properties of general cognitive mechanisms. Extensive case studies are drawn from sign languages and creole formation to illustrate the robust, inherent drive toward linguistic structuring, regardless of initial input. Chapter 2: Phonetics and Phonology: The Raw Material of Sound. Moving beyond specific language inventories, this section provides an exhaustive treatment of the acoustic properties of human speech. It details the mechanics of articulation, presenting the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) not as a catalog of symbols for a single tongue, but as a universal toolkit for describing the full spectrum of potentially distinct human speech sounds. The discussion extends to suprasegmental features—intonation, stress, and rhythm—and their crucial role in conveying pragmatic meaning beyond the lexicon. Detailed spectrographic analysis techniques are introduced as tools for objective comparison across disparate language families. Chapter 3: Morphology and Syntax: Building Blocks and Blueprints. Herein lies a deep dive into the formal mechanisms of sentence construction. The morphology section examines affixation, compounding, and inflection across morphologically rich (e.g., polysynthetic) and morphologically poor languages, seeking common principles governing word formation. The subsequent syntax discussion moves away from prescriptive rule sets, favoring generative and dependency grammar frameworks to model hierarchical structure. Complex phenomena such as long-distance dependencies, movement operations, and the principles governing argument structure (theta roles) are mapped out using abstract formalisms applicable to any natural language, providing a framework for understanding how meanings are encoded sequentially. Part II: Meaning, Context, and Use – The Pragmatic Landscape The second major segment shifts focus from the abstract system (competence) to the actual use of language in interaction (performance), exploring how meaning is negotiated in real-time social settings. Chapter 4: Semantics: The Bridge Between Form and Concept. This chapter tackles the multifaceted nature of meaning. It differentiates between lexical semantics (word meaning), compositional semantics (sentence meaning), and formal semantics, employing logical representation systems to explicate truth conditions and inference. Crucially, it explores the inherent ambiguity and context-dependency of reference, illustrating how the same sequence of words can yield vastly different meanings depending on the semantic field and the entities being pointed to in the external world. Chapter 5: Pragmatics: Language in Action. This section is dedicated to the study of utterance meaning—what speakers intend to convey beyond the literal sense. It provides a rigorous application of Speech Act Theory, Cooperative Principle, and conversational implicature, showcasing how listeners actively construct meaning based on shared context, presuppositions, and social roles. Case studies involve cross-cultural analysis of politeness markers, directives, and refusal strategies, demonstrating the variability in pragmatic inference across different communicative norms. Chapter 6: Discourse Analysis: Cohesion and Narrative Structure. Moving beyond the sentence, this chapter examines how stretches of connected text—spoken or written—create coherent wholes. Topics include the mechanics of anaphora resolution, thematic progression, topic maintenance, and the structural conventions governing different discourse genres (e.g., argumentation, storytelling, technical reporting). The chapter analyzes how narrative structures are universally employed for cultural transmission and memory encoding. Part III: Language and the Human Condition – Sociolinguistics and Cultural Mediation The concluding part broadens the scope to examine the intricate relationship between language systems and the societies that speak them, exploring variation, change, and identity construction. Chapter 7: Variation and Contact: Dialects, Registers, and Multilingualism. This section systematically dismantles the myth of a monolithic 'language,' providing a comprehensive framework for analyzing linguistic variation across geography, social stratification (sociolects), and situational context (registers). It delves deeply into language contact phenomena: borrowing, code-switching, pidgins, and creoles, treating these not as aberrations but as key drivers of linguistic change. The sociolinguistic methodology for quantitative variationist studies is thoroughly explained. Chapter 8: Language Acquisition and Attrition: The Lifespan of Linguistic Knowledge. This chapter contrasts first language (L1) acquisition—tracing the stages from babbling to mastery—with second language (L2) learning. It examines influential theories of L2 pedagogy and the neurological effects of bilingualism, including potential cognitive advantages and challenges. Furthermore, the complex processes of language death, revitalization efforts, and the linguistic consequences of societal shifts on heritage speakers are given significant attention. Chapter 9: Language, Culture, and Identity. The final chapter synthesizes the preceding material by investigating the strong, though often debated, relationship between language structure and cultural worldview (the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis revisited). It explores how linguistic categorization shapes perception, memory, and social identity construction. The volume concludes by examining the role of language in politics, ideology, and the creation of shared public spheres, asserting that the study of human language is inseparable from the study of human culture itself. Throughout the text, the focus remains resolutely comparative and theoretical, utilizing analytical frameworks drawn from structuralism, functionalism, cognitive science, and formal logic to build a holistic understanding of the mechanisms and societal roles that govern all human language systems.

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