This study is about the principles for constructing polite speeches. The core of it first appeared in Questions and Politeness, edited by Esther N. Goody (now out of print). It is here reissued with a fresh introduction that surveys the considerable literature in linguistics, psychology and the social sciences that the original extended essay stimulated, and suggests distinct d...(展开全部)

In 1961, the first International Conference on Universals in Language convened to consider the possibility of creating "something of the order of cross-cultural files for a large sample of languages."In the preliminary memorandum of this historic meeting, it was proposed that "midst infinite diversity, all languages are, as it were, cut from the same pattern." Eight of the pape...(展开全部)

Language demonstrates structure while also showing considerable variation at all levels: languages differ from one another while still being shaped by the same principles; utterances within a language differ from one another while exhibiting the same structural patterns; languages change over time, but in fairly regular ways. This book focuses on the dynamic processes that crea...(展开全部)

琼·拜比，美国新墨西哥大学语言学系荣休杰出教授，曾任美国语言学会会长(2004)。主要从事音系学、形态学、语言共性和语言演变研究。主要著作有《形态学：意义与形式的关系研究》、《语法演化：世界语言的时体态》、《音系学与语言使用》、《使用频度与语言组织》、《语言、使用与认知》、《语言演变》等。 李瑞林，广东外语外贸大学教授，中国比较文学与跨文化研究会副会长，中国英汉语比较研究会语言服务行业专业委员会副会长，《中国翻译》《Babel》《英语世界》编委，荣获全国第六届“文津图书奖”推荐图书奖、中国第一届英语优秀教学论文二等奖等。

Language demonstrates structure while also showing considerable variation at all levels: languages differ from one another while still being shaped by the same principles; utterances within a language differ from one another while exhibiting the same structural patterns; languages change over time, but in fairly regular ways. This book focuses on the dynamic processes that crea...(展开全部)

Since its first publication, Language Universals and Linguistic Typology has become established as the leading introductory account of one of the most productive areas of linguistics—the analysis, comparison, and classification of the common features and forms of the organization of languages. Adopting an approach to the subject pioneered by Greenberg and others, Bernard Comrie...(展开全部)

Drawing together a vast body of empirical research in cognitive science, linguistics, and developmental psychology, Michael Tomasello demonstrates that we don't need a self-contained "language instinct" to explain how children learn language. Their linguistic ability is interwoven with other cognitive abilities. Tomasello argues that the essence of language is its symbolic dime...(展开全部)

Challenging the assumption that human behavior is primarily determined by culture, Donald E. Brown contends that certain behavioral traits are common to human beings everywhere. In Human Universals, he addresses the problems posed for anthropology by the topic of universals, discusses studies that have caused anthropologists to rethink their position, and provides an ethnograph...(展开全部)

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the ways in which meaning is conveyed in language, covering not only semantic matters but also topics normally considered to fall under pragmatics. Above all, the book displays and explains the richness and subtlety of meaning, with the aid of numerous examples and exercises throughout the text. Highly readable, written with st...(展开全部)