This is the first book to present Canonical Typology, a framework for comparing constructions and categories across languages. The canonical method takes the criteria used to define particular categories or phenomena (eg negation, finiteness, possession) to create a multidimensional space in which language-specific instances can be placed. In this way, the issue of fit becomes a matter of greater or lesser proximity to a canonical ideal. Drawing on the expertise of world class scholars in the field, the book addresses the issue of cross-linguistic comparability, illustrates the range of areas - from morphosyntactic features to reported speech - to which linguists are currently applying this methodology, and explores to what degree the approach succeeds in discovering the elusive canon of linguistic phenomena.

This book is intended as a systemic functional contribution to language typology both for those who would like to understand and describe particular languages against the background of generalizations about a wide range of languages and also for those who would like to develop typological accounts that are based on and embody descriptions of the systems of particular languages (rather than isolated constructions). The book is a unique contribution in at least two respects. On the one hand, it is the first book based on systemic functional theory that is specifically concerned with language typology. On the other hand, the book combines the particular with the general in the description of languages: it presents comparable sketches of particular languages while at the same time identifying generalizations based on the languages described here as well as on other languages. The volume explores eight languages, covering seven language families: French, German, Pitjantjatjara, Tagalog, Telugu, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese.

This book features a collection of 10 interviews with Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen, who is a key figure in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and has collaborated closely with M.A.K. Halliday since the 1980s. As noted by Professor Chang Chenguang, Editor of the M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series, “this collection of interviews serves as an important reference for scholars and students of SFL. It provides a unique perspective on the theoretical development and future outlooks of SFL, as well as Matthiessen’s own interpretations of the theory. It also enriches our understanding of SFL and is a very useful addition to the series.” Written in an engaging dialogic format, the book paints a vivid picture of SFL thriving among the landscape of general linguistics and of SFL as an important tool now being applied in various areas.

Negation is a sine qua non of every human language but is absent from otherwise complex systems of animal communication. In many ways, it is negation that makes us human, imbuing us with the capacity to deny, to contradict, to misrepresent, to lie, and to convey irony. The apparent simplicity of logical negation as a one-place operator that toggles truth and falsity belies the intricate complexity of the expression of negation in natural language. Not only do we find negative adverbs, verbs, copulas, quantifiers, and affixes, but the interaction of negation with other operators (including multiple iterations of negation itself) can be exceedingly complex to describe, extending (as first detailed by Otto Jespersen) to negative concord, negative incorporation, and the widespread occurrence of negative polarity items whose distribution is subject to principles of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. The chapters in this book survey the patterning of negative utterances in natural languages, spanning such foundational issues as how negative sentences are realized cross-linguistically and how that realization tends to change over time, how negation is acquired by children, how it is processed by adults, and how its expression changes over time. Specific chapters offer focused empirical studies of negative polarity, pleonastic negation, and negative/quantifier scope interaction, as well as detailed examinations of the form and function of sentential negation in modern Romance languages and Classical Japanese.

This user-friendly student guide is the essential resource for all those engaged in studying systemic functional linguistics (SFL). Assuming no prior knowledge, this guide is divided into nine chapters which can be read independently of one another and used for purposes of reference. The reading section maps out and mediates the key SFL literature. The application guides show how SFL has been and can be applied to various domains, from translation to healthcare communication. The term guides demystify the core terminology and the vocabulary guides aid readers in dealing with the most commonly used terms in text analysis. Systemic Functional Linguistics is an invaluable guidebook for all those studying functional grammar and SFL within linguistics, applied linguistics and related courses.

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