"A Grammar of Responsibility is an interesting, provocative, and careful study of the way to speak about responsibility. The term is everywhere these days but is seldom examined in any detail. And yet, responsibility is a complicated idea with a peculiar history." "The book starts from the way people speak, using hundreds of examples from contemporary discussions. It explains the need for a grammar, that is, a consistent and comprehensive way to use the term. It goes on to analyze a host of ethical dilemmas. In each case, a "grammar of responsibility" provides a fresh look at seemingly intractable problems. The result is a book of clear ideas to help us deal intelligently with the sense of moral crisis that is widespread today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

This is a comprehensive descriptive grammar of Trio, a Cariban language, spoken in the remote rainforest of Suriname and along the border in Brazil. Typologically interesting features of Trio include a basic word order Object-Verb-Subject and a system of evidentiality that expresses whether or not the speaker was eye-witness to an event. Trio has several grammatical morphemes that mirror the group's conceptualization of the world of the visible and the invisible in which they live; one is a facsimile marker that expresses that the denotee of a noun is manifestly but not intrinsically that denotee; the role of the individual in contributing to a harmonious collective, recognized by anthropologists as a salient aspect of Amazonian life, is expressed by two responsibility clitics. This grammar will be a valuable source-book for linguists, anthropologists, and everyone interested in the finer points of Guianan-Amazonian languages.

The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality.

Lao is the national language of Laos, and is also spoken widely in Thailand and Cambodia. It is a tone language of the Tai-Kadai family (Southwestern Tai branch). Lao is an extreme example of the isolating, analytic language type. This book is the most comprehensive grammatical description of Lao to date. It describes and analyses the important structures of the language, including classifiers, sentence-final particles, and serial verb constructions. Special attention is paid to grammatical topics from a semantic, pragmatic, and typological perspective.

This book addresses well-known issues - the ethical, legal, and social implications of human genetics - but does so from an unusual perspective: the perspective of the scientific community itself. In distinction to what is common in the ELSI literature, the book also discusses bioethical method. A new kind of casuistry is developed on the basis of the empirical findings of cognitive semantics. It will be of interest to philosophers, bioethicists, geneticists, and policymakers.

The distinguished linguist and controversial political critic combines both aspects of his life and work in this wide-ranging and informative discussion that presents his political, moral, and linguistic views on current issues.