Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Summary
There is strong evidence that phonetic factors shape
many aspects of phonological systems, ranging from
phoneme inventories to phonotactic constraints to
prosodic phenomena such as syllable weight. These
phonetic motivations have been incorporated into
the formal phonological framework of phonetically
driven Optimality Theory by many researchers, while
other linguists have assumed that the role of phonetics in phonology is primarily diachronic rather than
synchronic.
See also: Assimilation; Distinctive Features; Generative
Phonology; Natural Phonology; Phonetics, Articulatory;
Phonology: Overview; Quantity; Speech Errors as Evidence in Phonology; Speech Perception; Speech Production; Syllable: Typology.
Bibliography
Archangeli D & Pulleyblank D (1994). Grounded phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Broselow E, Chen S & Huffman M (1997). Syllable weight:
convergence of phonology and phonetics. Phonology 14,
4782.
Chomsky N & Halle M (1968). The sound pattern of
English. New York: Harper & Row.
Cohn A (1993). Nasalization in English: phonology or
phonetics. Phonology 10, 4381.
Flemming E (1995). Auditory representations in phonology.
Ph.D. diss., UCLA.
Photography: Semiotics
S Mazzali-Lurati and L Cantoni, University of
Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A propos of the degree of conventionality of photography, three main theoretical positions have emerged: (a)
the iconic, (b) the indexical, and (c) the conventionalist
position (Dubois, 1983: 2627).
(a) The iconic position characterized the perception
of photography by its first practitioners
(Schaeffer, 1987: 114), for whom, in opposition
to painting, the essence of photography consisted
in mimesis of the real (Dubois, 1983: 26, 33).
Recent approaches to pictorial semiotics restated
the mainly iconic nature of photography
(Gubern, 1999: 57; Sonesson, 1999). Above all,
photographs are images faithfully representing
objects, persons, places, or events through an
objective analogy to reality.
(b) The indexical position (cf. particularly Peirce
2.281; Dubois; Schaeffer; and Vanlier) focused
on the process of production of photographs:
there is a physical contiguity between light rays
and the photographic film, producing a mechanical imprint. Different nuances appeared among
the various proposers. Schaeffer (1987: 59 ss.)
defined photographs as both indexical icons and
iconic indexes, thus underlining that their semiotic nature resides in the compresence of an analogic and an indexical function; however, it is the
latter that constitutes the very nature, the arche of
photography (1987: 27). According to Vanlier
(1983), photographs are for sure indices (that is,
Photography as Practice
Pragmatic approaches underlined the connection
existing between the semiotic character of photography and its communicative use and realization. Photographs are considered texts (Eugeni, 1999: 198), the
meaning of which strictly depends on their materiality and on the producers choices (Kress and van
Leeuwen, 1998), but also on their relationship to the
context of use and on the dynamics of their reception.
The relationship to culture, ideology, and institutional context has been particularly explored, mainly
starting from a Marxist perspective (Burgin, 1982;
Sekulla, 1982; Tagg, 1982, 1988). Other approaches
(Dubois, 1983; Floch, 1986; Schaeffer, 1987) focused
more directly on the receivers and their process of
interpretation.
Schaeffers (1987) description of the pragmatic
flexibility of photographs is the most systematic
one. In different communicative contexts the analogical or indexical function of photographs prevails,
thus bringing the images closer to the nature of
index or closer to the nature of icon (Schaeffer,
1987: 101102). Therefore, the semiotic nature of
photography strictly depends on the communicative
norms ruling different communicative contexts
(Schaeffer, 1987: 10).
Following this perspective, the problem of the semiotic nature of photographs can be reconsidered.
For different kinds of use, it is possible to identify
an aspect that plays a major role in the photographic
expression.
Without entering into the details of the classifications proposed by different theoreticians (Berger,
1989: 6264; Schaeffer, 1987: 6874; Sonesson,
1999: 14), five main domains of use of photographs
can be distinguished that imply different kinds of
realization: scientific domains (medicine, criminology,
anthropology, restoration, archaeology, mineralogy,
paleontology, astronomy, meteorology, geography,
and architecture); domains of advertising, economy,
and marketing; information domains; use in private
life; and art photography.
Scientific Domains
In these fields (comprising war, propaganda, sociological, documentary, and scandalmongering photography), photographs are consumed in illustrated
publications, newspapers, magazines, and television
news. The widely studied practice of photojournalism
(cf. Barthes, 1961; Lambert, 1986; Schaeffer, 1987)
constitutes a major example. In it, the photographic
realization involves complex dynamics due to the relationship of the image with other codes (especially
the verbal one) and to the problem of objectivity. The
indexical and the symbolic aspects play the most important role. In fact, here photographs mainly aim at
testifying to the real existence of the photographic
referent. From this status of visual testimony
(Schaeffer, 1987: 80) derives the problem of their
The realization of art photography is intrinsically symbolic (cf. Schaeffer, 1987: 150), and in it the theme
of the code is prominent. In fact, as happens in all
forms of art, the elements of the form and the style
(produced through photographic modes, techniques,
and devices) play a major role in shaping the meaning.
See also: Barthes, Roland: Theory of the Sign; Communication: Semiotic Approaches; Context, Communicative;
Eco, Umberto: Theory of the Sign; Iconicity: Theory; Indexicality: Theory; Meaning, Sense, and Reference;
Media: Pragmatics; Media: Semiotics; Multimodality and
the Language of Politics; Politics, Ideology and Discourse;
Reference: Semiotic Theory; Truth Conditional Semantics
and Meaning; Visual Semiotics.
Bibliography
Barthes R (1961). Le message photographique. Communications 1, 127138.
Barthes R (1964). Rhe torique de limage. Communications
4, 4051.
Phrasal Stress
H Truckenbrodt, Universitat Tubingen, Tubingen,
Germany
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Preliminaries
The Representation of Stress
He was [teaching
linguistics]F
Er hat [Linguistik
unterrichtet]F
he has linguistics taught
He was [teaching in
Ghana]F
Er hat [in Ghana
unterrichtet]F
he has in Ghana taught
More than One Phrasal Stress in the Sentence Sentences with no narrow focus, such as [the mayor of
Chicago] [won their support] show more than one pstress, as indicated. For a case like this, a cyclic application of the NSR correctly assigns p-stress (Selkirk,
1984): In the subject [the mayor of Chicago], the
NSR assigns rightmost stress; likewise, in the constituent [won their support]. When the two parts are put
together, the NSR applies on the sentence level and
correctly strengthens the rightmost p-stress: [the
mayor of Chicago] [won their support].
Gussenhoven (1983b) observed that the NSR does
not always correctly assign p-stress that is not the
strongest stress of the sentence in English. In (4a), in
which the verb precedes an adjunct, the verb also
receives p-stress. However, in (3a), in which the verb
precedes an argument, the verb does not receive
p-stress. The contrast is subtle, but Gussenhoven
(1983b) conducted an experiment that showed that
the contrast is real.
The Sentence Accent Assignment Rule of
Gussenhoven
Mwi:ni (Swahili), Selkirk, 1986; for Tohono Oodham (Oodham), Hale and Selkirk, 1987) and that in
other languages the left edge of XP is aligned with
phonological phrase edges (for Japanese, Selkirk and
Tateishi, 1991; for Shanghai Chinese (Wu Chinese),
Selkirk and Shen, 1990). The two constraints, cast in
terms of Optimality Theory in Selkirk (1995a), are
Align-XP,R and Align-XP,L. Edge alignment was
extended to Maori by de Lacy (2003), who argued
that Align-XP,L and Align-XP,R are simultaneously
at play in this language, and to the Bantu languages
Chichew
a (Nyanja) and Kimatumbi (Matumbi) by
Truckenbrodt (1995, 1999), who argued that AlignXP,R interacts with a constraint Wrap-XP that punishes dividing XPs into more than one phonological
phrase.
The notion XP, which seems to independently play
a central role in the syntaxphonology interface,
also provides a generalization over predicates, arguments, and modifiers, with the exception of predicates next to an accented argument, in the SAAR.
Thus, a more principled formulation of the SAAR
that is defended in the following is: Each XP is
assigned a beat of phrasal stress. This is the content
of the constraint Stress-XP, proposed in Truckenbrodt
(1995) to account for patterns of phonological
phrasing in languages other than English, Dutch,
and German. (It was not related to the SAAR there.)
P-stress was there construed as stress on the level
of the phonological phrase (Nespor and Vogel,
1986, 1989).
For the purpose at hand, the application of StressXP to two core cases of the SAAR is shown in
Figure 4. Figure 4A is a standard syntactic representation of a syntactic adjunct: The adjunct is a phrase,
and the element it adjoins to (here VP) is likewise
a phrase. In this configuration, Stress-XP demands
p-stress in the adjunct XP as well as p-stress in the
element next to it, which is itself a phrase. (It is
dominated by one of the VP nodes; this VP node, by
Stress-XP, requires p-stress. See Truckenbrodt, 1999,
[Mary]s [brother]
[eine [Rose]]
geschenkt]
Summary
Phrasal stress is assigned in a representation with
constituents and prominence, extending the prosodic
or metrical representation of stress within the word
upward. Focus and syntactic structure both have a
Bibliography
Beckman M E & Pierrehumbert J B (1986). Intonational
structure in Japanese and English. Phonology Yearbook
3, 255309.
Bresnan J (1971). Sentence stress and syntactic transformations. Language 47, 257281.
Bu ring D (2001). Lets phrase it! focus, word order, and
prosodic phrasing in German double object constructions. In Mu ller G & Sternefeld W (eds.) Competition
in syntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 101137.
Chen M Y (1987). The syntax of Xiamen tone sandhi.
Phonology Yearbook 4, 109149.
Chomsky N & Halle M (1968). The sound pattern of
English. New York: Harper and Row.
Cinque G (1993). A null theory of phrase and compound
stress. Linguistic Inquiry 24, 239297.
de Lacy P (2003). Constraint universality and prosodic
phrasing in Maori. In Coetzee A, Carpenter A & de
Lacy P (eds.) Papers in Optimality Theory II. Amherst,
MA: GLSA. 5979.
Gussenhoven C (1983a). Focus, mode and the nucleus.
Journal of Linguistics 19, 377417.
Gussenhoven C (1983b). Testing the reality of focus
domains. Language and Speech 26, 6180.
Gussenhoven C (1992). Sentence accents and argument
structure. In Roca I M (ed.) Themantic structure: its
role in grammar. New York: Foris. 79106.
Hale K & Selkirk E (1987). Government and tonal
phrasing in Papago. Phonology Yearbook 4, 151183.
Halle M & Vergnaud J-R (1987). An essay on stress. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hayes B (1995). Metrical stress theory: principles and case
studies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hayes B & Lahiri A (1991). Bengali intonational phonology. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 9, 4796.
Jackendoff R S (1972). Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jacobs J (1993). Integration. In Reis M (ed.) Wortstellung
und Informationsstruktur. Tu bingen: Niemeyer. 63116.
Krifka M (1984). Focus, Topic, syntaktische Struktur und
semantische Interpretation. Ms., Universita t Mu nchen.
Phraseology 579
Ladd D R (1980). The structure of intonational meaning:
evidence from English. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Ladd D R (1983). Even, focus, and normal stress. Journal
of Semantics 2, 257270.
Liberman M & Prince A (1977). On stress and linguistic
rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry 8, 249336.
Nespor M & Vogel I (1986). Prosodic phonology.
Dordrecht: Foris.
Nespor M & Vogel I (1989). On clashes and lapses.
Phonology 6, 69116.
Pierrehumbert J B (1980). The phonology and phonetics
of English intonation. Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Pierrehumbert J B & Beckman M E (1988). Japanese tone
structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rooth M (1992). A theory of focus interpretation. Natural
Language Semantics 1, 75116.
Schwarzschild R (1999). Givenness, AvoidF and other constraints on the placement of accent. Natural Language
Semantics 7, 141177.
Selkirk E (1980). The role of prosodic categories in English
word stress. Linguistic Inquiry 11, 563605.
Selkirk E (1984). Phonology and syntax: the relation between sound and structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Selkirk E (1986). On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology Yearbook 3, 371405.
Selkirk E (1995a). The prosodic structure of function
words. In Beckman J, Dickey L W & Urbanczyk S
Phraseology
A Cowie, University of Leeds. Leeds, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
The article devoted to phraseology in the first edition
of the Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (ELL)
reported a marked upsurge of interest in the subject
over the previous 10 years among linguists, lexicographers, and specialists in language acquisition and
language teaching (Cowie, 1994). The opening references in that article were chiefly to anglophone scholars, but the growing activity in the field in Britain,
and to a lesser extent in the United States, owed much
to a substantial, earlier body of East European work
in phraseology, stretching back to the 1940s. In fact,
we can see, if we examine the years as indicated by the
extensive Euralex Bibliography of Phraseology, now
available on the Web in which the most productive
specialists began to publish, that scholars from
throughout the USSR and from East Germany and
Czechoslovakia were the dominant group in the 1960s
Phraseology 579
Ladd D R (1980). The structure of intonational meaning:
evidence from English. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Ladd D R (1983). Even, focus, and normal stress. Journal
of Semantics 2, 257270.
Liberman M & Prince A (1977). On stress and linguistic
rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry 8, 249336.
Nespor M & Vogel I (1986). Prosodic phonology.
Dordrecht: Foris.
Nespor M & Vogel I (1989). On clashes and lapses.
Phonology 6, 69116.
Pierrehumbert J B (1980). The phonology and phonetics
of English intonation. Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Pierrehumbert J B & Beckman M E (1988). Japanese tone
structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rooth M (1992). A theory of focus interpretation. Natural
Language Semantics 1, 75116.
Schwarzschild R (1999). Givenness, AvoidF and other constraints on the placement of accent. Natural Language
Semantics 7, 141177.
Selkirk E (1980). The role of prosodic categories in English
word stress. Linguistic Inquiry 11, 563605.
Selkirk E (1984). Phonology and syntax: the relation between sound and structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Selkirk E (1986). On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology Yearbook 3, 371405.
Selkirk E (1995a). The prosodic structure of function
words. In Beckman J, Dickey L W & Urbanczyk S
Phraseology
A Cowie, University of Leeds. Leeds, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
The article devoted to phraseology in the first edition
of the Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (ELL)
reported a marked upsurge of interest in the subject
over the previous 10 years among linguists, lexicographers, and specialists in language acquisition and
language teaching (Cowie, 1994). The opening references in that article were chiefly to anglophone scholars, but the growing activity in the field in Britain,
and to a lesser extent in the United States, owed much
to a substantial, earlier body of East European work
in phraseology, stretching back to the 1940s. In fact,
we can see, if we examine the years as indicated by the
extensive Euralex Bibliography of Phraseology, now
available on the Web in which the most productive
specialists began to publish, that scholars from
throughout the USSR and from East Germany and
Czechoslovakia were the dominant group in the 1960s
580 Phraseology
Progress in Description
Phraseology 581
The more recent publication of the Oxford collocations dictionary for students of English (OCDSE)
(Crowther et al., 2002) represents a further major
advance in the design of English collocational dictionaries. It owes, of course, certain of its features to its
two predecessors. Like SEC, OCDSE is based on
authentic, largely written material, except that in
the latter case the corpus is the immensely bigger
British National Corpus (BNC). Moreover, the orientation of the dictionary, as earlier in both SEC and
BBI, is from an independent base to a dependent
collocate. However, the most significant improvements made by the compilers of OCDSE have to do
with the semantic organization of collocates within
an overall arrangement that is syntactic. In the entry
for enthusiasm, part of which is reproduced below,
there are two verbal patterns, represented as VERB
ENTHUSIASM and ENTHUSIASM VERB, forms which convey the transitiveintransitive distinction without
making too many demands on the grammatical
knowledge of the user. Within the transitive subsection the collocates are broken up into semantic groupings, a feature as we recall of BBI, except that here
the collocates are in bold, there are vertical strokes to
582 Phraseology
Phraseologists commonly refer to the formal fixedness of word combinations, and especially of idioms
in the strict sense. Until recently, though, it has been
less widely recognized that, in some corpora, a high
percentage of given multiword units including such
opaque examples as take the biscuit or up the anti do
not have frozen or fixed canonical forms. Working
with a corpus of 18 million words, Moon (1998a,
1998b) has shown that this proportion can be as
high as 40 per cent, a finding which has serious
implications for teaching, lexicography, and such matters as the automatic and computational detection of
such items in corpora (1998b: 92).
Variability differs in type and in degree. One type
to which attention has been drawn is systematic, or
in some cases partly so. It manifests itself as a set
of formally and semantically related variants:
get your eye in
keep your eye in
have your eye in
have (no, an) axe to grind
with(out) an axe to grind
U.S. and British speakers may prefer different variants, as in the case of sweep something under the
carpet (U.K.) vs. brush something under the rug
(U.S.), and indeed contrasting variants may represent
different levels of formality, as witness make a fortune
vs. make a killing (Moon, 1998b: 93).
Particular difficulties are caused by the treatment in
phraseological dictionaries of series of variants such
as be in power, come into power, and put somebody
into power. Because of the different syntactic-semantic patterns involved (they are respectively copular,
inchoative, and causative) they are treated in the
Phraseology 583
584 Phraseology
Bibliography
Arnaud P & Moon R M (1993). Fre quence et emploi des
proverbes anglais et franc ais. In Plantin C (ed.) Lieux
communs: topo, stereotypes, cliches. Paris: Kime .
323341.
Benson M, Benson E & Ilson R F (1997). The BBI
dictionary of English word combinations (2nd edn.).
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Burger H (1998). Phraseologie: eine Einfuhrung am Beispiel
des Deutschen. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.
Burger H, Ha cki-Buhofer A & Gre ciano G (eds.) (2003).
Flut von Texten Vielfalt der Kulturen. Baltmannsweiler,
Germany: Schneider.
C erma k F (2003). Paremiological minimum of Czech: the
corpus evidence. In Burger et al. (eds.). 1531.
Corpas Pastor G (1997). Manual de fraseologa espanola.
Madrid: Gredos.
Corpas Pastor G (2003). Diez anos de investigacion en
fraseologa: analisis sintactico-semanticos, contrastivos
y traductologicos. Madrid: Iberoamericana.
Cowie A P (1994). Phraseology. In Asher R E (ed.) The
encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Oxford/New
York: Pergamon Press. 31683171.
Cowie A P (1997). Phraseology in formal academic prose.
In Aarts J, de Mo nnink I & Wekker H (eds.) Studies in
English language and teaching. Amsterdam/Atlanta:
Rodopi. 4356.
Cowie A P (1998a). A. S. Hornby, 18981998: a centenary
tribute. International Journal of Lexicography 11(4),
251268.
Cowie A P (1998b). Introduction. In Cowie A P (ed.). 120.
Cowie A P (1998c). Phraseological dictionaries: some east
west comparisons. In Cowie (ed.). 209228.
The terms phrastic, neustic, and tropic were introduced to the theory of speech acts by philosopher
Richard M. Hare. Hare (1949) had compared pairs
like the imperative in (1) with the declarative in (2):
(1) Keep to the path.
(2) You will keep to the path.
He concluded that (1) and (2) have the same phrastic, but a different neustic, which he characterized
as follows:
(3) [Keeping to the path by you]phrastic[please]neustic
(4) [Keeping to the path by you]phrastic[yes]neustic
Speech Acts.
The terms phrastic, neustic, and tropic were introduced to the theory of speech acts by philosopher
Richard M. Hare. Hare (1949) had compared pairs
like the imperative in (1) with the declarative in (2):
(1) Keep to the path.
(2) You will keep to the path.
He concluded that (1) and (2) have the same phrastic, but a different neustic, which he characterized
as follows:
(3) [Keeping to the path by you]phrastic[please]neustic
(4) [Keeping to the path by you]phrastic[yes]neustic
Speech Acts.
Bibliography
Hare R M (1949). Imperative sentences. Mind 58, Reprinted in Hare (1971), 121.
Hare R M (1970). Meaning and speech acts. Philosophical
Review 79, 324. Reprinted in Hare (1971), 7493.
Phytosemiotics
J Deely, University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, USA
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bibliography
Deely J (1982). On the notion of phytosemiotics. In
Deely J & Evans J (eds.) Semiotics 1982. Lanham,
MD: University Press of America. 541554.
Deely J (1990). Basics of semiotics. Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press.
Deely J (1989). Physiosemiosis and semiotics. In Spinks
C W & Deely J N (eds.) Semiotics 1998. New York:
Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. 191197.
Deely J (1996). The grand vision. In Colapietro V &
Olshewsky T (eds.) Peirces doctrine of sign. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter. 4567.
Deely J (2001). Four ages of understanding. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Bibliography
Hare R M (1949). Imperative sentences. Mind 58, Reprinted in Hare (1971), 121.
Hare R M (1970). Meaning and speech acts. Philosophical
Review 79, 324. Reprinted in Hare (1971), 7493.
Phytosemiotics
J Deely, University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, USA
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bibliography
Deely J (1982). On the notion of phytosemiotics. In
Deely J & Evans J (eds.) Semiotics 1982. Lanham,
MD: University Press of America. 541554.
Deely J (1990). Basics of semiotics. Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press.
Deely J (1989). Physiosemiosis and semiotics. In Spinks
C W & Deely J N (eds.) Semiotics 1998. New York:
Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. 191197.
Deely J (1996). The grand vision. In Colapietro V &
Olshewsky T (eds.) Peirces doctrine of sign. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter. 4567.
Deely J (2001). Four ages of understanding. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Immanuel (17241804).
Bibliography
Bringuier J C (1980). Conversations with Jean Piaget.
Chicago: UP.
Gruber H E & Vone`che J J (eds.) (1977). The essential
Piaget. London: Routledge.
Jean Piaget Archives Foundation (1989). The Jean Piaget
bibliography. Geneva: Jean Piaget Archives Foundation.
Kitchener R (1986). Piagets theory of knowledge. New
Haven: Yale UP.
Mogdil S & Mogdil C (eds.) (1976). Piagetian research.
Compilation and commentary (8 vols). New Jersey:
NFER Publ.
Pictish 589
Piaget J (1924). Le jugement et le raisonnement chez lenfant. Neucha tel: Delachaux et Niestle . (Judgment and
reasoning in the child. London: Routledge, 1928.)
Piaget J (1936). La naissance de lintelligence chez lenfant.
Neucha tel: Delachaux et Niestle . (Origins of intelligence
in the child. London: Routledge, 1953.)
Piaget J (1950). Introduction a` le piste mologie ge ne tique
(3 vols). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Piaget J (1954). Les relations entre laffectivite et lintelligence dans le de veloppement mental de lenfant. Paris:
Centre de Documentation Universitaire.
Piaget J (1975). LE quilibration des structures cognitives.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. (Equilibration of
cognitive structures. Chicago: UP, 1985.)
Piaget J (1976). Autobiographie. Revuee Europe enne des
Sciences Sociales 14, 143.
Piaget J (1981 and 1983). Le possible et le ne cessaire I:
Le volution des possibles chez lenfant. Le possible et le
ne cessaire II: Le volution du ne cessaire chez lenfant.
Paris: Presses Univeritaires de France. (Possibility and
necessity, 2 vols., Minneapolis: UP, 1987.)
Piaget J & Garcia R (1983). Psychoge ne`se et histoire
des sciences. Paris: Flammarion. (Psychogenesis and the
history of science. New York: Columbia UP, 1989.)
Piaget J & Garcia R (1987). Vers une logique de la significatio. Ginebra: Murionde. (Towards a logic of meanings.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991.)
Piattelli-Palmarini M (ed.) (1979). The ories du langage,
the ories de lapprentissage. Le de bat entre Jean Piaget et
Noam Chomsky. Paris: Seuil. (Language and Learning.
The debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky.
Cambridge/MA: Harvard UP, 1980.)
Smith L (1992). Jean Piaget: critical assessments (4 vols).
London: Routledge.
Smith L (1996). Critical readings on Piaget. London:
Routledge.
Vuyk R (1982). Overview and critique of Piagets genetic
epistemology 19651980 (2 vols). London: Academic
Press.
Relevant Websites
www.unige.ch/piaget/.
www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html.
Pictish
W Nicolaisen, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pictish was the language spoken by the Picts, inhabitants of the northeast of Scotland, roughly from the
Forth-Clyde line to the Cromarty Firth, but possibly
also further afield, including the Northern and Western Isles, from the early centuries A.D. until the middle
of the 9th century when, as the result of the merger of
the kingdoms of the Scotti and the Picti under Kenneth
MacAlpine, it was replaced by Gaelic, which had
reached Scotland from Ireland from approximately
500 A.D. onward. The Picts were known as Picti (or
Pecti) to the Roman military, who interpreted their
name in Latin terms as cognate with pictus painted.
They were referred to by the neighboring Anglo-Saxons as Pehtas, Pihtas, Pyhtas, Peohtas, or Piohtas; by
the Norsemen as Pe ttar or Pe ttir (as in Pe tlandsfjorr
the Pentland Firth); and in Middle Welsh as Peithwyr, but it is not known what they called themselves.
No sentence in their language has been recorded,
and our main sources for Pictish are king lists,
inscriptions, and, particularly, place names.
The nature and linguistic affiliation of Pictish has
attracted attention for a long time, and this scholarly,
and sometimes not so scholarly, pre-occupation with
Pictish 589
Piaget J (1924). Le jugement et le raisonnement chez lenfant. Neuchatel: Delachaux et Niestle. (Judgment and
reasoning in the child. London: Routledge, 1928.)
Piaget J (1936). La naissance de lintelligence chez lenfant.
Neuchatel: Delachaux et Niestle. (Origins of intelligence
in the child. London: Routledge, 1953.)
Piaget J (1950). Introduction a` lepistemologie genetique
(3 vols). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Piaget J (1954). Les relations entre laffectivite et lintelligence dans le developpement mental de lenfant. Paris:
Centre de Documentation Universitaire.
Piaget J (1975). LEquilibration des structures cognitives.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. (Equilibration of
cognitive structures. Chicago: UP, 1985.)
Piaget J (1976). Autobiographie. Revuee Europeenne des
Sciences Sociales 14, 143.
Piaget J (1981 and 1983). Le possible et le necessaire I:
Levolution des possibles chez lenfant. Le possible et le
necessaire II: Levolution du necessaire chez lenfant.
Paris: Presses Univeritaires de France. (Possibility and
necessity, 2 vols., Minneapolis: UP, 1987.)
Piaget J & Garcia R (1983). Psychogene`se et histoire
des sciences. Paris: Flammarion. (Psychogenesis and the
history of science. New York: Columbia UP, 1989.)
Piaget J & Garcia R (1987). Vers une logique de la significatio. Ginebra: Murionde. (Towards a logic of meanings.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991.)
Piattelli-Palmarini M (ed.) (1979). Theories du langage,
theories de lapprentissage. Le debat entre Jean Piaget et
Noam Chomsky. Paris: Seuil. (Language and Learning.
The debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky.
Cambridge/MA: Harvard UP, 1980.)
Smith L (1992). Jean Piaget: critical assessments (4 vols).
London: Routledge.
Smith L (1996). Critical readings on Piaget. London:
Routledge.
Vuyk R (1982). Overview and critique of Piagets genetic
epistemology 19651980 (2 vols). London: Academic
Press.
Relevant Websites
www.unige.ch/piaget/.
www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html.
Pictish
W Nicolaisen, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pictish was the language spoken by the Picts, inhabitants of the northeast of Scotland, roughly from the
Forth-Clyde line to the Cromarty Firth, but possibly
also further afield, including the Northern and Western Isles, from the early centuries A.D. until the middle
of the 9th century when, as the result of the merger of
the kingdoms of the Scotti and the Picti under Kenneth
MacAlpine, it was replaced by Gaelic, which had
reached Scotland from Ireland from approximately
500 A.D. onward. The Picts were known as Picti (or
Pecti) to the Roman military, who interpreted their
name in Latin terms as cognate with pictus painted.
They were referred to by the neighboring Anglo-Saxons as Pehtas, Pihtas, Pyhtas, Peohtas, or Piohtas; by
the Norsemen as Pettar or Pettir (as in Petlandsfjorr
the Pentland Firth); and in Middle Welsh as Peithwyr, but it is not known what they called themselves.
No sentence in their language has been recorded,
and our main sources for Pictish are king lists,
inscriptions, and, particularly, place names.
The nature and linguistic affiliation of Pictish has
attracted attention for a long time, and this scholarly,
and sometimes not so scholarly, pre-occupation with
590 Pictish
Bibliography
Cox R A V (1997). Modern Gaelic reflexes of two Pictish
words. Nomina 20, 4758.
Cummins W A (1998). The age of the Picts. Stroud, UK:
Sutton.
Diack F C (19201921/1922). Place-names of Pictland.
Revue Celtique 38, 109132; 39, 125174.
Diack F C (1944). The inscriptions of Pictland. Aberdeen,
UK: Third Spalding Club.
Dunbavin R (1998). Picts and ancient Britons: an exploration of Pictish origins. Long Eaton, UK: Third
Millennium Publication.
Forsyth K C (1996). The Ogham inscriptions of Scotland:
an edited corpus. Ph.D. diss., Harvard University.
Forsyth K (1997). Language in Pictland: the case against
non-Indo-European Pictish. Utrecht: de Keltische
Draak.
Fraser J (1927). The question of the Picts. Scottish Gaelic
Studies 2, 172201.
Introduction
The etymology of the word pictography is simple:
picto comes from the Latin pictus, which is the past
participle of the verb pingere to paint, and graph
derives from the Greek graphein to write. In simple
terms, a pictograph is an image that denotes a word
or idea. A pictograph is thus a painting or an illustration that bears a pictorial resemblance to its referent.
Thus, the picture or drawing of a cat stands for or
means cat.
In this article, pictography is discussed in relation
to the following subjects:
1. The notion of pictography as a possible stage in the
development of a systematic written representation of language.
2. The semiotics of images.
Writing Systems
Pictography is often discussed in relation to writing
systems. John DeFrancis (b. 1911), whose critical
discussion of writing systems has clarified many commonly held misconceptions about them, notes that
there are at least six levels of representation of writing
systems (DeFrancis, 1989: 218): pictographic, ideographic, logographic/morphemic, syllabic, phonemic,
and featural. Although the purpose here is not to
provide a detailed history of writing systems, it is
appropriate to comment briefly on these various
forms of written representations of speech. The first
type of representation, pictographic, is the relevant
one for this article. In his book on writing, DeFrancis
(1989: 219) pointed out that pictographs are not
writing, nor are they forerunners of writing as
asserted by I. J. Gelb (19071985; Gelb, 1963: 190).
Introduction
The etymology of the word pictography is simple:
picto comes from the Latin pictus, which is the past
participle of the verb pingere to paint, and graph
derives from the Greek graphein to write. In simple
terms, a pictograph is an image that denotes a word
or idea. A pictograph is thus a painting or an illustration that bears a pictorial resemblance to its referent.
Thus, the picture or drawing of a cat stands for or
means cat.
In this article, pictography is discussed in relation
to the following subjects:
1. The notion of pictography as a possible stage in the
development of a systematic written representation of language.
2. The semiotics of images.
Writing Systems
Pictography is often discussed in relation to writing
systems. John DeFrancis (b. 1911), whose critical
discussion of writing systems has clarified many commonly held misconceptions about them, notes that
there are at least six levels of representation of writing
systems (DeFrancis, 1989: 218): pictographic, ideographic, logographic/morphemic, syllabic, phonemic,
and featural. Although the purpose here is not to
provide a detailed history of writing systems, it is
appropriate to comment briefly on these various
forms of written representations of speech. The first
type of representation, pictographic, is the relevant
one for this article. In his book on writing, DeFrancis
(1989: 219) pointed out that pictographs are not
writing, nor are they forerunners of writing as
asserted by I. J. Gelb (19071985; Gelb, 1963: 190).
Emoticon
Meaning
:-) :- :-]
Smile
Frown
Big smile
Anger
Pain
Wink
O-O
oo
Glasses
Normal face
Face with glasses
Bat
Cat
Robot
Emoticon
-)
>_<
.,
Computer Icons
Computers utilize icons to specify commands. Certain computer icons are, in fact, aniconic, because
they are conventionalized, and usually culture specific. A quick look at the desktop of an iMac computer
(Apple Computer, Inc.) illustrates this. The iMac, for
example, contains a trash barrel icon ( delete),
a magnifying glass icon with the English word
Sherlock ( a command to locate certain types of
information in the system), a printer icon ( print
command), and so forth. Other symbols that may
appear at certain times while using this brand of
computer include a bomb symbol (to indicate malfunction) and a clock face (to indicate that a command will take a certain amount of time to
accomplish). These icons thus indicate certain conventionalized computer functions through visual
means only.
Emoticons
[_]
Traffic signs are iconic forms that contain coded visual information about traffic regulations and related
information. Unique visual signs enhance comprehension of the rules of the road, and color is key to
conveying certain types of information, as described
in Table 3. Traffic sign shapes also provide specific
information for the driver (see Figure 3). Efforts have
been made to internationalize traffic signs and signals
in order to provide drivers worldwide with a uniform
set of regulatory signs.
Word Games
Color
Meaning
Red
Yellow
White
Green
Figure 2 Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale. Reproduced with permission from Wong D L, Hockenberry-Eaton M, Winkelstein M L,
and Schwartz P (2001). Wongs essentials of pediatric nursing (6th edn.), p. 1301. Copyrighted by Mosby, Inc., St. Louis.
Figure 3 Shape meaning in U.S. traffic signs. (A) Octagon, STOP; (B) triangle, YIELD; (C) square, NO LEFT TURN (square
regulatory signs indicate rules that a driver must follow; superimposition of a red circle with a diagonal bar means NO); (D) circle
(RAILROAD CROSSING); (E) pentagon, CHILDREN CROSSING (pentagon, or house, shape indicates a school zone).
Comics are sequences of related artwork. The technical designation for this narrative art form is lexipictogram. The related sequences may be four
contiguous panels in daily newspapers, or a dozen,
in Sunday papers. Comic books, which are 24 to 32
pages in length, may be a single story or a collection
of four different stories. Graphic novels, a relatively
new phenomenon, may be several hundred pages in
length, and tell full-length novelesque stories in pictures. The best qualitative example of this genre is Art
Spiegelmans (b. 1948) 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning
Maus, a riveting tale about the Nazi concentration
camps, with mice as the protagonists. Most often,
comics are a combination of text and image, though
some comics are completely visual, such as Jim
Woodrings (b. 1952) The Frank book, in which
the reader understands the meaning through visual
Figure 6 Shape poem If the Earth. Copyright by Joe Miller, 1975, Moab, Utah. Reproduced with permission.
material only. In fact, however, it is possible to describe this material verbally and to create a verbal
narrative account of the readers interpretation of
the visual content. Will Eisner (b. 1911) calls comics
sequential art (Eisner, 1985). Since comics frequently contain text in the form of dialogue balloons emanating from the mouths of the characters (humans or
animals), they are also narrative art.
Comics have been the subject of semiotic research
since the 1960s. In this regard, Umberto Eco (b.
1932) analyzed visual metaphors (Eco, 1994). Likewise, Roma n Gubern (b. 1934; Gubern, 1972) and
Fresnault-Deruelle (b. 1943; Fresnault-Deruelle,
1972) examined this form and its governing codes.
Comic content and form obey certain codes, including shape and size of the panels, typeface, and pen
and ink strokes, all of which are intended to reflect the
mood (somber, humorous, frightful) of the narrative
and the emotion (anxiety, joy, sadness) of the
protagonists of the story line. Comics utilize verbal
and nonverbal means to convey their messages.
Certain conventions are employed in the creation of a comic. The visual component of the comic
follows a left-to-right chronological sequence with a
set of visual iconic and linguistic materials. Comics
consist of frames or panels that may be of equal or
differing size and shape according to the action
depicted. The pictorial elements include the scenario
and the protagonists, whose states of mind are represented in their facial gestures and body language.
Comics thus display a whole range of kinesic and
proxemic behaviors through the use of distinct artistic techniques, such as mobilgrams, or motion lines,
to specify direction and rapidity. The verbal component of the comic follows fairly strict codes, thus
allowing the reader to understand the formalities
of the medium once the meanings of the artistic techniques have been established. First, there are locugrams (speech balloons) with a connecting line to
the mouth or face of the protagonist. Next is the
line that envelops the locugram, the perigram,
and its format depicts metaphorically the state of
mind of the protagonist. Third, the psychopictogram
(dream balloon) expresses the thoughts or dreams of
the protagonist. Conventionalized ideograms, sometimes called sensograms, are iconic symbols that convey the emotions of the protagonist, which are
culturally determined conventions; examples include
the light bulb to indicate a sudden insight, or a heart
with broken lines to indicate the sad outcome of a
romantic relationship, and so forth. Phonosymbolism, or onomatopoetic protocol, is common in
comics. The phonosymbols Bam! and Wack!, for example, represent the impact of fists in a fistfight
(Chapman, 1984).
Bibliography
Bombaugh C C (1961). Oddities and curiosities of words
and literature (gleanings for the curious). New York:
Dover Publications.
Chapman R (1984). The treatment of sounds in language
and literature. Oxford: Blackwell.
Danesi M (2000). Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics,
media, and communications. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
Danesi M (2002). The puzzle instinct: the meaning of puzzles in human life. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press.
Danesi M (2004). Messages, signs, and meanings: a basic
textbook in semiotics and communication theory. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, Inc.
Danesi M & Perron P (1999). Analyzing cultures: an
introduction and handbook. Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press. [This is an excellent introduction to
semiotic theory and concepts.]
Davies L J (1995). The multidimensional language of
the cartoon: a study of aesthetics, popular culture, and
symbolic interaction. Semiotica 104, 165211.
DeFrancis J (1989). Visible speech: the diverse oneness of
writing systems. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
[This is an excellent introduction to history and development of writing systems.]
Eco U (1994). Apocalypse postponed: essays by Umberto
Eco. Lumley R (ed.) Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press.
Definitions
European colonization during the 17th to 19th centuries created a classic scenario for the emergence of
new language varieties called pidgins and creoles out
of trade between the native inhabitants and Europeans. The term pidgin is probably a distortion of
English business and the term creole was used in
reference to a nonindigenous person born in the
American colonies, and later used to refer to customs,
flora, and fauna of these colonies. Many pidgins and
creoles grew up around trade routes in the Atlantic
or Pacific, and subsequently in settlement colonies on
plantations, where a multilingual work force comprised of slaves or indentured immigrant laborers
needed a common language. Although European
colonial encounters have produced the most well
known and studied languages, there are examples of
indigenous pidgins and creoles predating European
contact such as Mobilian Jargon (Mobilian), a now
extinct pidgin based on Muskogean (Muskogee), and
widely used along the lower Mississippi River valley
for communication among native Americans speaking
Choctaw, Chickasaw, and other languages (see
Mobilian Jargon).
The study of pidgins and creoles raises fundamental
questions about the evolution of complex systems,
since pidgins, in particular, have been traditionally
regarded as simple systems par excellence. The usual
European explanation given for the simplicity, and
lack of highly developed inflectional morphology
in particular, was that it reflected primitiveness, native mental inferiority, and the cognitive inability of
the natives to acquire more complex European languages. Thus, for example, Churchill (1911: 23) on
Bislama, the pidgin English spoken in Vanuatu: the
savage of our study, like many other primitive thinker,
has no conception of being in the absolute; his speech
has no true verb to be (see Bislama).
Hampered by negative attitudes for many years,
scholars ignored pidgins and creoles in the belief
that they were not real languages, but were instead
bastardized, corrupted, or inferior versions of the
European languages to which they appeared most
closely related. Although scholars still do not agree
on how to define pidgins and creoles, or the nature
of their relationship to one another, most linguists
recognize such a group of languages, whether defined
in terms of shared structural properties and/or sociohistorical circumstances of their genesis. Striking
similarities across pidgin and creole tense-moodaspect (TMA) systems (see Tense, Mood, Aspect:
Overview) were noted by some of the earliest scholars
in the field such as Hugo Schuchardt, generally
regarded as the founding father of creole studies (see
Schuchardt, Hugo (18421927)). TMA marking
became a focal point of debate among creolists as a
result of the bioprogram hypothesis (Bickerton, 1981,
1984), according to which creoles held the key to
understanding how human languages originally
evolved many centuries ago (see Evolutionary Theories of Language: Previous Theories and Evolutionary Theories of Language: Current Theories). This
theory led not only to an increase in research on
these languages, but also a great deal of attention
from scholars in other fields of linguistics, such as
language acquisition and related disciplines such as
cognitive science.
Origins
Because pidgins and creoles are the outcome of
diverse processes and influences in situations of language contact where speakers of different languages
have to work out a common means of communication, competing theories have emphasized the importance of different sources of influence. Few creolists
believe that one theory can explain everything satisfactorily, and there are at least four theories accounting for the genesis of creoles: substrate, superstrate,
diffusion, and universals.
Substrate
first person
second person
third person
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
There are also many similarities in the source morphemes used by creoles to express these distinctions.
The semantics of the grammatical morphemes are
highly constant as are their etymologies; in almost
all cases, they are drawn from the superstrate language. The indefinite article is usually derived from
the numeral one, the irrealis mood marker from a
verb meaning go, the completive marker from a verb
meaning finish, the irrealis complementizer from a
reflex of for, etc.
Support for the uniqueness of these features to
creoles is, however, weakened by the existence of
some of the same traits in pidgins as well as in the
relevant substrates and superstrates. The relexification hypothesis argues that the typological traits of
Haitian Creole French display more in common
with those of the substrate language Fongbe than
with French. If so, then the supposed creole typology
results from the reproduction of substratum
properties rather than from the operation of universals. Bimorphemic question words are also found in
many of the African substrate languages, and English
has what time when, how come why, etc. It is
also well within the norms of colloquial French
and English to use intonation rather than word
order to distinguish questions from declaratives, e.g.,
youre doing what? The absence of passives may also
reflect the lack of models in some of the substrate and
superstrate languages.
Closer study of the particulars of individual TMA
systems in creole languages has engendered increasing dissatisfaction with the bioprogram hypothesis
(Singler, 1990). For one thing, the claims were originally formulated on the basis of data from creoles
whose superstrate languages are Indo-European. Secondly, it is also unclear how much creole TMA systems might have changed over time after creolization.
The bioprogram assumes that the creoles in question have not departed from their original TMA prototype and that the present day systems provide
evidence of relevance for its operation. Thirdly, even
the defining languages do not conform entirely to
predictions on closer examination. The TMA system
of Hawaii Creole English is not crosslinguistically
unique or even unusual; the overwhelming majority
of its TMA categories are common in languages of
world (Velupillai, 2003). More detailed investigations of historical evidence indicate that Bickertons
scenario of nativization bears little resemblance to
what actually happened in Hawaii (Roberts, 2000).
The typology of creoles might also be largely a
result of parameter settings typical of languages
with low inflectional morphology (see Principles and
Parameters Framework of Generative Grammar).
Thus, features such as preverbal TMA markers, serial
verbs, and SVO word order fall out more generally
from lack of inflections and unmarked parametric
settings. McWhorter (1998) attempts to vindicate
creoles as a unique typological class by proposing a
diagnostic test for creolity based not on specific
shared structural features such as TMA markers, serial verbs, etc., but on a combination of three traits
resulting from a break in transmission: little or no use
of inflectional affixation, little or no use of lexical
tone, and semantically regular derivational affixation. McWhorters explanation for why these traits
cluster essentially reiterates the conventional assumption that pidgins are languages that have been
stripped of all but the bare communicative necessities
in order to speed acquisition. Because creoles are new
languages that emerge from pidgins, they have not
had the time to develop many of the complexities
found in other languages that have developed gradually over a much longer time period. Thus, he predicts
Congo, Democratic Republic of: Language Situation; Ergativity; Evolutionary Theories of Language: Current
Theories; Evolutionary Theories of Language: Previous
Theories; Gender, Grammatical; Guyana: Language
Situation; Haiti: Language Situation; Hawaiian Creole
English; Jamaica: Language Situation; Krio; Linguistic
Universals, Chomskyan; Linguistic Universals, Greenbergian; Mauritius: Language Situation; Mobilian Jargon;
Morphology in Pidgins and Creoles; New Caledonia: Language Situation; Nigeria: Language Situation; Norway:
Language Situation; Papua New Guinea: Language Situation; Phonological Universals; Principles and Parameters
Framework of Generative Grammar; Russenorsk; Russian
Federation: Language Situation; Schuchardt, Hugo (1842
1927); Serial Verb Constructions; Sierra Leone: Language
Situation; Solomon Islands: Language Situation; St Lucia:
Language Situation; Suriname: Language Situation;
Switch Reference; Tense, Mood, Aspect: Overview; Tok
Pisin; United States of America: Language Situation;
Vanuatu: Language Situation.
Language Maps (Appendix 1): Maps 47, 48.
Bibliography
Baker P & Huber M (2001). Atlantic, Pacific, and worldwide features in English-lexicon contact languages.
English World Wide 22(2), 157208.
Bickerton D (1981). Roots of language. Ann Arbor:
Karoma.
Bickerton D (1984). The language bioprogram hypothesis.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7, 173221.
Bickerton D (1988). Creoles languages and the bioprogram. In Newmeyer F J (ed.) Linguistics: the Cambridge
survey 2: Linguistic theory: extensions and implications.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 268284.
Bibliography
Headland T N, Pike K L & Harris M (eds.) (1990). Frontiers of Anthropology 7: Emic and etics: The insider/
outsider debate. Newberry Park: Sage.
Heimbach S (compiler) (1997). Seasons of life: a complete
collection of Kenneth L. Pike Poetry (5 vols). Dallas:
Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Pike K L (1943). University of Michigan publications in languages and literature 21: phonetics, a critical analysis of
phonetic theory and a technic for the practical description
of sounds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Pima
Pike K L (1967a). Janua Linguarum, series maior 24: Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of
human behavior (2nd rev. edn.). The Hague: Mouton.
Pike K L (1967b). Stir, change, create. Grand Rapids: Wm.
B. Eerdmans.
Pike K L (1971). Mark my words. Grand Rapids: Wm.
B Eerdmans.
Pike K L (1993). Talk, thought, and thing: the emic road
toward conscious knowledge. Dallas: Summer Institute
of Linguistics.
Pike K L & Pike E G (1977). Grammatical Analysis. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at
Arlington.
Pike K L, Stark D S & Me re cias A (1951). El Nuevo
Testamento de nuestro sen or Jesucristo. Cuernavaca:
Tipografa Indigena.
Spanne J & Wise M R (2003). The writings of Kenneth
Pike. In Wise et al. (eds.). 5781.
Wise M R, Headland T N & Brend R M (eds.) (2003).
Publications in linguistics 139: Language and life: essays
in memory of Kenneth L. Pike. Dallas: SIL International
and The University of Texas at Arlington.
Young R E, Pike K L & Becker A L (1970). Rhetoric:
discovery and change. New York: Harcourt, Brace &
World.
Bibliography
Headland T N, Pike K L & Harris M (eds.) (1990). Frontiers of Anthropology 7: Emic and etics: The insider/
outsider debate. Newberry Park: Sage.
Heimbach S (compiler) (1997). Seasons of life: a complete
collection of Kenneth L. Pike Poetry (5 vols). Dallas:
Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Pike K L (1943). University of Michigan publications in languages and literature 21: phonetics, a critical analysis of
phonetic theory and a technic for the practical description
of sounds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Pima
Pike K L (1967a). Janua Linguarum, series maior 24: Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of
human behavior (2nd rev. edn.). The Hague: Mouton.
Pike K L (1967b). Stir, change, create. Grand Rapids: Wm.
B. Eerdmans.
Pike K L (1971). Mark my words. Grand Rapids: Wm.
B Eerdmans.
Pike K L (1993). Talk, thought, and thing: the emic road
toward conscious knowledge. Dallas: Summer Institute
of Linguistics.
Pike K L & Pike E G (1977). Grammatical Analysis. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at
Arlington.
Pike K L, Stark D S & Merecias A (1951). El Nuevo
Testamento de nuestro senor Jesucristo. Cuernavaca:
Tipografa Indigena.
Spanne J & Wise M R (2003). The writings of Kenneth
Pike. In Wise et al. (eds.). 5781.
Wise M R, Headland T N & Brend R M (eds.) (2003).
Publications in linguistics 139: Language and life: essays
in memory of Kenneth L. Pike. Dallas: SIL International
and The University of Texas at Arlington.
Young R E, Pike K L & Becker A L (1970). Rhetoric:
discovery and change. New York: Harcourt, Brace &
World.
Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara 609
Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara
C Goddard, University of New England, Armidale,
Australia
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara 609
Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara
C Goddard, University of New England, Armidale,
Australia
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
610 Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara
Structure
Nominal Morphology
Phonology
The case system includes nominative, ergative, accusative, genitive/purposive, locative, allative, ablative,
and perlative cases. Typically a case-marker is applied
only to the final word of an NP. Since modifiers
generally follow their heads, a typical multi-word
NP looks like: wati pulka kutjara-ku [man big twoPURP] for two big men. Like most other Pama-Nyungan languages, there is a split marking system for the
core cases. For both nouns and pronouns, the nominative case is unmarked. With nouns, accusative
case goes unmarked but there is a marked ergative
form (with -ngku/-lu or a variant). With pronouns,
the ergative goes unmarked but there is a marked
accusative (with -nya). Split case-marking is sometimes described in terms of two distinct case systems:
nominative-accusative for pronouns and ergativeabsolutive for nouns. Aside from being less economical, such an analysis has difficulty with various
complex NP constructions involving both nouns and
pronouns. For example, inalienable possession constructions can bring body-parts and pronouns into a
single NP, and inclusive constructions can bring
names and pronouns into a single NP. For example,
to say that someone hit me on the head, one uses the
NP ngayu-nya kata [1SG-ACC head:ACC] me head.
To say that Kunmanara and someone else did something to someone, one uses the NP Kunmanara-lu
pula [name-ERG 3DL:ERG].
Ergative and locative case allomorphy depends on
whether the word to be marked is vowel- or consonant-final, and on whether the NP is an ordinary
noun-phrase, on the one hand, or a pronoun or proper noun, on the other. Ergative is -ngku (common) or
-lu (proper) with vowel-final words, and otherwise
-Tu (where T is a homorganic stop). Locative is -ngka
(common) or -la (proper) with vowel-final words, and
otherwise -Ta. Genitive/purposive case is marked
with -ku (nouns) or -mpa (pronouns, except for 1SG
ngayu-ku). Locative also expresses instrumental and
comitative functions; e.g., punu-ngka [stick-LOC]
with a stick, untal-ta [daughter-LOC] with (my)
daughter.
Pronouns distinguish singular, dual, and plural
numbers (see Table 2). Most WDL dialects also
Stops
Nasals
Laterals
Tap
Glides
Laminal
Alveolar
Postalveolar
Dental
Bilabial
Dorsal
t
n
l
r
t
n
l
tj
ny
ly
p
m
k
ng
Singular (sg)
First person
Second person
Third person
ngayu(lu)a
nyuntu
palu(ru)
Dual (du)
I
you
he, she, it
ngali
nyupali
pula
The syllables in parentheses are dropped when case suffixes are added.
Plural (pl)
we two
you two
they two
nganana
nyura
tjana
we
you
they
Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara 611
All WDL dialects share a similar system of tenseaspect-mood categories and four conjugational classes, though the details differ from dialect to dialect.
The P/Y categories are: present, past, past imperfective, future, imperative, imperative imperfective, and
characteristic. In addition, there are serial and nominalized verb forms. Each verbal category is manifested
by up to four different allomorphs (e.g., imperative:
-, -la, -wa, -ra), depending on the conjugational
class. The P/Y system is economically analyzed
in terms of three stem types: a simple stem which
functions as a base for perfective categories, an augmented stem for imperfective categories, and an additional augmented stem for the aspect-neutral
forms: see Table 3. The augmented forms were
probably inflected words in an earlier stage of the
language, with the present-day forms resulting from
double-marking.
The -class and l-class are open, with predominantly intransitive and transitive memberships, respectively. The ng-class and n-class are likewise
predominantly intransitive and transitive respectively, but they have only a handful of basic roots each.
These roots, furthermore, are the only monosyllabic
verb roots in the language: n-class: ya- go, tju- put,
ma- get; ng-class: pu- hit, nya- see and yugive (examples from Yankunytjatjara). The overall
Imperative
Past (perfective)
Imperative (imperfective)
Present (imperfective)
Past (imperfective)
Future
Characteristic
Serial form
Nominalized form
()
talk
(l )
bite
(ng)
hit
(n)
put
wangka
wangkangu
wangkama
wangkanyi
wangkangi
wangkaku
wangkapai
wangkara
wangkanytja
patjala
patjanu
patjanma
patjani
patjaningi
patjalku
patjalpai
patjara
patjantja
puwa
pungu
pungama
punganyi
pungangi
pungkuku
pungkupai
pungkula
pungkunytja
tjura
tjunu
tjunama
tjunanyi
tjunangi
tjunkuku
tjunkupai
tjunkula
tjunkunytja
612 Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara
minyma-ngku panya
woman-ERG
THAT.ONE
pata-ra
wait-SERIAL
watja-nu.
tell-PAST
Then the waiting woman told him.
Panya tjangara-na pungku-la wanti-kati-ngu.
that.one ogre-1SG:ERG hit-SERIAL leave-PROCESS-PAST
I killed that ogre and got away.
Nyangatja-na puli-ngka nyina-nyi,
this-1SG:NOM
hill-LOC
sit-PRES,
nyuntu-mpa pata-ra.
2SG:NOM-PURP wait-SERIAL
Ive been sitting here on the hill, -waiting for you
(to get back).
Munu
ADD
Ka
wangka-ngu, Palya
nyangatja-n
say-PAST
good
here-2SG:ERG
pu-ngu. Munu-li-nku a-ra-lta.
hit-PAST ADD-1DU-REFL go-IMP-and.then
He replied, You did well to kill it here. Lets get
out of here.
CONTR
Munu
pula
ADD
3DU:NOM
ma-pitja-ngu
away-go-PAST
ngura
place
kutjupa-kutu.
other-ALL
And so away they went to some other place.
See also: Australia: Language Situation; Australian Languages; Ergativity; Serial Verb Constructions; Switch
Reference.
Bibliography
Bowe H (1990). Categories, constituents, and constituent order in Pitjantjatjara, an Aboriginal language of
Australia. London: Routledge.
Douglas W H (1958/1964). An introduction to the Western
Desert Language. Sydney: Oceania Linguistic Monographs No 4 [Revised].
Eckert P & Hudson J (1988). Wangka wiru: a handbook for
the Pitjantjatjara language learner. Underdale: South
Australian College of Advanced Education.
Goddard C (1986). Yankunytjatjara grammar. Alice
Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development.
Goddard C (1990). Emergent genres of reportage and
advocacy in the Pitjantjatjara print media. Australian
Aboriginal Studies 2, 2747.
Goddard C (1992). Traditional Yankunytjatjara ways of
speaking a semantic perspective. Australian Journal of
Linguistics 12(1), 93122.
Goddard C (1996). Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English dictionary. [Revised 2nd edn.]. Alice Springs:
Institute for Aboriginal Development.
Goddard C & Kalotas A (eds.) (1985). Punu: Yankunytjatjara plant use. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. [Reprinted, IAD Press, Alice Springs, 1995, 2002.].
Klapproth D M (2004). Narrative as social practice:
Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral traditions.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Langlois A (2004). Alive and Kicking: Areyonga Teenage
Pitjantjatjara. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Rose D (2001). The Western Desert code: an Australian
cryptogrammar. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
young people with a valuable practical skill. In addition, he recognized that the irregularities and vagaries
of English orthography could be a handicap to the
young, and this led to his devising various reformed
spelling systems for English.
He was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire (England)
on January 4, 1813. At the age of 19 he began work as
a school-teacher, and his Stenographic sound-hand, a
612 Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara
minyma-ngku panya
woman-ERG
THAT.ONE
pata-ra
wait-SERIAL
watja-nu.
tell-PAST
Then the waiting woman told him.
Panya tjangara-na pungku-la wanti-kati-ngu.
that.one ogre-1SG:ERG hit-SERIAL leave-PROCESS-PAST
I killed that ogre and got away.
Nyangatja-na puli-ngka nyina-nyi,
this-1SG:NOM
hill-LOC
sit-PRES,
nyuntu-mpa pata-ra.
2SG:NOM-PURP wait-SERIAL
Ive been sitting here on the hill, -waiting for you
(to get back).
Munu
ADD
Ka
wangka-ngu, Palya
nyangatja-n
say-PAST
good
here-2SG:ERG
pu-ngu. Munu-li-nku a-ra-lta.
hit-PAST ADD-1DU-REFL go-IMP-and.then
He replied, You did well to kill it here. Lets get
out of here.
CONTR
Munu
pula
ADD
3DU:NOM
ma-pitja-ngu
away-go-PAST
ngura
place
kutjupa-kutu.
other-ALL
And so away they went to some other place.
See also: Australia: Language Situation; Australian Languages; Ergativity; Serial Verb Constructions; Switch
Reference.
Bibliography
Bowe H (1990). Categories, constituents, and constituent order in Pitjantjatjara, an Aboriginal language of
Australia. London: Routledge.
Douglas W H (1958/1964). An introduction to the Western
Desert Language. Sydney: Oceania Linguistic Monographs No 4 [Revised].
Eckert P & Hudson J (1988). Wangka wiru: a handbook for
the Pitjantjatjara language learner. Underdale: South
Australian College of Advanced Education.
Goddard C (1986). Yankunytjatjara grammar. Alice
Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development.
Goddard C (1990). Emergent genres of reportage and
advocacy in the Pitjantjatjara print media. Australian
Aboriginal Studies 2, 2747.
Goddard C (1992). Traditional Yankunytjatjara ways of
speaking a semantic perspective. Australian Journal of
Linguistics 12(1), 93122.
Goddard C (1996). Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English dictionary. [Revised 2nd edn.]. Alice Springs:
Institute for Aboriginal Development.
Goddard C & Kalotas A (eds.) (1985). Punu: Yankunytjatjara plant use. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. [Reprinted, IAD Press, Alice Springs, 1995, 2002.].
Klapproth D M (2004). Narrative as social practice:
Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral traditions.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Langlois A (2004). Alive and Kicking: Areyonga Teenage
Pitjantjatjara. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Rose D (2001). The Western Desert code: an Australian
cryptogrammar. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
young people with a valuable practical skill. In addition, he recognized that the irregularities and vagaries
of English orthography could be a handicap to the
young, and this led to his devising various reformed
spelling systems for English.
He was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire (England)
on January 4, 1813. At the age of 19 he began work as
a school-teacher, and his Stenographic sound-hand, a
Bibliography
Abercrombie D (1937). Isaac Pitman: A pioneer in the
scientific study of language. London: Sir Isaac Pitman
and Sons Ltd. [Repr. in Abercrombie D (ed.) Studies in
phonetics and linguistics. London: Oxford University
Press].
Triggs T D (2004). Pitman, Sir Isaac. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Place Names
C Hough, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Place names occupy an unusual position within linguistics in that they were often coined in languages or
forms of languages that predate those in contemporary use. Although many originate as literal descriptions of the places concerned, they come to be used as
lexically meaningless labels and as such are transferred easily from one group of speakers to another.
This means that place names frequently survive the
transition between languages when territories are
taken over by new settlers, preserving evidence for
successive stages of population movement and linguistic history. River names have the highest survival rate,
followed by the names of other major topographical
features such as hills and mountains. Settlement
names are generally younger, but may still be well
over 1000 years old, with minor names such as field
and street names being among the most recent.
Population Movement
Hydronyms
Bibliography
Abercrombie D (1937). Isaac Pitman: A pioneer in the
scientific study of language. London: Sir Isaac Pitman
and Sons Ltd. [Repr. in Abercrombie D (ed.) Studies in
phonetics and linguistics. London: Oxford University
Press].
Triggs T D (2004). Pitman, Sir Isaac. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Place Names
C Hough, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Place names occupy an unusual position within linguistics in that they were often coined in languages or
forms of languages that predate those in contemporary use. Although many originate as literal descriptions of the places concerned, they come to be used as
lexically meaningless labels and as such are transferred easily from one group of speakers to another.
This means that place names frequently survive the
transition between languages when territories are
taken over by new settlers, preserving evidence for
successive stages of population movement and linguistic history. River names have the highest survival rate,
followed by the names of other major topographical
features such as hills and mountains. Settlement
names are generally younger, but may still be well
over 1000 years old, with minor names such as field
and street names being among the most recent.
Population Movement
Hydronyms
allusion to an injury inflicted on the eponymous character by his father Tibrogargan for failing to take care
of his mother Beerwah both of them also names of
mountains within the group. In New Zealand, Maori
place names form sequences preserving the memory
of important events in cultural history, such as the
journeys of early explorers, including Kupe, Paikea,
Tamatea and Turi; in South Africa, place names from
the indigenous Khoekhoen and African languages
characteristically use locative prefixes or suffixes.
Settlement Patterns The linguistic origins of place
names reflect the languages of the peoples who coined
them and so can be used to identify areas settled by
different groups of speakers. Areas of Finnish and
Swedish settlement in Finland are differentiated by
place names from the two languages, while the
nationalities of early European colonists in different
parts of North America are revealed by place names
from English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Dutch
the last, for instance, mostly in the vicinity of New
York, which, as New Amsterdam, was part of the
Dutch colony of New Netherland in the 17th century.
In the British Isles, much research has focused on the
geographical distribution of generics from different
languages. The area of historical Pictland in what is
now northeast Scotland is defined by over 300 place
names beginning in Pit- from Pictish *pett piece of
land. These are in complementary distribution to
place names from Cumbric cair fort, stockaded
farm, so the two generics are taken to demarcate
the regions inhabited by the Pictish P-Celts and the
Cumbric P-Celts, respectively. Areas of Danish
and Norwegian settlement in mainland Britain are
defined largely through place names ending in -by,
-thorp, and other reflexes of generics characteristic
of Scandinavian toponymy; conversely, the remarkable dearth of such names within the historical county
of Rutland suggests that this territory was excluded
from the areas allocated to the Danes at the division
of the Mercian kingdom in 877. The comparison of
cognate generics, such as Scandinavian heimr territory in Norway, southern Sweden, and Jutland and
OE ham homestead in England and Scotland, has
been utilized to trace the movement of Germanic
tribes during the Migration Period.
Place name qualifiers are also important in this
respect. Those comprising tribal names generally
refer to minority groups whose presence was sufficiently distinctive to contrast with the main population. Examples from England include Cummersdale
(Cumbrian Britons), Denby (Danes), Englefield
(Anglians), Irby (Irishmen), Friston (Frisians),
Normanton (Norwegians), Saxham (Saxons), Scotby
Language Contact
Types of Communication
sufficiently familiar with the British language to recognize and to translate a plural form. There are many
counter-examples, however, where the development
of folk etymologies testifies to a lack of understanding. An instance is York, from the Romano-British
name Eburaco yew-tree estate, where later spellings
such as eoforwic (c. 1060) reflect confusion with an
Old English compound boar farm.
Phonological Adaptation In some instances, an
existing name is preserved intact, with minor adjustments to conform to the phonetic structures of the
host language. Some names in areas of Scandinavian
settlement in Britain have been Scandinavianized
by the substitution of /k/ for /ts/, as in Keswick <
Cheswick cheese farm, or /sk/ for /s/ as in Skipton
< Shipton sheep farm. Contact with English has
resulted in the anglicization of names from the Celtic
languages of the British Isles and of many names
in other parts of the world. Irish baile townland
is anglicized to bally in Irish place names such as
Ballymena and Ballymoney; Gaelic beinn mountain
is anglicized to ben in Irish and Scottish mountain names such as Ben Gorm and Ben Nevis; and
Dutch hoek corner is anglicized to hook in place
names such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey and Hook
of Holland on the southwest Netherlands coast. New
Zealand is an anglicized form of an earlier Dutch
name Nieuw Zeeland new sea land (replacing the
original name Staaten Landt land of the States given
by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642), and
Canberra in Australia is probably an anglicized form
of an aboriginal name Nganbirra meeting place.
Anglicized forms of native American names include
Chicago, Connecticut, Kitty Hawk, Manhattan,
Michigan, and Tennessee. Mutual influence can
also occur. Contact between German and Slavic
has resulted both in the Germanization of some Slavic
names, as with Leipzig (Slavic Lipsk < lipa lime tree)
and Dresden (Slavic Drezdzany < drenzga forest),
and in the Slavicization of some German names, as
with Brno in Moravia (German Bru nn < ?Brunnen
spring).
Hybrid Names Hybrid names, which contain elements from more than one language, are particularly
important as evidence of language contact, and in
some cases of bilingualism. In northeast Scotland,
extant place names from the Pictish language
almost always comprise hybrids in combination
with a Gaelic qualifier, testifying to a high degree of
interaction between speakers of the two languages. It
is uncertain, however, whether these represent place
names coined by Gaelic speakers using Pictish loan
words, or Pictish place names taken over and adapted
Language History
Languages and Dialects
Place-name spellings can reveal patterns of orthographic changes at different periods. Whitebaulks in
Scotland, from Scots quhite white and bauk
unploughed ridge, is recorded throughout the 16th
century with spellings in initial <Quh->, replaced
by <Wh-> from the mid-17th century. This change
is evidently the result of anglicization, a process that
also affects morphology in such Scottish place names
as Hangingside (hanging i.e. sloping hillside), recorded up to 1607 with the Middle Scots present
participle inflection <and> (Hingandside 1551,
Hingandsyd 1564, Hingandsyid 1607; Scott, 2003:
25, 27). Recent work on Irish and Scottish Gaelic
also emphasizes the value of place-name evidence for
noun morphology (both inflectional and derivational)
Maolalaigh,
and its interface with phonology (O
1998).
Phonology
Bibliography
Brainse Logainmneacha (1989). Gasaite ar na hE irean/
Gazetteer of Ireland. Baile A tha Cliath/Dublin: Placenames Office of the Ordnance Survey.
Cameron K (ed.) (1975). Place-name evidence for the
Anglo-Saxon invasion and Scandinavian settlements.
Nottingham: English Place-Name Society.
Cameron K (1996a). English place names (rev. edn.).
London: Batsford.
Cameron K (1996b). The Scandinavian element in
minor names and field-names in north-east Lincolnshire.
Nomina 19, 527.
Coates R & Breeze A (2000). Celtic voices English places:
studies of the Celtic impact on place-names in England.
Stamford: Shaun Tyas.
Debus F & Schmitz A (2001). (Mikro-) Toponyme im
slawisch-deutschen Kontaktgebiet Norddeutschlands.
Onoma 36, 5170.
Eichler E, Hilty G & Lo ffler H (eds.) (19951996).
Namenforschung: ein internationales Handbuch zur
Onomastik/Name studies: an international handbook of
onomastics/Les noms propres: manuel international
donomastique (3 vols.). Berlin & New York: Walter de
Gruyter.
Embleton S (19941995). Place names in Finland: settlement history, sociolinguistics, and the Finnish/Swedish
language boundary. Onoma 32, 124139.
Gelling M & Cole A (2000). The landscape of place-names.
Stamford: Shaun Tyas.
Kitson P R (1995). The nature of Old English dialect distributions, mainly as exhibited in charter boundaries. In
Fisiak J (ed.) Medieval dialectology. Berlin & New York:
Mouton de Gruyter. 43135.
Kitson P R (1996). British and European river-names.
Transactions of the Philological Society 94, 73118.
Kristensson G (2001). Language in contact: Old East Saxon
and East Anglian. In Fisiak J & Trudgill P (eds.) East
Relevant Websites
http://www.icosweb.net International Council of Onomastic Sciences.
http://www.sofi.se NORNA.
http://www.snsbi.org.uk Society for Name Studies in
Britain and Ireland.
http://www.wtsn.binghamton.edu American Name Society.
http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca Canadian Society for the
Study of Names.
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk English Place-Name Society.
http://www.hum.ku.dk Institute of Name Research at the
University of Copenhagen.
http://www.osu.unp.ac.za Names Society of Southern
Africa.
www.qub.ac.uk Northern Ireland Place-Name Project.
http://www.bangor.ac.uk Place-Name Research Centre,
University of Wales Bangor.
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk Scottish Place-Name Society.
http://www.pobail.ie Placename Branch of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
http://www.anps.mq.edu.au Australian National Placenames Survey.
http://www.linz.govt.nz New Zealand Geographic Board.
Plagiarism 621
Plagiarism
D Woolls, CFL Software Development,
Birmingham, UK
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Plagiarism is more often a violation of regulations
than the law, although it is clearly implicated in copyright. Plagiarism occurs mostly within educational
establishments, where the matter is normally handled
by the internal disciplinary procedure of the institution. The penalties can be severe, up to and including
the failure to be granted a degree, but it is relatively
rare for cases to be carried beyond the confines of the
establishment. Outside educational institutions, those
accused of plagiarism are most likely to be prosecuted
for breach of copyright, if the aggrieved author decides to pursue the case. Such cases are also relatively
rare; accusations and defenses are more frequently
debated in the national newspapers and journals
than in courts of law.
Most accusations of plagiarism are made in relation to student work; the subject of the plagiarism
usually knows nothing about the matter. That is why
the common reference to kidnapping a text is somewhat imprecise. The words written by the author are
not removed from their original location, and the
original author seems to experience no loss since the
author does not see the plagiarism. For the same
reason, borrowing and theft are equally imprecise
explanations of the practice. Any sense of grievance is
normally first felt by the reader, who has been misled
about the true authorship of the work in question.
Where such misleading is contrary to the regulations
governing the production of the work, this grievance
can be extended into some form of prosecution. Since
this occurs most often in predominantly academic
settings, the majority of the discussion below centers
on the academic issues.
622 Plagiarism
Plagiarism 623
624 Plagiarism
Table 1 Text 3 divided into successive 350-word segments and
analyzed for the Hapax occurrence of content and function words
Content hapax
per 350 words
Content count
per 350 words
49
52
46
50
54
69
43
55
60
50
158
158
156
177
165
168
143
166
181
156
6
7
6
10
12
5
13
9
5
6
Plagiarism 625
Detection of Plagiarism
Until the end of the 20th century, plagiarism has been
detected largely by human (as opposed to computerassisted) readers familiar with the subject area, the
likely sources, and, in the case of assessing the work
of students, with the expected capabilities of the writers. In such cases, the triggers for recognition can
be specific vocabulary items or phrases associated
with particular sources or recognition of substantial
portions inserted. The most common reported alert
of suspicion is of a sudden change of style within
the flow of the text. This can be an unexpected improvement in clarity, the use of terminology outside
the expected boundaries of reference, or the use
of material that is not as fully integrated with the
surrounding text as the rest of the material. The sentences below, for example, are incorrectly punctuated
while containing two highly distinctive and wellcontrasted sets of adjectives, marked in bold type.
In this text, the role of the leading man Okonkwo
seems to show that he values masculinity and he is
rebellious, the fact that his father was lazy makes
Okokwo more determined to make his way in the
world that values manliness. He rejects everything
that his father stood for it seems to show that he
believed his father to be idle, poor, cowardly, gentle
and interested in music and conversation. So he
decides to do the opposite of everything his father
was, Okonwo becomes productive, rich, brave,
violent, and adamantly opposed to music and
anything else that seems to be soft.
Identification of Sources
Once suspicions have been aroused about the stylistic
integrity of the essay, the reader then has the problem
of attempting to identify the source. This is generally
a requirement in disciplinary proceedings, because it
is necessary to show that the material substantially
exists in the source and to indicate the extent and the
manner of the incorporation of this material in unreferenced form. In cases where the reader is familiar
with the relevant literature, this can be a relatively
simple task, but many cases of suspected plagiarism
cannot be pursued to a conclusion because the source
data cannot be readily traced. It is possible to make
comparisons with earlier work, but there is as yet no
reliable stylistic indicator that can demonstrate that
an author could not have written the words under
scrutiny. Some research into provision of computerassisted style checking is reported in Woolls (2003).
Computer assistance is also available in the form of
Internet search engines, where the material under
suspicion can be checked for occurrence on any
open Internet site. Since students are often in need
of a rapid answer, it is not uncommon for the source
626 Plagiarism
Electronic Detection
A number of factors have resulted in the development
of electronic plagiarism detection tools. The growth
in class sizes has made knowledge of student style
much less common, and crosscomparison much
more difficult. Source material is increasingly available both within institutions, and freely published on
the Internet. And more work is being produced electronically and is increasingly being collected electronically. So it has become practical to compare student
work with that of their peers, and to search the Internet for material incorporated from open websites or
relevant data held by the web search services.
It is impossible to be definitive about search methodologies since they are not generally revealed by
their constructors. However, in the unstructured
space that the Internet is, as opposed to the indexed
databases employed in document retrieval systems,
for example, a successive word methodology is likely to be the preferred method of search. World Wide
Web searching is generally performed by looking for
consecutive strings of words that have been transformed electronically into distinctive patterns that
can be found in other texts treated in the same way.
As few as 6 to 8 words can be used in such pattern
building for identification across a very large number
of potential sources. If those making use of the web
sources are aware of this, it is possible to attempt to
defeat the search mechanism by systematically changing words throughout a text within the presumed
successive word boundary. The precise nature of the
operation of the algorithms is not known, however, so
this may not be a fruitful concealment attempt. It is
also a considerable task to prepare oneself to make
amendments that are coherent and still answer the
question. In any extended source use, it is probably
highly likely that a consecutive word string will be left
intact, and this gives a search algorithm a chance of
identifying the source. What such search engines cannot deal with is that not all material available from
the Internet is immediately available. Some can only
be obtained on payment of a fee, either for prewritten
material or to have an essay written for that fee, so the
essay has no obvious antecedents.
Related problems are growing class sizes with students sharing work by email attachments, and large
distance-taught groups where the electronic sources
in learning material are often simply reproduced in
the answers of the student. To address these issues,
other software programs have been developed to
compare all the work on a given task in a student
group with all the others. This allows comprehensive
comparison of the level of similarity not available to
generalized web searchers. These programs operate
using either using successive strings of words, or individual word similarity within a document. This provides assurance with regard to the independence of
student work from their peers, but cannot assist in the
identification of external material.
Plagiarism 627
material, particularly in the first years in higher education, their teachers will have great familiarity with
the source data, and they are frequently accused and
found guilty of plagiarism for adopting this practice.
Howard argues that this should be seen rather as a
stage on the path to achieving academic writing standards, and is more accurately described as inadequate
paraphrase, or an inappropriate use of sources. She
further contends that students can be encouraged to
build their way out of this practice during their
course, and that it is not an acceptable part of final
work assessed for a degree.
Diane Pecorari examined this view sympathetically
in a Ph.D. thesis (Pecorari, 2002) and subsequent
paper (Pecorari, 2003). The thesis traced the progress
of nine postgraduate masters degree students through
their course, with the consent and cooperation of
both students and supervisors. She found that in all
cases patchwriting was present to a greater or lesser
extent, even though the students knew that they
were being monitored and were in fact involved in
the discussion process during their course. In addition, Pecorari looked at eight completed Ph.D.s selected for their similarity in provenance to the M.A.
students, and discovered that in all but one case,
patchwriting was present at different levels. This
implies that the practice persists beyond first-degree
level. In her conclusion Pecorari (2002) comments,
What can be concluded is that between performance and
expectations a wide gap exists, one which presents a
danger for every student and a disaster for the few who
err, and whose errors are detected. It is in the interest of
every member of the academic community to mind the
gap and try to close it.
Conclusion
While plagiarism can be clearly defined as a departure
from the convention of attribution of sources, in
practice, identifying that plagiarism is present is not
always an easy task, and the identification of the
actual sources that have been plagiarized can be
even more difficult. The growth of electronically
available data, much of which will not be known to
either the specialized or general reader, makes the
problem of identification even greater. Electronic detection tools are only a partial solution that have
limitations on the amount of available data that can
be checked, and therefore the overall accuracy of a
negative report. Classical plagiarism the use of material from books is still a practice that is employed
and detecting this continues to be a problem only
really accessible to a reader (human, not computer)
with a broad knowledge of the topic. This problem
may in the near future lend itself to computer-assisted
detection as more publications become available online. At the time of writing, a combination of detection and prevention methodologies within education
is the favored method for encouraging good practice.
See also: Applied Forensic Linguistics; Authorship Attribution: Statistical and Computational Methods; Computational Stylistics; Computers in the Linguistic Humanities:
Overview; Corpus Linguistics; Linguistic Features.
Bibliography
Coulthard M (2004). Author identification, idiolect, and
linguistic uniqueness. Applied Linguistics 25, 43447.
Gibaldi J (1988). The MLA style manual and guide
to scholarly publishing (2nd edn.). New York: Modern
Language Association of America.
Howard R M (1993). A plagiarism pentimento. Journal of
Teaching Writing (Summer), 233245.
Howard R M (1995). Plagiarisms, authorships, and the
academic death penalty. College English 57, 708736.
Howard R M (1999). Perspectives on writing: theory,
research, practice, vol. 2: Standing in the shadows of
giants. Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing.
Johnson A J (1997). Textual kidnapping a case of plagiarism among three student texts? Forensic Linguistics.
628 Plagiarism
The International Journal of Speech, Language and the
Law 4(2), 210216.
Pecorari D E (2002). Original reproductions. Ph.D. diss.,
University of Birmingham, UK.
Pecorari D E (2003). Good and original: plagiarism and
patchwriting in academic second-language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 12, 317345.
Woolls D (2003). Better tools for the trade and how to use
them. Forensic Linguistics. The International Journal of
Speech, Language and the Law 10(1), 102112.
Woolls D & Coulthard M (1998). Tools for the trade.
Forensic Linguistics. The International Journal of
Speech, Language and the Law 5(1), 3357.
Introduction
It is not surprising that, even if the primary goal of all
research focused on speech planning and production
is to account for spontaneous spoken language, the
relationship between research on speech planning and
production and the study of spoken discourse has
often been difficult. This has much to do with the
impossibility of direct observation of conceptualization processes and with the difficulties in achieving
control over the production of speech. The creativity
inherently involved in speech planning sets two counteropposing effects in motion: the less creativity is
associated with a production task, the less interesting are the insights into the language production
processes; the more creativity is associated with a
production task, the wider is the variability in speech
productions and the more difficult it is to draw
conclusions from the data. As such, the historical
relationship between speech production and planning
research and the study of spoken discourse has
been strongly affected by the choice of methodology and data in language planning and production
studies.
The two research fields appeared strongly connected in the 1970s, when the analysis of error
corpora collected from daily conversations (over
many years) gave a large impetus to language production research. The underlying idea was that
errors are not random but seem to be connected to
fundamental characteristics of the speech production
process (see Fromkin, 1971, 1973; Garrett, 1980;
MacKay, 1972): errors shed light on the underlying
628 Plagiarism
The International Journal of Speech, Language and the
Law 4(2), 210216.
Pecorari D E (2002). Original reproductions. Ph.D. diss.,
University of Birmingham, UK.
Pecorari D E (2003). Good and original: plagiarism and
patchwriting in academic second-language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 12, 317345.
Woolls D (2003). Better tools for the trade and how to use
them. Forensic Linguistics. The International Journal of
Speech, Language and the Law 10(1), 102112.
Woolls D & Coulthard M (1998). Tools for the trade.
Forensic Linguistics. The International Journal of
Speech, Language and the Law 5(1), 3357.
Introduction
It is not surprising that, even if the primary goal of all
research focused on speech planning and production
is to account for spontaneous spoken language, the
relationship between research on speech planning and
production and the study of spoken discourse has
often been difficult. This has much to do with the
impossibility of direct observation of conceptualization processes and with the difficulties in achieving
control over the production of speech. The creativity
inherently involved in speech planning sets two counteropposing effects in motion: the less creativity is
associated with a production task, the less interesting are the insights into the language production
processes; the more creativity is associated with a
production task, the wider is the variability in speech
productions and the more difficult it is to draw
conclusions from the data. As such, the historical
relationship between speech production and planning
research and the study of spoken discourse has
been strongly affected by the choice of methodology and data in language planning and production
studies.
The two research fields appeared strongly connected in the 1970s, when the analysis of error
corpora collected from daily conversations (over
many years) gave a large impetus to language production research. The underlying idea was that
errors are not random but seem to be connected to
fundamental characteristics of the speech production
process (see Fromkin, 1971, 1973; Garrett, 1980;
MacKay, 1972): errors shed light on the underlying
Combining Perspectives
Up to this point in all the referenced works, the strict
control of planning (visually presenting the words to
be used) and production (time pressure during articulation) renders generalization to natural communicative situations tenuous: the production tasks used are
distinctly distant from natural production. Therefore,
the experimental conclusions would be reinforced
by more evidence from spontaneous natural language production. Combining observations taken
from natural situations and artificial controls applied
in a laboratory remains of the utmost importance to
advancing production theory.
Such a combination can be seen in the paper by
Branigan et al. (2000) that aims to connect the cost
reduction hypothesis to syntactic priming by examining coordination in dialogue. Do speakers in dialogue, regardless of lexical and semantic content,
have a tendency to coordinate the syntactic structures
of their contributions? Branigan et al. have established an original experimental technique in this
field called confederate scripting, which allows the
study of syntactic structure under controlled conditions in dialogue. Pairs of speakers took turns describing pictures to each other. One speaker (an accomplice
of the experimenter) produced pre-scripted descriptions designed to systematically vary in syntactic
structure. The natural production of the true experimental subject was analyzed to determine if it produced matching syntactic forms, the objective being
to investigate not only syntactic persistency in dialogue but also issues such as syntactic planning. Such
syntactic representations might be encoded as a component of lexical entries that are accessed during both
production and comprehension.
Of certain interest to this discussion are some crosslinguistic language production studies prompted by
the observation that most of what we know about the
cognitive processes underlying the production of spoken utterances has come from the study of English
speakers. Among them are Bates and Devescovi
(1989), who contrast the structural complexity of
Italian and English spoken utterances, and Holmes
(1995), who compares some of the message packaging devices used by speakers of two different
languages, specifically French and English. Direct
comparisons of production processes between English
To gather data, Levy used techniques like approaching students just as they had finished class registration
to question them on why they decided to order their
schedules in the manner they did. Most the cohesive
properties of discourse, realized through the speakers
language resources, are best described by taking into
account the speakers mental states and process rather
than the structured text: in other words, the flow of
the speakers thought process is central to understanding and explaining the flow of the discourse.
Some syntactic ambiguities are not easily resolved
without accounting for the role of the mental structure involved in the speakers production of the
clause. For example, reference should be seen as a
strategic process in which the speaker does not
merely identify a particular object but rather constructs that object by choosing among a selection of
properties that are momentarily relevant (see Levy,
1979: 184190).
Other frameworks for considering speech planning
and production originate in the study of spontaneous
spoken language, which shows a large amount of
phenomena readily understandable when taking into
account the processes involved in the generation of
real texts (see, among others, Sornicola, 1979, 1981;
Milano, 2004). Sornicola (1979, 1981) analyses
large series of phenomena in spoken text, where real
speakers in actual dialogue present deviances from
that expected by ideal users, demonstrating how
such an approach can contribute to further modifying
the concept of appropriateness. The analysis of spoken discourse gives the author the opportunity to
discuss in detail some remarkable concerns of linguistic theory. Milano (2004) focuses on processes of
topicalization in spontaneous speech. The analysis
(at different levels of abstraction) provides some
insights on syntactic variation, topicalization phenomena, and characteristics of the text in which
they occur.
Further integration of research on spoken discourse
and speech planning and production, as well as research conducted with a shared viewpoint (the marriage of qualitative and quantitative approaches),
could only serve to greatly benefit that analysis and
improve the techniques employed to that end.
See also: Cognitive Science: Overview; Consciousness,
Thought and Language; Discourse Processing; Hesitation
Phenomena and Pauses.; Language of Thought; Pauses
and Hesitations: Psycholinguistic Approach; Phonology in
the Production of Words; Psycholinguistic Research Methods; Psycholinguistics: Overview; Speech Errors as Evidence in Phonology; Speech Errors: Psycholinguistic
Approach; Speech Production; Spoken Language Production: Psycholinguistic Approach.
Bibliography
Bates E & Devescovi A (1989). Crosslinguistic studies
of sentence production. In MacWhinney B & Bates E
(eds.) The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 225253.
Beattie G W (1979). Planning units in spontaneous
speech: some evidence from hesitation in speech and
speaker gaze direction in conversation. Linguistics 17,
61181.
Bock J K (1986). Syntactic persistence in language production. Cognitive Psychology 18, 355387.
Branigan H P, Pickering M J & Cleland A A (2000).
Syntactic co-ordination in dialogue. Cognition 75(2),
1325.
Chafe L (1976). Giviness, contrastiveness, definiteness,
subjects, topics and point of view. In Li C N (ed.) Subject
and topic. New York: Academic Press. 2556.
Chafe L (1979). The flow of language and thought. In
Givo n T (ed.) Discourse and syntax. New York: Academic
Press. 160181.
Chafe L (1994). Discourse, consciousness, and time: the
flow and displacement of conscious experience in
speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Chafe L (1998). Language and the flow of thought. In
Tomasello M (ed.) The new psychology of language:
cognitive and functional approaches to language structure. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 93111.
Ferreira V S (1996). Is it better to give than to donate?
Syntactic flexibility in language production. Journal of
Memory and Language 35(5), 724755.
Fromkin V A (1971). The non-anomalous nature of
anomalous utterances. Language 47(1), 2752.
Fromkin V A (1973). Speech errors as linguistic evidence.
The Hague: Mouton.
Garrett M (1980). The limits of accommodation: argument for independent processing levels in sentence production. In Fromkin V A (ed.) Errors in linguistic
performance: slips of the tongue, ear, pen, and hand.
New York: Academic Press.
Hartsuiker R J & Westenberg C (2000). Word order
priming in written and spoken sentence production.
Cognition 75(2), 2739.
Heydel M & Murray W (2000). Conceptual effects in
sentence priming: a cross-linguistic perspective. In De
Vincenzi M & Lombardo V (eds.) Cross-linguistic perspectives on language processing. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic. 227255.
Holmes V M (1995). A crosslinguistic comparison of the
production of utterances in discourse. Cognition 54(2),
169207.
Levelt W J M (1989). Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Levelt W J M, Roelofs A & Meyer A S (1999). A theory of
lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and
Brain Sciences 22(1), 138.
Levy D M (1979). Communicative goals and strategies:
between discourse and syntax. In Givo n T (ed.) Discourse and syntax. New York: Academic Press. 182195.
Smith M & Wheeldon L (2001). Syntactic priming in spoken sentence production an online study. Cognition
78(2), 123164.
Sornicola R (1979). Egocentric reference as a problem for
the theory of communication. Journal of Italian Linguistics 4, 764.
Sornicola R (1981). Il parlato. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Stallings L M, MacDonald M C & OSeaghdha P G (1998).
Phrasal ordering constraints in sentence production:
phrase length and verb disposition in heavy-NP shift
Journal of Memory and Language 39(3), 329417.
Svartvik J & Quirk R (eds.) (1980). A corpus of English
conversation. Lund: CWK Gleerup.
Vigliocco G & Nicol J (1998). Separating hierarchical relations and word order in language production: is proximity
concord syntactic or linear? Cognition 68(1), 1329.
Yamashita H & Chang F (2001). Long before short
preference in the production of a head-final language.
Cognition 81(2), 4555.
Smith M & Wheeldon L (2001). Syntactic priming in spoken sentence production an online study. Cognition
78(2), 123164.
Sornicola R (1979). Egocentric reference as a problem for
the theory of communication. Journal of Italian Linguistics 4, 764.
Sornicola R (1981). Il parlato. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Stallings L M, MacDonald M C & OSeaghdha P G (1998).
Phrasal ordering constraints in sentence production:
phrase length and verb disposition in heavy-NP shift
Journal of Memory and Language 39(3), 329417.
Svartvik J & Quirk R (eds.) (1980). A corpus of English
conversation. Lund: CWK Gleerup.
Vigliocco G & Nicol J (1998). Separating hierarchical relations and word order in language production: is proximity
concord syntactic or linear? Cognition 68(1), 1329.
Yamashita H & Chang F (2001). Long before short
preference in the production of a head-final language.
Cognition 81(2), 4555.
Bibliography
Bachmann L (ed.) (1828). Anecdota Graeca (2 vols).
Leipzig: Henrichs. (Reprinted Hildesheim: G. Olms,
1965).
Hunger H (1978). Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur
der Byzantiner (2 vols) (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft XII 5.12). Mu nchen: Beck.
Murru F (1979a). Planudea. Indogermanische Forschungen 84, 120131.
Murru F (1979b). Sullorigine della teoria localista di
Massimo Planude. LAntiquite Classique 48, 8297.
Robins R H (1993). The Byzantine grammarians. Their
place in history (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 70). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Schmitt W O (1968). Lateinische Literatur in Byzanz.
sterreichischen Byzantinischen GesellJahrbuch der O
schaft 17, 127147.
Wendel C (1950). Planudes, Maximos. In Paulys Realencyclopa die der classichen Altertumswissenschaft 20/2.
22022253.
Wilson N G (1996). Scholars of Byzantium (rev., edn.).
London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
Predecessors
The first attempts at explicit theorizing about language in ancient Greece occurred among the itinerant
teachers known as the Sophists (late 5th century
B.C.E.). Ideas about language are, however, at least
implicit in some texts prior to this. Parmenides (late
6thmid-5th century B.C.E.) famously declared the impossibility of speaking or thinking of what is not,
which seems to presuppose a view of meaning as
consisting in, or at least requiring, reference to something in the world. And a generation or so earlier
Heraclitus drew attention to the seeming paradox
that one of the words for a bow, a deadly weapon,
was bios, which is identical in spelling with the Greek
word for life (DK 22B48). This remark appears to
trade on the notion that one would expect a certain
fitness between words and their objects. And a similar
notion is apparent in the etymologizing that occurs
periodically in Homer and Hesiod; for instance,
Odysseus was named by his grandfather, who was
Bibliography
Bachmann L (ed.) (1828). Anecdota Graeca (2 vols).
Leipzig: Henrichs. (Reprinted Hildesheim: G. Olms,
1965).
Hunger H (1978). Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur
der Byzantiner (2 vols) (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft XII 5.12). Munchen: Beck.
Murru F (1979a). Planudea. Indogermanische Forschungen 84, 120131.
Murru F (1979b). Sullorigine della teoria localista di
Massimo Planude. LAntiquite Classique 48, 8297.
Robins R H (1993). The Byzantine grammarians. Their
place in history (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 70). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Schmitt W O (1968). Lateinische Literatur in Byzanz.
sterreichischen Byzantinischen GesellJahrbuch der O
schaft 17, 127147.
Wendel C (1950). Planudes, Maximos. In Paulys Realencyclopadie der classichen Altertumswissenschaft 20/2.
22022253.
Wilson N G (1996). Scholars of Byzantium (rev., edn.).
London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
Predecessors
The first attempts at explicit theorizing about language in ancient Greece occurred among the itinerant
teachers known as the Sophists (late 5th century
B.C.E.). Ideas about language are, however, at least
implicit in some texts prior to this. Parmenides (late
6thmid-5th century B.C.E.) famously declared the impossibility of speaking or thinking of what is not,
which seems to presuppose a view of meaning as
consisting in, or at least requiring, reference to something in the world. And a generation or so earlier
Heraclitus drew attention to the seeming paradox
that one of the words for a bow, a deadly weapon,
was bios, which is identical in spelling with the Greek
word for life (DK 22B48). This remark appears to
trade on the notion that one would expect a certain
fitness between words and their objects. And a similar
notion is apparent in the etymologizing that occurs
periodically in Homer and Hesiod; for instance,
Odysseus was named by his grandfather, who was
Plato
The Sophists ideas on language form the context for
the reflections on this subject by Plato (mid-420s347
B.C.E.). In a number of dialogues, widely (though by no
means universally) regarded as from early in Platos
career, Socrates and his interlocutors are shown
trying to answer questions of the form What is F?,
where F stands for some significant ethical characteristic such as courage, piety, or virtue in general. This
enterprise is not fundamentally linguistic; even
though it is often described as a search for definitions,
Socrates is not interested primarily in the meanings of
terms, but in the real natures of the items that those
terms refer to. Nonetheless, the search is understood
to require sensitivity to how the terms in question are
actually used, and in this respect it seems to owe
something to Prodicuss interest in precise distinctions
of meaning. Socrates in these dialogues occasionally
professes allegiance to Prodicus; the professions are
never entirely serious, but they are not without some
basis in his actual procedure.
Plato takes up the issue of correctness of names in
his dialogue Cratylus. Here Socrates is made to examine two opposing (and extreme) views. One view,
that of Hermogenes, is that linguistic correctness is
purely a matter of convention. Indeed, Hermogenes
even ignores the connotations of society-wide agreement normally present in the word convention
(nomos), suggesting that each individual is free to
use words in whatever manner he or she decides.
Against this, Socrates argues that if one accepts a
view of reality as fixed to which Hermogenes readily assents one cannot regard correctness in language
as a matter of merely arbitrary choice. Cratylus, on
the other hand, holds the view that some names are
naturally correct and some are not; the correct ones
fit the nature of the things they refer to, while
the incorrect ones do not. A trivial example is that
Hermogenes is not Hermogenes true name, because
he is not in fact the son of the god Hermes. But it is of
course a much more difficult question what, in general, the natural fitness of names might consist in. The
view explored by Socrates and Cratylus is that most
names can be analyzed etymologically into a small
number of primary names, and that these primary
names are correct in virtue of a natural resemblance
between their sounds and their objects. It is not clear
how far Plato means us to be attracted by this theory.
Socrates finds much to admire in it. But he argues that
a role for convention in language cannot be altogether
excluded. He is also dissatisfied with the fact that, in
the version of the theory promoted by Cratylus, the
originators of these names were Heracliteans who
held that everything was in a state of constant change
a view that he, Socrates, cannot accept. Whatever
we are ultimately supposed to think about the theory,
however, the examination of the purported etymologies occupies a large proportion of the dialogue, suggesting that Plato thinks it deserves very serious
consideration. Given the history of etymologizing
mentioned earlier a history to which the discussion
seems sometimes to allude this is perhaps not
surprising, however frustrating and alien this portion
of the dialogue may seem to us.
Another significant point that Socrates makes in
Cratylus is that an understanding of things is more
important than, and indeed indispensable for, the
optimal naming of those things. And, as Cratylus
and other dialogues make clear, the most important
things, in the mature Platonic conception, are the
unchanging, purely intelligible Forms entities such
as Beauty itself or Goodness itself, as opposed to any
of the particular items we might call beautiful or
good. Now these Forms are not, of course, linguistic
entities. But it is plausible to suppose that one of the
reasons Plato had for believing in Forms was a linguistic reason. Given the difficulty of the Socratic
search for answers to What is F? questions about
the virtues, it is natural to wonder how we manage to
understand and use terms such as piety, courage, or
virtue at all. Even though we seem to have no difficulty employing these terms in ordinary discourse,
Socratess attempts to pin down what exactly they
refer to consistently end in failure. It might well
have seemed an attractive solution to this puzzle to
suppose that our understanding of such terms derives
from our (no doubt incomplete) grasp of the
corresponding Forms, which are only imperfectly
exemplified in the world around us; if Forms are
what the terms really refer to, then the Socratic
search, focused as it is on ordinary instances, is
bound to fail. Of course, the project of understanding
the Forms is hardly less ambitious, as Plato readily
concedes.
Bibliography
Ackrill J L (1999). Language and reality in Platos Cratylus. In Fine G (ed.) Plato 1: metaphysics and epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 125142.
Barnes J (1982). The Presocratic philosophers. (rev. edn.).
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Bostock D (1994). Plato on understanding language. In
Everson (ed.). 1027.
Broadie S (2003). The sophists and Socrates. In Sedley D
(ed.) The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman
philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7397.
Denyer N (1991). Language, thought and falsehood in
ancient Greek philosophy. London: Routledge.
Platos Cratylus is the first complete surviving philosophical inquiry into the arbitrariness of language,
and arguably the greatest. Although it was long
thought to have been an early work of Platos on
account of being merely about language, heightened
appreciation of its importance over recent decades
has prompted scholars to redate it to his great middle period. It takes the form of a debate among three
of Platos teachers, Cratylus, Hermogenes, and
Socrates, about the correctness of words (the subject
taught by Cratylus). Cratylus and Hermogenes are
arguing the question within the Sophists staple pedagogical dichotomy of physis nature versus nomos
convention. Socrates joins them, and they invite
him to adjudicate as to who is right: Cratylus, who
holds that a word is correct only if naturally
connected to its meaning, or Hermogenes, who thinks
that any word can designate anything just as well as
any other.
They begin by considering proper names, which
seem obviously conventional since chosen willfully
for individuals, usually by their parents although,
significantly, Plato had changed his own name (originally Aristocles) and then proceed to common
nouns, the choice of which is lost in prehistory. In
both cases, Hermogenes takes the conventionalist
view and Cratylus the naturalist one. But Cratylus
sounds absurd in the proper-name context when he
holds that Hermogenes isnt really his interlocutors
name because he isnt actually born of Hermes
(which would imply that he is lucky and eloquent,
when in fact he is neither). And Hermogenes sounds
equally absurd in the common-noun context when he
Platos Cratylus is the first complete surviving philosophical inquiry into the arbitrariness of language,
and arguably the greatest. Although it was long
thought to have been an early work of Platos on
account of being merely about language, heightened
appreciation of its importance over recent decades
has prompted scholars to redate it to his great middle period. It takes the form of a debate among three
of Platos teachers, Cratylus, Hermogenes, and
Socrates, about the correctness of words (the subject
taught by Cratylus). Cratylus and Hermogenes are
arguing the question within the Sophists staple pedagogical dichotomy of physis nature versus nomos
convention. Socrates joins them, and they invite
him to adjudicate as to who is right: Cratylus, who
holds that a word is correct only if naturally
connected to its meaning, or Hermogenes, who thinks
that any word can designate anything just as well as
any other.
They begin by considering proper names, which
seem obviously conventional since chosen willfully
for individuals, usually by their parents although,
significantly, Plato had changed his own name (originally Aristocles) and then proceed to common
nouns, the choice of which is lost in prehistory. In
both cases, Hermogenes takes the conventionalist
view and Cratylus the naturalist one. But Cratylus
sounds absurd in the proper-name context when he
holds that Hermogenes isnt really his interlocutors
name because he isnt actually born of Hermes
(which would imply that he is lucky and eloquent,
when in fact he is neither). And Hermogenes sounds
equally absurd in the common-noun context when he
actually, such knowledge is not accessible to just anyone. The Ideal Forms inhabit a heaven into which
only the philosopher, the wisest of men, can see
(hence the political stance of Platos Republic, where
the ideal ruler is the philosopher-king).
From this point on, Socrates directs all his questions to Hermogenes, with Cratylus silent until quite
late in the dialogue. In response to Socratess point
about truth, Hermogenes raises a powerful objection:
If truth depends on some kind of natural relationship between word and thing, how is it possible for
different languages to exist? Socrates does not attempt to answer this directly (a sign of how seriously
Plato took the question), but steers the dialogue off in
the direction that the question demands. He asks
Hermogenes about the purpose of words, and they
conclude that words exist for two reasons: to discriminate among things, i.e., to pick out their ousia, the
true essence that belongs to them alone; and to transmit that knowledge from the few who can perceive it
directly to the many who cannot.
This leads Socrates to ask about the origins of the
words we use, paving the way to the etymological
inquiry that will form the great central bulk of the
dialogue. Etymology, which in Greek means the study
of truth, was one of the sciences based on language
in which instruction was offered by Socratess contemporaries the Sophists. The most successful and
widely sought after of these was rhetoric, the art of
using language in order to persuade, persuasion being
the ultimate political commodity in the democracy of
Athens. Just as they had no faith in democracy,
Socrates and Plato disdained rhetoric as mere wordplay, not at all concerned with real knowledge. Etymology, however, had more of an appeal. It not only
claimed to be the study of truth, but did offer real
insights into what words meant in an earlier time,
closer to the moment of their creation. The great
question, Socrates says, is whether whoever made
the words we use the semimythical nomothetes,
which also means lawgiver really perceived the
true essence of the thing he was naming, and if
so, whether he succeeded in the word makers craft
of mimesis, imitation of that essence in the sounds
of language. This provides, in theory at least, the
answer to Hermogeness question about how it is
possible for different languages to exist unless words
are purely conventional: any number of correct
words are conceivable to designate a given meaning
as long as they capture its essence and make it plain.
As Socrates proceeds through various classes of
words and their etymologies, the thesis emerges
that the creation of the Greek lexicon took place
under the influence of Heraclituss doctrine that
everything flows. Accounts are given whereby
See also: Naturalism; Nominalism; Plato and His Predecessors; Realism and Antirealism.
Bibliography
Baxter T M S (1992). The Cratylus: Platos critique of
naming. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Joseph J E (2000). Limiting the arbitrary: linguistic naturalism and its opposites in Platos Cratylus and modern
theories of language. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
Kretzmann N (1967). History of semantics. In Edwards P
(ed.) Encyclopedia of philosophy, vol. 7. New York:
Macmillan. 358406.
Sedley D (1998). The etymologies in Platos Cratylus.
Journal of Hellenic Studies 118, 140154.
Sluiter I (1997). The Greek tradition. In ven Bekkum W,
Houben J, Sluiter I & Versteegh K (eds.) The emergence
of semantics in four linguistic traditions: Hebrew,
Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic. Amsterdam & Philadelphia:
John Benjamins. 147224.
C. Plinius Secundus (Plinius maior), Roman equestrian, civil servant and officer, historian, rhetorician,
encyclopedist, born in Novum Comum (Como) in
23 A.D., died in 79 A.D. during the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, as reported by his nephew Pliny the Younger (Epist. 6.16, 6.20). Under the emperor Claudius,
he was employed as an officer and financial administrator and held further administrative posts under
Vespasian (for details, see Konig and Winkler, 1979;
Serbat, 1986: 20732077; Sallmann, 2000: 1135
1136), but at the same time he was a very prolific
author of numerous treatises on history (De iaculatione equestri [On the use of the throwing-spear by
cavalrymen], Bella Germaniae in 20 books, A fine
Aufidii Bassi historiae in 31 books), grammar and
rhetoric, as well as science. Most of his works are
lost or preserved only in fragments, with the exception of the monumental and encyclopedic Naturalis
historia in 37 books (Beagon, 1992; Healy, 1999;
Sallmann, 2000: 11381140; Naas, 2002; Murphy,
2004), which had an enormous impact on later periods (Serbat, 1986: 21702183), even though Pliny
has frequently been criticized for the compilatory
nature of his work and for his lack of original
thought. Pliny the Younger, who in one of his letters
compiled a catalogue of his uncles and adoptive parents works (Epist. 3.5; cf. Suetonius, De hist. fr. 80
Reifferscheidt), described Pliny the Elder as an untiring scholar who devoted an enormous amount of time
to his multifaceted research activities.
To Pliny the Elders grammatical, rhetorical, and
biographical works belong three treatises of which
only fragments have survived or which are lost: (1)
De vita Pomponii Secundi in two books, a biography
of his friend Pomponius Secundus, military commander and dramatist; (2) Studiosus in three books
on the education of the orator, apparently soon
replaced by Quintilians Institutio oratoria; and (3)
Dubius sermo in eight books, which is referred to in
the preface to the Naturalis historia (praef. 28) and
can be dated around 67 A.D. The majority (more than
60%) of the Dubius sermo fragments, most of which
belong to Book 6, were preserved by Charisius via
Iulius Romanus. It is difficult to reconstruct the work
as a whole, but it can be said with some certainty that
it was a collection of words and word forms whose
grammatical correctness, including their orthography, was open to debate. In order to determine the
status of certain forms, Pliny applied either analogy
Bibliography
Barwick K (1922). Remmius Palaemon und die romische
ars grammatica. Leipzig: Dieterich.
Beagon M (1992). Roman nature. The thought of Pliny the
Elder. Oxford: Clarendon.
Beck J W (ed.) (1894). C. Plinii Secundi librorum dubii
sermonis VIII reliquiae. Leipzig: Teubner.
Citroni Marchetti S (1991). Plinio il Vecchio e la tradizione
del moralismo romano. Pisa: Giardini.
Della Casa A (1969). Il Dubius sermo di Plinio. Genova:
Istituto di filologia classica e medioevale.
Della Casa A (1982). Plinio grammatico. In Plinio il Vecchio sotto il profilo storico e letterario. Atti del Convegno
di Como 5/6/7 ottobre 1979. Atti della Tavola rotonda
nella ricorrenza centenaria della morte di Plinio il Vecchio, Bologna, 16 dicembre 1979. Como. 109115.
Detlefsen D (1867). Zur Flexionslehre des alteren Plinius.
In Symbola Philologorum Bonnensium in honorem
Friderici Ritschelii collecta, vol. 2. Leipzig: Teubner.
695714.
Fogen T (1998). Bezuge zwischen antiker und moderner
Sprachnormentheorie. Listy filologicke 121, 199219.
Fogen T (1999). Spracheinstellungen und Sprachnormbewutsein bei Cicero. Glotta 75, 133.
Healy J F (1999). Pliny the Elder on science and technology.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Holtz L (1987). Pline et les grammairiens: Le Dubius
sermo dans le haut moyen age. In Pigeaud J & Oroz J
(eds.) Pline lAncien temoin de son temps. Conventus
Pluractionals (Distributives)
P Newman, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Many of the worlds languages have a derived pluractional verb form that indicates that the verbal
action is characterized by one or another kind of
multiplicity: it can happen habitually; it can be executed by a certain number of subjects; it can be applied to a certain number of objects; it can continue
over a longer period of time; or it can be performed at
different places (Gerhardt, 1984: 12), e.g., Gaanda
(Chadic) [lax] tear (something), [lelax] tear many
things, shred. The wide semantic range of pluractionals, which varies in detail from language to
language, is evidenced in Parsonss (1981: 206) description of Hausa, namely one actor, or a number of
actors doing the same thing to a number of objects,
either simultaneously or in succession; or a number of
actors doing the same thing to the same object severally and/or in succession; or else one actor doing the
same thing to the same object several times over . . ..
With intransitive verbs it adds a notion of multitude
and/or succession . . . or sometimes of distribution in
space. In the linguistic literature, these verb forms
are variously referred to as intensives, which is semantically inexact, or plural verbs, which leads to
confusion with inflectional verb forms that agree in
number with the subject (e.g., Dutch: run loop/loopt
[sg.] vs. lopen [pl.]). These forms have less often, but
more appropriately, been described in terms of plurality of action or simply as plural action verbs. In
recent years, the term pluractional, a lexical blend
Pluractionals (Distributives)
P Newman, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Many of the worlds languages have a derived pluractional verb form that indicates that the verbal
action is characterized by one or another kind of
multiplicity: it can happen habitually; it can be executed by a certain number of subjects; it can be applied to a certain number of objects; it can continue
over a longer period of time; or it can be performed at
different places (Gerhardt, 1984: 12), e.g., Gaanda
(Chadic) [lax] tear (something), [lelax] tear many
things, shred. The wide semantic range of pluractionals, which varies in detail from language to
language, is evidenced in Parsonss (1981: 206) description of Hausa, namely one actor, or a number of
actors doing the same thing to a number of objects,
either simultaneously or in succession; or a number of
actors doing the same thing to the same object severally and/or in succession; or else one actor doing the
same thing to the same object several times over . . ..
With intransitive verbs it adds a notion of multitude
and/or succession . . . or sometimes of distribution in
space. In the linguistic literature, these verb forms
are variously referred to as intensives, which is semantically inexact, or plural verbs, which leads to
confusion with inflectional verb forms that agree in
number with the subject (e.g., Dutch: run loop/loopt
[sg.] vs. lopen [pl.]). These forms have less often, but
more appropriately, been described in terms of plurality of action or simply as plural action verbs. In
recent years, the term pluractional, a lexical blend
Fimo/
sink
Fyemo/
sink.PLURACT
dow-i/
horse-the
donjin-i/
horse.PL-the
(4) Kanakuru
/dow-i
a
Fowe-ni/
horse-the
PAST
tie-it(ICP)
the horse is tied
/donjin-i
wu
Fope-wu/
horse.PL-the they tie.PLURACT.-them(ICP)
the horses are tied
(ICP intransitive copy pronoun)
A phenomenon that is prevalent in the Chadic family is the existence of frozen pluractionals, namely
verbs that are pluractional in form but for which the
nonpluractional counterpart no longer exists. In some
cases the original pluractional meaning is still evident
to some degree; in others the special semantics of the
pluractional has been bleached out, e.g., Hausa furfura barter, cf. kirkira call many or often, pluractional of kira call; sansana smell, cf. tuntuna
remind many or often, pluractional of tuna remind; sassabe clear a farm (with plural action implied even though the simple stem *sabe doesnt
exist); yagalgala tear to pieces (with plural action
evident even though *yagala doesnt exist).
As with other morphological formations, pluractional derivation is accomplished by a wide variety of
means; nevertheless, some patterns stand out. First
pluractionals are commonly formed in iconic fashion
by means of reduplication. In the Chadic language
family, partial reduplication (sometimes accompanied by vowel modification) is the norm, but full
reduplication is also attested. Here are some examples (with the pluractional form to the right):
Bole [looFu]/[lolooFu] ask; Gaanda [fel]/[fefal]
break; Sha [mot]/[motot] die; Lamang [sula]/
[sulala] fry; Hausa [tuna]/[tuntuna] remind,
Bibliography
Brooks B (1991). Pluractional verbs in African languages.
Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 28, 157168.
Carnochan J (1970). Categories of the verbal piece in
Bachama. African Language Studies 11, 81112.
Cusic D D (1981). Verbal plurality and aspect. Ph.D.
dissertation, Stanford University.
Dixon R M W (1972). The Dyirbal language of North
Queensland. London: Cambridge University Press.
Dressler W (1968). Studien zur Verbalen Pluralita t. Vienna:
Hermann Bo hlaus.
Durie M (1986). The grammaticalization of number as a
verbal category. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics
Society 12, 355370.
Gerhardt L (1984). More on the verbal system of Zarek
bersee 67, 1130.
(Northern Nigeria). Afrika und U
Moravcsik E A (1978). Reduplicative constructions. In
Greenberg J H (ed.) Universals of human language 3:
Word structure. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University
Press. 297334.
Newman P (1980). The classification of Chadic within
Afroasiatic. Leiden: Universitaire Pers.
Newman P (1990). Nominal and verbal plurality in Chadic.
Dordrecht: Foris.
Parsons F W (1981). Writings on Hausa grammar: the
collected papers of F. W. Parsons. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI
Books on Demand.
Sapir E & Swadesh M (1946). American Indian grammatical categories. Word 2, 103112.
Steever S B (1987). The roots of the plural action verb in the
Dravidian languages. Journal of the American Oriental
Society 107, 581604.
Steinkeller P (1979). Notes on Sumerian plural verbs.
Orientalia 48, 5467.
642 Plurality
Plurality
P Lasersohn, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Plurality 643
(4) The shoes cost $75.
This sentence is most naturally interpreted as meaning that each pair of shoes costs $75, not that each
individual shoe costs that much, or that all the shoes
together cost that much.
Gillon (1987) argues that sentences with plural
subjects have as many readings as there are minimal
covers of the set denoted by the subject noun phrase,
in which a cover of a set A is a set C of nonempty
subsets of A such that their union, [ C, is equal to A,
and a cover of A is minimal iff it has no subsets that
are also covers of A; this idea is developed further by
Schwarzschild (1996) and others. Under this proposal, the pragmatic context makes a particular cover
salient, and the predicate is required to hold of each
element of the cover. The fully distributive and fully
collective readings reemerge as special cases.
However, cover-based analyses face a challenge in
dealing with examples like (1c): Suppose John, Mary,
and Bill are the T.A.s, and each of them earned
$10 000. In this case, the predicate earned exactly
$20 000 holds of each cell of the cover {{John, Mary},
{John, Bill}}, but sentence (1c) is not intuitively true
in this situation.
Whether it appeals to covers or not, an ambiguity
analysis must address the issue of where in the sentence the ambiguity is located. Early treatments often
seemed to take for granted that it was the plural noun
phrases themselves which are ambiguous, but many
more recent treatments trace the ambiguity to the
predicates with which the noun phrases combine
(Scha, 1984; Dowty, 1986; Roberts, 1991; Lasersohn,
1995). A standard argument for this view comes from
examples like (5):
(5) The students met in the bar and had a beer.
644 Plurality
Bibliography
Carlson G (1980). Reference to kinds in English. New York:
Garland Press.
Carlson G & Pelletier F J (1995). The generic book.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dowty D (1986). Collective predicates, distributive
predicates, and all. In Marshall F (ed.) ESCOL
86: Proceedings of the Third Eastern States Conference on Linguistics. Columbus: Ohio State University.
97115.
Gillon B (1987). The readings of plural noun phrases in
English. Linguistics and Philosophy 10, 199219.
Hamm F & Hinrichs E (1998). Plurality and quantification.
Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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Meulen A (ed.) Studies in model theoretic semantics.
Dordrecht: Foris Publications. 6383.
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Bartsch R, van Benthem J & van Emde Boas P (eds.)
Semantics and contextual expression. Dordrecht: Foris
Publications. 75115.
Landman F (1989a). Groups, I. Linguistics and Philosophy 12, 559605.
Landman F (1989b). Groups, II. Linguistics and Philosophy 12, 723744.
Landman F (2000). Events and plurality: the Jerusalem
lectures. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Lasersohn P (1995). Plurality, conjunction and events.
Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Lasersohn P (1998). Generalized distributivity operators.
Linguistics and Philosophy 21, 8392.
Link G (1998). Algebraic semantics in language and
philosophy. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.
Moltmann F (1997). Parts and wholes in semantics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roberts C (1991). Modal subordination, anaphora and
distributivity. New York: Garland Press.
Scha R (1984). Distributive, collective and cumulative
quantification. In Groenendijk J, Janssen T & Stokhof
M (eds.) Truth, interpretation and information. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. 131158.
Schein B (1993). Plurals and Events. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press.
Schwarzschild R (1994). Plurals, presuppositions, and the
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201248.
Schwarzschild R (1996). Pluralities. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
Winter Y (2001). Flexibility principles in boolean
semantics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Introduction
This article aims to discover what is special about
poetry in the context of literature in general and
stylistic approaches to literature in particular. What
is noticeable, first of all, about the literary works that
we generally call poetry is that they are, in a sense,
archetypal literature. In other words, to the extent
that we want to distinguish literature as an identifiable group of texts (see Jeffries, 1996), we inevitably
attempt to define what makes literature different
from other forms of language. And within the context
of literature in this sense, we might conclude that
poetry is made up of the language that is least like
normal language (whatever that is) and is therefore
more typically literary than narrative fiction or dramatic texts. Jakobsons early identification of the poetic function as one of the main functions of language
underlines the importance of poetry as one of the most
distinctive genres of text.
This is not to say that there is such a thing as an
identifiable literary language, or that literature or
poetry are actually clearly identifiable sets of texts
with different stylistic norms from other texts. Most
stylisticians from Jakobson onward would argue
quite strongly, indeed, that the same techniques and
stylistic effects are used in literature as in other texttypes and genres. See Carter and Simpson (1989) for
a restating of Jakobsons (1987) call to develop a
stylistics of literature. Despite the determination, then,
that literature was not linguistically different from
other texts, the stylistic study of poetry in the early
and mid-20th century took this prototypical role of
poetry as its starting point and attempted to apply
the techniques of the emerging discipline of linguistics
to those aspects of poetic language that seemed to
mark it out from other kinds of text.
In an insight allied to Jakobsons notion of poetic
function, the Russian formalists also focused on the
idea that literature typically makes everyday scenes,
processes, and situations seem strange to the reader
by describing them in out of the ordinary ways. This,
it is argued, causes the reader to see the world afresh,
through the eyes of the poet, and thus live life
more intensely, experiencing it more vividly. There
have been challenges to this approach, to which
I will return.
Poetry, of course, has probably existed as long
as human language, and it has been studied and
Words
Traditionally, the choice of words in poetry has been
known as diction, and this covers everything that might
be included in a more linguistic account under the
heading of lexical semantics. With the structures and
terminology of linguistic descriptions, we can describe
the texture and significance of a poems vocabulary
in terms of interwoven lexical fields; the use and
creation of synonyms and opposites; unusual collocations; the relationship between hyponyms and superordinates; the use of polysemy and/or homonymy to
create ambiguity and puns; and the exploitation of
the readers knowledge of a words connotation.
Vicki Feaver, for example, bases her poem Ironing
(OBrien, 1998: 261) on a set of lexical fields that
together tell a story both more subtle and more revealing than the apparent surface meaning of the
poem. Superficially, she describes how her ironing
habits have changed over the years, as she first of all
irons everything, including towels, then she irons
nothing, and finally she irons only some of her personal things. What the combined force of her lexical
choices achieves is to alert the reader to the symbolic
force of her initial dedication (and slavery) to the
domestic role she had been allocated, her rebellion
against this (by not ironing) and her final reconciliation with some of the necessary chores of any human
being, when she begins to iron again but only her
own clothes. One of the sets of words she uses is that
relating to the configuration of materials. In her overzealous days, the irons flex is described as twisting
Grammar
The use of grammar as a tool for creating literary
meaning is perhaps more prominent in poetry than
in other genres. It is difficult to know to what extent
the use of poetic license to play grammatical games
with the reader is partly a product of our improved
knowledge about the workings of grammatical structure as a result of the headway made by linguistics in
the last century. It would certainly not be the role of
stylisticians to attribute conscious intentions to poets
in this regard. However, it is probably true to say that
the grammatical playfulness that has been the hallmark of English poetry since the late 19th and early
20th centuries has kept pace with the increasing levels
of knowledge and understanding about grammatical
structure. Stylistics, then, has been able to use the
models and theories of linguistics not only to find
new perspectives on the literature of the past, but
also to find tools for describing the inventiveness of
contemporary literature.
The invention of new words has been a recognized
part of poetic license for many centuries, and is not
strictly limited to poetry (note Shakespeares inventiveness in his plays), but might again be said to be
more typically a poetic than a prosaic technique.
Some poets, of course, use morphological inventiveness more than others. The contribution of stylistics
to the description of such neologism is to allow definition of relationship between invented words and
existing ones, and in so doing to provide an explanation for the ability of readers to decode words they
have never met before.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, for example, is known
for his inventions of compound words. Hopkins,
writing at the end of 19th century, was a religious
poet who used compounds to try to get close to
describing the glory of god. For example, in his
poem Pied Beauty (Hopkins, 1979: 68) he is praising
god for dappled things, among which he numbers
the couple-color of certain skies and rose-moles on
trout seen through the water. Another early 20th
century poet, e. e. cummings (1960), made a particular kind of poetic license his own hallmark in the
echoic way. This use of the structure itself as a signifier seems to appeal to the readers emotions at a level
that is below the referential level of the vocabulary,
and depends for its success on the information structure of clauses and reader expectations of the loading
of different clause elements. The following example
comes from Pamela Gillilans poem Doorsteps
(France, 1993: 143), which describes a woman who
is clearly no longer alive (perhaps a much-loved
grandmother?) cutting bread and delivering the
resulting slices to the tea table, and the waiting child:
Finely rimmed with crust the soft
halfmoon half-slices came to the tea table
herringboned across a doylied plate.
Text/Discourse
One of the larger shifts in linguistic emphasis in recent
years has been the move toward more contextual
approaches to language study, dealing with texts in
larger than sentence-level units, and looking at
aspects of meaning that can range over whole texts
and take into account the background knowledge,
experience, and current situation of both producer
and recipient of a text. These discourse and textoriented approaches have been taken up in a range
of ways by stylisticians keen to find new tools to
analyze their data. In the study of poetry all of them
are potentially appropriate, but in order not to overlap too much with other articles in this volume, I will
restrict myself here to those that have been exploited,
rather than trying to take in those that could be used
for poetic analysis but simply happen not to have
been taken up so far.
Jeffries (2000) and Simpson (1993) both take the
analysis of point of view from the field of critical
discourse analysis and consider the possibilities of
this approach for poetic language, Simpson asking
this question in general terms, and not only in relation
to poetry, and Jeffries asking a rather more specific
question about point of view in Carol Ann Duffys
poetry. Point of view is an analytical technique that
draws on a number of grammatical categories from
functional grammar that together demonstrate the
viewpoint from which a poem is written. This is
much more subtle than asking whether it is in the
first or second person; it involves asking questions
about the transitivity, modality, and deixis of texts,
in addition to considering the person in which it is
written. All of these topics are covered in other articles in this volume, so here I will simply demonstrate
one or two examples of the poetic use of point of
view.
Douglas Dunn uses a form of modality in his poem
The Kaleidoscope (Dunn, 1986: 238), where he
describes the habit he got into, after the premature
death of his wife, of going up to her room, almost
expecting her to still be there: Might be to find you
pillowed with your books. His use of the epistemic
modal, might, creates an interesting effect, since it is
clear from the context that she is not going to be
there, and so the use of a modal that questions the
truth of this is shockingly apposite and emotive in
showing us the narrators sense of denial over this
bereavement. In contrast, Erin Moure (1985: 43)
uses the more straightforward boulomaic modals in
her poem about the desire she feels for her lesbian
love to be accepted by society:
Conclusion
In conclusion, we may return to the features of typical
poetic language listed in the Introduction as having
some currency in prelinguistics approaches to the
style of poetry and ask to what extent these features,
perhaps with different terminology, remain at the
heart of what poetic language is and does.
. Figurative language: Certainly interest in figurative
language has grown, and not only in literary stylistics (see Figures of Speech; Metaphor: Stylistic
Approaches). One difference of approach in recent
years is to see metaphor and other tropes as much
more normal, because they are now recognized as
common in everyday language. Metaphor has also
become the center of a large research effort in
cognitive stylistics, as a particular case in
the investigation of how readers make meaning.
Though poetry has been used for such investigations, metaphor is no longer seen as exclusively in
its province.
. Poetic license: Although the term poetic license is
used more facetiously than in earnest these days,
the phenomenon remains an important part of poetic style and has been taken to new extremes in the
20th and 21st centuries. The rules of language that
can be broken by poets now include all of them,
and the results can be relatively obscure or perceived as difficult by the reader. More recently,
poets have perhaps seen this as a problem and
have begun to stretch rules in ways that are comprehensible by readers, usually by analogy with
other forms or structures in the language.
Economy of expression: The power of poetry to say
a lot in a few words has not diminished; it may even
have increased. The willingness of poets to allow
ambiguities, vagueness, lack of cohesion, multiple
referents, etc., as well as the tendency to use every
level of language from phonology to grammar in
iconic ways, allows the poet to pack meaning into
every sound, word, and sentence.
Foregrounding: The recognition and enjoyment of
outstanding features of poetic language remain an
important aspect of poetic style, and one that is less
significant in other, less economical genres. There
is, however, a recognition that the background of
literary language can also be significant, and that
the unique voice that we recognize in many poets
may be a function of smaller, repetitive features of
language as much as the foregrounded ones.
Patterning: The importance of patterning in poetry
remains strong and has become perhaps more important as the rigors of poetic form have fallen
away. Poets, then, will use the repeated clause,
phrase, or sound to produce a kind of music that
is less insistent than a regular meter or rhyme and
thus may be meaningful as well as musical, in the
sense that every time a writer has a free choice to
make, the choice he or she makes is significant.
Authorial voice: Robert Browning is famous for his
poems in others voices, and using a range of voices
is not a new phenomenon, as any dramatic verse
will testify. What is, perhaps, new is the blending
and merging of voices in a single poem, which has
become the hallmark of some very successful poets
in the late 20th and early 21st century. Carol Ann
Duffy, Tony Harrison, and others have seen the
potential for this technique, which often draws on
more narrative-type techniques such as free indirect
style (see Dialect Representations in Texts; Speech
and Thought: Representation of).
Formal structures: the structuring of poems by
rhyme and meter may have given way to more
subtle use of line lengths, line endings, stanza
lengths, and so on; but the form of poetry remains
one of its distinguishing features, and layout continues in most cases to differentiate at a basic level
between poetry and prose.
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