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Discourse particles, discourse markers and pragmatic markers refer to phenomena that linguists have begun to probe only since the mid-1980s. Long-ignored in traditional linguistics and textbook grammars, and still relegated to marginal status in South Slavic, these linguistic phenomena have emerged as invaluable devices for cutting-edge theories of the semantics/pragmatics interface. This book, which is a pioneering study in such linguistic phenomena in South Slavic languages, is also among the first of its kind for a related group of languages. It builds on the recent findings of some of the most influential linguistically-oriented theories, such as Relevance Theory, Argumentation Theory and coherence-based approaches to explain the meaning and use of certain discourse/pragmatic particles/markers in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Slovene. These particles/markers are part of the contemporary and historical lexicons of the South Slavic languages, varying across regions and time, but also differing in origin. This book, which draws from naturally occurring data, written media and constructed examples, aims at a wider audience including scholars working in semantics/pragmatics and Slavic languages, and applied specialists interested in this area of research. The authors hope that this book will be conceived as a starting point for a structured inquiry into the flourishing field of discourse particles in South Slavic. ... Read more

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412 pages ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Slavic," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Slavic in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Slavic when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Slavic, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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Presenting an alternative view on major works and authors of Czech and Central European literature in a feminist and non-elitest perspective, this study examines the cultural basis expressed in selected major works and the underlying (unconscious) values of their authors. Using a semiotic approach, it gives detailed attention to the hidden emotive meanings of the texts. Themes explored include: author's attitudes to relationships between women in both older and contemporary Czech literature; nationalistic biases; issues of responsibility; active versus passive approach to life; and new visions added to European culture by Czech authors such as J.A. Comenius and K.H. Macha. ... Read more

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The volume presents an overview of recent cognitive linguistic research on Slavic languages. Slavic languages, with their rich inflectional morphology in both the nominal and the verbal system, provide an important testing ground for a linguistic theory that seeks to motivate linguistic structure. Therefore, the volume touches upon a wide range of phenomena: it addresses issues related to the semantics of grammatical case, tense, aspect, voice and word order, it looks into grammaticalization and language change and discusses sound symbolism. At the same time, the analyses presented address a variety of theoretically important issues. Take for example the role of virtual entities in language or that of iconic motivation in grammar, the importance of metaphor for grammaticalization or that of subjectification for motivating synchronic polysemy and diachronic language change, as well as the myriad of patterns available to encode events in a non-canonical way or to convey the speaker's epistemic stance with respect to the communicated content. In addition, the analyses are couched in a variety of cognitive linguistic frameworks, such as cognitive grammar, mental space theory, construction grammar, frame semantics, grammaticalization theory, as well as prototype semantics. All in all, the analyses presented in this volume enrich the understanding of established aspects of the cognitive model of language and may serve as catalysts for their further development and refinement, making the volume a worthwhile read for Slavic and cognitive linguists alike. ... Read more