Capturing Expressivity: Contexts, Methods, and Techniques for Linguistic Research

This volume investigates the methods and techniques used to investigate expressivity, a term used to describe linguistic phenomena that serve an expressive function and deliver sensory information about an event, entity, or other culturally-determined category through a set of grammatical resources. The study of expressivity has gradually grown in stature over the last decade in particular; while there are much earlier accounts of expressivity, particularly within descriptive traditions of African, East Asian, and European linguistics, modern linguistic theory has been rather slow to incorporate information regarding these forms and processes into contemporary dialogue. In many earlier grammars, discussion of expressive elements such as ideophones and mimetics was relegated to footnotes at best. This is no longer the case in modern linguistic documentation and description, necessitating new fieldwork methods and analytical tools. The chapters in this book represent a new stage in the history of the study of expressivity: they explore a variety of different expressive items from a wide range of languages, focusing on the question of how to 'capture' expressivity in language and culture.

Jeffrey P. Williams, Professor of Ethnology and Linguistics, Texas Tech University

Jeffrey P. Williams is Professor of Ethnology and Linguistics at Texas Tech University, having previously held positions at the University of Sydney, Vanderbilt University, and Cleveland State University. His research is wide ranging and covers topics such as language contact, English dialectology, expressivity in grammar, neurolinguistics, and language documentation and endangerment.