An outline of the methodology of the BBC Voices survey and description of the corresponding audio archive at the British Library; a guide to using the thesaurus, with examples of typical entries; biographical details of all participants and a list of abbreviations used.

Thischapter focuses on data from Czech, specifically, derived aggregates and complex numerals. Derived aggregates such as list-í (leaf- í- NOM.SG, ‘foliage’) are derived from a count noun (e.g., list) and the suffix -í. Furthermore, aggregates derived with -í are non-count. Grimm and Dočekal discuss three types of complex numerals that are also morphologically derived: derived group numerals, complex numerals for aggregates, and taxonomic numerals. As well as using these data to bolster the support for a view in which aggregates are a distinct kind of non-countable entity from substances, the authorsargue the complexity of the morphosyntactic resources a language can limit the extent to which nouns in that language are mass/count flexible. These data are then modeled in a neo-Krifkan framework, enriched with mereotopology that accounts for taxonomic and group numeral constructions, the sense in which derived aggregates denote clustered individuals (individuals formed of parts that stand in relatedness relations to one another), and why the counting of derived aggregates in Czech is only possible with complex numerals for aggregates.

Responses supplied by contributors from North West England recorded by BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC GMR and BBC Radio Merseyside

This chapter analyses the connections between quantity expressions, which, in English, include expressions such as three, several, a few, much, and many, and the mass/count distinction. Based on cross-linguistic evidence from Brazilian Portuguese, English, Mandarin, and Yudja, amongst others, Doetjes argues that quantity expressions can be exhaustively subdivided into two classes: count quantity expressions, which presuppose the availability of units that can be counted, and non-count quantity expressions, which do not presuppose the availability of units that can be counted. Anti-count quantity expressions, which presuppose the absence of units that can be counted, are subsumed under the class of non-count quantity expressions. On the basis of this distinction, Doetjes argues that while we may expect to find languages in which all nouns have a count denotation (Yudja being a good candidate), it is not predicted to be possible for there to be languages in which all nouns have a mass denotation.

Responses supplied by contributors from the West Midlands recorded by BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC WM, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, BBC Hereford & Worcester and BBC Asian Network

Responses to prompts for words and phrases used to describe personal attributes

Responses to prompts for words and phrases used to describe personal attributes

Responses supplied by contributors from North West England recorded by BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC GMR and BBC Radio Merseyside

Responses supplied by contributors from South West England recorded by BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Wiltshire, Somerset Sound, BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Radio Devon and BBC Radio Solent

Responses supplied by contributors from London recorded by BBC London and BBC Asian Network

This chapter introduces the theoretical context for the compositional semantic framework to be developed in the book. A key innovation is to posit explicit representations of context – formally, variables for assignment functions – in the syntax and semantics of natural language. A primary focus is on a spectrum of linguistic shifting phenomena, in which the context relevant for interpretation depends on features of the linguistic environment. The proposed theory affords a standardization of quantification across domains, and an improved framework for theorizing about linguistic meaning and the role of context in interpretation. Comparisons with alternative operator-based theories are briefly considered. An outline of the subsequent chapters is presented.

This chapter is concerned with what we know about the status and the history of discourse markers. The chapter provides a detailed discussion of the various hypotheses that have been proposed to account for the rise of discourse markers. It is argued that none of those hypotheses is entirely satisfactory, pointing out a number of shortcomings characterizing such earlier approaches. The conclusion reached in the chapter is that discourse markers exhibit a catalog of grammatical properties that are hard to explain on the basis of those approaches.

This chapter integrates the treatments of quantifier phrases, genitives, and pronouns from Chapters 6 and 7 in a more detailed assignment-variable-based layered n analysis of noun phrases. Applications to additional effects associated with “specificity” are explored, including presuppositional vs. nonpresuppositional uses, contextual domain restriction, weak vs. strong quantifiers, existential ‘there’ sentences, and modal independence. Possibilities for nonlocal readings of world arguments are captured in a general phase-based syntax. An alternative matching analysis of relative clauses is provided, which improves on the head-raising account from Chapter 6. A semantics incorporating events is briefly considered in a parallel layered v analysis of verb phrases.

In this chapter, the framework proposed in Chapter 2 is applied to the history of English. The discourse markers studied are after all, anyway, I mean, if you like, if you will, instead, like, no doubt, right, so to say/so to speak, well, and what else. The findings presented are in support of the hypothesis proposed in Section 1.5, according to which discourse markers are the joint product of two separate mechanisms, with each of the mechanisms accounting for specific properties of discourse markers.