This book looks at the usage patterns found for the highly frequent items of and to in different sets of corpora. The book disputes claims that these two items can merely be referred to as prepositions and carry little meaning in themselves. Instead, looking at historical roots (cf. Brorström, 1965; Hook, 1975) and earlier corpus linguistic research (Sinclair, [1970] 2004), the aim is to demonstrate that both of and to have clear semantic and pragmatic functions. In order to achieve this, corpora from three types of text will be explored here: spoken (BNC Spoken Conversation and more recent material); semi-prepared spoken (public speeches as found in the BBC Reith and LSE public lectures but also Q&As and plenary-led speeches); and written fiction (BNC; 19th-century British and early 20th-century US full text).¹

From “Categories of the Theory of Grammar” (Halliday in collected works of M. A. K. Halliday. Continuum, London, pp. 37–94, 1961[2002]) to Introduction to Functional Grammar (Halliday in An introduction to functional grammar. Edward Arnold, London, 1985; An introduction to functional grammar, 2nd edn. Edward Arnold, London, 1994; Halliday and Matthiessen in An introduction to functional grammar, 3rd edn. Edward Arnold, London, 2004, Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar, 4th edn. Routledge, London, 2014), SFL created by Halliday has developed into a general linguistics from a grammar theory and has become a mainstream linguistics in the world (Fawcett in Theory of syntax for systemic functional linguistics. John Benjamins, Philadelphia, 2000; Eggins in An introduction to systemic functional linguistics, 2nd edn. Continuum, London, 2004). In “Categories of the Theory of Grammar” (Halliday in collected works of M. A. K. Halliday. Continuum, London, pp. 37–94, 1961[2002]), Halliday outlined four categories of language: unit, structure, class, and system. Later, in “Some Notes on ‘Deep’ Grammar” (Halliday in J Linguist, 2:57–67, 1966), he focused on the two categories: system and structure. From the system category, he developed systemic grammar, and from the structure category, he developed functional grammar. In systemic grammar, language is considered as a meaning system, and form is the realization of meaning. However, without a formal theory, the meaning will not be realized. In functional grammar, form is represented as the constituent structure of rank, based on which the functional syntactic structures related to the three metafunctions are established, including the transitivity structure realizing ideational metafunction, the mood structure realizing interpersonal metafunction, and the thematic and information structures realizing textual metafunction. Therefore, “syntax plays a very important part, even a central part in SFL theory” (Huang in Foreign Lang Res, 3:39–45, 2007).

This paper discusses the functionality of mathematics textbooks for lower secondary school in Kosovo, as representations of the curriculum. A summary is given of the main orientations and aims of the current Kosovo curriculum for mathematics in lower secondary school. This is followed by an assessment of the level of implementation of the main curriculum objectives within textbook design and an analysis of the nature of the key elements of textbook content that enable curricular objectives to be met. These elements include the use of motivational factors, real and interdisciplinary application of mathematical concepts and content in the expository parts of the text, worked – out examples, the use of real and interdisciplinary contexts in the tasks for students to work through individually, problems and problem-solving procedures and strategies, as well as the inclusion of a range of individual and group learning activities. The results of the analysis indicate a huge mismatch between the main curriculum objectives and textbook design. The conclusion is that Kosovan students in lower secondary school are not given adequate opportunities for developing critical mathematical skills and abilities in accordance with the orientations of the national curriculum.

Printed or digital textbooks contain texts accompanied by various kinds of visualisation. Successful comprehension of these materials requires integrating verbal and graphical information. This study investigates the time course of processing an illustrated text through eye-tracking methodology in the school context. The aims were to identify patterns of first- and second-pass reading and to examine whether the integrative processing of text and picture during the less automatic and more purposeful second-pass reading predicts learning, after controlling for reading comprehension, prior knowledge, and self-concept. Forty-three 7th graders read an illustrated science text while their eye movements were recorded. A cluster analysis revealed two processing patterns during the first-pass reading, which differed for the time spent on the main concepts in the text and picture. During re-reading, two patterns of stronger and weaker integrative processing emerged. Integration of verbal and graphical information was revealed by the frequency of second-pass transitions from text to picture and from picture to text, and the duration of picture re-inspecting while re-reading text information (look-from text to picture) and re-reading text information while re-inspecting the visualised information (look-from picture to text). A series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that only the patterns of integrative processing during the second-pass reading uniquely predict verbal and graphical recalls, and the transfer of knowledge. The study provides evidence that the delayed processing which integrates text and graphics contributes to text retention and the application of newly learned knowledge, over and above individual characteristics. The educational significance is outlined.

As discussed in Chapter 1, the term ‘Cockney’ is difficult to define and it has become increasingly more difficult in an area which is now described as ‘the world in a city’ (Greater London Authority 2005) and within the super-diversity (Vertovec 2007) that is London’s population in the 21st century. The term Cockney has traditionally been applied to the broadest form of the working-class dialect of the innermost suburbs of East London (the ‘East End’), the area contained within the modern day borough of Tower Hamlets. Speakers of this dialect have also traditionally been referred to as ‘Cockneys’. Today, however, references to the East End tend to cover the whole area east and northeast of the city of London, spreading into much of urbanised south Essex (see Map 1.1, Chapter 1). The reason for this change in perception of what constitutes the East End is connected to large-scale population movements since the 1950s. As a consequence, this has also had implications for the change in perception of what it means to be a Cockney.

The early Tudor laureate John Skelton (c. 1460–1529) wrote original Latin verses, previously unpublished, in the margins of a manuscript copy (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Ms. 432) of La chronique d’un ménestrel de Reims (c. 1260). Despite the peculiarities of the Reims Minstrel’s Chronique, which may be a parody of prose historical romance, Skelton used it for teaching Henry (1491–1547), later King Henry VIII of England, when Skelton was the prince’s tutor during the fourteen-nineties. Skelton’s verse marginalia teach historical criticism.

This chapter focuses on the ways in which the Learning by Design theoretical framework acts as a pedagogical prompt for teachers so that they are able to create learning experiences that complement the range of pedagogies described as knowledge processes and support 21st century skills and deep learning. The chapter discusses a learning module about the topic of “Living Things” that is an essential component of the National Curriculum for Science in Australia. The learning module was designed to support learning about living things in the early years (Kindergarten (4–5 years of age) to Year 3 (8–9 years of age)) and includes activities that could be achieved at a variety of levels as well as across the knowledge processes of experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and applying.

This paper investigates the processing and accommodation of the presuppositions triggered by wieder (‘again’). We conducted a word by word self-paced reading experiment where we presented sentences containing wieder in a context which furnished the relevant presupposition and one which did not. We then additionally asked questions to determine whether people accommodate the presupposition of wieder when it is not explicitly given in the context. The results show that effects due to a missing presupposition arise very early during reading and that there is no accommodation of the presupposition introduced by wieder. On the basis of this, we introduce the interpretation principle minimize accommodation and discuss what implications this brings about for other presupposition triggers. Another interesting result is a late increase in reading times in the condition which verifies the presupposition. We argue that this is due to the referential nature of wieder.

For modern Chinese poetry, or poetry written in vernacular Chinese, 1920 is a year of great significance. In this year, Hu Shi, one of the major exponents of the New Literature Movement, published Experimental Poems ,¹ the earliest single poet’s book of poems written in vernacular Chinese, in which his translation of Western poems was also collected. In his 1931 review of Hu’s book and the first decade of modern Chinese poetry, Liang Shiqiu remarked, “Modern poetry is foreign poetry written in Chinese.”² While this statement may be controversial, Liang concluded that there was a translational relationship between modern Chinese poetry and Western poetry in the 1920s, which started, unforgettably, with Hu’s translation of George Gordon Byron, Anne Lindsay, and Sara Teasdale, and his Chinese rendition of Edward FitzGerald s English translation of the Rubáiyát. Having acknowledged Hu’s practice of and contribution to modern Chinese poetry, Liang boldly asserted, “The influence of foreign literature is beneficial. We should embrace its invasion of Chinese poetry without reservation.”³ He continued to criticize his contemporaries for weighing the linguistic medium of new poetry, namely the vernacular, against its artistic quality. A critic associated with the group of l’art pour l’art poets mainly influenced by English romantic poetry, namely the Crescent poets, Liang was covertly steering his ambitious critique against the artless slogan poetry produced by irritable left-wing writers in late 1920s and early 1930s Shanghai, as he was at the time deeply preoccupied with his polemic against the left-wing writers who sought to popularize and classify literature for the purpose of proletarian revolution.

For almost two decades, CCI (Corporate Communication International) has conducted research on practices and trends in the field in the USA, Europe, South Africa, and China. This chapter reviews the results of those studies done in the USA and China ( www.corporatecomm.org/studies ).