All about Language: A Guide

Introduction 1
	What is language? 1
	Writing and signing 2
	Speech sounds 3
	Words and meanings 4
	Variation 4
	How many languages are there? 5
	All languages are created equal 6
Part I Words 11
	Word classes 11
		Parts of speech 11
		Open and closed classes 16
		Lexical words and function words 17
		Beyond English 17
		Sources and further reading 18
		Problems 18
	Forming new words 21
		The word and its parts 22
		Compounds 24
		Prefixes and suffixes 26
		Back formation 27
		Zero Derivation 28
		Blends 29
		Shortening 29
		Alphabetisms and acronyms 30
		Reduplication 30
		Proper names to common noun 31
		Taboo and euphemism 32
		Other methods of dealing with new content 34
		Sources and further reading 34
		Problems 34
	4. Meaning of words 37
		Words and meanings 37
		Hyponyms and hypernyms 40
		Synonyms 40
		Antonyms 41
		Polysemy 41
		Homonyms (homophones and homographs) 42
		Homophony and polysemy: profit and loss 43
		Deictic expressions 44
		Set phrases: idioms and cliches 45
		Conscious connections between morphemes 46
		How do the vocabularies of languages differ? 48
		Linguistic determinism: the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 50
		Sexist language 52
		Arbitrary relationship between form and meaning 53
		Dictionaries 55
		Sources and further reading 57
		Problems 57
Part II Syntax and Discourse 59
	5. The simple sentence 61
		Ideas of grammar 61
		Predicate and argument 62
		Phrase structure 64
		Grammatical relations 67
		Inflection 69
		Questions 79
		Negatives 80
		Passives and other valency changes 80
		Summary 82
		Sources and further reading 83
		Problems 84
	6. Compound and complex sentences 87
		Compound sentences 88
		Complex sentences 8
		Nominalization 96
		‘Correct’ grammar 97
		Sources and further reading 100
		Problems 100
	7. Using language 105
		Types of communication 105
		Given and new information 106
		Discourse 109
		Co-operative principle 113
		Speech Acts 116
		Conversation 118
		Sources and further reading 119
		Problems 119
Part III Speech and Writing 123
	8. Phonetics 125
		Syllables 125
		Vowels 127
		Consonants 133
		More speech sounds 138
		Markedness 139
		Sources and further reading 140
		Problems 140
	9. Phonology 143
		The phoneme 143
		Putting the sounds together 150
		Connected speech 153
		Stress and intonation 155
		Morphophonemics 156
		Underlying forms 157
		Sources and further reading 159
		Problems 159
	10. Writing 163
		The Egyptians 163
		Cuneiform 168
		Towards an alphabet 169
		Beyond the Mediterranean and Near East 170
		Writing in general 173
		Spelling English 175
		Sources and further reading 178
		Problems 178
Part IV Variation and Change 179
	11. Varieties 181
		Variation 181
		Languages and dialects 181
		Social varieties 186
		Styles 193
		Identity and solidarity 201
		Sources and further reading 202
		Problems 202
	12. Language change 205
		General 205
		Sound change 211
		Morphological change 214
		Syntactic change 217
		Semantic change 219
		Loan words 222
		Linguistic areas 226
		Motivation and direction of change 227
		Sources and further reading 228
		Problems 229
Part V The Brain 231
	13. Language acquisition 233
		Basic requirements 233
		Acquiring phonology 234
		Acquiring syntax 236
		Acquiring function forms 241
		Acquiring semantics 242
		Further stages 243
		Sign language and its acquisition 244
		Theories of acquisition 245
		Second-language acquisition 248
		Sources and further reading 250
		Problems 251
	14. Language processing brains and computers
		Brains 253
		Computers and language 262 
		Sources and further reading 268
		Problems 269
	15. The origin of language 271
		Animal communication 271
		Pidgins 274
		The origin of language 276
		Sources and further reading 282
Glossary 283
	Glossary of terms 283
	References and further reading 309
	Index 313