An Introduction to Language

Cover
Linguistics in the World
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Brief Contents
Contents
Companion Website
Acknowledgments
Note to Instructors
Preface: About the Book
1: Introduction
	chapter overview
	language, languages, and the people who speak them
	what is language?
		what are language sounds?
		what are words?
		what are phrases?
		what is discourse?
	language differences
	language similarities
	variation through time
	variation today
	understanding the world of language
	the complex nature of language
	judging language
	standard Englishes and vernacular Englishes
	grammars
		teaching grammars
		prescriptive grammars
		descriptive grammars
		mental grammars
		Universal Grammar
	meaning
	standard Englishes and different world views
	structure
	a tour of language
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
2: Sounds
	chapter overview
	learning about what you already know
	letters and phonetic symbols: a mismatch
	phonetic symbols: a convenient lie
	meaning, ambiguity, and arbitrariness
		sound symbolism
		mergers
		two related kinds of meaning with sound
	a sketch of sounds
	consonants and vowels
	consonants
		the place of articulation
		manner
		voice
		McGurk effect3
	vowels
	are all language sounds important to all languages?
	making a difference: contrasting sounds with minimal pairs
	playing with voicing
	variation through time: how many sounds did English start with?
	the story of R: part 1
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	Notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
3: Patterns of Sounds
	chapter overview
	predictable differences
	meanings with minimal pairs
	some sound patterns linked with social meaning
	structure
		natural classes
		syllables
		possible and impossible combinations
	sound patterns
		a sample consonant pattern
		a sample vowel pattern
	schwa rule
	deletion and insertion
	assimilation
		nasalization
		flapping
		devoicing
		palatalization
	the story of R (and L): part 2
	Englishes and other languages
		aspiration
		intonation
	variation through time
	variation today
		spoonerisms
		at the word’s end: consonant loss
		yod variation
		glottalization of /t/
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	Notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
4: Simple Words in the Lexicon
	chapter overview
	lexical ambiguity and arbitrariness
	our mental dictionaries: unlike paper dictionaries in several ways
	the lexicon and synonyms
	structure
	how to identify lexical categories
	content lexical categories
		adjectives
		nouns
		verbs
	function words: the mortar for the bricks
		coordinators
		determinatives working as determiners8
		pronouns
		prepositions
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
5: Idioms, Slang, and the English Lexicon
	chapter overview
	meanings change
	the English lexicon
	lexical semantic change and the arbitrariness of language
	how to create new words
	nonce words
	idioms
	jargon
	slang
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
6: Words Made of Many Parts
	chapter overview
	putting parts together
	morphemes
	affixes
		prefixes
		suffixes
		infixes in English and other languages
	content and function morphemes
		content
		function
	suffixal homophony
	word trees
		hierarchy
		structure
		structural ambiguity in words
	morphemes and other systems
		adding morphemes and making the sounds fit
		how many morphemes in a word: a question for every language
	variation through time
		from rules to exceptions
		irregular? tense? try to relax
	variation today
		the story of g-dropping
		slang with affixes
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
7: Putting Pieces Together
	chapter overview
	meaning and ambiguity
	structure and hierarchy
	ambiguity and constituency
	Englishes and other languages
	variation through time: a shift from more synthetic to more analytic
		the first step: losing our inflections
		the impact on phrases
	variation today
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
8: Building Bigger Phrases
	chapter overview
	meaning and ambiguity: part 1
	Verb Phrases and traditional parts
		structure of Verb Phrases (VPs)
		some hints for drawing the trees
		ditransitive Verb Phrases
	the motivation for Inflectional Phrases (IPs)
	the structure of Inflectional Phrases
	building Inflectional Phrases
	meaning and ambiguity: part 2
	constituency in a different kind of phrase
	English and other languages
	variation today
		subject-verb concord
		the verb “need”
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
9: From Phrases to Meaning
	chapter overview
	meaning and ambiguity
	another realm of language structure
	structure and constraints
	structure of intent and effect
		the interplay of the -locutionary trio
	the structure of implicature
	direct and indirect: getting the job done
	a special kind of verb: performative speech acts with performative verbs
	discourse markers
	discourse scripts
	politeness
	communicative competence
	variation in conversation
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
10: The Winding Paths of Language in Education
	chapter overview
	language in education
		comparing different kinds of classes
	correct English
		what roles does language play in education?
		analyzing “grammar” advice
	prescriptive approaches to language
		prescriptive peeves
	descriptive grammar and genre conventions
		responsibility, outreach, and education
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	note
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
11: The Life Cycles of Language
	chapter overview
	language acquisition
	synchronic variation
	diachronic variation
		what English was
		vowel shifts
		what English has become
		judging English variation
	world Englishes
	communication with so many Englishes
	chapter summary
	key concepts
	notes
	references
	further reading
	exercises
		individual work
		group work
	study questions
Glossary
Index
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