An Introduction to Language (9th edition - International Edition)

Contents......Page 7
Highlights of This Edition......Page 13
Acknowledgments......Page 16
About the Authors......Page 19
PART 1 The Nature of Human Language......Page 21
Introduction: Brain and Language......Page 23
The Human Brain......Page 24
The Autonomy of Language......Page 38
Language and Brain Development......Page 42
Summary......Page 48
References for Further Reading......Page 49
Exercises......Page 50
PART 2 Grammatical Aspects of Language......Page 55
1 Morphology: The Words of Language......Page 56
Content Words and Function Words......Page 58
Morphemes: The Minimal Units of Meaning......Page 60
Rules of Word Formation......Page 67
Sign Language Morphology......Page 83
Morphological Analysis: Identifying Morphemes......Page 84
2 Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language......Page 97
What the Syntax Rules Do......Page 98
Sentence Structure......Page 103
Sentence Relatedness......Page 135
UG Principles and Parameters......Page 144
Sign Language Syntax......Page 147
3 The Meaning of Language......Page 159
What Speakers Know about Sentence Meaning......Page 160
Compositional Semantics......Page 164
Lexical Semantics (Word Meanings)......Page 172
Pragmatics......Page 187
4 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language......Page 209
Sound Segments......Page 210
Articulatory Phonetics......Page 215
Prosodic Features......Page 232
Phonetic Symbols and Spelling Correspondences......Page 235
The “Phonetics” of Signed Languages......Page 237
5 Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language......Page 246
The Pronunciation of Morphemes......Page 247
Phonemes: The Phonological Units of Language......Page 252
Distinctive Features of Phonemes......Page 258
The Rules of Phonology......Page 264
Prosodic Phonology......Page 276
Sequential Constraints of Phonemes......Page 280
Why Do Phonological Rules Exist?......Page 282
Phonological Analysis......Page 284
PART 3 The Biology and Psychology of Language......Page 303
Linguistic Knowledge......Page 304
What Is Grammar?......Page 314
Language Universals......Page 318
Animal “Languages”......Page 322
In the Beginning: The Origin of Language......Page 328
Language and Thought......Page 330
What We Know about Human Language......Page 335
7 Language Acquisition......Page 344
Mechanisms of Language Acquisition......Page 345
Knowing More Than One Language......Page 377
The Human Mind at Work: Human Language Processing......Page 395
Computer Processing of Human Language......Page 411
PART 4 Language and Society......Page 449
Dialects......Page 450
Languages in Contact......Page 472
Language and Education......Page 483
Language in Use......Page 489
10 Language Change: The Syllables of Time......Page 508
The Regularity of Sound Change......Page 509
Phonological Change......Page 511
Morphological Change......Page 514
Syntactic Change......Page 516
Lexical Change......Page 520
Reconstructing “Dead” Languages......Page 529
Extinct and Endangered Languages......Page 538
The Genetic Classification of Languages......Page 540
Types of Languages......Page 545
Why Do Languages Change?......Page 548
11 Writing: The ABCs of Language......Page 560
The History of Writing......Page 561
Modern Writing Systems......Page 567
Writing and Speech......Page 573
Glossary......Page 589
Index......Page 621