English Words: A Linguistic Introduction (The Language Library)

Acknowledgments......Page 11
IPA Transcription Key......Page 13
1.1 Explaining Word in Words......Page 19
1.2 Language Is a Secret Decoder Ring......Page 22
1.3 Wordhood: The Whole Kit and Caboodle......Page 25
1.4 Two Kinds of Words......Page 29
1.5 The Anatomy of a Listeme......Page 30
1.6 What Don’t You Have to Learn When You’re Learning a Word?......Page 32
Appendix: Basic Grammatical Terms......Page 34
Study Problems......Page 36
Further Reading......Page 38
2.1 English Spelling and English Pronunciation......Page 39
2.2 The Voice Box......Page 43
2.3 The Building Blocks of Words I: Consonants in the IPA......Page 45
2.4 Building Blocks II: Vowels and the IPA......Page 54
2.5 Families of Sounds and Grimm’s Law: A Case in Point......Page 63
Study Problems......Page 69
Further Reading......Page 71
3.1 Guessing at Words: The Scrabble Problem......Page 72
3.2 Building Blocks III: The Syllable......Page 76
3.3 Phonotactic Restrictions on English Syllables......Page 79
3.4 From a Stream of Sound into Words: Speech Perception......Page 89
3.5 Syllables, Rhythm, and Stress......Page 93
3.6 Using Stress to Parse the Speech Stream into Words......Page 96
3.7 Misparsing the Speech Stream, Mondegreens, and Allophones......Page 98
3.8 Allophony......Page 101
3.9 What We Know about Phonological Words......Page 102
Study Problems......Page 103
Notes......Page 107
4.1 Getting New Listemes......Page 108
4.2 When Do We Have a New Word?......Page 109
4.3 New Words by “Mistake”: Back-Formations and Folk Etymologies......Page 110
4.4 New Words by Economizing: Clippings......Page 113
4.5 Extreme Economizing: Acronyms and Abbreviations......Page 114
4.6 Building New Words by Putting Listemes Together: Affixation and Compounding......Page 116
4.7 Compounding Clips and Mixing It up: Blends......Page 119
4.8 New Listemes via Meaning Change......Page 120
4.9 But Are These Words Really New?......Page 124
4.10 What Makes a New Word Stick?......Page 125
Study Problems......Page 127
Further Reading......Page 128
5.1 Listemes......Page 129
5.2 Making up Words......Page 130
5.3 Affixal Syntax: Who’s My Neighbor? Part I......Page 142
5.4 Affixal Phonology: Who’s My Neighbor? Part II......Page 145
5.5 Allomorphy......Page 148
5.6 Closed-Class and Open-Class Morphemes: Reprise......Page 154
Study Problems......Page 156
Notes......Page 160
6 Morphological Idiosyncrasies......Page 162
6.1 Different Listemes, Same Meaning: Irregular Suffixes......Page 163
6.2 Root Irregulars......Page 171
6.3 Linguistic Paleontology: Fossils of Older Forms......Page 173
6.4 Why Some but Not Others?......Page 182
6.5 How Do Kids Figure It Out?......Page 184
6.6 Representing Complex Suffixal Restrictions......Page 186
6.7 Keeping Irregulars: Semantic Clues to Morphological Classes......Page 188
6.8 Really Irregular: Suppletive Forms......Page 191
6.9 Losing Irregulars: Producing Words on the Fly......Page 193
6.10 Productivity, Blocking, and Bushisms......Page 195
Study Problems......Page 198
Further Reading......Page 201
Notes......Page 202
7 Lexical Semantics: The Structure of Meaning, the Meaning of Structure......Page 203
7.1 Function Meaning vs. Content Meaning......Page 204
7.2 Entailment......Page 207
7.3 Function Words and their Meanings......Page 208
7.4 Content Words and their Meanings......Page 215
7.5 Relationships and Argument Structure: Meaning and Grammar......Page 222
7.6 Argument Structure......Page 224
7.7 Derivational Morphology and Argument Structure......Page 227
7.8 Subtleties of Argument Structure......Page 228
7.9 Function vs. Content Meanings: The Showdown......Page 230
7.10 How Do We Learn All That?......Page 232
Study Problems......Page 233
Further Reading......Page 234
Notes......Page 235
8.1 How Do Children Learn the Meanings of Words?......Page 236
8.2 Learning Words for Middle-Sized Observables......Page 240
8.4 Morphological and Syntactic Clues......Page 244
8.5 Learning Words for Non-Observables......Page 246
8.6 Syntactic Frames, Semantic Roles, and Event Structure......Page 247
8.7 Agent–Patient Protoroles......Page 249
8.8 Functional Listemes Interacting with Content Listemes......Page 250
8.9 Simple Co-Occurrence? Or Actual Composition?......Page 251
Study Problems......Page 254
Further Reading......Page 255
Notes......Page 256
9.1 Linguistic Change, and Lots of It......Page 257
9.3 A Brief History of England, as Relevant to the English Vocabulary......Page 267
9.4 55 BC to 600 AD: How the English Came to England......Page 268
9.5 600–900 AD: The English and the Vikings......Page 271
9.6 1066–1200: Norman Rule......Page 273
9.7 1200–1450: Anglicization of the Normans......Page 274
9.8 1450–1600: The English Renaissance......Page 277
9.9 1600–1750: Restoration, Expansion......Page 280
9.10 1750–Modern Day......Page 281
9.11 The Rise of Prescriptivism: How to Really Speak Good......Page 284
9.12 English Orthography: The Latin Alphabet, the Quill Pen, the Printing Press, and the Great Vowel Shift......Page 285
Study Problems......Page 294
Further Reading......Page 296
Notes......Page 297
Glossary......Page 299
Works Consulted......Page 308
Index......Page 309