Description
Everything we do involves language. Assuming no prior knowledge, this book offers students a contemporary introduction to the study of language. Each thought-provoking chapter is accessible to readers from a variety of fields, and is helpfully organized across six parts: sound; structure and meaning; language typologies and change; language and social aspects; language acquisition; and language, cognition, and the brain. The book's companion website also offers three brief chapters on language and computers; animal communication; and dialectal varieties of English. The chapters feature illustrative tables, figures and maps, along with three types of pedagogical boxes (Linguistic Tidbits; Pause and Reflect; and Eyes on World Languages) that break up text, contextualize information, and provide colourful accents that give real data from languages across the globe. Key words are bolded and defined in a glossary at the end of the book, while end-of-chapter summaries and practice exercises reinforce the key points discussed.
Table of Contents
Contents; Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Introducing linguistics Joyce Bruhn de Garavito and John W. Schwieter; Part II. Sound: 2. Phonetics: sound articulation and acoustics Christine Shea and Sarah Olivia O'Neill; 3. Phonology: sound patterns and contrasts Joyce Bruhn de Garavito; Part III. Structure And Meaning: 4. Morphology: word structure Joyce Bruhn de Garavito; 5. Syntax: phrase and sentence structure Joyce Bruhn de Garavito; 6. Semantics: language and meaning Roumyana Slabakova; Part IV. Language Typologies And Change: 7. The classification of languages Asya Pereltsvaig; 8. Historical linguistics Laura Grestenberger; Part V. Language And Social Aspects: 9. Sociolinguistics: language in society Terry Nadasdi; 10. Pragmatics and discourse analysis Maite Taboada; 11. Writing systems Peter T. Daniels and John W. Schwieter; Part VI. Language Acquisition: 12. First language acquisition John W. Schwieter; 13. Second language acquisition John W. Schwieter; Part VII. Language, Cognition, And The Brain: 14. Psycholinguistics: language processing John W. Schwieter; 15. Neurolinguistics: language and the brain John W. Schwieter; Part VIII. Brief Chapters On Companion Website and in eBook: 16. Animal communication and language Con Slobodchikoff; 17. Computational linguistics Robert E. Mercer; 18. English varieties outside of North America Daniel Schreier.
