An Introduction to Language

Description

An Introduction to Language offers an engaging guide to the nature of language, focusing on how language works – its sounds, words, structures, and phrases – all investigated through wide-ranging examples from Old English to contemporary pop culture. • Explores the idea of a scientific approach to language, inviting students to consider what qualities of language comprise everyday skills for us, be they sounds, words, phrases, or conversation • Helps shape our understanding of what language is, how it works, and why it is both elegantly complex and essential to who we are • Includes exercises within each chapter to help readers explore key concepts and directly observe the patterns that are part of all human language • Examines linguistic variation and change to illustrate social nuances and language-in-use, drawing primarily on examples from English • Avoids linguistic jargon, focusing instead on a broader and more general approach to the study of language, and making it ideal for those coming to the subject for the first time • Supported by additional web resources – available upon publication at www.wiley.com/go/hazen/introlanguage – including student study aids and testbank and notes for instructors 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 End User License Agreement