Introducing Linguistics: A Graphic Guide

Description

Covering thinkers from Aristotle to Saussure and Chomsky, "Introducing Linguistics" reveals the rules and beauty that underlie language, our most human skill. Title Page Copyright Contents A Brief History of Linguistics An Indian Linguist The Greek Origins of Linguistics Grammar or Parts of Speech Latin Grammar Traditional Grammar The Port-Royal Grammar Historical Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure Saussure’s Lectures on General Linguistics Saussure’s Structuralism An Example from English An Example from Spanish Synchronic and Diachronic Structures Trubetzkoy’s Phonology Jakobson’s Work on Linguistics Jakobson and Semiotics The Origins of American Linguistics Sapir’s General Linguistics The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Example of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis A Pioneer of American Structuralism Post-Bloomfieldian Structruralists The Formalism of Zellig Harris Chomsky’s Generative Grammar Transformational Grammar Chomsky’s Programme Paradox of the TG Programme The Functional Approach What Does “Function” Communicate? Systemic Functional Linguistics: Texts Cognitive Linguistics Gendering Nouns Dyirbal Noun Genders Language Perception Differences Greek Perception of Time Metaphor What is Language? Natural Language Our Language Faculty What’s Special About Human Languages? What do all Languages Have in Common? Linguistic Abilities Language Media Units of Writing Duality of Patterning Sign Languages Nicaraguan Sign Language Grammar and Word Order Different Examples of Word Order and Location Tense and Time Grammatical Differences Sign Language Grammar The Written Record of Language And Further Back … … to Old English The Never-ending Story Conservative Prescriptivism Historical Perspectives Explaining Systemic Correspondence The Indo-European Family and PIE The Remote Origins of English Eastern Ancestors of PIE The Saussurean Paradox Sociolinguistic Studies of Variation Male-versus-Female Speech Variation and Social Context Semantics Meanings Occur in Connections Pragmatics Pragmatic Issues Extending Pragmatics Where Does Language Come From? Skinner’s Thesis Attacked by Chomsky Children Construct Rules Example of Active Construction Creating a Language Pidgin Creoles Chomsky’s Universal Grammar What is the Rule? Linguistic Nativism Obstacles to Confirming UG Respectively, with Respect Innate or Acquired? Language Planning Engineering Basque Standard English Sexism in Language Sexist Attitudes Descriptivism Disordered Language Wernicke’s Aphasia Neurolinguistics Specific Language Impairment Williams Syndrome A Psycholinguistic View of Language A Problem of Faulty Genes How Did Language Originate? What Do We Know Today? When Did Language Begin? The Gradualist Theory The Catastrophic Theory Criticism of the Gradualist View Bickerton’s Conclusion Another Cognitive Example Differences of Metaphor Conflicting Speculations The Purposes of Language Further Reading Index Biographies