Linguistics: An Introduction

✍ Scribed by William B. McGregor

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 545
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

What is Linguistics? How do languages work? Why is this important? Answering these questions and more, Linguistics: An Introduction covers all the key topics that you will need in your study of language and linguistics. Over 17 chapters, William McGregor outlines the core ideas and approaches in the field, tracing their development and discussing the most recent trends. Using examples from a wide range of languages and contexts from around the world, this book assumes no prior knowledge of linguistics and contains a host of pedagogic features, including key terms, discussion questions, and exercises, to fully support your learning. Fully revised and updated, this third edition now includes: - A new chapter on corpus linguistics - New topics, including theories of syntax, text typology and the evolution of languages - New 'Research Methods' sections at the end of each chapter - Updated examples drawn from a variety of global perspectives and contexts, ranging from North America to East Asia With a comprehensive companion website featuring additional questions, reading materials, and videos, alongside an online instructor guide, which includes lecture slides, suggested course outlines and structures, and an answer key, this is your essential introduction to the study of linguistics.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Halftitle page
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Figures
Maps
Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Text
Organization and presentation
Structure of the book
About the third edition
Guide for the student
Abbreviations and Conventions Used in Examples
1 Introduction
1.1 What is linguistics?
1.2 Fundamental concepts
1.3 Design features of human language
1.4 Outline of modern linguistics froma historical perspective
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
Part I Language: System and Structure
2 Sounds of Language: Phonetics and Phonology
2.1 Fundamental properties of speech sounds
2.2 The vocal tract
2.3 Types of phones
2.4 Some additional features
2.5 Prosodies
2.6 Phonology
2.7 How to establish the phonemesof a language
2.8 Transcription
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
3 Structure of Words: Morphology
3.1 Words
3.2 Morphemes, allomorphs and morphs
3.3 Main types of morphemes
3.4 Allomorphs and allomorph conditioning
3.5 Morphological description
3.6 Morphological analysis
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
4 Lexicon
4.1 The lexicon
4.2 Ways of making new words
4.3 Ways of using old forms to get new meanings
4.4 Fixed expressions
4.5 What’s in a word?
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
5 Structure of Sentences: Syntax
5.1 What is syntax?
5.2 Hierarchical structure in sentences
5.3 Syntactic units
5.4 The structure of clauses
Summing up
Guide to further reading
6 Meaning
6.1 What is meaning?
6.2 Semantics
6.3 Pragmatics: the meaning of utterances
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
Part II Language in Use
7 Sociolinguistics: Language in Its Social Context
7.1 Language as a social phenomenon
7.2 Social varieties and variation
7.3 Varieties and variation according to use
7.4 Language use in bilingual communities
7.5 Language shift and endangerment
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
8 Text and Discourse
8.1 Preliminaries
8.2 Text organization
8.3 Discourse: language in interactive use
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
9 Investigating Language in Use: Corpus Linguistics
9.1 What is a corpus and what is corpus linguistics?
9.2 Types of corpora
9.3 Building a corpus of your own
9.4 Analysing a corpus
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
Part III Language: A Human Phenomenon
10 Language in Its Biological Context
10.1 Natural communication systems of other animals
10.2 Teaching human language to animals
10.3 Origins and evolution of human language
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
11 Psycholinguistics: Language, the Mind and the Brain
11.1 Language and cognition
11.2 Language processing
11.3 Language and the brain
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
12 Language Learning
12.1 Major features of child language learning
12.2 Strategies for child language learning
12.3 Second-language learning
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
Part IV Language: Uniformity and Diversity
13 Gesture and sign languages
13.1 The visual-gestural medium
13.2 Primary sign languages
13.3 Alternate sign languages
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
14 Writing
14.1 The visual-inscribed medium
14.2 Types of writing system
14.3 The English writing system
14.4 Writing systems in society
14.5 Linguistic features of some written varieties
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
15 Unity and Diversity in Language Structure
15.1 Preliminaries to the study of the unity and diversity of languages
15.2 Universals of language
15.3 Typology
15.4 Explaining unity and diversity of language structure
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
16 Language Change
16.1 Major characteristics of language change
16.2 Sound change
Assimilation
16.3 Morphological change
16.4 Syntactic change
16.5 Grammaticalization
16.6 Semantic change
16.7 Causes of language change
Summing up
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
17 Languages of the World
17.1 Number and variety of the world’slanguages
17.2 Relations among the languages
17.3 Seven (putative) language families
17.4 Contact languages
Summing upIt
Guide to further reading
Issues for further thought and exercises
Research project
Glossary
Notes
References
Language Index
Name Index
Subject Index