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
Author(s): Kirk Hazen
Series: Linguistics in the World
Edition: 1
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 424
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
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