Linguistics is a comprehensive crosslinguistic introduction to the study of language, and is ideal for students with no background in linguistics.
- A comprehensive introduction to the study of language, set apart by its inclusion of cross-linguistic data from over 80 different spoken and signed languages
- Explores how language works by examining discourse, sentence-structure, meaning, words, and sounds
- Introduces psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic issues, including language acquisition, neurolinguistics, language variation, language change, language contact, and multilingualism
- Written in a problem-oriented style to engage readers, and is ideal for those new to the subject
- Incorporates numerous student-friendly features throughout, including extensive exercises, summaries, assignments, and suggestions for further reading
- Based on the bestselling Dutch edition of this work, the English edition has been revised and expanded to offer an up-to-date and engaging survey of linguistics for students new to the field
Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables xiii Preface xvii
Part I Language and the Language Faculty 1
1 From Language to Linguistics 3
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Languages 5
1.3 Other Languages 9
1.4 Differences 15
1.5 Linguistics 17
1.6 Different Kinds of Grammar 19
1.7 The Contents of this Book and the Subfields of Linguistics 22
2 The Language User 29
2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 Knowledge and Ability: The Cognitive System 30
2.3 Language and the Brain 34
2.4 Language Comprehension 37
2.5 Language Production 44
3 Language Acquisition 57
3.1 Introduction 57
3.2 How Do Children Acquire Language? 59
3.3 The Order of First Language Acquisition 62
3.4 Factors that Influence the Acquisition of a Second Language 66
3.5 The Order of Second Language Acquisition 69
3.6 Bilingual Development 74
Part II Language and Interaction 81
4 Discourse 83
4.1 Introduction 83
4.2 Interpretation and Inference 84
4.3 Cooperation 86
4.4 Conversations 89
4.5 Coherence Through Linguistic Form 95
5 Speech Acts 103
5.1 Introduction 103
5.2 An Utterance is an Act 104
5.3 Information Structure 110
5.4 Pragmatic Appropriateness 114
Part III Sentences and Their Meaning 121
6 Constituents and Word Classes 123
6.1 Introduction 123
6.2 Constituents 124
6.3 Sentences, Clauses and Phrases 126
6.4 Phrase Types 127
6.5 Heads and Modifiers 130
6.6 Constituent Structure 131
6.7 Phrases Versus Words 135
6.8 Word Classes: Content Words 136
6.9 Word Classes: Function Words 138
7 Simple Sentences 143
7.1 Introduction 143
7.2 Functions of Phrases Within the Sentence 144
7.3 Valency 147
7.4 Semantic Roles 150
7.5 Grammatical Roles 151
7.6 The Marking of Semantic and Grammatical Roles 153
7.7 Reduction of Valency 154
7.8 Reflexive Constructions 155
7.9 Pronominalisation 157
8 Complex Sentences 161
8.1 Introduction 161
8.2 The Functions of Embedded Clauses 162
8.3 The Forms of Embedded Clauses 165
8.4 Interaction between Main Clause and Embedded Clause 168
8.5 Coordinated Clauses 172
8.6 The Form of Coordinated Clauses 173
9 Constituent Order 177
9.1 Introduction 177
9.2 Constituent Order and Levels of Analysis 178
9.3 Constituent Order at the Sentence Level 179
9.4 Clause Type 181
9.5 Embedded Clauses 182
9.6 Complexity 183
9.7 The Information Status of Constituents 184
9.8 Constituent Order within Constituents 185
9.9 Correlations 188
9.10 Discontinuous Constituents 190
Summary 191
10 Sentence Meaning 195
10.1 Introduction 195
10.2 Compositionality 196
10.3 Noun Phrases: Reference 197
10.4 Noun Phrases: Deixis and Anaphora 203
10.5 Verb Phrases: Tense and Aspect 206
10.6 Verb Phrases: Situation Types 210
Part IV Words and Their Meaning 217
11 Lexicon 219
11.1 Introduction 219
11.2 What is aWord? 220
11.3 The Relation Between Word Form and Meaning 221
11.4 Content Words and Function Words 223
11.5 The Lexicon 226
11.6 Kinds of Lexical Information 228
11.7 Dictionaries 230
11.8 Meaning and Meaning Relations 232
11.9 Semantic Description 235
11.10 Words Across Languages 236
12 Word Formation 241
12.1 Introduction 241
12.2 The Internal Composition of Words 242
12.3 The Functions of Word Formation 243
12.4 Derivation 245
12.5 Inflection 249
12.6 Morphological Forms 251
12.7 The Structure ofWords and Their Meanings 255
12.8 Differences between Derivation and Inflection 256
12.9 Morphological Differences between Languages 258
13 Compounds and Idiomatic Expressions 265
13.1 Introduction 265
13.2 Structure and Meaning of Compounds 266
13.3 Types of Compounds 270
13.4 Incorporation 271
13.5 Idiomatic Expressions 272
13.6 The Meaning of Idiomatic Expressions 274
Part V Speech Sounds 283
14 Speaking and Listening – Speech Sounds 285
14.1 Introduction 285
14.2 Speaking 287
14.3 The Speech Signal 288
14.4 Hearing and Understanding 291
14.5 Speech Sounds 292
14.6 Speech Synthesis and Speech Recognition 298
15 Sound Systems and Phonological Processes 303
15.1 Introduction 303
15.2 Distinctiveness 304
15.3 Sound Systems 307
15.4 Distinctive Features 311
15.5 Morphophonological Processes 314
15.6 Graphemes and Phonemes 316
16 Syllables, Stress and Intonation 321
16.1 Introduction 321
16.2 The Syllable: Phonotactics 322
16.3 The Word: Stress 326
16.4 The Sentence: Intonation 328
16.5 Rhythm 330
Part VI Languages and Communities 335
17 Differences and Similarities between Languages 337
17.1 Introduction 337
17.2 Similarities between Languages 339
17.3 Genetic Relations 342
17.4 Language and Culture 349
17.5 Language and Thought: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 354
18 Language Variation 361
18.1 Introduction 361
18.2 What is a Language? 362
18.3 What is a Dialect? 364
18.4 The Study of Language Variation 366
18.5 Language Variation and Social Factors 369
18.6 Other Factors: Situation and Linguistic Context 377
18.7 Language Variation and Social Meaning 379
19 Language Change 385
19.1 Introduction 385
19.2 Historical Linguistics 386
19.3 The Process of Change 390
19.4 The Role of Social Groups in Language Change 394
19.5 Embedding Changes into the Language System 397
19.6 The Evaluation of Language Change 399
20 Bilingualism 403
20.1 Introduction 403
20.2 The Bilingual Community 404
20.3 Language Policy 407
20.4 Bilingual Education 408
20.5 The Bilingual Individual 410
20.6 Bilingualism and Interference 412
20.7 The Emergence of New Languages 418
Summary 421
Assignments 422
Test Yourself 422
Acknowledgments and Further Reading 423
References 425
Sources of Illustrations 433
Index 435
About the Author :
Anne E. Baker is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam with a specialisation in psycholinguistics and sign linguistics. Her publications include Taal en taalwetenschap (ed. with René Appel, Kees Hengeveld, Folkert Kuiken, and Pieter Muysken, 2002) and Sign Language Acquisition (ed. with Bencie Woll, 2008).
Kees Hengeveld is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam with a specialisation in linguistic typology and grammatical theory. His publications include Functional Discourse Grammar: A typologically-based theory of language structure (with J. Lachlan Mackenzie, 2008) and The Theory of Functional Grammar (with Simon C. Dik, 1997).
