Synopses & Reviews
LINGUISTICS FOR EVERYONE: AN INTRODUCTION, First Edition contains many elements relating the study of linguistics to the language of communication in the real world. The text is organized to make the material easy to find and the content interesting and relevant to your life. The first chapter gives you the basics such as how to define language, new ways to look at grammar, your innate knowledge about language, animal communication systems, and so on. Later chapters address core linguistics areas in depth (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics). The many innovative and varied activities help you review and practice the content and offer ample opportunities to apply the knowledge immediately. Anyone with an interest in language will find much to enjoy in this new book by two respected educators.
Synopsis
This book is for students with majors in English, linguistics, secondary education, foreign languages, communication sciences, and other disciplines that need a basic introduction to linguistics.
About the Author
Kristin Denham is an associate professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham; she earned a Ph.D. at the University of Washington. She and Anne Lobeck teach linguistics in the English Department and Linguistics Program at Western Washington University. They are editors of LANGUAGE IN THE SCHOOLS: INTEGRATING LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE INTO K-12 TEACHING (Erlbaum, 2005) and LINGUISTICS AT SCHOOL: LANGUAGE AWARENESS IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press). Both authors are active in research, publishing, and professional associations as well as in teaching and advising students. Anne Lobeck is a professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham; she earned a Ph.D. at the University of Washington. She and Kristin Denham teach linguistics in the English Department and Linguistics Program at Western Washington University. They are editors of LANGUAGE IN THE SCHOOLS: INTEGRATING LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE INTO K-12 TEACHING (Erlbaum, 2005) and LINGUISTICS AT SCHOOL: LANGUAGE AWARENESS IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press). Lobeck is also the author of DISCOVERING GRAMMAR: AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SENTENCE STRUCTURE (Oxford University Press, 2000). Both authors are active in research, publishing, and professional associations as well as in teaching and advising students and service.
Table of Contents
1: WHAT IS LANGUAGE AND HOW DO WE STUDY IT? What is language? Knowledge of Language. Our Language Expertise. Acquiring versus Learning a Language. Human Language and Animal Communication. Can Other Animals Learn Language? Did you know . . .? Rico, the Talking Border Collie. Two Case Studies: Washoe and Nim. What Is Grammar? The Components of Grammar. What Is Grammatical? Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar. When Prescription and Description Overlap. Modification: Another Overlap. Grammar across Space and Time. Linguistics in the News: The Language Blog and Eggcorns. Universal Grammar. Parameters. Sign Language Grammar. Sign Language versus Body Language. Language Alive! Sign Language Diversity. The Scientific Study of Language. Noam Chomsky and Generative Grammar. Did you know . . . ? Noam Chomsky. Influences on Modern Linguistics. Rationalism and Empiricism. Structural Linguistics. Linguistics Today. Accent on The Linguistic Society of America. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 2: THE HUMAN CAPACITY FOR LANGUAGE. Our Capacity to Acquire Language. What Children's "Mistakes" Tell Us. Mouses and Foots: Overgeneralizing Rules. Language Alive! One Wug and Two . . . Wugs? Evidence for Universal Grammar. Children Don't Learn by Analogy. Stages of First Language Acquisition. Prelinguistic Stage: The Early Months. Babbling Stage: 4-8 Months. Did You Know . . .? How Do You Study an Infant? The One-Word Stage (9-18 Months). The Two-Word Stage: 18-24 Months. Language Alive! Hardwired for Words. Early Multiword Stage: 24-30 Months. Later Multiword Stage: 30 Months and Older. Did You Know . . .? Baby Talk and Parentese. Did You Know . . .? What about Baby Einstein? A Critical Period for Language Acquisition? Acquisition and Isolation: Victor and Genie. Sign Language Acquisition. Second Language Acquisition. Is It Learning or Acquisition? Interlanguage Grammar. Social Aspects of Second Language Acquisition. Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Two Native Languages: Bilingualism. Misperceptions about Bilingualism. Our Capacity to Create Language. Pidgins and Creoles. Linguistics in the News: A Gene for Language? Nicaraguan Sign Language.Language and the Brain. Language Intelligence? Specific Language Impairment. Linguistic Savants. Williams Syndrome. A Language Center in the Brain? Did You Know . . .? Poor Phineas Gage. Broca's Aphasia. Wernicke's Aphasia. More Evidence for Lateralization. Dichotic Listening. Split-Brain Patients. Brain Imaging. Accent on Clinical Linguistics. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 3: PHONETICS: DESCRIBING SOUNDS. Sounds and Symbols.Phonemes.Consonants. Did You Know . . .? Visible Speech. Voiced and Voiceless Consonants. Place of Articulation. Bilabial. Language Alive! A Disappearing Sound.Labiodental. Interdental. Alveolar. Palatal. Velar. Glottal. Linguistics in the News: Ladefoged, Pioneer in Phonetics. Manner of Articulation. Stops Fricatives. Language Alive! Why do we spell words with -ough? Affricates. Nasals.Did You Know . . .? Mom Is Bob? Glides. Liquids.Language Alive! Forgotten Clusters. Why All These Distinctions? Slips of the Tongue. Vowels.Language Alive! Do Dawn and Don Rhyme? Diphthongs. Syllabic Consonants. Other Vowel Distinctions. Language Alive! Double Is Not Long Vowel Shifts. The Great Vowel Shift. The Northern Cities Chain Shift. The Southern Vowel Shift. Phonemes and Allophones. Accent on Product Naming. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 4: PHONOLOGY: THE SOUND PATTERN OF LANGUAGE. Phonemes and Allophones. Did You Know . . .? Babies Are Better at Language. Language Alive! Long-Lost English Allophones. Assimilation Rules. Vowel Nasalization. Alveolar Nasal Assimilation. Alveolar Stop Assimilation. Palatalization. Did You Know . . .? Invented Spelling. Voicing Assimilation. Dissimilation Rules. Dissimilation of Liquid and Nasal Sounds. Dissimilation of Fricative Sounds. Insertion Rules. Insertion of Vowels. Insertion of Consonants. Insertion of Voiceless Stop. Insertion of /y/. Deletion Rules. Language Alive! Where the Heck Is /h/? Deletion of /r/ after Vowels. Deletion of Fricative Next to Fricative. Did You Know . . .? Where Do You Get Tenashoes? Deletion of Like Sounds or Syllables. Deletion of Consonant Clusters. Deletion of Syllable-Final-Consonant Clusters. Fronting Rules. Fronting of Velar Nasal to Alveolar Nasal. Fronting in Child Language. Fronting of /x/. Exchange Rules. Exchanging /s/ and a Consonant.Language Alive! What's Wrong with Aks? Exchanging /r/ and Vowel. Exchanging Syllable Onsets. Language Alive! "Going Nucular". Stet. Mispronunciation is the topic. Multiple Rule Processes.Suprasegmentals. Syllables. Structure of the Syllable. Phonotactics. Children's Syllables. Syllable Structure Variety. Slips of the Tongue and Syllables. Stress. Linguistics in the News: Tone Languages and Perfect Pitch. Intonation. Did You Know . . .? Abbish vs. Ubby Dubby. Accent on Linguistics and Reading. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 5: MORPHOLOGY: WORDS AND THEIR PARTS. Morphemes and Meaning. Morphemes and Syllables. Recognizing Morphemes. Word Classes. Content Words. Function Words. Did You Know . . .? Pooh on Pronouns. Word Classes and Our Mental Lexicon. Free and Bound Morphemes. Affixes. Language Alive! Embiggen His Soul! Roots. Language Alive! What about Cranapple? Derivational AffixationLanguage Alive! Word-orama!Affixation and Our Mental Lexicon. Drawing Word Trees. Word Trees and Ambiguity. Inflectional Affixation. Linguistics in the News: Arkansas's Apostrophe. Inflectional Affixation of English Nouns. Number Case. Pronouns and Genitive Case. Language Alive! The Battle over Whom. Gender. Inflectional Affixation of English Verbs. Infinitives, Present Tense, and Past Tense. Present and Past Participles. Participles as Markers of Social Class. Suppletive Verbs and Adjectives. Language Alive! Ain't had it easy! Accent on Field Linguistics. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 6: MORPHOLOGY: TYPOLOGY AND WORD FORMATION. Morphological Typology. Synthetic Languages. Did You Know . . . ? Solid Roundish Objects and Mushy Matter. Analytic Languages. Mixed Typological Systems. Morphology of Other Languages. Word Formation Processes. Slang vs. New Words. Linguistics in the News: F*ing Brilliant! FCC Rulings on Profanity. Recent New Words. Did You Know . . .? The Truth about Truthiness. Coining. Compounding. Eponyms. Blends. Conversions. Language Alive! Blimey! Acronyms. Language Alive! Ms. Clipping. Backformation. Reduplication. Accent on Lexicographers. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 7: SYNTAX: HEADS AND PHRASES. Nouns and Noun Phrases. A Phrase Structure Rule for Noun Phrases. Verbs and Verb Phrases.Did You Know . . . ? How Many Modals? A Phrase Structure Rule for Verb Phrases. Evidence for the AUX Position. Did You Know . . . ? Don't Use Double Negatives. NOT! English Do Insertion. Emphatic and Main Verb Do. Language Alive! English Didn't Always Have Do. Adjectives and Adjective Phrases. Adjective Phrase Positions. A Variable Phrase. Adverbs and Adverb Phrases. Adverb Phrase Positions. Linguistics in the News: What's the Right Answer? Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases. Prepositional Phrase Positions. Did You Know . . . ? Literary Prepositions. Summary of Phrase Structure Rules. Clause Subjects and Predicates. Independent and Subordinate Clauses. What is a Sentence? Accent on Teaching Syntax. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 8: SYNTAX: PHRASE STRUCTURE AND SYNTACTIC RULES. Hierarchical Structure and Ambiguity. Ambiguity. Recursion.Linguistics in the News: Starlings Syntax? Silent Syntax. Evidence for Phrases and Clauses Substitution. Language Alive! Silent Pronoun? Pronouns and Ambiguity. Pronoun Reference. Did You Know . . .? Who Is They, Anyway? Language Alive! Pronouns, Prestige, and Illogical Rules. Conjunctions and Coordination. Language Alive! Sex and Syntax? Coordination and Ambiguity. Movement and Deletion. Deep and Surface Structure. Deletion Rules. Verb Phrase Deletion. Did You Know . . .? Does She . . . or Doesn't She? Gapping. Constraints on Deletion. Reordering Phrases: Movement. Constraints on Movement. Did You Know . . . ? Passive Should Be Avoided? Wh- Movement. Accent on Psycholinguistics. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 9: SEMANTICS: MAKING MEANING WITH WORDS. Making Meaning. Semantic Deviance. Lexical Semantics. Meaning Classifications: Semantic Features. Noun Clauses. Concrete and Abstract Nouns. Count and Noncount Nouns. Language Alive! Is the Team Playing? Are the Team Playing? Common and Proper Nouns. Entailment and Markedness. Meaning Subclassifications: Semantic Fields. Meaning Relationships: The Nyms. Opposite Meanings: Antonomy. Did You Know . . .? Can Something Be Very Dead? Similar Meanings: Synonymy. Euphemisms. Meaning Categories: Hyponymy. Related Meanings: Polysemy. Different Meanings: Homonymy. Linguistics in the News: Talking Right . . . and Left. Many Meanings: Lexical Ambiguity. Vagueness. Meaning Change: Semantic Shifts. Language Alive! Shifts in Meaning: Progress or Decay? Making New Meanings: Figurative Language. Connecting Meanings: Metaphor. Types of Metaphors. Dead Metaphors. Mixed Metaphors. Personification. Synesthesia. Did You Know . . . ? Hearing Colors? Metonymy. Comparing Meanings: Simile. Idioms. Accent on Linguistics and Computers. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 10: SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS: MAKING MEANING WITH SENTENCES. Sentence Semantics: The Linguistic Meaning of Sentences. Propositions and Truth Conditions. When Sentences Don't Express Propositions. Analytic and Synthetic Sentences. When Meanings Overlap: Entailment and Paraphrase. Sentences That Can't Be True: Contradictions. Presupposition. When Semantics and Syntax Overlap: The Structure of Meaning. Thematic Roles and Argument Structure. Pragmatics: How Context Shapes Meaning. Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say: Speech Acts. Linguistics in the News: The Language of the Pirahã. Cooperative Talk: Conversational Rules. Manipulating Maxims. Did You Know . . . ? The Cooperative Principle and Language Acquisition. The Power of Politeness. Language Alive! Culture Clash and Pragmatic Failure. Honorifics and Forms of Address. Register.Language Alive! Register as a Literary Device. When Semantics and Pragmatics Overlap. Definiteness. Deixis. Did You Know . . . ? I Am You. Language and Thought. Linguistic Relativity and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Examining the Evidence. Mentalese: Getting the Gist. Did You Know . . . ? Lost in Translation. Accent on Language and Forensic Linguistics. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 11: THE EARLY STORY OF ENGLISH. Finding Families: The Comparative Method.Did You Know . . . ? Pretty Grimm Tales. Language Alive! False Cognates. Indo-European Language Families. Celtic. Italic. Hellenic. Baltic. Slavic. Indo-Iranian. Armenian. Albanian. Germanic. Beyond Indo-European: Other Language Families. The Germanic Branch of Indo-European. English Emerges in the British Isles. Old English Vocabulary. Language Alive! Pagan Fossils. Did You Know . . . ? Runic Writing and the Futhorc. Old English Morphology. Strong and Weak Nouns. Strong and Weak Adjectives. Strong and Weak Verbs and a Two Tense System. Old English Syntax. Old English Word Order. Interrogative and Negative Sentences. Old English Phonetics and Phonology. English Meets French: Middle English. Did You Know? The Black Death, Rats, and Fleas. Middle English Vocabulary. Middle English Morphology. Loss of Inflection. Middle English Syntax. Fixed SVO Word Order. Middle English Auxiliary and Modal Verbs. Interrogative and Negative Sentences. Middle English Phonology. From Synthetic to Analytic. Linguistics in the News: Languages and Land Bridges. English Established The Birth of "Correct" English and Prescriptive Grammar. Did You Know . . . ? The Word According to Johnson. Prescriptive Grammar and Usage. Early Modern English Grammar. The Early Modern English Vocabulary Explosion. Accent on Philologists. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 12: ENGLISH GOES GLOBAL. What Is a Dialect? The Origins of American English. British English Goes to the New World. British English Influences on American English. American Regional Dialects. Dialects and Settlement Patterns. Drawing Dialect Boundaries. Appalachian English. New England English. Ethnic Dialects. African American English. Did You Know . . .? The Ann Arbor Trial. Native American English. Lumbee English. Chicano English.Social Dialects. Social Networks. Communities of Practice. Linguistics in the News: Linguistic Profiling. Social Class and Language Attitudes. English Keeps Traveling. Australian English. Caribbean English. English in Asia. Did You Know . . .? Aladdin Speaks Standard English? English in Africa. English as a Global Language. Language Variation and Language Discrimination.Language Alive! German Goes from Good to Bad. Standard English and "General American." Dialect Pride. Language Alive! The Future of English Dialects. Accent on Dialect Coaches. Summary. Sources and Resources. Review, Practice, and Explore. 13: REPRESENTING