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An introduction to language / Kirk Hazen ; cover design by Nicki Averill.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Hazen, Kirk, author.
- Series:
- Linguistics in the world.
- Linguistics in the World
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Linguistics.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (453 pages).
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Malden, Massachusetts : Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
- Summary:
- 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.
- Contents:
- 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
- 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
- Notes
- 3: Patterns of Sounds
- predictable differences.
- meanings with minimal pairs
- some sound patterns linked with social meaning
- 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
- spoonerisms
- at the word's end: consonant loss
- yod variation
- glottalization of /t/
- 4: Simple Words in the Lexicon
- lexical ambiguity and arbitrariness
- our mental dictionaries: unlike paper dictionaries in several ways
- the lexicon and synonyms
- 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
- 5: Idioms, Slang, and the English Lexicon
- meanings change
- the English lexicon
- lexical semantic change and the arbitrariness of language
- how to create new words
- nonce words
- idioms
- jargon
- slang
- 6: Words Made of Many Parts
- putting parts together
- morphemes
- affixes
- prefixes
- suffixes
- infixes in English and other languages
- content and function morphemes.
- content
- function
- suffixal homophony
- word trees
- hierarchy
- 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
- from rules to exceptions
- irregular? tense? try to relax
- the story of g-dropping
- slang with affixes
- 7: Putting Pieces Together
- meaning and ambiguity
- structure and hierarchy
- ambiguity and constituency
- variation through time: a shift from more synthetic to more analytic
- the first step: losing our inflections
- the impact on phrases
- 8: Building Bigger Phrases
- 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
- subject-verb concord
- the verb "need"
- 9: From Phrases to Meaning
- 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
- 10: The Winding Paths of Language in Education
- 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
- note
- 11: The Life Cycles of Language
- 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
- Glossary
- Index
- End User License Agreement.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Description based on print version record.
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 1118560094
- 9781118560099
- OCLC:
- 882609327
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