Linguistics

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