An Introduction to Language

Part I: THE NATURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. 1. What Is Language? Linguistic Knowledge. Knowledge of the Sound System. Knowledge of Words. Arbitrary Relation of Form and Meaning. The Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge. Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences. Linguistic Knowledge and Performance. What Is Grammar? Descriptive Grammars. Prescriptive Grammars. Teaching Grammars. Language Universals. The Development of Grammar. Sign Languages: Evidence for Language Universals. American Sign Language (ASL). Animal "Languages". "Talking" Parrots. The Birds and the Bees. What We Know about Language. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 2. Brain and Language. The Human Brain. The Localization of Language in the Brain. Aphasia. Surgical and Experimental Evidence of Lateralization. Brain Imaging Technology. Plasticity and Brain Lateralization in Early Life. The Modular Nature of Language. Specific Language Impairment. Developmental Dissociations. The Genetic Basis of Language. The Critical Period. A Critical Period for First Language Development. Critical Periods in Other Species. The Evolution of Language. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. Part II: GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE. 3. Morphology: The Word of Language. Dictionaries. Content Words and Function Words. Morphemes: The Minimal Units of Meaning. Bound and Free Morphemes. Prefixes and Suffixes. Infixes. Circumfixes. Roots and Stems. Huckles and Ceives. Rules of Word Formation. Derivational Morphology. The Hierarchical Structure of Words. More About Derivational. Morphemes. Lexical Gaps. Rule Productivity. "Pullet Surprises". Sign Language Morphology. Word Coinage. Compounds. Meaning of Compounds. Universality of Compounding. Acronyms. Back-Formations. Abbreviations. Words from Names. Blends. Grammatical Morphemes. Inflectional Morphemes. Exceptions and Suppletions. Morphology and Syntax. Morphological Analysis: Identifying Morphemes. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 4. Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language. What the Syntax Rules Do. What Grammaticality Is Not Based On. Sentence Structure. Constituents and Constituency Tests. Syntactic Categories. Phrase Structure Trees and Rules. Some Conventions for Building Phrase Structure Trees. The Infinity of Language. Heads and Complements. Selection. What Heads the Sentence. Structural Ambiguities. More Structures. Sentence Relatedness. Transformational Rules. Structure Dependent Rules. Syntactic Dependencies. Wh Questions. UG Principles and Parameters. Sign Language Syntax. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 5. The Meanings of Language. Lexical Semantics (Word Meanings). Semantic Properties. Evidence for Semantic Properties. Semantic Properties and the Lexicon. More Semantic Relationships. -nyms. Homonyms and Polysemy. Synonyms. Antonyms. Formation of Antonyms. Hyponyms. Metonyms. Retronyms. Proper Names. Phrase and Sentence Meaning. Phrasal Meaning. Noun-Centered Meaning. Sense and Reference. Verb-Centered Meaning. Thematic Roles. Thematic Roles in Other Languages. The Theta-Criterion. Sentential Meaning. The "Truth" of Sentences. Paraphrase. Entailment. Contradiction. Events versus States. Pronouns and Coreferentiality. To Mean or Not to Mean. Anomaly: No Sense and Nonsense. Metaphor. Idioms. Pragmatics. Linguistic Context: Discourse Pronouns. The Articles The and A. Situational Context. Maxims of Conversation. Speech Acts. Presuppositions. Deixis. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 6. Phonetics: The Sounds of Language. Sound Segments. Identity of Speech Sounds. The Phonetic Alphabet. Articulatory Phonetics. Consonants. Places of Articulation. Bilabials. Labiodentals. Interdentals. Alveolars. Palatals. Velars. Uvulars. Glottal. Manner of Articulation. Voiced and Voiceless Sounds. Nasal and Oral Sounds. Stops. Fricatives. Affricates. Liquids. Glides. Approximants. Trills and Flaps. Clicks. Phonetic Symbols for American English Consonants. Vowels. Tongue Position. Lip Rounding. Diphthongs. Nasalization of Vowels. Tense and Lax Vowels.Different (Tongue) Strokes for Different Folks. Major Phonetic Classes. Noncontinuants and Continuants. Obstruents and Sonorants. Consonantal. Labials. Coronals. Anterior. Sibilants. Syllabic Sounds. Prosodic Features. Tone and Intonation. Phonetic Symbols and Spelling Correspondences. The "Phonetics" of Signed Languages. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 7. Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language. The Pronunciation of Morphemes. The Pronunciation of Plurals. Further Examples of Allomorphs. Phonemes: The Phonological Units of Language. Vowel Nasalization in English as an Illustration of Allophones. Allophones of /t/. Minimal Pairs in ASL. Complementary Distribution. Distinctive Features of Phonemes. Feature Values. Nondistinctive Features. Phonemic Patterns May Vary Across Languages. Natural Classes of Speech Sounds. Feature Specifications for American. English Consonants and Vowels. The Rules of Phonology. Assimilation Rules. Dissimilation Rules. Feature-Changing Rules. Segment Insertion and Deletion Rules. Movement (Metathesis) Rules. From One to Many and from Many to One. The Function of Phonological Rules. Slips of the Tongue: Evidence for Phonological Rules. Prosodic Phonology. Syllable Structure. Word Stress. Sentence and Phrase Stress. Intonation. Sequential Constraints of Phonemes. Lexical Gaps. Why Do Phonological Rules Exist? Phonological Analysis: Discovering Phonemes. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. Part III: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE. 8. Language Acquisition. Mechanisms of Language Acquisition. Do Children Learn through Imitation? Do Children Learn through Reinforcement? Do Children Learn Language through Analogy? Do Children Learn through Structured Input? Children Construct Grammars. The Innateness Hypothesis. Stages in Language Acquisition. The Perception and Production of Speech Sounds. First Words. The Development of Grammar. The Acquisition of Phonology. The Acquisition of Word Meaning. The Acquisition of Morphology. The Acquisition of Syntax. The Acquisition of Pragmatics. The Development of Auxiliaries: A Case Study. Setting Parameters. The Acquisition of Signed Languages. Knowing More Than One Language. Childhood Bilingualism. Theories of Bilingual Development. Two Monolinguals in One Head. The Role of Input. Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism. Second Language Acquisition. Is L2 Acquisition the Same as L1 Acquisition? Native Language Influence in L2 Acquisition. The Creative Component of L2 Acquisition. A Critical Period for L2 Acquisition? Second-Language Teaching Methods. Can Chimps Learn Human Language? Gua. Viki. Washoe. Sarah. Learning Yerkish. Koko. Nim Chimpsky. Clever Hans. Kanzi. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 9. Language Processing: Human and Computer. The Human Mind at Work: Human Language Processing. Comprehension. The Speech Signal. Speech Perception and Comprehension. Comprehension Models and Experimental Studies. Lexical Access and Word Recognition. Syntactic Processing. Speech Production. Planning Units. Lexical Selection. Application and Misapplication of Rules. Nonlinguistic Influences. Computer Processing of Human Language. Text and Speech Analysis. Frequency Analysis, Concordances, and Collocations. Information Retrieval and Summarization. Spell Checkers. Machine Translation. Computers that Talk and Listen. Computational Phonetics and Phonology. Speech Recognition. Speech Synthesis. Computational Morphology. Computational Syntax. Computational Semantics. Computational Pragmatics. Computer Models of Grammar. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. Part IV: LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY. 10. Language in Society. Dialects. Regional Dialects. Accents. Dialects of English. Phonological Differences. Lexical Differences. Dialect Atlases. Syntactic Differences. The "Standard". Language Purists. Banned Languages. The Revival of Languages. African American English (AAE). Phonology of African American English. R-Deletion. L-Deletion. Consonant Cluster Simplification. Neutralization of [I] and [E] Before Nasals. Diphthong Reduction. Loss of Interdental Fricatives. Syntactic Differences between AAE and SAE. Double Negatives. Deletion of the Verb "Be". Habitual "Be". History of African American English. Latino (Hispanic) English. Chicano English (ChE). Phonological Variables of ChE. Syntactic Variables in ChE. Lingua Francas. Pidgins and Creoles. Pidgins. Creoles. Styles, Slang, and Jargon. Styles. Slang. Jargon and Argot. Taboo or Not Taboo? Euphemisms. Racial and National Epithets. Language, Sex, and Gender. Marked and Unmarked Forms. The Generic "He". Language and Gender. Secret Languages and Language Games. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 11. Language Change: The Syllables of Time. The Regularity of Sound Change. Sound Correspondences. Ancestral Protolanguages. Phonological Change. Phonological Rules. The Great Vowel Shift. Morphological Change. Syntactic Change. Lexical Change. Addition of New Words. Borrowings or Loan Words. History through Loan Words. Loss of Words. Semantic Change. Broadening. Narrowing. Meaning Shifts. Reconstructing "Dead" Languages. The Nineteenth-Century Comparativists. Cognates. Comparative Reconstruction. Historical Evidence. Extinct and Endangered Languages. The Genetic Classification of Languages. Languages of the World. Types of Languages. Why Do Languages Change? Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 12. Writing: The ABCs of Language. The History of Writing. Pictograms and Ideograms. Cuneiform Writing. The Rebus Principle. From Hieroglyphs to the Alphabet. Modern Writing Systems. Word Writing. Syllabic Writing. Consonantal Alphabet Writing. Alphabetic Writing. Reading, Writing, and Speech. Reading. Spelling. Spelling Pronunciations. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. Glossary. Index.