How English Works : A Linguistic Introduction
ISBN: 9780205605507 | 0205605508
Edition: 2ndFormat: Paperback
Publisher: Longman
Pub. Date: 1/1/2009
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A major introductory language/linguistics textbook written specifically for English and Education majors, this book is an engaging introduction to the structure of English, general theories in linguistics, and important issues in sociolinguistics. This accessible text provides more extensive coverage of issues of particular interest to English and Education majors. Tapping into our natural curiosity about language, it invites all students to connect academic linguistics to everyday use of the English language and to become active participants i... MORE
| Abbreviations | p. xx |
| Preface to Instructors | p. xxiii |
| Letter to Students | p. xxviii |
| A Language like English | |
| The Story of Aks | |
| Language, Language Everywhere | |
| The Power of Language | |
| Name Calling | |
| Judging by Ear | |
| A Question to Discuss: What Makes Us Hear an Accent? | |
| The System of La... MORE | |
| Arbitrariness and Systematicity | |
| A Scholar to Know:Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) | |
| Creativity | |
| Grammar | |
| Linguistics | |
| Human Language versus Animal Communication | |
| Birds and Bees | |
| Chimps and Bonobos | |
| Distinctive Characteristics of Human Language | |
| The Process of Language Change | |
| Language Genealogies | |
| A Question to Discuss: Do Languages Have Families? | |
| Mechanics of Language Change | |
| Progress or Decay? | |
| Attitudes about Language Change | |
| Special Focus: Evolution of Human Language | |
| Summary | |
| Suggested Reading | |
| Exercises | |
| Chapter | |
| Language and Authority | |
| Who Is in Control? | |
| Language Academies | |
| Language Mavens | |
| Defining Standard English | |
| Descriptive versus Prescriptive Grammar Rules | |
| Case Study One: Double Negatives | |
| Case Study Two: Ainrsquo;t | |
| Case Study Three: Who and Whom | |
| The Status of Prescriptive Rules | |
| Spoken versus Written Language | |
| A Question to Discuss: Which Is More Permanent, the Written or Spoken Word? | |
| Language and Society: Are We Losing Our Memories? | |
| Dictionaries of English | |
| The Earliest Dictionaries of English | |
| The Beginnings of Modern Lexicography | |
| Historical Lexicography | |
| American Lexicography | |
| A Question to Discuss:Should Dictionaries Ever Prescribe? | |
| English Grammar, Usage, and Style | |
| The Earliest Usage Books | |
| Prescriptive versus Descriptive Tendencies in Grammars of English | |
| Modern Approaches to English Usage | |
| Special Focus: Corp | |
| Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved. |
