Learning About Language

This volume introduces the field of child language development studies, and presents hypotheses in an accessible, largely non-technical language, aiming to demonstrate the relationship between these hypotheses and interpretations of data. It makes the assumption that having a theory of language development is as important as having reliable data about what children say and understand, and it advocates a combination of both `rationalist' and more 'empiricist' traditions. In fact, the author overtly argues that different traditions provide different pieces of the picture, and that taking any single approach is unlikely to lead to productive understanding.

Susan Foster-Cohen explores a range of issues, including the nature of prelinguistic communication and its possible relationship to linguistic development; early stages of language development and how they can be viewed in the light of later developments; the nature and role of children's experience with the language(s) around them; variations in language development due to both pathological and non-pathological differences between children, and (in the latter case) between the languages they learn; later oral language development; and literacy. The approach is distinctly psycholinguistic and linguistic rather than sociolinguistic, although there is significant treatment of issues which intersect with more sociolinguistic concerns (e.g. literacy, language play, and bilingualism). There are exercises and discussion questions throughout, designed to reinforce the ideas being presented, as well as to offer the student the opportunity to think beyond the text to ideas at the cutting edge of research.

The accessible presentation of key issues will appeal to the intended undergraduate readership, and will be of interest to those taking courses in language development, linguistics, developmental psychology, educational linguistics, and speech pathology. The book will also serve as a useful introduction to students wishing to pursue post-graduate courses which deal with child language development.

An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics carefully explains the central concepts of categoriza­tion, of prototype and gestalt perception, of basic level and conceptual hierarchies, of figure and ground, and of metaphor and metonymy, for which an innovative description is provided. It also brings together issues such as iconicity, lexical change, grammaticalization and language teaching that have profited considerably from being put on a cognitive basis.

An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics is the first text to draw together all the important aspects of both cognitive semantics and syntax and it includes original proposals for a cognitive theory of word-formation and cognitive hierarchies.
Cognitive linguists share the belief that language is based on our experience of the world.

Uniquely combining both theory and practice, and covering both learning and teaching, this reader-friendly book is the complete handbook on language learning. This new edition will re-position the book at the cutting edge of developments in both academic theory and classroom practice.

An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching presents an engaging, student-friendly guide to the fields of foreign language learning and teaching. Aimed at students beginning their study of these fields, the book provides essential background information and deals with language learning and teaching in a clear and comprehensible way. Attention is also given to practical matters related to classroom teaching.The book covers both theoretical and practical aspects of the field and provides suggestions throughout for discussion and workshop activities. Although most of the examples used deal with English as a foreign language, the book offers a suitable introduction for teachers of any foreign language.

 Presents a practical introduction to the processing of natural language by computer. The subject is approached through the discussion and development of various computer programs which illustrate basic concepts and techniques in the field. The programming language used, Prolog, is especially well-suited for natural language procesing and for those with no previous background in computing. From an early stage, the text will help those with no expereince in programming to produce simple, yet effective, programs using Prolog that will be capable of analysing sentences in English. The main emphasis is on syntactic processing and the reader is led through gradually more complex techniques as diferent approaches to parsing are examined.

This book is a thorough introduction to psycholinguistics, and shows how the area relates to psychology, linguistics, philosophy and education. It focuses on how young children acquire language and demonstrates how sign language helps us to gain a deeper understanding of the acquisition process. It also explores more complex and challenging topics such as mental grammar and sentence processing and the relationship of language to thought, the brain, society and culture. Other topics include second language acquisition processes, teaching methods and the cognitive impact of bilingualism.

Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a wealth of information about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a community.  An Introduction to Sociolinguistics explores both these aspects of sociolinguistic study. This updated, expanded third edition is the number one introduction to socio-linguistics on the market.

What is sociolinguistics?

This introductory textbook provides a penetrating answer to this question, explaining basic sociolinguistic concepts through a wide range of examples, and by drawing on 'classic' approaches to the subject as well as from the most recent research.

The book is conveniently divided into three sections:
* Section one shows how language is used in multilingual speech communities and explains the varying patterns of language use. Janet Holmes examines how and why languages change within society and highlights the factors that lead to the displacement of one language by another and sometimes the death of a language.
* Section two explores social reasons for language change, looking at language change in monolingual communities and the features of a variety of dialects. The author shows how and why differing racial and social groups develop and maintain speech variations.
* The final section assesses how attitudes to language affect speech and shows that linguistic responses depend on a variety of contextual factors - for example, the status of the person being addressed and our reasons for speaking.


Containing a series of student exercises and suggestions for further reading, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics is an essential introductory text for students of sociolinguistics and anyone interested in the study of language.

This highly successful text has established itself as a standard introduction to the practical analysis of English sentence structure. In this second edition, Noel Burton-Roberts has fully revised his original text to improve the clarity of exposition and the level of exemplification and to make the analysis more consistent with current assumptions.

Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction is a comprehensive, fully up-to-date introduction to linguistics. All the core topics of linguistics are covered, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, the genetic and typological classification of the languages of the world, and historical linguistics. Interdisciplinary areas discussed include language and the brain, psycholinguistics - the study of language processing, first and second language acquisition, language in social contexts and the fast-growing area of computational linguistics. Adapted from the Canadian edition by O'Grady and Dobrovolsky, this new European edition has been fully adapted and updated by Francis Katamba with appropriate UK and international phonetic and sociolinguistic material. 

Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose examines how readers interact with literary works, how they understand and are moved by them. Mick Short considers how meanings and effects are generated in the three major literary genres, carying out stylistic analysis of poetry, drama and prose fiction in turn. He analyses a wide range of extracts from English literature, adopting an accessible approach to the analysis of literary texts which can be applied easily to other texts in English and in other languages.

An introduction to phonological theory placed within the framework of recent mainstream generative phonology. The book is divided into two main parts. The first, introduces readers to basic concepts of articulatory phonetics, classical phonemics and standard generative phonology. The second part is devoted to phonological theory. The nature and organisation of phonological representations in nonlinear generative phonology is also explored.

This book attempts to meet the increasing demand for descriptions of how conversation works for analysing spoken interaction. It provides a systematic and exhaustive account of the structure of spoken discourse and the diverse strategies speakers use to have a conversation. It is illustrated throughout with excerpts from genuine conversation and contains numerous exercises with suggested answers based on conversations in the London-Lund Corpus of English Conversation.

This introduction considers the development of pragmatics as a subject, drawing attention to problems in the early work, and bringing the reader up to date with a discussion of current issues. Basic concepts are covered in considerable detail and the theoretical points are illustrated with examples taken from the media, fiction and real-life interactions. Jenny Thomas focuses on the central roles of both speaker and hearer in the construction of meaning and takes account of both social and psychological factors in the generation and interpretation of utterances.

 Realms of Meaning presents an accessible introduction to semantics. It provides an understanding of the way meaning works in natural languages, against a background of how we communicate with language. Avoiding theoretical terminology and linguistic theories it concentrates instead on the analysis of meaning, and looks in depth at such subjects as opposites and negatives, modal verbs, prepositions and word meanings. Examples are chosen mainly from English to provide material for the wider discussion of the principles of the subject, but European, East Asian and other languages also provide illuminating examples.

Using non-technical language The Earliest English' provides a comprehensive introduction to the evolution of Old English Language and Literature for introductory students of English Language and Linguistics.

In eight carefully structured units, the authors show how the vocabulary of Old English contains many items familiare to us today; how its characteristics poetic form is based on a beautiful and intricate simplicity; how its patterns of word building and inflectional strucutre are paralleled in several present day languages and how and why the English language and its literature continued to change so that by the mid 12th century the English language looks more like the 'English' that we are familiar with today.

The Sounds of Language provides an accessible, general introduction to phonetics with a special emphasis on English. Focusing on the phonetics of English, the first section allows students to get an overall view of the subject. Two standard accents of English are presented: RP (Received Pronunciation), the standard accent of England, and GA (General American), the standard accent throughout much of North America. The discussion is arranged so that students can read only the RP or GA portions, if desired. Sixteen additional accents of English spoken around the world are also covered to provide students with wider international coverage.The author then moves on to introduce acoustics phonetics in an accessible manner for those without a science background. The last section provides a detailed discussion of all aspects of speech with extensive examples from languages around the world. Containing student-friendly features this is an excellent introduction to phonetics to students of linguistics and speech pathology and students of English as a second language.

The English language varies in a number of ways, depending on the people who use it, how it is used and in what circumstances.  Varieties of Modern English gives readers the tools needed to understand the diversity of the English language and the issues surrounding it.  The author introduces the key terms and concepts for studying variation related to both users and uses, as well as to illustrate and discuss particular varieties of English.

This text is suitable for undergraduate courses in varieties of English, language variation, sociolinguistics and the history of English.

In this book, the development of the English dictionary is examined, along with the kinds of dictionary available, the range of information they contain, factors affecting their usage, and public attitudes towards them. As well as an descriptive analysis of word meaning, the author considers whether a thematic, thesaurus-like presentation might be more suited than the traditional alphabetical format to the description of words and their meaning.