Linguistics for Dummies (Paperback)

Introduction 1

Part I: Looking at Language through the Lens of Linguistics 7

Chapter 1: Knowing a Language Versus Knowing What Language Is 9

Chapter 2: Communicating with Language: The Design Features 21

Part II: The Building Blocks of Language 33

Chapter 3: Building Sounds: Phonetics 35

Chapter 4: Putting Sounds Together: Phonology 57

Chapter 5: Building Words: Morphology 77

Chapter 6: Creating Sentences: Syntax 95

Chapter 7: Making Sense of Meaning: Semantics 117

Chapter 8: Using Language in Conversation: Pragmatics 133

Part III: The Social Life of Language 151

Chapter 9: Living with Language Variation: Sociolinguistics 153

Chapter 10: Finding Family Relations: Historical Linguistics 171

Chapter 11: Cataloguing Differences: Linguistic Typology 189

Chapter 12: Beginning and Ending: Language Birth and Language Death 205

Part IV: Your Brain on Language: Learning and Processing Language 221

Chapter 13: Learning Language 223

Chapter 14: Perceiving Language 245

Chapter 15: Producing Language 259

Chapter 16: Locating Language in the Brain: Neurolinguistics 277

Part V: Getting from Speaking to Writing 293

Chapter 17: Writing Down Language 295

Chapter 18: Writing Changes You 307

Part VI: The Part of Tens 321

Chapter 19: Ten Myths about Language Busted by Linguistics 323

Chapter 20: Ten Unsolved Problems in Linguistics 331

Chapter 21: Top 10 Jobs for Linguists 337

Index 343