Table of Contents

Preface v

Preface to the First Edition ix

List of Technical Abbreviations xxiii

Language Matters Boxes xxv

1 Language: A Preview 1

1 Specialization for Language 2

2 A Creative System 3

3 Grammar and Linguistic Competence 6

3.1 Generality: All Languages Have a Grammar 7

3.2 Parity: All Grammers Are Equal 8

3.3 Universality: Grammars Are Alike in Basic Ways 9

3.4 Mutability: Grammars Change over Time 10

3.5 Inaccessibility: Grammatical Knowledge Is Subconscious 11

Summing Up 12

Key Terms 13

Recommended Reading 13

Exercises 13

2 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language 15

1 Phonetic Transcription 16

1.1 Units of Representation 17

1.2 Segments 18

2 The Sound-Producing System 19

2.1 Glottal States 19

3 Sound Classes 21

3.1 Vowels, Consonants, and Glides (Syllabic and Nonsyllabic Elements) 21

4 Consonant Articulation 22

4.1 The Tongue 22

4.2 Places of Articulation 23

5 Manners of Articulation 25

5.1 Oral versus Nasal Phones 25

5.2 Stops 25

5.3 Fricatives 26

5.4 Affricates 28

5.5 Voice Lag and Aspiration 28

5.6 Liquids 31

5.7 Syllabic Liquids and Nasals 32

5.8 Glides 33

6 Vowels 34

6.1 Simple Vowels and Diphthongs 34

6.2 Basic Parameters for Describing Vowels 36

6.3 Tense and Lax Vowels 37

7 Phonetic Transcription of American English Consonants and Vowels 38

8 Suprasegmentals 40

8.1 Pitch: Tone and Intonation 40

8.2 Length 44

8.3 Stress 45

9 Speech Production 46

9.1 Coarticulation 46

9.2 Articulatory Processes 46

9.3 Some Common Articulatory Processes 47

10 Other Vowels and Consonants 51

Summing Up 53

Key Terms 53

Recommended Reading 55

Exercises 55

3Phonology: The Function and Patterning of Sounds 59

1 Segments in Contrast 61

1.1 Minimal Pairs 61

1.2 Languages-Specific Contrasts 64

2 Phonetically Conditioned Variation: Phonemes and Allophones 65

2.1 Complementary Distribution 65

2.2 Phonemes and Allophones 67

2.3 Classes and Generalization in Phonology 70

2.4 English Mid Vowels and Glides 72

2.5 Language-Specific Patterns 73

3 Phonetic and Phonemic Transcription 74

3.1 Phonetic and Phonemic Inventories 76

4 Above the Segment: Syllables 77

4.1 Defining the Syllable 77

4.2 Onset Constraints and Phonotactics 79

4.3 Accidental and Systematic Gaps 80

4.4 Setting Up Syllables 82

4.5 Syllabic Phonology 84

5 Features 86

5.1 Why We Use Features 87

5.2 Feature Representations 91

6 Derivations and Rules 97

6.1 Derivations 98

6.2 Rule Application 99

6.3 The Form and Notation of Rules 100

6.4 Processes and Rules: A Last Word 103

Summing Up 103

Key Terms 103

Recommended Reading 104

Appendix: Hints for Solving Phonology Problems 105

Exercises 106

4 Morphology: The Analysis of Word Structure 115

1 Words and Word Structure 116

1.1 Morphemes 117

1.2 Analyzing Word Structure 118

2 Derivation 122

2.1 Some English Derivational Affixes 123

2.2 Two Classes of Derivational Affixes 126

3 Compounding 127

3.1 Properties of Compounds 129

3.2 Endocentric and Exocentric Compounds 129

3.3 Compounds in Other Languages 130

4 Inflection 131

4.1 Inflection in English 131

4.2 Inflection versus Derivation 132

4.3 Other Inflectional Phenomena 134

5 Other Morphological Phenomena 135

5.1 Processes Primarily Related to Inflection 135

5.2 Other Processes 138

6 Morphophonemics 143

Summing Up 144

Key Terms 144

Recommended Reading 145

Appendix: How to Identify Morphemes in Unfamiliar Languages 145

Exercises 147

5 Syntax: The Analysis of Sentence Structure 155

1 Categories and Structure 157

1.1 Categories of Words 157

1.2 Phrase Structure 160

1.3 Sentences 165

1.4 Tests for Phrase Structure 167

2 Complement Options 168

2.1 Complement Options for Verbs 168

2.2 Complement Options for Other Categories 169

2.3 Complement Clauses 170

3 Move 172

3.1 Yes-No Questions 172

3.2 Deep Structure and Surface Structure 176

3.3 Do Insertion 177

3.4 Wh Movement 178

4 Universal Grammar and Parametric Variation 183

4.1 Verb Raising 183

5 Some Additional Structures 187

5.1 Coordination 187

5.2 Modifiers 189

5.3 Passives 190

Summing Up 193

Key Terms 193

Recommended Reading 194

Appendix: How to Build Tree Structures 194

Exercises 199

6 Semantics: The Analysis of Meaning 203

1 The Nature of Meaning 204

1.1 Semantic Relations among Words 204

1.2 Semantic Relations Involving Sentences 207

1.3 What Is Meaning? 208

2 The Conceptual System 213

2.1 Fuzzy Concepts 213

2.2 Metaphor 214

2.3 The Lexicalization of Concepts 216

2.4 Grammatical Concepts 219

3 Syntax and Sentence Interpretation 221

3.1 Constructional Meaning 221

3.2 Structural Ambiguity 223

3.3 Thematic Roles 224

3.4 The Interpretation of Pronouns 228

4 Other Factors in Sentence Interpretation 232

4.1 The Role of Beliefs and Attitudes 232

4.2 Setting 233

4.3 Discourse 234

4.4 Grice's Conversational Maxims 236

Summing Up 238

Key Terms 238

Recommended Reading 240

Exercises 240

7 Historical Linguistics: The Study of Language Change 245

1 The Nature of Language Change 246

1.1 Systematicity of Language Change 247

1.2 Causes of Language Change 247

2 Sound Change 249

2.1 Sequential Change 249

2.2 Segmental Change 255

2.3 Auditorily Based Change 256

2.4 Phonetic versus Phonological Change 257

2.5 Explaining Phonological Shift 259

3 Morphological Change 259

3.1 Addition of Affixes 259

3.2 Loss of Affixes 260

3.3 From Synthetic to Analytic to Synthetic 261

3.4 Analogy 262

3.5 Reanalysis 262

4 Syntactic Change 263

4.1 Word Order 263

4.2 Inversion in the History of English 266

5 Lexical and Semantic Change 266

5.1 Addition of Lexical Items 266

5.2 Loss of Lexical Items 271

5.3 Semantic Change 272

6 The Spread of Change 275

6.1 Diffusion through the Language 275

6.2 Spread through the Population 277

7 Language Reconstruction 278

7.1 Comparative Reconstruction 278

7.2 Techniques of Reconstruction 279

7.3 The Discovery of Indo-European 285

8 Language Change and Naturalness 287

Summing Up 288

Key Terms 289

Recommended Reading 290

Exercises 291

8 The Classification of Languages 297

1 Some Preliminaries 297

1.1 Dialect and Language 298

1.2 Types of Classification 301

2 Typological Classification 302

2.1 Phonology 303

2.2 Morphology 310

2.3 Syntax 313

2.4 Explaining Universals 316

3 Genetic Classification 319

3.1 The Indo-European Family 320

3.2 Some Other Families 325

3.3 Language Phyla 325

Summing Up 328

Key Terms 328

Recommended Reading 328

Exercises 329

9 Indigenous Languages of North America 333

1 Origin and Classification 334

1.1 Ultimate Origins 334

1.2 Historical Relationships in North America 335

2 Phonetics and Phonology 337

2.1 Velar, Uvular, and Pharyngeal Articulations 337

2.2 Lateral Fricatives 337

2.3 Glottalized Stops and Affricates (Ejectives) 338

2.4 Vowels and Suprasegmental Features 338

2.5 Sounds Not Frequently Found 339

3 Morphology and Syntax 339

3.1 The Structure of Words 339

3.2 Grammatical Categories 342

3.3 Pronominal Systems 345

3.4 Noun Classification 346

4 The Future of Indigenous North American Languages 348

Summing Up 350

Key Terms 350

Recommended Reading 350

10 First Language Acquisition 351

1 The Study of Language Acquisition 352

1.1 Methods 352

2 Phonological Development 356

2.1 Babbling 356

2.2 Developmental Order 357

2.3 Early Phonetic Processes 358

3 Vocabulary Development 361

3.1 Strategies for Acquiring Word Meaning 362

3.2 Meaning Errors 363

4 Morphological Development 367

4.1 Overgeneralization 367

4.2 A Developmental Sequence 368

4.3 Word Formation Processes 370

5 Syntactic Development 371

5.1 The One-Word Stage 371

5.2 The Two-Word Stage 372

5.3 The Telegraphic Stage 373

5.4 Later Development 374

5.5 The Interpretation of Sentence Structure 376

6 What Makes Language Acquisition Possible? 378

6.1 The Role of Adult Speech 378

6.2 The Role of Feedback 380

6.3 The Role of Cognitive Development 381

6.4 The Role of Inborn Knowledge 382

6.5 Is There a Critical Period? 384

Summing Up 385

Key Terms 385

Recommended Reading 386

Exercises 386

11 Second Language Acquisition 391

1 The Study of Second Language Acquisition 392

1.1 The Role of the First Language 392

1.2 The Nature of an Interlanguage 393

1.3 The Final State 394

1.4 Variation in Performance 396

2 Interlanguage Grammars 398

2.1 L2 Phonology 398

2.2 L2 Syntax 405

2.3 L2 Morphology 408

2.4 Morphology and Syntax 411

3 Factors Affecting SLA 413

3.1 Age 413

3.2 Individual Differences 414

4 The L2 Classroom 418

4.1 Modified Input 418

4.2 Modified Interaction 419

4.3 Focus on Form 419

4.4 Education in a Bilingual Environment 421

Summing Up 425

Key Terms 425

Recommended Reading 426

Exercises 427

12 Psycholinguistics: The Study of Language Processing 429

1 Methods of Psycholinguistic Research 430

1.1 Slips of the Tongue 430

1.2 Experimental Methods: Words in the Mind 432

1.3 Experimental Methods: Sentence Processing 436

1.4 Brain Activity: Even-Related Potentials 438

1.5 Language Corpora and Databases in Psycholinguistic Research 440

2 Language Processing and Linguistics 441

2.1 Phonetics and Phonology 441

2.2 Morphological Processing 443

2.3 Syntax 447

3 Putting It All Together: Psycholinguistic Modeling 450

3.1 The Use of Metaphors in Psycholinguistic Modeling 451

3.2 Which Model Is Rights? 454

Summing Up 455

Key Terms 456

Recommended Reading 457

Exercises 457

13 Brain and Language 459

1 The Human Brain 460

1.1 The Cerebral Cortex 460

1.2 The Cerebral Hemispheres 461

1.3 The Lobes of the Cortex 463

2 Investigating the Brain 464

2.1 Autopsy Studies 464

2.2 Images of the Living Brain 466

2.3 Learning from Hemisphere Connections and Disconnections 469

3 Aphasia 471

3.1 Nonfluent Aphasia 471

3.2 Fluent Aphasia 474

4 Acquired Dyslexia and Dysgraphia 475

4.1 Reading and Writing Disturbances in Aphasia 475

4.2 Acquired Dyslexia as the Dominant Language Deficit 476

5 Linguistic Theory and Aphasia 477

5.1 Features, Rules, and Underlying Forms 477

5.2 Agrammatism 478

5.3 Function Words 478

5.4 The Loss of Syntactic Competence 479

5.5 Agrammatism in Other Languages 479

5.6 Language in the Brain: What's Where? 480

Summing Up 482

Key Terms 482

Recommended Reading 483

Exercises 483

14 Language In Social Contexts 485

1 Language Variation and Social Distinctions 487

2 Place 489

2.1 Regional Variation in Lexical Items 492

2.2 Regional Variation in Phonology 493

2.3 Regional Differences in Morphology and Syntax 494

3 Time 494

4 Isolation 497

4.1 Physical Isolation: The Case of Smith Island 497

4.2 Linguistic Isolation: The Case of Quebec French 498

4.3 Social Isolation: The Case of Urban African American English 499

5 Contact 500

5.1 Code-Switching and Borrowing 500

5.2 Contact Languages: Mixed Languages, Lingura Francas, Pidgins, and Creoles 502

6 Distinctions within a Community: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender 507

6.1 Class 507

6.2 Ethnicity: The Case of African American English 508

6.3 Gender 512

6.4 Situation-Specific Factors 513

7 Social Interaction and Language 514

7.1 Ethnography of Communication 514

7.2 Solidarity and Power 516

8 How Societies Deal with Language 518

Summing Up 522

Key Terms 522

Recommended Reading 524

Exercises 524

15 Natural Sign Languages 527

1 Phonology 528

1.1 Formational Elements 529

1.2 Combining Formational Elements 530

1.3 Prosody 530

2 Morphology 533

2.1 Word Formation 533

2.2 Verb Agreement 534

2.3 Classifier Constructions 535

3 Syntax 537

3.1 Recursion 537

3.2 Word Order 539

3.3 Sign Language and Universal Grammar 540

4 Language as an Art Form: Sign Language Poetry 541

5 New Sign Languages 542

Summing Up 543

Key Terms 543

Recommended Reading 543

16 Writing and Language 545

1 Types of Writing 546

1.1 Logographic Writing 546

1.2 Phonographic Writing 546

2 The Early History of Writing 547

2.1 Prewriting 547

2.2 Pictograms 548

3 The Development of Writing 549

3.1 Rebuses 550

3.2 Toward Syllabic Writing 550

3.3 Another Middle Eastern Writing System: Hieroglyphs 551

3.4 The Emergence of Alphabets 552

4 Some Non-European Writing Systems 555

4.1 Chinese Writing 555

4.2 Japanese Writing 557

4.3 Korean Writing 559

4.4 Cherokee Writing 560

5 English Orthography 560

5.1 Irregularities 561

5.2 Obstacles to Reform 563

6 Writing and Reading 564

Summing Up 565

Key Terms 566

Recommended Reading 566

Exercises 567

17 Computational Linguistics 569

1 Computational Phonetics and Phonology 572

1.1 The Talking Machine: Speech Synthesis 572

1.2 Speech Recognition 576

2 Computational Morphology 577

2.1 Morphological Processes 577

2.2 Some Problems in Computational Morphology 580

3 Computational Syntax 581

3.1 Data and Resources 582

3.2 Natural Language Analysis 583

3.3 Natural Language Generation 586

3.4 The Role of Syntax and Semantics 587

4 Computational Lexicography 587

5 Computational Semantics 592

6 Pragmatics 595

6.1 Reference Resolution 595

6.2 Discourse Markers 596

6.3 Spoken Dialogue 596

7 Applications of Computational Linguistics 597

7.1 Indexing and Concordances 598

7.2 Question Answering 599

7.3 Automatic Summarization 600

7.4 Machine Translation 601

7.5 Spoken-Dialogue Systems 603

Summing Up 604

Key Terms 605

Recommended Reading 606

Exercises 606

18 Animal Communication [Online Only at bedfordstmartins.com/linguistics]

Glossary 609

Sources 643

Language Index 665

Index 674