Introduction to English Linguistics

by Ingo Plag, Sabine Arndt-Lappe, Maria Braun, Mareile Schramm

Overview

The new and updated third edition of this highly successful textbook contains an additional chapter that presents modern empirical research methods in the form of exemplary small-scale studies. In these projects the authors invite the reader to develop and address research questions from phonetics/phonology, morphology and syntax. The pertinent experimental and corpus-linguistic techniques are introduced and students are familiarized with some basic statistical tools necessary for the analysis of the data.
The major difference between this book and its potential competitors lies in its hands-on didactic orientation, with a strong focus on linguistic analysis and argumentation. Language and linguistic theory are approached from a strictly empirical perspective: given a certain set of data to be accounted for, theoretical and methodological problems must be solved in order to analyze and understand the data properly. The book is not written from the perspective of a particular theoretical framework and draws on insights from various research traditions. Introduction to English Linguistics concentrates on gaining expertise and analytical skills in the traditional core areas of linguistics, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The chapter on "Extensions and applications" widens the perspective to other areas of linguistic research, such as historical, socio- and psycholinguistics. Each chapter is accompanied by exercises and suggestions for further reading. A glossary and an index facilitate access to terms and topics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110376180
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	05/19/2015
Series:	Mouton Textbook
Edition description:	3rd. rev. ed.
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ingo Plag, Sabine Arndt-Lappe, Maria Braun, and Mareile Schramm, University of Siegen, Germany.

Table of Contents

Preface V

Abbreviations and notational conventions x

Introduction xi

1 The sounds: phonetics 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Spelling vs. pronunciation: the representation of speech sounds 2

1.3 Producing sounds 7

1.3.1 The nature of speech sounds 7

1.3.2 The Vocal tract 8

1.4 How sounds differ from each other: the classification of speech sounds 9

1.4.1 The classification of consonants 10

1.4.2 The classification of vowels 16

1.5 Conclusion 24

Further reading 24

Exercises 25

2 The sound system: phonology 29

2.1 Introduction 29

2.2 Introducing order into the chaos: the phoneme 29

2.3 The key to finding the order 35

2.3.1 Minimal pairs 35

2.3.2 Distributional characteristics of allophones 37

2.3.3 Observing allophonic alternations in different word forms 39

2.4 More about the sound system of English 42

2.4.1 Allophones of /I/ 42

2.4.2 Stop phonemes 45

2.4.3 A slightly more complex case: /x/ 50

2.5 The syllable 54

2.5.1 The structure of the syllable 54

2.5.2 Syllabification 59

2.5.3 The syllable and allophonic processes:/l/ 63

2.6 Conclusion 65

Further reading 65

Exercise 66

3 The structure of words: morphology 70

3.1 Introduction 70

3.2 Minimal building blocks: morphemes 70

3.3 Types of morphemes 75

3.4 Morphological analysis of words 78

3.5 Realisation of morphemes: allomorphs 82

3.6 Morphological processes: infection and derivation 89

3.7 Word-formation 93

3.7.1 Introduction 93

3.7.2 Affixation 94

3.7.3 Compounding 99

3.7.4 Conversion 104

3.7.5 Shortening 106

3.8 Conclusion 108

Further reading 108

Exercises 109

4 The structure of sentences: syntax111

4.1 Introduction 111

4.2 The building blocks: words and phrases 114

4.2.1 Constituency tests and phrases 114

4.2.2 The internal structure of phrases 121

4.3 The functional level: subjects, objects, adverbials, predicates 128

4.4 The mapping of form and function 135

4.5 Conclusion 136

Further reading 137

Exercises 137

5 The meaning of words and sentences semantics 140

5.1 Introduction 140

5.2 What does 'meaning' mean? Words concepts, and referents 140

5.3 Compositional and non-compositional meaning 149

5.4 The network: organizing word meaning 155

5.4.1 Words and other words 155

5.4.2 Same or different? 163

5.5 Conclusion 170

Further reading 172

Exercises 172

6 Studying language in use: pragmatics 176

6.1 Introduction 176

6.2 Expressing intention through language 177

6.2.1 Using language to act speech acts 177

6.2.2 Speech acts: a closer look 179

6.2.3 Classifying speech acts 181

6.2.4 Realisation of speech acts: direct and indirect speech acts 187

6.2.5 Performing speech acts successfully: felicity conditions 189

6.3 Understanding utterance meaning 192

6.4 Exploring pragmatic principles 195

6.4.1 The Cooperative Principle 195

6.4.2 Politeness 202

6.5 Conclusion 206

Further reading 207

Exercises 207

7 Extensions and applications: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics 210

7.1 Introduction 210

7.2 Historical linguistics: how languages develop 210

7.3 Sociolinguistics: the social significance of language 219

7.4 Psycholinguistics: how do we store and process language? 224

7.5 Conclusion 227

Further reading 228

Exercises 228

Glossary 231

References 246

Subject index 251

Editorial Reviews

"[...] the book is indeed enjoyable. University students all over the
globe will, undoubtedly, find it stimulating and inspiring."
Dinha T. Gorgis in: Linguist List 21.664

From the Publisher