Note: This is a new version of a previously announced book.
This best-selling textbook provides an engaging and user-friendly introduction to the study of language. Assuming no prior knowledge in the subject, Yule presents information in short, bite-sized sections, introducing the major concepts in language study - from how children learn language to why men and women speak differently, through all the key elements of language. This fourth edition has been revised and updated with twenty new sections, covering new accounts of language origins, the key properties of language, text messaging, kinship terms and more than twenty new word etymologies. To increase student engagement with the text, Yule has also included more than fifty new tasks, including thirty involving data analysis, enabling students to apply what they have learned. The online study guide offers students further resources when working on the tasks, while encouraging lively and proactive learning. This is the most fundamental and easy-to-use introduction to the study of language.
1. The origins of language; 2. Animals and human language; 3. The development of writing; 4. The sounds of language; 5. The sound patterns of language; 6. Words and word-formation processes; 7. Morphology; 8. Phrases and sentences: grammar; 9. Syntax; 10. Semantics; 11. Pragmatics; 12. Discourse analysis; 13. Language and the brain; 14. First language acquisition; 15. Second language acquisition/learning; 16. Gestures and sign languages; 17. Language history and change; 18. Language and regional variation; 19. Language and social variation; 20. Language and culture.