Beginning Linguistics

Author: Laurie Bauer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0230390315
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
In this core textbook, Laurie Bauer's engaging style brings linguistics to life and introduces readers to the fundamentals of the subject. Each essential area of linguistics is dealt with in turn, thereby providing readers with a clear and comprehensive overview of all the core topics, including semantics, syntax, phonology and pragmatics. Alongside definitions of key terms and explanations of how various issues slot together, this text also empowers readers by teaching them how to apply their knowledge to new data. Richly illustrated with examples from multiple languages and packed with interactive activities, this user-friendly book helps readers to master the basics and sets them up for further study in the field. This is an invaluable resource for those studying linguistics for the very first time. Equally, it provides a firm reference point for those with more experience in the field.

Linguistics For Dummies

Author: Rose-Marie Dechaine
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118101596
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Book Description
The fascinating, fun, and friendly way to understand the science behind human language Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics students study how languages are constructed, how they function, how they affect society, and how humans learn language. From understanding other languages to teaching computers to communicate, linguistics plays a vital role in society. Linguistics For Dummies tracks to a typical college-level introductory linguistics course and arms you with the confidence, knowledge, and know-how to score your highest. Understand the science behind human language Grasp how language is constructed Score your highest in college-level linguistics If you're enrolled in an introductory linguistics course or simply have a love of human language, Linguistics For Dummies is your one-stop resource for unlocking the science of the spoken word.

All About Language

Author: Barry J. Blake
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191622834
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
In clear, congenial style Barry Blake explains how language works. He describes the make-up of words and how they're built from sounds and signs and put together in phrases and sentences. He examines the dynamics of conversation and the relations between the sound and meaning. He shows how languages help their users connect to each other and to the world, how they vary around the world, why they never stop changing, and that no two people speak a language in the same way. He looks at how language is acquired by infant children, how it relates to thought, and its operations in the brain. He investigates current trends and issues such as the levelling of linguistic class differences and the rise of new secret or in-group languages such as argot and teenspeak. He describes the history of writing from its origins to digital diffusion, and ends by looking at how language might have originated and then evolved among our distant hominid and primate ancestors. Language is crucial to every aspect of our lives whether we're thinking, talking, or dreaming. Barry Blake reveals the wonders that lie beneath the surface of everyday communication, enriching his exposition with a unique blend of anecdote and humour. His engaging guide is for everyone curious about language or who needs to know more about it.

How to Study Linguistics

Author: Geoffrey Finch
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350317969
Category : Study Aids
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
If you are new to linguistics as a subject and beginning a course at undergraduate or sixth-form level, How to Study Linguistics is the ideal introduction and companion to your studies. - Covers all the core areas of linguistic study, with chapters discussing strategies for studying phonology, syntax and semantics. - Explores other branches of linguistics such as sociolinguistics, stylistics, and psycholinguistics. - Includes a chapter on writing linguistics essays and a detailed glossary to aid learning and revision. - Second edition includes new material designed to help the more advanced reader. How to Study Linguistics is both a guide to current ideas about linguistics and a refreshingly practical text book. It will not only develop your skills as a language student, but will also make an often complex and daunting subject easy to understand, and a pleasure to study.

Language and Linguistics

Author: John Lyons
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139935658
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Book Description
This 1981 book is a general introduction to linguistics and the study of language, intended particularly for beginning students and readers with no previous knowledge or training in the subject. There is first a general account of the nature of language and of the aims, methods and basic principles of linguistic theory. John Lyons then introduces in turn each of the main sub-fields of linguistics: the sounds of language, grammar, semantics, language change, psycholinguistics: the sounds of language, grammar, semantics, language change, psycholinguistics, language and culture. Throughout the book he emphasizes particularly those aspects of the discipline that seem fundamental and most likely to remain important. He stresses throughout the cultural at least as much as the biological context of human language, and shows how the linguist's concerns connect productively with those of the traditional humanities and the social sciences. Each chapter has a wide-ranging set of discussion questions and revision exercises, and extensive suggestions for further reading. The exposition is marked throughout by the author's characteristic clarity, balance and authority.

Linguistics for the Age of AI

Author: Marjorie Mcshane
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262362600
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Book Description
A human-inspired, linguistically sophisticated model of language understanding for intelligent agent systems. One of the original goals of artificial intelligence research was to endow intelligent agents with human-level natural language capabilities. Recent AI research, however, has focused on applying statistical and machine learning approaches to big data rather than attempting to model what people do and how they do it. In this book, Marjorie McShane and Sergei Nirenburg return to the original goal of recreating human-level intelligence in a machine. They present a human-inspired, linguistically sophisticated model of language understanding for intelligent agent systems that emphasizes meaning--the deep, context-sensitive meaning that a person derives from spoken or written language.

How Language Works

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141911735
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 656

Book Description
In this fascinating survey of everything from how sounds become speech to how names work, David Crystal answers every question you might ever have had about the nuts and bolts of language in his usual highly illuminating way. Along the way we find out about eyebrow flashes, whistling languages, how parents teach their children to speak, how politeness travels across languages and how the way we talk show not just how old we are but where we’re from and even who we want to be.

Probabilistic Linguistics

Author: Rens Bod
Publisher: A Bradford Book
ISBN: 0262025361
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 465

Book Description
For the past forty years, linguistics has been dominated by the idea that language is categorical and linguistic competence discrete. It has become increasingly clear, however, that many levels of representation, from phonemes to sentence structure, show probabilistic properties, as does the language faculty. Probabilistic linguistics conceptualizes categories as distributions and views knowledge of language not as a minimal set of categorical constraints but as a set of gradient rules that may be characterized by a statistical distribution. Whereas categorical approaches focus on the endpoints of distributions of linguistic phenomena, probabilistic approaches focus on the gradient middle ground. Probabilistic linguistics integrates all the progress made by linguistics thus far with a probabilistic perspective. This book presents a comprehensive introduction to probabilistic approaches to linguistic inquiry. It covers the application of probabilistic techniques to phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics. It also includes a tutorial on elementary probability theory and probabilistic grammars.

Linguistics for Everyone

Author: Kristin E. Denham
Publisher: Cengage Learning
ISBN: 9781111836603
Category : Linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
LINGUISTICS FOR EVERYONE, 2E, International Edition connects the study of linguistics to the language you use every day. The text is very user-friendly: casual writing style, logical presentation of material, balance of theoretical and practical, entertaining information, and lots of ideas and activities to put what you learn to use right away. The first chapter gives you the basics such as how to define language, new ways to look at grammar, your innate knowledge about language. Later chapters address core linguistics areas in depth (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics). Many innovative and varied activities help you review and practice the content and apply the knowledge immediately. Special features throughout the book demystify common curiosities about how language works.

How to Study Linguistics

Author: Geoffrey Finch
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0230802133
Category : Study Aids
Languages : en
Pages : 272