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.

Linguistics for Beginners

Author: W. Terrence Gordon
Publisher: For Beginners (For Beginners)
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Book Description
Author Terrence Gordon begins with a lucid definition of language and proceeds to examine how language becomes the subject matter of linguisitics. Topics include the contrast between writing and speech and elementary lessons in different levels of analysis from sounds to sentences. Here, absurd fictions are explored and the borderlands between linguistics and philosophy are investigated.

How Language Works

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141911735
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 715

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.

A Beginner's Guide to Language and Gender

Author: Allyson Jule
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 184769683X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 117

Book Description
A Beginner’s Guide to Language and Gender offers a broad and accessible introduction to the study of gender and language use for those new to the subject. The book introduces the theoretical and practical perspectives, including relevant frameworks necessary to understand ways in which language interacts with gender/sex in various settings, including: in media, in schools, in places of business, in places of worship, and at home.

The Way of the Linguist

Author: Steve Kaufmann
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1420873296
Category : Linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Book Description
The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.

An Introduction to Language and Linguistics

Author: Ralph Fasold
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521847680
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
This accessible textbook offers balanced and uniformly excellent coverage of modern linguistics.

Saussure For Beginners

Author: W. Terrence Gordon
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 193999442X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
A concise, accessible introduction to the great linguist who shaped the study of language for the 20th century, Saussure for Beginners puts the challenging ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) into clear and illuminating terms, focusing on the unifying principles of his teachings and showing how his thoughts on linguistics migrated to anthropology. Ferdinand de Saussure’s work is so powerful that it not only redefined modern linguistics, it also opened our minds to new ways of approaching anthropology, literary criticism, and psychoanalysis. Saussure felt that 19th century linguistics avoided hard questions about what language is and how it works. By 1911, he had taught a general linguistics course only three times. Upon his death, however, his students were so inspired by his teachings that they published them as the “Course in General Linguistics.” Saussure For Beginners takes you through this course, points out the unifying principles, and shows how these ideas migrated from linguistics to other subjects.

English Language For Beginners

Author: Michelle Lowe
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125019121
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
The documentary comic books of the For Beginners series deal with complex and serious subjects. They attempt to untimidate and uncomplicate the great ideas and work of great thinkers. The movements and concepts dealt with are placed in their historical, political and intellectual contexts. The books are painstakingly researched, humourouly written and enlivened with classic comic-strip illustrations, photographs, paintings, etc. The range of subjects covered is truly vast and varied Malcom X and the New Age guru Castenanda, Shakespeare and Foucault, Jewish Holocaust and Arab and Israel, Structuralism and Biology.

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.