Table of Contents

1. The origins of language; 2. Animals and human language; 3. The sounds of language; 4. The sound patterns of language; 5. Word-formation; 6. Morphology; 7. Grammar; 8. Syntax; 9. Semantics; 10. Pragmatics; 11. Discourse analysis; 12. Language and the brain; 13. First language acquisition; 14. Second language acquisition/learning; 15. Gestures and sign languages; 16. Writing; 17. Language history and change; 18. Language and regional variation; 19. Language and social variation; 20. Language and culture.

Promotional Information

Easy to follow, simple to understand - the most fundamental introduction to language study. Includes new tasks and an online study guide.

About the Author

George Yule has taught Linguistics at the Universities of Edinburgh, Hawaii, Louisiana State and Minnesota. He is the author of a number of books, including Discourse Analysis (with Gillian Brown, 1983) and Pragmatics (1996).

Reviews

'Its strength is in providing a general survey of mainstream linguistics in palatable, easily manageable and logically organised chunks. The chapter divisions allow for considerable flexibility, which has proved particularly important after recently restructuring our courses and reorganising the order in which to cover the topics.' Nigel Musk, University of Linkoping

'One of the most accessible and entertaining introductions available. Newly updated with a wealth of material for practice and discussion.' Stephen Matthews, University of Hong Kong

'Genuinely introductory, well suited for undergraduates … Yule's crisp and thought-provoking presentation works well for a wide range of students.' Elise Morse-Gagne, Tougaloo College

'The latest edition of this text contains the most extensive changes to date, and all have served to make a good textbook even better … the book is concise, thorough, and succinct. It is also extremely well-written … It is difficult to express how much information this author covers in so few words, while being so informative. There is no fluff in this book; every single sentence counts, every word is important.' The LINGUIST List