Linguistics

Anne E. Baker is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam with a specialisation in psycholinguistics and sign linguistics. Her publications include Taal en taalwetenschap (ed. with René Appel, Kees Hengeveld, Folkert Kuiken, and Pieter Muysken, 2002) and Sign Language Acquisition (ed. with Bencie Woll, 2008).

Kees Hengeveld is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam with a specialisation in linguistic typology and grammatical theory. His publications include Functional Discourse Grammar: A typologically-based theory of language structure (with J. Lachlan Mackenzie, 2008) and The Theory of Functional Grammar (with Simon C. Dik, 1997).

Preface xvii

Part I Language and the Language Faculty 1

1 From Language to Linguistics 3

1.1 Introduction 3

1.2 Languages 5

1.3 Other Languages 9

1.4 Differences 15

1.5 Linguistics 17

1.6 Different Kinds of Grammar 19

1.7 The Contents of this Book and the Subfields of Linguistics 22

2 The Language User 29

2.1 Introduction 29

2.2 Knowledge and Ability: The Cognitive System 30

2.3 Language and the Brain 34

2.4 Language Comprehension 37

2.5 Language Production 44

3 Language Acquisition 57

3.1 Introduction 57

3.2 How Do Children Acquire Language? 59

3.3 The Order of First Language Acquisition 62

3.4 Factors that Influence the Acquisition of a Second Language 66

3.5 The Order of Second Language Acquisition 69

3.6 Bilingual Development 74

Part II Language and Interaction 81

4 Discourse 83

4.1 Introduction 83

4.2 Interpretation and Inference 84

4.3 Cooperation 86

4.4 Conversations 89

4.5 Coherence Through Linguistic Form 95

5 Speech Acts 103

5.1 Introduction 103

5.2 An Utterance is an Act 104

5.3 Information Structure 110

5.4 Pragmatic Appropriateness 114

Part III Sentences and Their Meaning 121

6 Constituents and Word Classes 123

6.1 Introduction 123

6.2 Constituents 124

6.3 Sentences, Clauses and Phrases 126

6.4 Phrase Types 127

6.5 Heads and Modifiers 130

6.6 Constituent Structure 131

6.7 Phrases Versus Words 135

6.8 Word Classes: Content Words 136

6.9 Word Classes: Function Words 138

7 Simple Sentences 143

7.1 Introduction 143

7.2 Functions of Phrases Within the Sentence 144

7.3 Valency 147

7.4 Semantic Roles 150

7.5 Grammatical Roles 151

7.6 The Marking of Semantic and Grammatical Roles 153

7.7 Reduction of Valency 154

7.8 Reflexive Constructions 155

7.9 Pronominalisation 157

8 Complex Sentences 161

8.1 Introduction 161

8.2 The Functions of Embedded Clauses 162

8.3 The Forms of Embedded Clauses 165

8.4 Interaction between Main Clause and Embedded Clause 168

8.5 Coordinated Clauses 172

8.6 The Form of Coordinated Clauses 173

9 Constituent Order 177

9.1 Introduction 177

9.2 Constituent Order and Levels of Analysis 178

9.3 Constituent Order at the Sentence Level 179

9.4 Clause Type 181

9.5 Embedded Clauses 182

9.6 Complexity 183

9.7 The Information Status of Constituents 184

9.8 Constituent Order within Constituents 185

9.9 Correlations 188

9.10 Discontinuous Constituents 190

Summary 191

10 Sentence Meaning 195

10.1 Introduction 195

10.2 Compositionality 196

10.3 Noun Phrases: Reference 197

10.4 Noun Phrases: Deixis and Anaphora 203

10.5 Verb Phrases: Tense and Aspect 206

10.6 Verb Phrases: Situation Types 210

Part IV Words and Their Meaning 217

11 Lexicon 219

11.1 Introduction 219

11.2 What is aWord? 220

11.3 The Relation Between Word Form and Meaning 221

11.4 Content Words and Function Words 223

11.5 The Lexicon 226

11.6 Kinds of Lexical Information 228

11.7 Dictionaries 230

11.8 Meaning and Meaning Relations 232

11.9 Semantic Description 235

11.10 Words Across Languages 236

12 Word Formation 241

12.1 Introduction 241

12.2 The Internal Composition of Words 242

12.3 The Functions of Word Formation 243

12.4 Derivation 245

12.5 Inflection 249

12.6 Morphological Forms 251

12.7 The Structure ofWords and Their Meanings 255

12.8 Differences between Derivation and Inflection 256

12.9 Morphological Differences between Languages 258

13 Compounds and Idiomatic Expressions 265

13.1 Introduction 265

13.2 Structure and Meaning of Compounds 266

13.3 Types of Compounds 270

13.4 Incorporation 271

13.5 Idiomatic Expressions 272

13.6 The Meaning of Idiomatic Expressions 274

Part V Speech Sounds 283

14 Speaking and Listening – Speech Sounds 285

14.1 Introduction 285

14.2 Speaking 287

14.3 The Speech Signal 288

14.4 Hearing and Understanding 291

14.5 Speech Sounds 292

14.6 Speech Synthesis and Speech Recognition 298

15 Sound Systems and Phonological Processes 303

15.1 Introduction 303

15.2 Distinctiveness 304

15.3 Sound Systems 307

15.4 Distinctive Features 311

15.5 Morphophonological Processes 314

15.6 Graphemes and Phonemes 316

16 Syllables, Stress and Intonation 321

16.1 Introduction 321

16.2 The Syllable: Phonotactics 322

16.3 The Word: Stress 326

16.4 The Sentence: Intonation 328

16.5 Rhythm 330

Part VI Languages and Communities 335

17 Differences and Similarities between Languages 337

17.1 Introduction 337

17.2 Similarities between Languages 339

17.3 Genetic Relations 342

17.4 Language and Culture 349

17.5 Language and Thought: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 354

18 Language Variation 361

18.1 Introduction 361

18.2 What is a Language? 362

18.3 What is a Dialect? 364

18.4 The Study of Language Variation 366

18.5 Language Variation and Social Factors 369

18.6 Other Factors: Situation and Linguistic Context 377

18.7 Language Variation and Social Meaning 379

19 Language Change 385

19.1 Introduction 385

19.2 Historical Linguistics 386

19.3 The Process of Change 390

19.4 The Role of Social Groups in Language Change 394

19.5 Embedding Changes into the Language System 397

19.6 The Evaluation of Language Change 399

20 Bilingualism 403

20.1 Introduction 403

20.2 The Bilingual Community 404

20.3 Language Policy 407

20.4 Bilingual Education 408

20.5 The Bilingual Individual 410

20.6 Bilingualism and Interference 412

20.7 The Emergence of New Languages 418

Summary 421

Assignments 422

Test Yourself 422

Acknowledgments and Further Reading 423

References 425

Sources of Illustrations 433

Index 435

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