Chapter 1 Human Language 1
1.1 Languages in the world 2
1.2 The birth of language—from Babel to babble 2
1.3 Definitions of language 4
1.4 Design features of human language 5
1.5 Animal communication and human language 8
1.6 Language as endowment and/or accomplishment 10
Summary 12
Workshop 13
Appreciation of linguistic research 15
Chapter 2 Linguistics as a Science 19
2.1 A brief history of linguistics 19
2.2 Focus of linguistic study 24
2.3 Branches of theoretical linguistics 26
2.4 Interdisciplinary studies 27
Summary 30
Workshop 31
Appreciation of linguistic research 33
Chapter 3 What Are the Sounds of Language?—Phonetics 36
3.1 The relationship between sounds and spellings 37
3.2 The definition of phonetics 39
3.3 The IPA system 40
3.4 The production of speech sounds 41
3.5 Classifications of speech sounds 43
Summary 49
Workshop 50
Appreciation of linguistic research 52
Chapter 4 What Are the Sound Systems of Language?—Phonology 55
4.1 Phone,phoneme and allophone 56
4.2 Minimal pairs 58
4.3 Phonological rules 58
4.4 Suprasegmental features 61
Summary 68
Workshop 69
Appreciation of linguistic research 72
Chapter 5 How Do Sounds Make up Words?—Morphology 75
5.1 The definition of"word" 75
5.2 The definition of morphology 77
5.3 Classification of morphemes 78
5.4 Derivational morphology 83
5.5 Inflectional morphology 89
5.6 The interaction between morphology and phonology 91
Summary 93
Workshop 94
Appreciation of linguistic research 96
Chapter 6 How Are Words and Phrases Organized into Sentences?—Syntax 99
6.1 Sentence,syntactic category and constituent 100
6.2 Tree diagrams 103
6.3 Heads and complements 107
6.4 Phrase structure rules 109
6.5 Surface structures and deep structures 115
6.6 Universal Grammar 120
Summary 122
Workshop 122
Appreciation of linguistic research 124
Chapter 7 How Do Words and Sentences Convey Meaning?—Semantics 127
7.1 The classification of meaning 128
7.2 Componential analysis 135
7.3 Sense relation 137
7.4 Collocations 151
7.5 Metaphors 156
7.6 Metonymy 158
Summary 159
Workshop 161
Appreciation of linguistic research 165
Chapter 8 What Is the Study of Meaning by Language?—Pragmatics 168
8.1 Distinction of pragmatics 168
8.2 Pragmatic meaning 170
8.3 Speech act 173
8.4 Conversation and interaction 178
Summary 185
Workshop 186
Appreciation of linguistic research 188
References 191
Workshop Key 195
Glossary 201
Subject Index 208