CONTENTS
Preface = ⅴ
1 What Is Language? = 1
LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE = 2
WHAT YOU KNOW AND WHAT YOU DO : LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE = 6
WHAT IS A GRAMMAR? = 9
Summary = 12
Exercises = 13
References = 14
2 In the Beginning : Language Origin = 15
GOD'S GIFT TO MAN? = 17
THE FIRST LANGUAGE = 19
MAN'S INVENTION OR THE CRIES OF NATURE? = 22
MAN'S ORIGIN IS LANGUAGE ORIGIN = 25
Summary = 27
Exercises = 28
References = 29
3 The Sounds of Language : Phonetics = 30
THE PHONETIC ALPHABET = 32
ARTICULATORY PHONETICS = 40
PHONETIC FEATURES = 43
Airstream Mechanisms = 43
Voiced and Voiceless Sounds = 43
Nasal vs. Oral Sounds = 45
Articulatory Modification of Sounds = 47
Manners of Articulation = 48
Vowels = 54
NATURAL CLASSES = 58
PITCH = 60
Tone = 60
Intonation = 61
STRESS = 62
Summary = 64
Exercises = 65
References = 68
4 The Sound Patterns of Language : Phonology = 69
PHONEMES : THE PHONOLOGICAL UNITS OF LANGUAGE = 70
SEQUENCES OF PHONEMES = 78
THE RULES OF PHONOLOGY = 79
THE FORMALIZATION OF PHONOLOGICAL RULES = 90
Summary = 93
Exercises = 94
References = 99
5 What Does It Mean? = 100
MORPHEMES : THE MINIMAL UNITS OF MEANING = 101
MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX = 106
THE MEANING OF MORPHEMES AND WORDS = 108
HOMONYMS (HOMOPHONES) : SAME SOUNDS, DIFFERENT MEANINGS = 111
SYNONYMS : DIFFERENT SOUNDS, SIMILAR MEANINGS = 115
ANTONYMS : DIFFERENT SOUNDS, OPPOSITE MEANINGS = 117
COMPOUNDS AND IDIOMS = 119
SENSE AND REFERENCE = 121
THE "TRUTH" OF SENTENCES = 122
MEANING, SENSE, NO SENSE, NONSENSE = 125
THE MEANING OF "MEANING" = 128
Summary = 130
Exercises = 131
References = 135
6 The Sentence Patterns of Language : Syntax = 136
THE RULES OF SYNTAX = 136
PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES = 139
FITTING THE MORPHEMES IN = 146
THE INFINITUDE OF LANGUAGE : RECURSIVE RULES = 148
AMBIGUITY REVISITED = 152
GENERATIVE GRAMMARS = 154
TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES = 156
MORE NONSENSE = 163
WHAT A TRANSFORMATIONAL RULE LOOKS LIKE = 164
A TRANSFORMATIONAL-GENERATIVE GRAMMAR = 166
Summary = 167
Exercises = 168
References = 172
7 Animal "Languages" = 173
THE BIRDS AND THE BEES = 176
DOLPHINS = 180
CLEVER HANS = 182
GUA, VIKI, WASHOE, SARAH = 183
Summary 188 Exercises 188 References = 189
8 The Syllables of Time : Language Change = 191
KINDS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE = 194
Phonological Change = 194
Syntactic Change = 197
Lexical Change = 202
Semantic Change = 207
WHY DO LANGUAGES CHANGE? = 210
THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE CHANGE = 213
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE = 216
LINGUISTIC PALEONTOLOGY = 218
Summary = 220
Exercises = 220
References = 222
9 The Tower of Babel : Languages of the World = 224
LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS = 225
HOW LANGUAGES DIFFER = 227
TYPES OF LANGUAGES = 230
WHY LANGUAGES DIFFER AND YET REMAIN THE SAME = 234
THE GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES = 236
Summary = 246
Exercises = 247
References = 251
10 The Diversity of Language = 252
DIALECTS = 252
REGIONAL DIALECTS AND ACCENTS = 253
THE "STANDARD" = 257
BLACK ENGLISH = 258
LINGUA FRANCAS = 266
PIDGINS AND CREOLES = 266
ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGES = 269
ARGOT, CANT, JARGON, SLANG = 271
LANGUAGE GAMES = 273
Summary = 275
Exercises = 276
References = 279
11 The ABCs of Language : Writing = 280
THE HISTORY OF WRITING = 282
Pictograms and Ideograms = 283
Cuneiform Writing = 285
The Rebus Principle = 286
Syllabic Writing Systems = 286
From Hieroglyphs to the Alphabet = 287
MODERN TYPES OF WRITING SYSTEMS = 289
WRITING AND SPEECH = 294
SPELLING = 296
SPELLING PRONUNCIATIONS = 300
GRAFFITI = 302
Summary 303 Exercises 304 References = 306
12 The Gray Matter of Language : Language and the Brain = 307
LANGUAGE AND THE LEFT HEMISPHERE = 308
THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE = 316
Summary = 323
Exercises = 324
References = 326
13 Language in the Computer Age = 327
AUTOMATIC MACHINE TRANSLATION = 328
DICTIONARY APPLICATIONS = 332
TEXT PROCESSING = 333
GRAMMAR TESTING = 334
SENTENCE PARSING = 335
TRANSFORMATIONAL PARSING = 336
TALKING MACHINES = 336
MATHEMATICAL LINGUISTICS = 341
Summary = 346
Exercises = 347
References = 349
Index = 351
