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| List of Tables and Figures | |
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| Preface | |
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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Introduction to the first edition: the stuff that surrounds us | |
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| Introduction to the second edition: a personal account | |
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| What is this thing called language? | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Language: a defining characteristic of humanity | |
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| Language as a tool for communication | |
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| Language systems | |
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| Human and animal communication systems | |
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| Design features of language | |
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| The origins of language | |
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| The structure of the rest of the book | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| The sound system | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Sounds as a system | |
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| Articulatory phonetics | |
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| Segmental and suprasegmental phonology | |
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| Words and sounds | |
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| Stress timing | |
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| The communicative functions of intonation | |
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| Representing spoken language | |
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| Accents | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| The lexical system | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| What is a word? | |
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| Form and meaning | |
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| Creating words | |
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| Cataloguing words: dictionaries and corpora | |
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| Word classes | |
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| Closed and open class systems | |
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| The internal structure of words: morphology | |
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| Personal vocabularies | |
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| Lexical patterns in text | |
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| Collocations | |
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| Ellipsis and substitution | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| The grammatical system | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Defining grammar | |
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| Mentalist versus functionalist approaches to grammar | |
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| Grammar in use | |
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| Prescriptivism versus descriptivism | |
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| The internal workings of the sentence | |
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| Grammar and context sensitivity | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Doing things with spoken language | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Functions of spoken language | |
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| Key characteristics of conversation | |
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| Topics, turns and speakers in casual conversation | |
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| Negotiating and co-constructing meaning | |
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| Speech acts | |
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| Language and gender | |
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| Linguistic connectivity in spoken discourse | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Doing things with written language | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| From spoken to written language | |
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| Cohesion and coherence | |
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| Register | |
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| Genre | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| First-language and second-language acquisition | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| The behaviourist approach to language acquisition | |
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| A critique of the behaviourist approach | |
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| The mentalist approach | |
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| The functionalist approach to language acquisition | |
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| From discourse to grammar | |
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| Second-language acquisition | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Language at play | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Playing with language | |
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| The lure of the limerick | |
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| Other forms of word play | |
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| Advertising revisited | |
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| Figurative language | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Language, culture and identity | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Defining culture and identity | |
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| Does language determine the way we see the world? | |
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| Language choice and cultural context | |
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| Intercultural communication | |
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| Popular culture and a blurring of boundaries | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Language in a global context | |
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| Introduction and overview | |
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| Is English the 'world language'? | |
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| English as a global language: winners and losers | |
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| Language variation: pidgins and creoles | |
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| Variation and standardization | |
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| Language death | |
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| Summary and conclusion | |
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| Questions and tasks | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Postscript | |
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| Books to read on long plane flight | |
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| Key figures | |
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| Glossary | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |