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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 | |