How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or DieSteven Pinker meets Bill Bryson in this landmark exploration of language. In the author's own words, "How Language Works is not about music, cookery, or sex. But it is about how we talk about music, cookery, and sex-or, indeed, anything at all." Language is so fundamental to everyday life that we take it for granted. But as David Crystal makes clear in this work of unprecedented scope, language is an extremely powerful tool that defines the human species. Crystal offers general readers a personal tour of the intricate workings of language. He moves effortlessly from big subjects like the origins of languages, how children learn to speak, and how conversation works to subtle but revealing points such as how email differs from both speech and writing in important ways, how language reveals a person's social status, and how we decide whether a word is rude or polite. Broad and deep, but with a light and witty touch, How Language Works is the ultimate layman's guide to how we communicate with one another. |
Contents
Introducing language 1 How what works? | 1 |
How to treat body language 5 | 4 |
How we use the edges of language 11 | 4 |
Spoken language | 4 |
phase 1 | 18 |
phase 2 | 27 |
How we transmit sounds | 32 |
How we hear speech sounds | 39 |
How sentences work | 247 |
How we learn grammar | 254 |
How we discourse | 260 |
How conversation works | 267 |
How we choose what to say | 275 |
How we cant choose what to say | 282 |
Dialects | 287 |
How we know where someone is from | 289 |
How we perceive speech | 44 |
How we describe speech sounds | 51 |
How we describe consonants and vowels | 58 |
How we organize the sounds of speech | 66 |
How we use tone of voice | 73 |
Discourse | 77 |
the first year | 79 |
later years | 85 |
How speech can go wrong | 90 |
How we write | 97 |
early times | 105 |
modern times | 113 |
How we read | 121 |
How we write and spell | 127 |
How we learn to read and write | 133 |
How reading and writing can go wrong | 140 |
How writing and speech differ | 147 |
How the electronic medium differs | 153 |
Sign language 25 How sign language works | 159 |
How sign languages vary | 164 |
Language structure 27 How the brain handles language | 171 |
How to investigate language structure | 180 |
How we mean | 186 |
How we analyse meaning | 192 |
How we learn vocabulary | 198 |
How children learn to mean | 204 |
How dictionaries work | 210 |
How names work | 217 |
How vocabulary grows | 224 |
How we study grammar | 230 |
How words work | 236 |
How we classify words | 242 |
How to study dialects | 295 |
the ethnic issue | 302 |
the social issue | 309 |
the stylistic issue | 316 |
the contextual issue | 322 |
How dialects differ from languages | 329 |
How languages die | 336 |
How languages are born | 343 |
How language began | 350 |
How language changes | 357 |
How language families work | 364 |
How the IndoEuropean family is organized | 371 |
How other Eurasian families are organized part one | 380 |
How other Eurasian families are organized part two | 387 |
How the IndoPacific island families are organized | 393 |
How African families are organized | 397 |
How American families are organized | 403 |
How multilingualism works | 409 |
translate them | 416 |
supplement them | 423 |
learn them | 430 |
teach them | 437 |
plan them | 444 |
How not to look after languages | 451 |
recognizing principles | 457 |
recognizing functions | 462 |
recognizing varieties | 469 |
Teaching people to look after languages | 477 |
Further Reading | 485 |
| 487 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ability adult alphabet analyse approach articulation auditory behaviour bilingual brain century child communication complex consonants contrast conversation convey dialects dictionary distinction dysgraphia dyslexia effect English everyday example express factors frequency functions grammar graphemes graphology guage identify important intonation involved kind known larynx letters lexemes lexical linguistic lips listening logograms meaning million morphemes movement names nasal noun organized palate particular patterns pharynx phonetic phonology pidgin pitch place of articulation possible problem produce pronunciation pulmonic egressive range reading recognize referred relationship semantic sense sentence sequence sign language signal social soft palate speak speakers speech perception speech sounds spelling spoken language structure syllables symbols talk term tones of voice tongue types units usually utterances variation variety vary verb vibration vocabulary vocal folds vocal tract vowels Wernicke's area widely words writing systems written language