What Is This Thing Called Language?Language is a complex and ever-evolving phenomenon, but it is one that deeply defines us all. So, What Is This Thing Called Language? Illustrating how it is used in different ways and in varied contexts, this book offers a thought-provoking and entertaining guide through the mysteries of language. The new edition: – Explores the basics of the language systems of sounds, vocabulary and grammar – Explains a basic framework of linguistics and language analysis Examines the written and spoken word in a range of different languages – Uses intriguing anecdotes and interesting examples to unpack complex ideas – Offers study-friendly features, including reflective questions, further reading suggestions as well as glossaries of linguistic terminology and key linguists With new and expanded material on a range of topics, from language variation and culture to second language acquisition and bilingualism, this is an 'un-put-down-able' introduction for all students of language and linguistics. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
a personal account | 4 |
1 What is this thing called language? | 5 |
2 The sound system | 19 |
3 The lexical system | 38 |
4 The grammatical system | 62 |
5 Doing things with spoken language | 80 |
6 Doing things with written language | 108 |
8 Language at play | 144 |
9 Language culture and identity | 161 |
10 Language in a global context | 179 |
Books to read on long plane flight | 203 |
Key figures | 205 |
Glossary | 217 |
| 234 | |
| 241 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accent acquired advertisements analysis Anthony Burgess argued bound morpheme burning deck called chapter Chinese Chomsky clause cohesion collocation communication concept concordancing content words context conversation create culture and identity David Crystal deixis discourse ellipsis entities example express fact free morpheme function genre Globish grammar Halliday human humour illocutionary force illustrate important indirect interaction interpersonal intonation Japanese language acquisition language and culture language play learners learning lexeme lexical linguistic linguistic imperialism listener look meaning metaphor morphemes Mother native speakers noun patterns person phonetics phonology phrase Pinker pronunciation provides question reference relationship Sapir–Whorf hypothesis second-language acquisition sentence or utterance social sounds speak speaker of English speech acts spoken language Steven Pinker structure subsystems suprasegmental symbols talk theory things tion topic verb vocabulary What’s writing written language XXXXX XXXXX Yeah
Bibliographic information
| Title | What Is This Thing Called Language? |
| Author | David Nunan |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | Macmillan International Higher Education, 2012 |
| ISBN | 1137284994, 9781137284990 |
| Length | 272 pages |
| Subjects | › › Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Pragmatics Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |