How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction

Detailed ContentsInside Front Cover Consonant Phonemes of English, Vowel Phonemes of English, Phonetic Alphabet for American EnglishInside Back Cover Brief Timeline for the History of the English LanguageList of Symbols, Linguistic Conventions, and Common Abbreviations xviiiPreface to Instructors xxiiiLetter to Students xxixChapter 1 A Language like English 1The Story of Aks 2Language, Language Everywhere 4The Power of Language 4Name Calling 5Judging by Ear 5A Question to Discuss: What Makes Us Hear an Accent? 6The System of Language 7Arbitrariness and Systematicity 8A Scholar to Know: Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) 9Creativity 10Grammar 11Linguistics 12Human Language versus Animal Communication 13Birds and Bees 14Chimps and Bonobos 15Distinctive Characteristics of Human Language 18The Process of Language Change 20Language Genealogies 20A Question to Discuss: Do Languages Have Families? 23Mechanics of Language Change 23Progress or Decay? 24Attitudes about Language Change 25Special Focus: Evolution of Human Language 26Summary 30Suggested Reading 30Exercises 31Chapter 2 Language and Authority 35Who Is in Control? 36Language Academies 36Language Mavens 37A Question to Discuss: Does the SAT Know Good Grammar from Bad? 39Defining Standard English 40Descriptive versus Prescriptive Grammar Rules 42Case Study One: Double Negatives 43Case Study Two: Ain’t 43Case Study Three: Who and Whom 44The Status of Prescriptive Rules 45Spoken versus Written Language 46A Question to Discuss: Which Is More Permanent, the Written or Spoken Word? 46Language and Society: Are We Losing Our Memories? 48Dictionaries of English 48The Earliest Dictionaries of English 48The Beginnings of Modern Lexicography 49Historical Lexicography 50American Lexicography 51A Question to Discuss: Should Dictionaries Ever Prescribe? 53English Grammar, Usage, and Style 54The Earliest Usage Books 54Prescriptive versus Descriptive Tendencies in Grammars of English 54Modern Approaches to English Usage 56Special Focus: Corpus Linguistics 57Origins of Corpus Linguistics 58Corpus Linguistics in the Twenty-first Century 59Summary 62Suggested Reading 62Exercises 63Chapter 3 English Phonology 67Phonetics and Phonology 68The Anatomy of Speech 70The International Phonetic Alphabet 72English Consonants 73Stops 74Fricatives 75Language Change at Work: Is /h/ Disappearing from English? 76Affricates 73A Question to Discuss: Does English Have Initial /Z/? 73Language Change at Work: Who Drops Their g’s? 77Nasals 77Liquids and Glides 77Syllabic Consonants 78English Vowels 79Front Vowels 79Back Vowels 80Central Vowels 80Diphthongs 81Language Change at Work: The cot/caught and pin/pen Mergers 81Natural Classes 82Phonemes and Allophones 82Sample Allophones 84Minimal Pairs 85Phonological Rules 86Assimilation 86Deletion 87Insertion 87Metathesis 87Language Change at Work: Is larynx Undergoing Metathesis? 88Syllables and Phonotactic Constraints 88Perception of Sound 89Special Focus: History of English Spelling 92Should English Spelling Be Reformed? 94Summary 95Suggested Reading 95Exercises 96Chapter 4 English Morphology 104Morphology 105Open and Closed Classes of Morphemes 106A Question to Discuss: Exceptions to the Closedness of Closed Classes? 108Bound and Free Morphemes 110Language Change at Work: Bound Morphemes Becoming Free 110Inflectional and Derivational Bound Morphemes 111Inflectional Morphemes 111Derivational Morphemes 112Language Change at Work: The Origins of Inflectional -s 112Affixes and Combining Forms 113Morphology Trees 114A Question to Discuss: What about Complex Words That Seem to Have Only One Morpheme? 116Ways of Forming English Words 116Combining 117Shortening 118A Question to Discuss: Is It Clipping or Backformation? 119Language Change at Work: Alice in Wonderland and the Portmanteau 120Blending 120Shifting 120Language Change at Work: Success Rates for New Words 121Reanalysis, Eggcorns, and Folk Etymology 121Reduplication 122Frequency of Different Word-Formation Processes 123Borrowing and the Multicultural Vocabulary of English 123A Question to Discuss: What’s Wrong with amorality? 125Special Focus: Slang and Creativity 126Summary 128Suggested Reading 129Exercises 129Chapter 5 English Syntax: The Grammar of Words 134Syntax and Lexical Categories 135Open-Class Lexical Categories 137Nouns 137Adjectives 139Language Change at Work: Is It fish or fishes, oxen or oxes 140A Question to Discuss: Am I Good or Well? 141Verbs 142A Question to Discuss: Did I Lie Down or Lay Down? 148Adverbs 149A Question to Discuss: If I Do Badly, Why Don’t I Run Fastly? 150Closed-Class Lexical Categories 151Prepositions 151Conjunctions 152A Question to Discuss: What Is the up in call up? 152Pronouns 153Complementizers 155Language Change at Work: Himself, Hisself, Hisownself 155Determiners 156Auxiliary Verbs 157Challenges to Categorization 159The Suffix -ing 159Noun Modifiers 160Yes and No 160A Question to Discuss: What Can Phonology Reveal about Modifying -ing Forms? 160Special Focus: Descriptive Syntax and Prescriptive Rules 161Hopefully 161Split Infinitive 162Sentence-Final Prepositions 162Its/It’s 163Singular Generic They 163Summary 164Suggested Reading 165Exercises 165Chapter 6 English Syntax: Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences 171Generative Grammar 172Universal Grammar 174A Scholar to Know: Noam Chomsky (1928– ) 175Constituents and Hierarchies 175Constituent Hierarchies 176Clauses and Sentences 176Constituency Tests 177Phrase Structure Rules 179Form and Function 181Clause Types 181Basic Phrase Structure Trees 183Complex Phrase Structure Trees 187Adverbial Clauses 188Relative Clauses 188Language Change at Work: Which Is It, Which or That? 190Complementizer Clauses 191Reduced Subordinate Clauses 192Infinitive Phrases 192Gerund and Participial Phrases 193Tense and Auxiliaries 194A Question to Discuss: What Is the It in “It Is Raining”? 195Transformations 195Wh-Questions 196Negation 196Yes-No Questions 197Tag Questions 198Passive Constructions 198A Question to Discuss: How Did This Passive Sentence Get Constructed? 199Relative Pronoun Deletion 199Phrasal Verb Particle Movement 200Does Generative Grammar Succeed? 201Special Focus: Syntax and Prescriptive Grammar 203Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences 203Colons, Semicolons, and Comma Splices 204Dangling Participles 205Summary 206Suggested Reading 207Exercises 207Chapter 7 Semantics 214Semantics 215The Limits of Reference 217The Role of Cognition 217The Role of Linguistic Context 218A Question to Discuss: How Do Function Words Mean? 218The Role of Physical and Cultural Context 219Language Change at Work: The Formation of Idioms 212A Brief History of Theories of Reference 220Deixis 220Plato and Forms 221Repairing Plato 221From Reference to Discourse 222From Reference to Translation 223Componential Analysis 224Lexical Fields 224Hyponym to Homonym (and Other Nyms) 226Hyponymy 226Meronymy 227Synonymy 228Antonymy 228Homonymy 229A Question to Discuss: Does the Thesaurus Have a Bad Name? 230Organization of the Mental Lexicon 230Prototype Semantics 232Lexical Prototype Semantics 232Analogical Mapping 233Conceptual Metaphor 233The Intersection of Semantics, Syntax, and Discourse 234Projection Rules 234Thematic Roles 235How Sentences Mean 236Sentences and Context 236Processes of Semantic Change 237Generalization and Specialization 237Metaphorical Extension 240Euphemism and Dysphemism 240Pejoration and Amelioration 241Linguistic Relativity 242Special Focus: Politically Correct Language 245Summary 247Suggested Reading 247Exercises 248Chapter 8 Spoken Discourse 251Defining Discourse Analysis 252Speech Act Theory: Accomplishing Things with Words 253Scholars to Know: J. L. Austin (1911–1960) and John Searle (1932– ) 254Components of Speech Acts 252Direct and Indirect Speech Acts 256Performative Speech Acts 257Evaluating Speech Act Theory 259The Cooperative Principle: Successfully Exchanging Information 260Conversational Maxims 261A Scholar to Know: Robin Tolmach Lakoff (1942-) 262Conversational Implicature 262A Question to Discuss: Entailment and Implicature 263Relevance 264Politeness and Face: Negotiating Relationships in Speaking 266Positive and Negative Politeness and Face 266Face-Threatening Acts 267A Question: A Question to Discuss: How Do Compliments Work? 268Discourse Markers: Signaling Discourse Organization and Authority 269Function of Discourse Markers 269Language Change at Work: fDiscourse Markers rom Beowulf to Dude 270Types of Discourse Markers 270Language Change at Work: Like, I Was Like, What Is Going On with the Word Like? 271Conversation Analysis: Taking Turns and the Conversational Floor 272Structure of Conversation 273Turn-Taking 274Turn-Taking Violations 275Maintenance and Repair 276Style Shifting: Negotiating Social Meaning 277Indexical Meaning 277Style and Creativity 278Special Focus: Do Men and Women Speak Differently? 280Early Language and Gender Research 281Different Models for Gender Difference 282Queer Sociolinguistics 283Language and Identity 283Summary 284Suggested Reading 284Exercises 285Chapter 9 Stylistics 291Stylistics 295Systematicity and Choice 295The World of Texts: Genres and Registers 296Variation among Text Types 298Which Comes First? 298Textual Unity: Cohesion 300Elements of Cohesion 300Cohesion at Work 303Telling Stories: The Structure of Narratives 303The Components of a Narrative 305Investigating Speakers and Perspective 307Varieties of Perspective 308Speech: Direct and Indirect 309Investigating Actions 310Types of Action 310Action at Work 312Investigating Word Choice 313Diction 313Metaphor 314Modality 315Language Variation at Work: Literary Forensics 316Rhythm and Rhyme in Poetry 317Poeticity and Its Axes 317A Scholar to Know: Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) 318Meter, Rhythm, and Scansion 319Prosody and Verse Structure 320Sound, Meaning, and Poetic Technique 321A Question to Discuss: What Makes the Tongue Twist? 321Language Change at Work: Hip Hop Rhymes 322Special Focus: What Makes “Good Writing”? 323Summary 324Suggested Reading 325Exercises 325Chapter 10 Language Acquisition 339Theories about Children’s Language Acquisition 330Imitation versus Instinct 331Noam Chomsky and Universal Grammar 332Debates about Language “Hard Wiring” 333Language and the Brain 333Children Learning Sounds 335Language Acquisition Tests 336Acquisition of Phonemic Differences 337Children Learning Words 338Babbling and First Words 338Language Acquisition at Work: Imitating Faces 340Language Acquisition at Work: Deaf Children Learning ASL 342Acquisition of Words and Word Meaning 334A Question to Discuss: Why Do We Talk with Our Hands? 343Aquistion of Words and Word Meaning 345Children Learning Grammar 346Patterns of Children’s Errors 346Acquisition of Complex Grammatical Constructions 48The Role of Parents in Language Acquisition 348Features of Parentese 349Role of Parentese 350Language Acquisition in Special Circumstances 350Pidgins and Creoles 350Nicaraguan Sign Language 351Critical Age Hypothesis 352Critical Periods 353A Case Study: Genie 353Acquisition of Languages Later in Life 354When Things Go Wrong 355Broca’s Aphasia 355Language Variation at Work: Verbal Slips 357Wernicke’s Aphasia 358Dyslexia 358Special Focus: Children and Bilingualism 360Children Learning Two Languages 360Bilingual Education Programs 361Summary 362Suggested Reading 363Exercises 363Chapter 11 Language Variation 366Dialect 367Dialects versus Languages 369Standard and Nonstandard Dialects 369A Question to Discuss: Is American English a Dialect or a Language? 370Dialectology 371Variationist Sociolinguistics 373Language Change at Work: Pop versus Soda 374William Labov’s Research 376Sociolinguistics versus Generative Grammar 376A Scholar to Know: William Labov (1927– ) 377Speech Communities and Communities of Practice 377Variationist Sociolinguistic Methodologies 378Sampling 378Soliciting Language 379Analyzing Results 380Ethical Issues 382A Question to Discuss: Should We Preserve Dialects? 383Major Factors in Language Variation within Speech Communities 384Age 384Gender 384Class 386Race and Ethnicity 388Social Networks 389Effects of Language Contact 389Dialect Contact 389Language Contact 390Pidgins and Creoles 390Speaker Attitudes and Language Variation 392A Question to Discuss: What Does “Linguistic Equality” Mean? 395Summary 398Suggested Reading 398Exercises 399Chapter 12 American Dialects 401The Politics of American Dialects 402Speakers Who Control Multiple Dialects 403Judgments and Humor about Dialects 403Dialect Diversity and National Unity 404Language Change at Work: The Inconsistency of Language Attitudes 405Regional Variation 406A Sample Walk 406Language Change at Work: Why Does Unless Mean 'in case' in Pennsylvania? 408Defining Regions 410The Emergence of Regional Dialects 410Retention 411Naturally Occurring Internal Language Change 411Language Change at Work: Regional Food Terms 412Language Contact 413Coining 413Language Change at Work: A Dragonfly by Any Other Name 414Social Factors 414The History of Regional Dialects in the United States 415The Beginnings of American English 415The Northern Dialect Region 416The Southern Dialect Region 416The Midland Dialect Region 417The Western Dialect Region 418Dialects within Dialect Regions 419Two Case Studies of Regional Variation 421Appalachian English 421Language Change at Work: Jack, Will, and Jenny in the Swamp 424California English 425Social Variation 427Slang and Jargon versus Dialects 427Social Dialects 428Two Case Studies of Social Variation 429Chicano English 429African American English 430Special Focus: The Ebonics Controversy 434A Scholar to Know: Geneva Smitherman (1940-) 437Summary 438Suggested Reading 438Exercises 439Chapter 13 History of English: Old to Early Modern English 443Old English (449–1066): History of Its Speakers 444When Did English Begin? 444Which Germanic Dialect Is “Old English”? 445Language Change at Work: How English Was Written Down 447Where Do the Names English and England Originate? 448Old English Lexicon 448Latin Borrowing 449Old Norse Borrowing 451Native English Word Formation 451Old English Grammar 452The Origins of Modern English Noun Inflections 452The Gender of Things 453The Familiarity of Personal Pronouns 453The Many Faces of Modifiers 454The Origins of Some Modern English Irregular Verbs 455Variation in Word Order 456Middle English (1066–1476): History of Its Speakers 457The Norman Conquest 457A Scholar to Know: J. R. R. Tolkien the Philologist 458The Renewal of English 458The Emergence of a Standard 459Middle English Dialects 460The Middle English Lexicon 462French Borrowing 462Latin Borrowing 463Other Borrowing 463Word Formation Processes 464Middle English Grammar 464The Loss of Inflections and Its Effects 465The Inflections That Survive 465Early Modern English (1476–1776): History of Its Speakers 466The Printing Press 466Attitudes about English 467The Study of English 469A Question to Discuss: How Do We Preserve the Evidence of a Language? 470Early Modern English Lexicon 471Greek and Latin Borrowing 472Romance Borrowing 472Semantic Change in the Native Lexicon 472Affixation 473Early Modern English Grammar 474Older Grammatical Retentions 474Developments in Morphosyntax 474Language Change at Work: The Invention of pea 475The Fate of Final-e 475Language Change at Work: The Great Vowel Shift 476Looking Ahead 476Suggested Reading 477Exercises 478Chapter 14 History of English: Modern and Future English 484Modern English (1776–Present): Social Forces at Work 485Prescription and the Standard Variety 485The Media 486Imperialism 488Globalization 489Language Change at Work: The Debated Origins of O.K. 489Modern English: Language Change in Progress 490Word Formation 491Lexical Borrowing 492Phonological Changes 492Grammatical Changes 493A Question to Discuss: “Hey, You Guys, Is This Grammaticalization?” 494The Status of English in the United States 495Language Variation at Work: The Myth of the “German Vote” in 1776 496A Question to Discuss: Official State Languages 497The Status of English around the World 498The Meaning of a “Global Language” 501English as a Global Language 494World Englishes 503The Future of English as a Global Language 505What Happens after Modern English? 507Language Change at Work: Retronymy and Reduplication 508English and the Internet 509Suggested Readings 513Exercises 514Glossary 517Bibliography 543Credits 557Index 560