Introduction 1
Part I: Looking at Language through the Lens of Linguistics 7
Chapter 1: Knowing a Language Versus Knowing What Language Is 9
Chapter 2: Communicating with Language: The Design Features 21
Part II: The Building Blocks of Language 33
Chapter 3: Building Sounds: Phonetics 35
Chapter 4: Putting Sounds Together: Phonology 57
Chapter 5: Building Words: Morphology 77
Chapter 6: Creating Sentences: Syntax 95
Chapter 7: Making Sense of Meaning: Semantics 117
Chapter 8: Using Language in Conversation: Pragmatics 133
Part III: The Social Life of Language 151
Chapter 9: Living with Language Variation: Sociolinguistics 153
Chapter 10: Finding Family Relations: Historical Linguistics 171
Chapter 11: Cataloguing Differences: Linguistic Typology 189
Chapter 12: Beginning and Ending: Language Birth and Language Death 205
Part IV: Your Brain on Language: Learning and Processing Language 221
Chapter 13: Learning Language 223
Chapter 14: Perceiving Language 245
Chapter 15: Producing Language 259
Chapter 16: Locating Language in the Brain: Neurolinguistics 277
Part V: Getting from Speaking to Writing 293
Chapter 17: Writing Down Language 295
Chapter 18: Writing Changes You 307
Part VI: The Part of Tens 321
Chapter 19: Ten Myths about Language Busted by Linguistics 323
Chapter 20: Ten Unsolved Problems in Linguistics 331
Chapter 21: Top 10 Jobs for Linguists 337
Index 343
