02. Linguistics an introduction (Cambridge).pdf

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Linguistics

s leading centres for linguistic

teaching and research, the second edition of this highly successful textbook

offers a unified approach to language, viewed from a range of perspectives

essential for students

’

understanding of the subject. A language is a com-

plex structure represented in the minds of its speakers, and this textbook

provides the tools necessary for understanding this structure. Using clear

explanations throughout, the book is divided into three main parts: sounds,

words and sentences. In each, the foundational concepts are introduced,

along with their application to the fields of child language acquisition,

psycholinguistics, language disorders and sociolinguistics, giving the book

a unique yet simple structure that helps students to engage with the subject

more easily than other textbooks on the market. This edition includes a

completely new section on sentence use, including an introduction and

discussion of core areas of pragmatics and conversational analysis; new

coverage of sociolinguistic topics, introducing communities of practice; a

new subsection introducing the student to Optimality Theory; a wealth of

new exercise material and updated further reading.

’

andrew radford, martin atkinson, david britain, harald

clahsen and andrew spencer all teach in the Department of Language

and Linguistics at the University of Essex.

Written by a team based at one of the world

Linguistics

An Introduction

SECOND EDITION

ANDREW RADFORD

MARTIN ATKINSON

DAVID BRITAIN

HARALD CLAHSEN

and

ANDREW SPENCER

University of Essex