All about language / Barry J. Blake
- Bib ID:
- 4388795
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Blake, Barry J
- Description:
-
- Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008
- xvii, 322 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
- ISBN:
-
- 9780199238408
- 0199238405
- 9780199238392
- 0199238391
- Summary:
-
"In clear, congenial style Barry Blake explains how language works. He describes the make-up of words and how they're built from sounds and signs and put together in phrases and sentences. He examines the dynamics of conversation and the relations between the sound and meaning. He shows how languages help their users connect to each other and to the world, how they vary across the globe, why they never stop changing, and that no two people speak a language in the same way. He looks at how language is acquired by infant children, how it relates to thought, and its operations in the brain. He investigates current trends and issues such as the levelling of linguistic class differences and the rise of new secret or in-group languages such as argot and teenspeak. He describes the history of writing from its origins to digital diffusion, and ends by looking at how language might have originated and then evolved among our distant hominid and primate ancestors."--BOOK JACKET.
- Full contents:
-
- 1. Introduction
- Pt. I. Words
- 2. Word classes
- 3. Forming new words
- 4. Meaning of words
- Pt. II. Syntax and Discourse
- 5. The simple sentence
- 6. Compound and complex sentences
- 7. Using language
- Pt. III. Speech and Writing
- 8. Phonetics
- 9. Phonology
- 10. Writing
- Pt. IV. Variation and Change
- 11. Varieties
- 12. Language change
- Pt. V. The Brain
- 13. Language acquisition
- 14. Language processing: brains and computers
- 15. The origin of language.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-312) and index.
- Subject:
- Language and languages
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2008
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