Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I: THE NATURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. 1. What Is Language? Linguistic Knowledge. Knowledge of the Sound System. Knowledge of Words. Arbitrary Relation of Form and Meaning. The Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge. Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences. Linguistic Knowledge and Performance. What Is Grammar? Descriptive Grammars. Prescriptive Grammars. Teaching Grammars. Language Universals. The Development of Grammar. Sign Languages: Evidence for Language Universals. American Sign Language (ASL). Animal Languages. Talking Parrots. The Birds and the Bees. What We Know about Language. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 2. Brain and Language. The Human Brain. The Localization of Language in the Brain. Aphasia. Surgical and Experimental Evidence of Lateralization. Brain Imaging Technology. Plasticity and Brain Lateralization in Early Life. The Modular Nature of Language. Specific Language Impairment. Developmental Dissociations. The Genetic Basis of Language. The Critical Period. A Critical Period for First Language Development. Critical Periods in Other Species. The Evolution of Language. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. Part II: GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE. 3. Morphology: The Word of Language. Dictionaries. Content Words and Function Words. Morphemes: The Minimal Units of Meaning. Bound and Free Morphemes. Prefixes and Suffixes. Infixes. Circumfixes. Roots and Stems. Huckles and Ceives. Rules of Word Formation. Derivational Morphology. The Hierarchical Structure of Words. More About Derivational. Morphemes. Lexical Gaps. Rule Productivity. Pullet Surprises. Sign Language Morphology. Word Coinage. Compounds. Meaning of Compounds. Universality of Compounding. Acronyms. Back-Formations. Abbreviations. Words from Names. Blends. Grammatical Morphemes. Inflectional Morphemes. Exceptions and Suppletions. Morphology and Syntax. Morphological Analysis: Identifying Morphemes. Summary. References for Further Reading. Exercises. 4. Syn

AN INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE is ideal for use at all levels and in many different areas of instruction, including education, languages, psychology, anthropology, teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), and linguistics. All chapters in this best-seller have been revised to reflect recent discoveries and new understanding of linguistics and languages.