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Introducing English Linguistics

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English is currently the most widely spoken language in the world. Mandarin Chinese may have more speakers, but no language is spoken in more parts of the world than the English language. The global reach of English is one reason the language has more non-native speakers than native speakers. The popularity of English, it must be emphasized, has little to do with the language itself, and more to do with geopolitical considerations: the initial spread of English worldwide as a consequence of British colonization, and the rise in the twentieth century of the United States as an economic and political power in the world.

Because of the importance of English as a world language, it has been widely studied and taught: English has been the focus of many linguistic descriptions, and it is taught worldwide in thousands of classrooms and language institutes. In fact, more people are learning English from non-native speakers of the language than
native speakers. For this reason (and many others), it is important that teachers of English as well as others having an interest in the structure and use of the language have an adequate understanding of the language. This book attempts to provide such an understanding, but it does so in a manner that is different from many other introductions to the English language. Because language involves not just individual sentences but sentences that are parts of texts, the book is organized on the principle that an adequate introduction to the study of the English language requires a top-down rather than a bottom-up discussion of the structure of English. That is, instead of beginning with the smallest unit of language (the phoneme) and
working up to the largest unit (the text), this book begins at the level of the text and works its way down to progressively smaller units of language. The idea behind this organizational strategy is that the structure and use of smaller structures is in many cases dependent on larger linguistic considerations. For instance, in Boston, whether one pronounces the word never with a final /R/ [n3v7] or without one [n3və]
depends not just upon whether the speaker’s grammar contains a rule deleting /R/ after vowels but upon other factors as well, such as the social context (e.g. formal vs. informal) in which the individual is speaking.

To provide a top-down description of English, the book is divided into two main sections: one dealing with more general characteristics of English – its development as a language and the pragmatic considerations governing its use – and a second focusing on the grammatical characteristics of the language, from the sentence down to the individual speech sound. Chapter 1 (“The study of language”) discusses how linguists study language, advancing but also critiquing the widely held view in linguistics that all languages are valid systems of communication and that it makes little sense to claim that one language is “better” than another. Chapter 2 (“The development of English”) provides a historical perspective on English: where it has stood over time in relation to the other languages of the world, and how its development can be explained by general principles of language change. The next two chapters focus on the various pragmatic principles that affect how English is used. Chapter 3 (“The social context of English”) examines the social factors influencing linguistic interaction, such as politeness considerations and speaker variables (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, and level of education). Chapter 4 (“The structure of English texts”) describes how English texts (both written and spoken) are structured, and why they have the structure that they do.

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Ketersediaan

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

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Penerbit

Canada : Cambridge University Press., 2009

Deskripsi Fisik

x, 259 Hlm.

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-0-511-54007-3

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

BAHASA INGGRIS

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

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