Languages and Linguistics: General Resources

Now in its second edition, this invaluable work is the most authoritative dictionary of linguistics of its kind available. The author, Peter Matthews, is professor of linguistics at Cambridge University and an established expert in the field. The dictionary contains over 3,150 entries coveringevery aspect of this multidisciplinary field, including sociolinguistics, language theory and history, language families, and major languages from all over the world (including major national/regional dialects), and key figures and ideas in linguistics.Fully revised and updated for the second edition, the dictionary now boasts greatly enhanced coverage of sociolinguistics, making it an ideal reference for those studying linguistics. It also includes entries on notable recent theorists in the field, such as Del Hymes and Peter Trudgill.Wide-ranging and accessible, this dictionary is ideal reference for students and teachers in language-related courses, and a great introduction to linguistics for the general reader with an interest in language and its study.

Covering the political, social and historical background of each language, Dictionary of Languages offers a unique insight into human culture and communication. Every language with official status is included, as well as all those that have a written literature and 175 'minor' languages with special historical or anthropological interest. We see how, with the rapidly increasing uniformity of our culture as media's influence spreads, more languages have become extinct or are under threat of extinction. The text is highlighted by maps and charts of scripts, while proverbs, anecdotes and quotations reveal the features that make a language unique.

Linguistics falls in the gap between arts and science, on the edges of which the most fascinating discoveries and the most important problems are found. Rather than following the conventional organization of many contemporary introductions to the subject, the author of this stimulating guidebegins his discussion with the oldest, 'arts' end of the subject and moves chronologically through to the newest research - the 'science' aspects.A series of short thematic chapters look in turn at such areas as the prehistory of languages and their common origins, language and evolution, language in time and space (the nature of change inherent in language), grammars and dictionaries (how systematic is language?), and phonetics. Explicationof the newest discoveries pertaining to language in the brain completes the coverage of all major aspects of linguistics from a refreshing and insightful angle.

This alphabetically-arranged Encyclopediais of value to anyone with an academic or professional interest in linguistics or language studies. The 80 main articles cover 150 sub-areas of the discipline, discussing their development, methodology, terminology, theoretical issues and controversies. The range is wide: syntax, morphology, phonology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, writing systems, language acquisition and speech therapy. Each article will be of use to both students needing basic grounding in a given topic, and to teachers or professionals seeking to know more about an area outside their own specialization. A comprehensive Indexand Bibliographymake The Linguistics Encyclopediathe prime reference book for anyone who wishes to understand the nature and workings of language.

A nontechnical linguistic approach to teaching English as a second language

An illustrated tour through the landscape of structuralism and poststructuralism -- A good synopsis of 20th-century thought for readers who don't have time to study the topic in depth Structuralism and Poststructuralism for Beginners helps the reader make sense of the modern and postmodern obsessions with language and with the "disappearance of the individual", ideas that unite the work of several prominent 20th-century theorists. It starts by introducing the seminal linguistic work of Ferdinand de Saussure, then outlines the key ideas of the big names in French thought between 1950 and 1980: anthropologist and literary critic Claude Levi-Strauss, semiologist Roland Barthes, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, historian Michel Foucault, and deconstructionist Jacques Derrida. The book shows how structuralism, which is the view that the human mind is universal in its structure and processes data in terms of general formulae, supplanted existentialism and phenomenology. It then discusses how structuralism was replaced in turn by poststructuralism, which claims that it is impossible to give a theoretically complete and consistent account of human life and language. In keeping with the trend in modern philosophy, the book's emphasis is on Poststructuralism. All of this is quite confusing -- with thinkers arguing back and forth between continuity and discontinuity, consistency and inconsistency, construction and deconstruction -- but Structuralism and Poststructuralism for Beginners makes it as simple as possible with its line drawings, cartoons, clear explanations, and glossary of terms. An excellent book for anyone who wants an overview of theimportant theories of this century and the people and history behind them.

A practical approach to systematic linguistic-cultural comparisons

This complete revision and updating of Professor Robins' classic text offers a comprehensive account of the history of linguistic thought from its European origins some 2500 years ago to the present day. It examines the independent development of linguistic science in China and Medieval Islam, and especially in India, which was to have a profound effect on European and American linguistics from the end of the eighteenth century. The fourth edition of A Short History of Linguistics gives a greater prominence to the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt, because of the lasting importance of his work on language in relation to general eighteenth century thinking and of its perceived relevance in the latter half of the twentieth century to several aspects of generative grammatical theory. The final section, covering the twentieth century, has been rewritten and divided into two new chapters, so as to deal effectively with the increasingly divergent development of descriptive and theoretical linguistics that took place in the latter half of this century. Readable and authoritative, Professor Robins' introduction provides a clear and up-to-date overview of all the major issues in the light of contemporary scholarly debate, and will be essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students of linguistics alike.