Linguistics: Why It Matters

ISBN-13: 9781509530755 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 140 str.

Geoffrey Pullum

Opis

Linguistics applies the analytical methods of the sciences to a subject formerly thought to belong mainly to the humanities: language. Language is the medium in which we humans compose our thoughts, explain our thinking, construct our arguments, and create works of literature.

Recenzje

Geoff Pullum has at last given the world the handiest possible remedy for the idea that what′s interesting about language is snippy rules about prepositions, that different languages make you think in different ways, or that Siri actually understands us. Linguistics is fascinating far beyond these myths and this book will show you why in a quick coffee–cup read.
John McWhorter, Columbia University

Geoff Pullum is among our greatest living linguists, with a deep appreciation of the richness of language. He is also one of the finest stylists writing today, and presents ideas with dazzling clarity and wit. No one is better equipped to explain linguistics and why it matters.
Steven Pinker, Harvard University

′[A] fascinating, beautifully written and highly accessible exposition of why the science of language matters. Strongly recomment it."
Oliver Kamm, columnist for The Times of London

Spis treści

• Preface
• Chapter 1: What Makes Us Human
• Chapter 2: How Sentences Work
• Chapter 3: Words, Meaning and Thought
• Chapter 4: Language and Social Life
• Chapter 5: Machines That Understand Us
• Conclusion
• Notes on Further Reading

O autorze

Geoff Pullum has been interested in linguistics ever since he discovered that there was such a subject. He gave up his job (he was a professional rock musician) and has been studying language ever since. He is currently Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, and formerly worked at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts, a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He regularly contributes popular articles on language and writing to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Though he has published very widely in many subfields of linguistics, his best–known work is probably The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002), a massive reference grammar co–authored with Rodney Huddleston. It won the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award from the Linguistic Society of America in 2004.