This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Downes' textbook is an accessible introduction to the social aspects of language and their various explanations. Topics covered include domains of language use, language change, code-switching, speech as social action, and the nature of meaning and understanding. This new edition includes an up-to-date analysis of language standardization, language conflict and planning.

This volume investigates the way people use language in speech and writing. It introduces the corpus-based approach to linguistics, based on analysis of large databases of real language examples stored on computer. Each chapter focuses on a different area of linguistics, including lexicography, grammar, discourse, register variation, language acquisition, and historical linguistics. Example analyses are presented in each chapter to provide concrete descriptions of the research methods and advantages of corpus-based techniques. Ten methodology boxes provide concise explanations of the issues...

Some children can hear and can speak, yet have trouble understanding or producing utterances. In this accessible introduction to the study of children's language difficulties, Shula Chiat explores the stumbling blocks that lie behind their struggle. The uniqueness of this book lies in its focus on individual children, the extensive and intriguing examples that illustrate their problems, and the step-by-step search for the source of those problems. This book will be welcomed by students of linguistics, language development and language disorders; teachers of language-impaired children; and...

Some children can hear and can speak, yet have trouble understanding or producing utterances. In this accessible introduction to the study of children's language difficulties, Shula Chiat explores the stumbling blocks that lie behind their struggle. The uniqueness of this book lies in its focus on individual children, the extensive and intriguing examples that illustrate their problems, and the step-by-step search for the source of those problems. This book will be welcomed by students of linguistics, language development and language disorders; teachers of language-impaired children; and...

This book investigates the nature of human language and its importance for the study of the mind. It asks what language is from a biological point of view and what the relative contribution of nature and nurture is when a child learns his or her language. Finally it asks how human language evolved and considers the similarities and differences between human language and animal communication systems. Uniquely, it argues that genetic or biological endowment plays a more central role in the aquisition of language than instruction, learning, or cultural determinants.

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Downes' textbook is an accessible introduction to the social aspects of language and their various explanations. Topics covered include domains of language use, language change, code-switching, speech as social action, and the nature of meaning and understanding. This new edition includes an up-to-date analysis of language standardization, language conflict and planning.