Modern Linguistics

Description

Modern Linguistics is a textbook with a difference. It covers all the major aspects of general and applied linguistics, including:

• Language and languages
• Linguistics in general
• Structural linguistics
• Generative grammar (including the theory of government and binding)
• Sociolinguistics
• Error analysis, and more

Pedagogical in its approach, the book is organized into units that explain basic concepts and essential terminology, helping learners build a solid foundation in the subject. Each unit is designed to encourage active learning, with examples and problems—primarily drawn from Indian languages, though examples from other languages are also included.

The main objective of this book is to provide learners with a set of basic tools and a framework to do linguistics. It enables students to work actively with a variety of linguistic data and develop a firm understanding of key concepts in the field.

Modern Linguistics is intended primarily for postgraduate students studying linguistics as a main or subsidiary subject, as well as for students at language institutes and teacher training institutions.

About the authors

S. K. VERMA, Vice Chancellor, CIEFL, Hyderabad

N. KRISHNASWAMY, Formerly Professor, CIEFL, Hyderabad

Table of contents

Preface

Section I – On Language and Languages

1. Animal Communication and Human Language

2. The Origin and Development of Human Language

3. Varieties of Language

4. Speech and Writing

5. What is Language?

6. Languages in Contact

7. Language Change

8. Social Aspects of Language

• Suggested Reading

Section II – Linguistics

9. Linguistics: Aspects, Levels, Branches and Tools

10. Phonetics

11. Vowels and Consonants

12. Dipthongs, Clusters and Syllables

13. Suprasegmentals or Prosodic Phenomena

• Suggested Reading

Section III – Structural Linguistics

Phonology
14. The Phoneme

15. Free Variation and Neutralization

16. Arrangement

17. Pattern Congruity

Morphology
18. Words and Morphemes

19. Affixes

20. Constituent Structure

21. Morphophonemics

Syntax
22. Word Classes

23. IC Analysis

Section IV – The Transformational Framework I

24. The Phrase Structure Framework

25. Limitations of Phrase Structure Grammar

26. Certain Types of Dependencies

27. What Transformational Rules Can Do

28. Features, Dependencies, and the Lexicon

Section V – The Transformational Framework II

29. Landmarks in the Development of the Transformational Framework

• Part I: The Historical Connection

• Part II: From Structural Linguistics to Syntactic Structures

• Part III: The ‘Aspects’ Model

• Part IV: From EST to REST

• Part V: Trace Theory Onwards

30. Case Grammar

31. Phrase Structure Syntax, X-bar Syntax, and Feature-based Syntax

32. Transformations

• Part I: WH-Movement

• Part II: NP-Movement

• Part III: Some Other Transformations

33. Rule Ordering, Constraints, Deletion and Filters

34. Government and Binding: From Rules to Principles

35. Generative Phonology

• Suggested Reading

Section VI – Other Approaches

36. Developing Alternatives

37. The London School: Firth, Halliday, and Others

• Part I: Scale and Category Grammar

• Part II: Systemic Grammar

• Suggested Reading

38. Theories and Theories

• Suggested Reading

39. Sociolinguistics, Communicology, and Pragmatics

• Suggested Reading

40. Indian Explorations

41. Diachronic Analysis or Historical and Comparative Linguistics

• Suggested Reading

Section VII – Some Applications of Linguistics

42. Language Teaching, Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis

43. Stylistics

44. Translation

45. Beyond Language

• Suggested Reading