For the Love of Language

Kate Burridge is Professor of Linguistics in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Victoria, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Her main areas of research are grammatical change in Germanic languages, the Pennsylvania German spoken by Amish/Mennonite communities in North America, the notion of linguistic taboo, popular perceptions about language, and the structure and history of English. She is a regular presenter of language segments on radio and TV. Tonya N. Stebbins is Professor of Linguistics at La Trobe University, Victoria. Her contributions to the field include innovative partnerships with communities who speak minority and endangered languages, and ensuring that communities have access to resources that support language revitalisation. Stebbins is an experienced consultant who has completed projects across the health, human services and education sectors. Projects include program evaluation, organisational development, program review, and qualitative research on topics such as family violence, child protection, alcohol and other drugs (AOD) interventions, homelessness and financial capability.

'A wonderful introductory textbook that is very much written with enthusiasm on the topic. It is also pleasing to see that sign languages have also been included in the range of themes.' Robert Adam, Heriot-Watt University

• Part I. 'Using Language to Expose Language': Setting the Scene: 1. What is language?; 2. What linguists do; 3. Ways to study language; Part II. 'In the Beginning Was the Word': Words, Word Structure, and Meaning: 4. What's in a word?; 5. Morphology: the structure of words; 6. Semantics: the meaning of words; Part III. 'The Deep Grooves of Language': Sounds and Grammar: 7. Phonetics; 8. Phonology: the sound system; 9. Syntax: the structure of sentences; Part IV. 'Language Is a Social Fact': Variation and Change: 10. Variation and identity; 11. Structure across time; 12. Languages and cultures in contact; Part V. 'Language That Rolls up its Sleeves': Language at Work: 13. Language, text and interaction; 14. Language, context and understanding; 15. Language and social values; Part VI. 'Language Is the Dress of Thought': Language, Mind and World: 16. Language, the mind and the brain; 17. Language acquisition; 18. Computational linguistics.