Invitation to LinguisticsISBN: 978-0-631-14176-1
Paperback
196 pages
August 1993, Wiley-Blackwell
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In Invitation to Linguistics, Richard Hudson explains
what the subject is, why it appeals, how it works, what issues it
confronts and the practical impact it can have on our social and
professional lives. He poses puzzles in Latin and Zulu, visits
realms of linguistic exotica, delves into deep grammar, unravels
the ambiguities of everyday sentences (like 'John took off Mary's
coat') and asks how language began, if we can think without it, and
if it is unique to humans anyway. He shows how the study of this
wide-ranging subject can help society solve its problems of
literacy and language learning, facilitate the treatment of speech
pathologies, help us use computers more effectively -- and how it
can broaden our outlook, wiping out out-dated prejudices against
non-standard speech and minority languages.
Wide-ranging, realistic and provoking, this is a book that students thinking of studying lingusitics, or just launched on their courses, will read for enjoyment as well as instruction: a combination that makes it ideal, too, for anyone interested in words -- from crossword fanatics to anthropologists.