Contents ix Argument Structure 203 Phonetic Symbols and Spelling Thematic Roles 204 Correspondences 255 Pragmatics 207 The"Phonetics"of Signed Languages 257 Pronouns 207 Pronouns and Syntax 208 Summary 259 Pronouns and Discourse 209 References for Further Reading 260 Exercises 261 Pronouns and Situational Context 209 Deixis 210 CHAPTER 7 More on Situational Context 212 Phonology:The Sound Maxims of Conversation 212 Patterns of Language 266 Implicatures 214 Speech Acts 215 The Pronunciation of Morphemes 267 Summary 216 The Pronunciation of Plurals 267 References for Further Reading 218 Additional Examples of Allomorphs 270 Exercises 218 Phonemes:The Phonological Units of Language 272 Vowel Nasalization in English as CHAPTER 6 an Illustration of Allophones 272 Phonetics:The Sounds Allophones of /t/274 of Language 229 Complementary Distribution 275 Sound Segments 230 Distinctive Features of Phonemes 278 Identity of Speech Sounds 231 Feature Values 278 The Phonetic Alphabet 232 Nondistinctive Features 279 Articulatory Phonetics 235 Phonemic Patterns May Vary across Languages 281 Consonants 235 Place of Articulation 235 ASL Phonology 282 Manner of Articulation 237 Natural Classes of Speech Sounds 282 Phonetic Symbols for American Feature Specifications for American English Consonants 244 English Consonants and Vowels 283 Vowels 246 The Rules of Phonology 284 Tongue Position 246 Assimilation Rules 284 Lip Rounding 248 Dissimilation Rules 288 Diphthongs 248 Feature-Changing Rules 289 Nasalization of Vowels 249 Segment Insertion and Deletion Rules 290 Tense and Lax Vowels 249 Movement(Metathesis)Rules 292 Different (Tongue)Strokes From One to Many and from Many for Different Folks 250 to One 293 Major Phonetic Classes 250 The Function of Phonological Rules 295 Noncontinuants and Continuants 250 Slips of the Tongue:Evidence for Obstruents and Sonorants 250 Phonological Rules 295 Consonantal 251 Syllabic Sounds 251 Prosodic Phonology 296 Syllable Structure 296 Prosodic Features 252 Word Stress 297 Tone and Intonation 253 Sentence and Phrase Stress 298 Intonation 299
Contents ix Phonetic Symbols and Spelling Correspondences 255 The “Phonetics” of Signed Languages 257 Summary 259 References for Further Reading 260 Exercises 261 CHAPTER 7 Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language 266 The Pronunciation of Morphemes 267 The Pronunciation of Plurals 267 Additional Examples of Allomorphs 270 Phonemes: The Phonological Units of Language 272 Vowel Nasalization in English as an Illustration of Allophones 272 Allophones of /t/ 274 Complementary Distribution 275 Distinctive Features of Phonemes 278 Feature Values 278 Nondistinctive Features 279 Phonemic Patterns May Vary across Languages 281 ASL Phonology 282 Natural Classes of Speech Sounds 282 Feature Specifications for American English Consonants and Vowels 283 The Rules of Phonology 284 Assimilation Rules 284 Dissimilation Rules 288 Feature-Changing Rules 289 Segment Insertion and Deletion Rules 290 Movement (Metathesis) Rules 292 From One to Many and from Many to One 293 The Function of Phonological Rules 295 Slips of the Tongue: Evidence for Phonological Rules 295 Prosodic Phonology 296 Syllable Structure 296 Word Stress 297 Sentence and Phrase Stress 298 Intonation 299 Argument Structure 203 Thematic Roles 204 Pragmatics 207 Pronouns 207 Pronouns and Syntax 208 Pronouns and Discourse 209 Pronouns and Situational Context 209 Deixis 210 More on Situational Context 212 Maxims of Conversation 212 Implicatures 214 Speech Acts 215 Summary 216 References for Further Reading 218 Exercises 218 CHAPTER 6 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language 229 Sound Segments 230 Identity of Speech Sounds 231 The Phonetic Alphabet 232 Articulatory Phonetics 235 Consonants 235 Place of Articulation 235 Manner of Articulation 237 Phonetic Symbols for American English Consonants 244 Vowels 246 Tongue Position 246 Lip Rounding 248 Diphthongs 248 Nasalization of Vowels 249 Tense and Lax Vowels 249 Different (Tongue) Strokes for Different Folks 250 Major Phonetic Classes 250 Noncontinuants and Continuants 250 Obstruents and Sonorants 250 Consonantal 251 Syllabic Sounds 251 Prosodic Features 252 Tone and Intonation 253
X CONTENTS Sequential Constraints of Phonemes 300 Summary 308 Lexical Gaps 302 References for Further Reading 309 Exercises 310 Why Do Phonological Rules Exist?302 Phonological Analysis 304 PART 3 The Psychology of Language CHAPTER 8 Is There a Critical Period for L2 Language Acquisition 324 Acquisition?365 Mechanisms of Language Acquisition 325 Summary 366 Do Children Learn through Imitation? 325 References for Further Reading 368 Do Children Learn through Correction Exercises 369 and Reinforcement?326 Do Children Learn Language through CHAPTER 9 Analogy?327 Language Processing: Do Children Learn through Structured Humans and Input?329 Children Construct Grammars 330 Computers 375 The Innateness Hypothesis 330 The Human Mind at Work: Stages in Language Acquisition 332 Human Language Processing 375 The Perception and Production Comprehension 377 of Speech Sounds 333 The Speech Signal 378 Babbling 334 Speech Perception and First Words 335 Comprehension 379 Segmenting the Speech Stream 336 Bottom-up and Top-down The Development of Grammar 339 Models 381 Setting Parameters 354 Lexical Access and Word The Acquisition of Signed Recognition 383 Languages 355 Syntactic Processing 384 Knowing More Than One Language 357 Speech Production 387 Childhood Bilingualism 357 Planning Units 387 Theories of Bilingual Lexical Selection 389 Development 358 Application and Misapplication Two Monolinguals in One Head 360 of Rules 389 The Role of Input 360 Nonlinguistic Influences 390 Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism 361 Computer Processing of Human Language 391 Second Language Acquisition 361 Computers That Talk and Listen 391 Is L2 Acquisition the Same as L1 Computational Phonetics and Acquisition?361 Phonology 391 Native Language Influence in L2 Computational Morphology 396 Acquisition 363 Computational Syntax 397 The Creative Component of L2 Computational Semantics 402 Acquisition 364 Computational Pragmatics 404
x CONTENTS Summary 308 References for Further Reading 309 Exercises 310 Sequential Constraints of Phonemes 300 Lexical Gaps 302 Why Do Phonological Rules Exist? 302 Phonological Analysis 304 PART 3 The Psychology of Language CHAPTER 8 Language Acquisition 324 Mechanisms of Language Acquisition 325 Do Children Learn through Imitation? 325 Do Children Learn through Correction and Reinforcement? 326 Do Children Learn Language through Analogy? 327 Do Children Learn through Structured Input? 329 Children Construct Grammars 330 The Innateness Hypothesis 330 Stages in Language Acquisition 332 The Perception and Production of Speech Sounds 333 Babbling 334 First Words 335 Segmenting the Speech Stream 336 The Development of Grammar 339 Setting Parameters 354 The Acquisition of Signed Languages 355 Knowing More Than One Language 357 Childhood Bilingualism 357 Theories of Bilingual Development 358 Two Monolinguals in One Head 360 The Role of Input 360 Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism 361 Second Language Acquisition 361 Is L2 Acquisition the Same as L1 Acquisition? 361 Native Language Influence in L2 Acquisition 363 The Creative Component of L2 Acquisition 364 Is There a Critical Period for L2 Acquisition? 365 Summary 366 References for Further Reading 368 Exercises 369 CHAPTER 9 Language Processing: Humans and Computers 375 The Human Mind at Work: Human Language Processing 375 Comprehension 377 The Speech Signal 378 Speech Perception and Comprehension 379 Bottom-up and Top-down Models 381 Lexical Access and Word Recognition 383 Syntactic Processing 384 Speech Production 387 Planning Units 387 Lexical Selection 389 Application and Misapplication of Rules 389 Nonlinguistic Influences 390 Computer Processing of Human Language 391 Computers That Talk and Listen 391 Computational Phonetics and Phonology 391 Computational Morphology 396 Computational Syntax 397 Computational Semantics 402 Computational Pragmatics 404
Contents xi Computational Sign Language 405 Spell Checkers 411 Applications of Computational Machine Translation 412 Linguistics 406 Computational Forensic Computer Models of Grammar 406 Linguistics 414 Frequency Analysis,Concordances, and Collocations 407 Summary 418 References for Further Reading 420 Computational Lexicography 409 Exercises 421 Information Retrieval and Summarization 410 PART 4 Language and Society CHAPTER 10 Racial and National Epithets 474 Language in Society 430 Language and Sexism 474 Marked and Unmarked Forms 475 Dialects 430 Secret Languages and Language Regional Dialects 432 Games 476 Phonological Differences 434 Lexical Differences 435 Summary 477 Dialect Atlases 436 References for Further Reading 479 Syntactic Differences 436 Exercises 480 Social Dialects 439 The“Standard"439 CHAPTER 11 African American English 442 Language Change: Latino (Hispanic)English 446 The Syllables of Time 488 Genderlects 448 Sociolinguistic Analysis 451 The Regularity of Sound Change 489 Languages in Contact 452 Sound Correspondences 490 Lingua Francas 453 Ancestral Protolanguages 490 Contact Languages:Pidgins Phonological Change 491 and Creoles 454 Phonological Rules 492 Creoles and Creolization 457 The Great Vowel Shift 493 Bilingualism 460 Codeswitching 461 Morphological Change 494 Language and Education 463 Syntactic Change 496 Second-Language Teaching Methods 463 Lexical Change 500 Teaching Reading 465 Change in Category 500 Bilingual Education 467 Addition of New Words 500 “Ebonics'”468 Word Coinage 501 Language in Use 469 Words from Names 502 Styles 469 Blends 503 Slang 470 Reduced Words 504 Jargon and Argot 470 Borrowings or Loan Words 504 Taboo or Not Taboo?471 Loss of Words 507 Euphemisms 473 Semantic Change 508
Contents xi Spell Checkers 411 Machine Translation 412 Computational Forensic Linguistics 414 Summary 418 References for Further Reading 420 Exercises 421 Computational Sign Language 405 Applications of Computational Linguistics 406 Computer Models of Grammar 406 Frequency Analysis, Concordances, and Collocations 407 Computational Lexicography 409 Information Retrieval and Summarization 410 PART 4 Language and Society CHAPTER 10 Language in Society 430 Dialects 430 Regional Dialects 432 Phonological Differences 434 Lexical Differences 435 Dialect Atlases 436 Syntactic Differences 436 Social Dialects 439 The “Standard” 439 African American English 442 Latino (Hispanic) English 446 Genderlects 448 Sociolinguistic Analysis 451 Languages in Contact 452 Lingua Francas 453 Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles 454 Creoles and Creolization 457 Bilingualism 460 Codeswitching 461 Language and Education 463 Second-Language Teaching Methods 463 Teaching Reading 465 Bilingual Education 467 “Ebonics” 468 Language in Use 469 Styles 469 Slang 470 Jargon and Argot 470 Taboo or Not Taboo? 471 Euphemisms 473 Racial and National Epithets 474 Language and Sexism 474 Marked and Unmarked Forms 475 Secret Languages and Language Games 476 Summary 477 References for Further Reading 479 Exercises 480 CHAPTER 11 Language Change: The Syllables of Time 488 The Regularity of Sound Change 489 Sound Correspondences 490 Ancestral Protolanguages 490 Phonological Change 491 Phonological Rules 492 The Great Vowel Shift 493 Morphological Change 494 Syntactic Change 496 Lexical Change 500 Change in Category 500 Addition of New Words 500 Word Coinage 501 Words from Names 502 Blends 503 Reduced Words 504 Borrowings or Loan Words 504 Loss of Words 507 Semantic Change 508
xii CONTENTS Broadening 508 CHAPTER 12 Narrowing 509 Writing:The ABCs Meaning Shifts 509 of Language 540 Reconstructing"Dead"Languages 509 The History of Writing 541 The Nineteenth-Century Pictograms and Ideograms 541 Comparativists 510 Cuneiform Writing 543 Cognates 511 The Rebus Principle 545 Comparative Reconstruction 514 From Hieroglyphics to the Alphabet 546 Historical Evidence 516 Modern Writing Systems 547 Extinct and Endangered Languages 518 Word Writing 548 The Genetic Classification of Languages 520 Syllabic Writing 549 Languages of the World 523 Consonantal Alphabet Writing 551 Alphabetic Writing 551 Types of Languages 525 Writing and Speech 553 Why Do Languages Change?528 Spelling 556 Summary 530 Spelling Pronunciations 560 References for Further Reading 531 Summary 561 Exercises 532 References for Further Reading 562 Exercises 563 Glossary 569 Index 601
xii CONTENTS CHAPTER 12 Writing: The ABCs of Language 540 The History of Writing 541 Pictograms and Ideograms 541 Cuneiform Writing 543 The Rebus Principle 545 From Hieroglyphics to the Alphabet 546 Modern Writing Systems 547 Word Writing 548 Syllabic Writing 549 Consonantal Alphabet Writing 551 Alphabetic Writing 551 Writing and Speech 553 Spelling 556 Spelling Pronunciations 560 Summary 561 References for Further Reading 562 Exercises 563 Glossary 569 Index 601 Broadening 508 Narrowing 509 Meaning Shifts 509 Reconstructing “Dead” Languages 509 The Nineteenth-Century Comparativists 510 Cognates 511 Comparative Reconstruction 514 Historical Evidence 516 Extinct and Endangered Languages 518 The Genetic Classification of Languages 520 Languages of the World 523 Types of Languages 525 Why Do Languages Change? 528 Summary 530 References for Further Reading 531 Exercises 532
Preface Well,this bit which I am writing,called Introduction,is really the er-h'r'm of the book, and I have put it in,partly so as not to take you by surprise,and partly because I can't do without it now.There are some very clever writers who say that it is quite easy not to have an er-h'r'm,but I don't agree with them.I think it is much easier not to have all the rest of the book. A.A.MILNE,Now We Are Six,1927 The last thing we find in making a book is to know what we must put first. BLAISE PASCAL(1623-1662) The ninth edition of An Introduction to Language continues in the spirit of our friend,colleague,mentor,and coauthor,Victoria Fromkin.Vicki loved lan- guage,and she loved to tell people about it.She found linguistics fun and fasci- nating,and she wanted every student and every teacher to think so,too.Though this edition has been completely rewritten for improved clarity and currency,we have nevertheless preserved Vicki's lighthearted,personal approach to a com- plex topic,including witty quotations from noted authors(A.A.Milne was one of Vicki's favorites).We hope we have kept the spirit of Vicki's love for teaching about language alive in the pages of this book. The first eight editions of An Introduction to Language succeeded,with the help of dedicated teachers,in introducing the nature of human language to tens of thousands of students.This is a book that students enjoy and understand and that professors find effective and thorough.Not only have majors in lin- guistics benefited from the book's easy-to-read yet comprehensive presentation, majors in fields as diverse as teaching English as a second language,foreign lan- guage studies,general education,psychology,sociology,and anthropology have enjoyed learning about language from this book. Highlights of This Edition This edition includes new developments in linguistics and related fields that will strengthen its appeal to a wider audience.Much of this information will enable students to gain insight and understanding about linguistic issues and debates appearing in the national media and will help professors and students stay cur- rent with important linguistic research.We hope that it may also dispel certain common misconceptions that people have about language and language use. Many more exercises (240)are available in this edition than ever before, allowing students to test their comprehension of the material in the text.Many of the exercises are multipart,amounting to more than 300 opportunities for "homework"so that instructors can gauge their student's progress.Some exer- cises are marked as "challenge"questions if they go beyond the scope of what is xiii
xiii The ninth edition of An Introduction to Language continues in the spirit of our friend, colleague, mentor, and coauthor, Victoria Fromkin. Vicki loved language, and she loved to tell people about it. She found linguistics fun and fascinating, and she wanted every student and every teacher to think so, too. Though this edition has been completely rewritten for improved clarity and currency, we have nevertheless preserved Vicki’s lighthearted, personal approach to a complex topic, including witty quotations from noted authors (A. A. Milne was one of Vicki’s favorites). We hope we have kept the spirit of Vicki’s love for teaching about language alive in the pages of this book. The first eight editions of An Introduction to Language succeeded, with the help of dedicated teachers, in introducing the nature of human language to tens of thousands of students. This is a book that students enjoy and understand and that professors find effective and thorough. Not only have majors in linguistics benefited from the book’s easy-to-read yet comprehensive presentation, majors in fields as diverse as teaching English as a second language, foreign language studies, general education, psychology, sociology, and anthropology have enjoyed learning about language from this book. Highlights of This Edition This edition includes new developments in linguistics and related fields that will strengthen its appeal to a wider audience. Much of this information will enable students to gain insight and understanding about linguistic issues and debates appearing in the national media and will help professors and students stay current with important linguistic research. We hope that it may also dispel certain common misconceptions that people have about language and language use. Many more exercises (240) are available in this edition than ever before, allowing students to test their comprehension of the material in the text. Many of the exercises are multipart, amounting to more than 300 opportunities for “homework” so that instructors can gauge their student’s progress. Some exercises are marked as “challenge” questions if they go beyond the scope of what is Preface Well, this bit which I am writing, called Introduction, is really the er-h’r’m of the book, and I have put it in, partly so as not to take you by surprise, and partly because I can’t do without it now. There are some very clever writers who say that it is quite easy not to have an er-h’r’m, but I don’t agree with them. I think it is much easier not to have all the rest of the book. A. A. MILNE, Now We Are Six, 1927 The last thing we find in making a book is to know what we must put first. BLAISE PASCAL (1623–1662)