Language is crucial to every aspect of our lives whether we’re thinking, talking, or dreaming. Barry Blake reveals the wonders that lie beneath the surface of everyday communication, enriching his exposition with a unique blend of anecdote and humour.

In clear, congenial style All about Language explains how language works. It describes the make-up of words and how they’re built from sounds and signs and put together in phrases and sentences. Examining the dynamics of conversation and the relations between the sound and meaning, it shows how languages help their users connect to each other and to the world, how they vary around the world, why they never stop changing, and that no two people speak a language in the same way. It covers how language is acquired by infant children, how it relates to thought, and its operations in the brain. Current trends and issues such as the levelling of linguistic class differences and the rise of new secret or in-group languages such as argot and teenspeak are thoroughly investigated. While the history of writing from its origins to digital diffusion, this book ends by looking at how language might have originated and then evolved among our distant hominid and primate ancestors.

1. Introduction

Part One: Words

2. Word Classes

3. Forming New Words

4. Meaning of Words

Part Two: Syntax and Discourse

5. The Simple Sentence

6. Compound and Complex Sentences

7. Using Language

Part Three: Speech and Writing

8. Phonetics

9. Phonology

10. Writing

Part Four: Variation and Change

11. Varieties

12. Language Change

Part Five: The Brain

13. Language Acquisition

14. Language Processing: Brains and Computers

15. The Origin of Language

Glossary of Terms

References and Further Reading

Index

Barry J. Blake – Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program, La Trobe University