本書共分八章。章引言部分，主要論述語言的本質、特征及其功能，介紹語言學研究中的一些主要概念，以及部分交叉學科。第二章語音部分，主要介紹語音學和音系學的區(qū)別，元音和輔音的不同特點，音段音系學和超音段音系學中的一些基本理論。第三章針對語素和詞匯方面，主要涉及語素的理論，與句法有關的屈折形態(tài)學和與構詞法有關的派生形態(tài)學。第四章句法，給出了句子的定義，解析了句子結構，分別介紹傳統(tǒng)語法、結構主義語法、轉換生成語法和系統(tǒng)功能語法。第五章語義部分，解析詞匯意義和句子意義，并介紹語義研究中的語用和認知等方法。第六章關于語言的使用，涉及到語用學和社會語言學的一些基本知識，包括言語行為理論、會話結構與會話原則、語言的社會變體，以及語言與文化的關系等。第七章論述了語言的變化，主要是歷史語言學的部分內容，包括語音、形態(tài)、詞匯、句法、語義的變化，對變化的原因做出探討，并比較詳細地介紹了語言譜系。第八章探討了語言，特別是外語的教與學，簡介了外語教學的各個流派，教學大綱的設計，教材的編撰，教學的方法和手段，課堂活動，語言測試等。
Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics
1.1 Language and the Nature of Language 2
1.2 Functions of Language 5
1.3 Linguistics by Definition 8
1.4 Some Important Distinctions in Linguistic Analysis 10
1.5 The Interdisciplinary Studies of Linguistics 15
1.6 Recent Development 18
Chapter 2 The Sounds of Language
2.1 Phonetics 24
2.2 Segmental Phonology 34
2.3 Suprasegmental Phonology 45
2.4 The Application 55
Chapter 3 The Words of Language
3.1 Morphology and Lexicology 58
3.2 Morpheme and AIIomorph 61
3.3 Types of Morphemes 64
3.4 Inflectional Morphology 68
3.5 Derivational Morphology 70
3.6 Word and Lexeme 91
Chapter 4 The Sentences of Language
4.1 Sentence by Definition 98
4.2 Sentence Structure 102
4.3 The Traditional Grammar 104
4.4 The Structural Grammar 107
4.5 The Transformational-Generative Grammar 117
4.6 The Systemic-Functional Grammar 135
Chapter 5 The Meaning of Language
5.1 Lexical Meaning and Lexical Relations 142
5.2 Sentence Meaning and Sentence Relations 152
5.3 The Multi-Dimensional Aspects of Semantic Studies 163
Chapter 6 The Use of Language
6.1 Deixis and Reference 178
6.2 Speech ActTheory 185
6.3 The Structure of Conversation 193
6.4 The Principles in Conversation 198
6.5 Varieties of Language 204
6.6 Language and Culture 218
Chapter 7 The Change of Language
7.1 Phonological Change 224
7.2 Morphological Change 230
7.3 Syntactic Change 236
7.4 Lexical and Semantic Changes 240
7.5 The Causes of Change 250
7.6 Language Families 252
Chapter 8 The Study of Language and the Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages
8.1 Major Views of Language and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning 267
8.2 Approaches and Methods of Foreign Language Teaching 270
8.3 Syllabus Design 276
8.4 Materials Development 283
8.5 Teacher Roles and Learner Roles 287
8.6 Techniques, Activities and Tasks 290
8.7 Treatment of Errors 293
8.8 Assessment and Testing 298
8.9 Language Learning 303
References
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