Introducing English LinguisticsAre you looking for a genuine introduction to the linguistics of Englishthat provides a broad overview of the subject, that sustains students’interest and avoids excessive detail? Introducing English Linguisticsaccomplishes this goal in two ways. First, unlike traditional texts, it takesa top-down approach to language, beginning with the largest unit oflinguistic structure, the text, and working its way down throughsuccessively smaller structures (sentences, words, and finally speechsounds). The advantage of presenting language this way is that studentsare first given the larger picture – they study language in context – andthen as the class progresses, they see how the smaller pieces of languageare really a consequence of the larger goals of linguistic communication.Second, Introducing English Linguistics does not contain invented examples,as is the case with most comparable texts, but instead takes its samplematerials from the major computerized databases of spoken and writtenEnglish, giving students a more realistic view of language.

CHARLES F. MEYER is Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics atthe University of Massachusetts, Boston. His recent publications includeEnglish Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2002).

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Cambridge Introductions to Language and LinguisticsThis new textbook series provides students and their teachers with accessible introductions to the major sub-jects encountered within the study of language and linguistics. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject,each book is written and designed for ease of use in the classroom or seminar, and is ideal for adoption on amodular course as the core recommended textbook. Each book offers the ideal introductory material foreach subject, presenting students with an overview of the main topics encountered in their course, and fea-tures a glossary of useful terms, chapter previews and summaries, suggestions for further reading, and help-ful exercises. Each book is accompanied by a supporting website.

Books published in the series:Introducing Phonology David OddenIntroducing Speech and Language Processing John ColemanIntroducing Phonetic Science Michael Ashby and John MaidmentIntroducing Second Language Acquisition Muriel Saville-TroikeIntroducing English Linguistics Charles F. Meyer

Forthcoming:Introducing Sociolinguistics Miriam MeyerhoffIntroducing Morphology Rochelle LieberIntroducing Historical Linguistics Brian JosephIntroducing Language Bert VauxIntroducing Semantics Nick RiemerIntroducing Psycholinguistics Paul Warren

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Introducing EnglishLinguistics

CHARLES F. MEYER

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© Charles F. Meyer 2009

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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataMeyer, Charles F.Introducing English linguistics / Charles F. Meyer.

p. cm. — (Cambridge introductions to language and linguistics)Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 978-0-521-83350-91. English language — History. 2. Linguistics. I. Title. II. Series.PE1075.M5995 2009420 — dc22

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Preface ix

1 The study of language 1Introduction 2Language as part of a semiotic system 3The modes of language 5Studying linguistic structure 6Language and ideology 12Theorizing about language 15Summary 17Self-study activities 18Further reading 18

2 The development of English 19Introduction 20The current state of the English language 20Genetic classifications of languages 23Typological classifications of languages 34Why languages change 39The nature of language change 43Summary 44Self-study activities 45Further reading 46

3 The social context of English 47Introduction 48Grammatical vs. pragmatic meaning 48Sentence vs. utterance 49Speech act theory 50The cooperative principle 55Politeness 62Speaker variables 70Summary 76Self-study activities 77Further reading 78

4 The structure of English texts 79Introduction 80Register or genre? 81Spoken and written registers 83Unity of structure 84

Contents

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viii CONTENTS

Unity of texture 98Summary 108Self-study activities 108Further reading 109

5 English syntax 111Introduction 112Formal vs. notional definitions 113The linear and hierarchical structuring of constituents 115Form and function 116Word classes and phrases 117Clauses, sentences, and clause functions 130Summary 146Self-study activities 147Further reading 147

6 English words: Structure and meaning 149Introduction 150Varying definitions of meaning 151The morpheme 152Lexical semantics 157Deixis 182Summary 192Self-study activities 192Further reading 193

7 The sounds of English 195Introduction 196Speech segments 196Suprasegmentals 208Summary 216Self-study activities 216Further reading 218

Appendix: Linguistic corpora consulted 219Glossary 221Answers to self-study activities 239References 247Index 253

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English is currently the most widely spoken lan-guage in the world. Mandarin Chinese mayhave more speakers, but no language is spokenin more parts of the world than the English lan-guage. The global reach of English is one reasonthe language has more non-native speakersthan native speakers. The popularity of English,it must be emphasized, has little to do with thelanguage itself, and more to do with geopoliti-cal considerations: the initial spread of Englishworldwide as a consequence of British colo-nization, and the rise in the twentieth centuryof the United States as an economic and politi-cal power in the world.

Because of the importance of English as aworld language, it has been widely studied andtaught: English has been the focus of many lin-guistic descriptions, and it is taught worldwidein thousands of classrooms and language insti-tutes. In fact, more people are learning Englishfrom non-native speakers of the language thannative speakers. For this reason (and many oth-ers), it is important that teachers of English aswell as others having an interest in the struc-ture and use of the language have an adequateunderstanding of the language. This bookattempts to provide such an understanding, butit does so in a manner that is different frommany other introductions to the English lan-guage.

Because language involves not just individualsentences but sentences that are parts of texts,the book is organized on the principle that anadequate introduction to the study of theEnglish language requires a top-down ratherthan a bottom-up discussion of the structure ofEnglish. That is, instead of beginning with thesmallest unit of language (the phoneme) andworking up to the largest unit (the text), thisbook begins at the level of the text and works

its way down to progressively smaller units oflanguage. The idea behind this organizationalstrategy is that the structure and use of smallerstructures is in many cases dependent on largerlinguistic considerations. For instance, inBoston, whether one pronounces the word neverwith a final /R/ [n3v7] or without one [n3və]depends not just upon whether the speaker’sgrammar contains a rule deleting /R/ after vow-els but upon other factors as well, such as thesocial context (e.g. formal vs. informal) inwhich the individual is speaking.

To provide a top-down description of English,the book is divided into two main sections: onedealing with more general characteristics ofEnglish – its development as a language and thepragmatic considerations governing its use –and a second focusing on the grammaticalcharacteristics of the language, from the sen-tence down to the individual speech sound.

Chapter 1 (“The study of language”) discusseshow linguists study language, advancing butalso critiquing the widely held view in linguis-tics that all languages are valid systems of com-munication and that it makes little sense toclaim that one language is “better” than another.Chapter 2 (“The development of English”) pro-vides a historical perspective on English: whereit has stood over time in relation to the otherlanguages of the world, and how its develop-ment can be explained by general principles oflanguage change. The next two chapters focuson the various pragmatic principles that affecthow English is used. Chapter 3 (“The social con-text of English”) examines the social factorsinfluencing linguistic interaction, such aspoliteness considerations and speaker variables(e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, and level of educa-tion). Chapter 4 (“The structure of Englishtexts”) describes how English texts (both written

Preface

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x PREFACE

and spoken) are structured, and why they havethe structure that they do.

The second section of the book containschapters concerned with examining the gram-mar of English. Chapter 5 (“English syntax”)discusses the major syntactic categories inEnglish, focusing on how the structure ofEnglish sentences can be described in terms ofthe particular constructions that they contain –clauses (main and subordinate) and phrases(e.g. noun phrase and verb phrase) – and thefunctions within clauses (e.g. subject andobject) that these forms serve. Chapter 6(“English words: Structure and meaning”) isconcerned with the structure and meaning ofwords. The chapter begins by discussing howmorphemes, the smallest unit of meaning, arecombined to create words, and continues witha description of how the meanings of words aredescribed by lexicographers (those who pro-duce dictionaries) and semanticists (linguistswho theorize about meaning in language).Chapter 7 (“The sounds of English”) discussesthe sound system of English, beginning with adescription of speech segments (phonemes) andconcluding with an overview of word stress andintonation.

Much current work in linguistics has demon-strated that linguistic descriptions are mostaccurate and meaningful if they are based onactual examples of spoken and written Englishrather than on examples invented by the lin-guist him or herself. Therefore, most of theexamples included in this book were takenfrom a number of different linguistic corpora:computerized databases containing variouskinds of spoken and written English, such astranscriptions of actual conversations that

people had, or samples of articles appearing innewspapers. The appendix contains a list of thecorpora that were used as well as a briefdescription of the kinds of texts that theycontain.

There are many people to whom I owe a hugedebt of gratitude for their help with this book.First of all, I want to thank Andrew Winnard ofCambridge University Press for his help andsupport throughout the process of writing thisbook. I also wish to thank three anonymousreviewers for Cambridge University Press forthe many useful comments they provided thathelped improve the book considerably;Malcolm Todd, whose expert copy-editing skillsgreatly improved the clarity of the book; BillKretzschmar for his feedback on sections ofChapter 3; Stephen Fay, who did the artwork forFigures 6.3 and 7.1; my colleagues in theApplied Linguistics Department at theUniversity of Massachusetts, Boston; the manystudents whom I have taught over the yearswho have helped me refine and improve theway that I teach linguistics; and, most impor-tantly, my wife, Libby, and son, Freddie, whooffered their constant love and support while Ispent many hours away from them writing thisbook.

My thanks to Mouton de Gruyter for giving mepermission to include material in chapter 6taken from my forthcoming paper ‘Pre-electroniccorpora’ to be published in Corpus Linguistics: AnInternational Handbook, ed. Anke Lüdeling andMerja Kytö (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter).

Copyright acknowledgment

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