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  3. Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics

This series gives readers an understanding of the multi-facteted nature of language, and its central position in human affairs, as well as equipping those who wish to find out more about linguistics with a basis from which to read some of the more technical literature in textbooks and journals.

  • General Editors: Jean Aitchison, University of Oxford

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8 results in Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics

Language Change
  • Progress or Decay?
  • 4th edition
  • Jean Aitchison
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    20 December 2012
  • How and why do languages change? Where does the evidence of language change come from? How do languages begin and end? This introduction to language change explores these and other questions, considering changes through time. The central theme of this book is whether language change is a symptom of progress or decay. This book will show you why it is neither, and that understanding the factors surrounding how language change occurs is essential to understanding why it happens. This updated edition remains non-technical and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.

Language Change
  • Progress or Decay?
  • 4th edition
  • Jean Aitchison
  • Published online:
    01 December 2014
    Print publication:
    20 December 2012
  • How and why do languages change? Where does the evidence of language change come from? How do languages begin and end? This introduction to language change explores these and other questions, considering changes through time. The central theme of this book is whether language change is a symptom of progress or decay. This book will show you why it is neither, and that understanding the factors surrounding how language change occurs is essential to understanding why it happens. This updated edition remains non-technical and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.

The English Language
  • A Historical Introduction
  • 2nd edition
  • Charles Barber, Joan C. Beal, Philip A. Shaw
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    26 March 2009
  • Where does today's English come from? This new edition of the bestseller by Charles Barber tells the story of the language from its remote ancestry to the present day. In response to demand from readers, a brand new chapter on late modern English has been added for this edition. Using dozens of familiar texts, including the English of King Alfred, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Addison, the book tells you everything you need to know about the English language, where it came from and where it's going to. This edition adds new material on English as a global language and explains the differences between the main varieties of English around the world. Clear explanations of linguistic ideas and terms make it the ideal introduction for students on courses in English language and linguistics, and for all readers fascinated by language.

How Children Learn Language
  • William O'Grady
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    06 January 2005
  • Adults tend to take language for granted - until they have to learn a new one. Then they realize how difficult it is to get the pronunciation right, to acquire the meaning of thousands of new words, and to learn how those words are put together to form sentences. Children, however, have mastered language before they can tie their shoes. In this engaging and accessible book, William O'Grady explains how this happens, discussing how children learn to produce and distinguish among sounds, their acquisition of words and meanings, and their mastery of the rules for building sentences. How Children Learn Language provides readers with a highly readable overview not only of the language acquisition process itself, but also of the ingenious experiments and techniques that researchers use to investigate his mysterious phenomenon. It will be of great interest to anyone - parent or student - wishing to find out how children acquire language.

Language Change
  • Progress or Decay?
  • 3rd edition
  • Jean Aitchison
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    11 December 2000
  • This is a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change. It discusses where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes which occurred long ago, and those currently in progress. It does this within the framework of one central question - is language change a symptom of progress or decay? It concludes that language is neither progressing nor decaying, but that an understanding of the factors surrounding change is essential for anyone concerned about language alteration. For this substantially revised third edition, Jean Aitchison has included two new chapters on change of meaning and grammaticalization. Sections on new methods of reconstruction and ongoing chain shifts in Britain and America have also been added as well as over 150 new references. The work remains non-technical in style and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.

Understanding Children with Language Problems
  • Shula Chiat
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    04 May 2000
  • Some children can hear and can speak, yet have trouble understanding or producing utterances. In this accessible introduction to children's language difficulties, Shula Chiat explores the stumbling blocks which lie behind their struggle. The uniqueness of this book lies in its focus on individual children, the extensive and intriguing examples which illustrate their problems, and the step-by-step search for the source of those problems. Difficulties with words, verb structures, function morphomenes, and meaning are examined and illustrated by detailed case studies. This book provides a clear overview of what children with language difficulties say and do, and introduces a logical approach to identifying children's language problems. It will be welcomed by students and researchers of linguistics, language development and language disorders; teachers of language-impaired children; and speech and language therapists.

Language and Society
  • 2nd edition
  • William Downes
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    24 September 1998
  • This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Downes' textbook is an accessible introduction to the social aspects of language and their various explanations. Topics covered include domains of language use, language change, code-switching, speech as social action, and the nature of meaning and understanding. This second edition includes an analysis of language standardisation, language conflict and planning.

Corpus Linguistics
  • Investigating Language Structure and Use
  • Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, Randi Reppen
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    23 April 1998
  • This book is about investigating the way people use language in speech and writing. It introduces the corpus-based approach to linguistics, based on analysis of large databases of real language examples stored on computer. Each chapter focuses on a different area of linguistics, including lexicography, grammar, discourse, register variation, language acquisition, and historical linguistics. Example analyses are presented in each chapter to provide concrete descriptions of the research methods and advantages of corpus-based techniques. Ten methodology boxes provide clear and concise explanations of the issues in doing corpus-based research and reading corpus-based studies and there is a useful appendix of resources for corpus-based investigation. This lucid and comprehensive introduction to the subject will be welcomed by a broad range of readers, from undergraduate students to professional researchers.