Language Its Structure and Use Language Its Structure and Use FIFTH EDITION EDWARD FINEGAN University of Southern California Australia Brazil Canada Mexico Singapore Spain United Kingdom United States Language: Its Structure and Use, Fifth Edition Edward Finegan Publisher: Michael Rosenberg Rights Acquisitions Account Manager, Text: Mardell Managing Development Editor: Karen Judd Glinski Schultz Development Editor: Mary Beth Walden Permissions Researcher: Sue Howard Editorial Assistant: Megan Garvey Production Service: Lachina Publishing Services Marketing Manager: Kate Edwards Text Designer: Brian Salisbury Marketing Assistant: Kate Remsberg Sr. Permissions Account Manager, Images: Sheri Marketing Communications Manager: Heather Blaney Baxley Cover Designer: Gopa & Ted2, Inc Content Project Manager: Sarah Sherman Cover Photo: Original artwork by © Werner Senior Art Director: Cate Rickard Barr Hoeflich, Untitled (Hedge series) 2003 Senior Print Buyer: Betsy Donaghey Printer: West Group © 2008, 2004 Thomson Wadsworth, a part of The Thomson Higher Education Thomson Corporation. Thomson, the Star logo, 25 Thomson Place and Wadsworth are trademarks used herein under Boston, MA 02210-1202 license. USA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work cov- ered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced For more information about our products, or used in any form or by any means—graphic, contact us at: electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, Thomson Learning Academic Resource Center recording, taping, web distribution, information 1-800-423-0563 storage and retrieval systems, or in any other manner—without the written permission of the For permission to use material from this text publisher. or product, submit a request online at http://www.thomsonrights.com Printed in the United States of America Any additional questions about permissions 1234567090807 can be submitted by e-mail to [email protected] Library of Congress Control Number: 2007922714 ISBN-10: 1-4130-3055-6 ISBN-13: 978-1-4130-3055-6 Contents in Brief Preface xxiii Chapter 1 Languages and Linguistics 1 PART ONE Language Structure 33 Chapter 2 Words and Their Parts: Lexicon and Morphology 34 Chapter 3 The Sounds of Languages: Phonetics 75 Chapter 4 Sound Systems of Language: Phonology 105 Chapter 5 The Structure and Function of Phrases and Sentences: Syntax 139 Chapter 6 The Study of Meaning: Semantics 172 Chapter 7 Language Universals and Language Typology 214 PART TWO Language Use 247 Chapter 8 Information Structure and Pragmatics 248 Chapter 9 Speech Acts and Conversation 281 Chapter 10 Language Variation Across Situations of Use: Registers and Styles 313 Chapter 11 Language Variation Among Social Groups: Dialects 346 Chapter 12 Writing 394 PART THREE Language Change, Language Development, and Language Acquisition 419 Chapter 13 Language Change over Time: Historical Linguistics 420 Chapter 14 Historical Development in English 467 Chapter 15 Acquiring First and Second Languages 501 Glossary 531 Index 551 Index of Languages 565 Index of Internet Sites 569 Index of Videos 571 Credits 573 v This page intentionally left blank Contents in Detail Preface xxiii Chapter 1 Languages and Linguistics 1 How Many Languages Are There in the World? 2 Does the United States Have an Official Language? 3 English-Only, English Plus, Multilingualism 4 What Is Human Language? 5 Three Faces of a Language System 5 Language: Mental and Social 6 Signs: Arbitrary and Nonarbitrary 7 Arbitrary Signs 7 Representational Signs 7 Language—A System of Arbitrary Signs 8 Languages as Patterned Structures 9 Discreteness 9 Duality 9 Displacement 9 Productivity 10 Speech as Patterned Language Use 10 The Origin of Languages: Babel to Babble 11 Languages and Dialects 12 What Are Social Dialects? 13 Different Dialects or Different Languages? 14 What Is a Standard Variety? 14 Is There a Right and a Wrong in English Usage? 15 Modes of Linguistic Communication 16 Speaking 16 Writing 17 Signing 17 Do Humans Alone Have Language? 19 How Animals Communicate in Their Natural Environment 20 vii viii • Contents in Detail Can Chimpanzees Learn a Human Language? 20 Project Nim 21 What Is Linguistics? 22 What Are the Branches of Linguistics? 23 Summary 25 Exercises 26 Especially for Educators and Future Teachers 29 Other Resources 29 Internet 29 Video 30 Suggestions for Further Reading 30 Advanced Reading 31 References 32 PART ONE Language Structures 33 Chapter 2 Words and Their Parts: Lexicon and Morphology 34 Introduction: Words Are Tangible 35 What Does It Mean to Know a Word? 35 Lexical Categories (Parts of Speech) 35 How to Identify Lexical Categories 36 Verbs 37 Nouns 37 Adjectives 38 Pronouns 38 Determiners 39 Prepositions and Postpositions 39 Adverbs 39 Conjunctions 40 Morphemes Are Word Parts That Carry Meaning 41 Morphemes Can Be Free or Bound 41 Morphemes That Derive Other Words 42 Inflectional Morphemes 43 How Are Morphemes Organized Within Words? 43 Morphemes Are Ordered in Sequence 43 Morphemes Can Be Discontinuous 44 Contents in Detail • ix Portmanteau Words Contain Merged Morphemes 44 Morphemes Are Layered Within Words 45 How Does a Language Increase Its Vocabulary? 46 Some Word Classes Are Open, Some Closed 46 How to Derive New Words 46 Compounds 47 Shortenings 48 Back Formation 49 Conversion or Functional Shift 49 Semantic Shift 50 Borrowed Words 50 Inventing Words 52 What Types of Morphological Systems Do Languages Have? 53 Isolating Morphology 53 Agglutinating Morphology 54 Inflectional Morphology 54 Variant Pronunciations of a Morpheme: Allomorphy 59 Summary 62 Exercises 64 Based on English 64 Based on Languages Other Than English 68 Especially for Educators and Future Teachers 71 Other Resources 72 Suggestions for Further Reading 73 Advanced Reading 73 References 74 Chapter 3 The Sounds of Languages: Phonetics 75 Sounds and Spellings: Not the Same Thing 76 Same Spelling, Different Pronunciations 76 Same Pronunciation, Different Spellings 77 Whys and Wherefores of Sound/Spelling Discrepancies 77 Phonetics: The Study of Sounds 80 Phonetic Alphabets 80 The Vocal Tract 80 x • Contents in Detail Describing Sounds 83 Voicing 83 Manner of Articulation 83 Place of Articulation 84 Consonant Sounds 85 Stops 85 Fricatives 86 Affricates 87 Obstruents 87 Approximants 87 Nasals 88 Clicks, Flaps, Trills 89 Vowel Sounds 89 Vowel Height and Frontness 90 Diphthongs 91 Other Articulatory Features of Vowels 91 Summary 96 Exercises 98 Based on English 98 Especially for Educators and Future Teachers 102 Other Resources 103 Suggestions for Further Reading 103 Chapter 4 Sound Systems of Language: Phonology 105 Introduction: Sounds in the Mind 106 Phonemes and Allophones 107 Distribution of Allophones 109 Phonological Rules and Their Structure 112 Generalizing Phonological Rules 114 Natural Classes of Sounds 115 Underlying Forms 116 Rule Ordering 116 Syllables and Syllable Structure 119 Sequence Constraints 120 Sniglets 121 Contents in Detail • xi Stress 122 Syllables and Stress in Phonological Processes 122 The Interaction of Morphology and Phonology 123 English Plural, Possessive, and Third-Person Singular Morphemes 123 English Past-Tense Morpheme 124 Underlying Phonological Form of Morphemes in the Lexicon 125 Summary 128 Exercises 130 Based on English 130 Based on Languages Other Than English 132 Especially for Educators and Future Teachers 136 Other Resources 137 Suggestions for Further Reading 137 Advanced Reading 138 References 138 Chapter 5 The Structure and Function of Phrases and Sentences: Syntax 139 Introduction 140 Constituency and Tree Diagrams 141 Tree Diagrams 141 Constituency 142 Major Constituents of Sentences: Noun Phrases and Verb Phrases 144 Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase 145 Active and Passive Sentences 146 Phrase-Structure Rules 147 Expanding Noun Phrase 147 Expanding Prepositional Phrase 148 Expanding Sentence and Verb Phrase 148 Phrase-Structure Rules and Tree Diagrams 149 Grammatical Relations: Subject, Direct Object, and Others 151 Immediate Dominance 151 Subject and Direct Object 151 Grammatical Relations 152 Passive Sentences and Structure Dependence 152 xii • Contents in Detail Surface Structures and Underlying Structures 153 Syntactic Operations 153 Question Formation 153 Embedded Clauses 156 Subordinators 156 Relative Clauses 157 COMP Node 158 Types of Syntactic Operations 160 Functions of Syntactic Operations 160 Summary 163 Exercises 164 Based on English 165 Based on Languages Other Than English 168 Especially for Educators and Future Teachers 169 Suggestions for Further Reading 170 Advanced Reading 171 References 171 Chapter 6 The Study of Meaning: Semantics 172 Introduction 173 What Is Meaning? 173 Linguistic, Social, and Affective Meaning 174 Linguistic Meaning 174 Social Meaning 175 Affective Meaning 176 Word, Sentence, and Utterance Meaning 177 Meaning of Words and Sentences 177 Meaning of Utterances 178 Lexical Semantics 179 Semantic Fields 180 Hyponymy 181 Part/Whole Relationships 183 Synonymy 184 Antonymy 185 Converseness 186 Polysemy and Homonymy 187 Contents in Detail • xiii Metaphors 188 Lexical Semantics: Discovering Relationships in the Lexicon 190 Function Words and Categories of Meaning 191 Tense and Modality 191 Reference 192 Deixis 193 Semantic Roles and Sentence Meaning 197 Semantic Roles and Grammatical Relations 200 Summary 204 Exercises 206 Based on English 206 Based on English and Other Languages 209 Especially for Educators and Future Teachers 211 Other Resources 211 Suggestions for Further Reading 212 Advanced Reading 212 References 212 Chapter 7 Language