28.4589, Review: Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Text/Corpus Linguistics: McCabe, 2017

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Subject: 28.4589, Review: Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Text/Corpus Linguistics: McCabe, 2017

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Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2017 14:20:05
From: Lisa Armstrong [lisa.armstrong3 at carleton.ca]
Subject: An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-831.html

AUTHOR: Anne  McCabe
TITLE: An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies
SUBTITLE: Second Edition
SERIES TITLE: Equinox Textbooks and Surveys in Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Equinox Publishing Ltd
YEAR: 2017

REVIEWER: Lisa Armstrong, Carleton University

REVIEWS EDITOR: Robert A. Coté

SUMMARY

This book, the second edition of “An Introduction to Linguistics and Language
Studies” by Anne McCabe, aims to survey the fields of both linguistics and
language studies. The book is comprised of nine chapters, each covering at
least one aspect of either field, and often both. Drawing on the theories of
Saussure, Chomsky, and Halliday, McCabe attempts to provide a broad overview
of linguistics today. This second edition contains a glossary at the back of
the book, a helpful and thorough section that provides definitions for all the
bolded words throughout the book. At over 400 pages, it’s an ambitious and
well-written overview of linguistics and language studies, evidently aimed at
those students who have some pre-existing knowledge of the fields although any
language or linguistics scholar would find this book useful as a reference.

Chapter 1, “An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies”, introduces
linguistics and its basic precepts (for example, the difference between
‘prescriptive’ and ‘descriptive’ and why that distinction matters), along with
an introduction to - what McCabe calls ‘some broad brushstrokes on their
beliefs and insights into’ (p. 5) - the theories of Saussure, Chomsky, and
Halliday. This chapter also incorporates several exercises for the reader or
student. As is the case throughout the book, the author alternates between
theoretical, practical, and ‘real-life’ exercises. For example, this chapter
includes an exercise about the theoretical differences between Saussure,
Chomsky, and Halliday; an exercise to identify register variation in a variety
of texts; and an exercise that asks the student to consider ‘incorrect usage’
of language from their own experiences. Also as in the case throughout, the
end of the chapter has further reading suggestions, references, and answers to
the exercises. 

Chapter 2, “Analyzing the Spoken Language”, covers a wealth of information:
speech act theory, politeness theory, phonetics, phonology, and conversation
analysis are the main areas McCabe covers in this long section. Logically
organized, the chapter moves from concepts such as performative utterances to
Grice’s conversational maxims to discourse markers and intonation before
explaining the basic notions of phonetics and phonology. Again, there are many
practice exercises throughout, and this second chapter contains a new final
section called ‘chapter outcomes’ which is included in all subsequent
chapters. The ‘chapter outcomes’ is a nearly two-page long list, but is a
succinct overview of the very long (approximately 70 pages) chapter. Another
new addition here is the list of internet resources after the reference
section, including websites about conversation analysis and the International
Phonetic Alphabet.

Chapter 3, “Words and Their Meanings: Morphology and Semantics”, which is much
briefer than chapter 2, covers morphology and semantics. The author starts
with the basics of morphology, incorporating examples from languages than
English to explain concepts such as infixation and reduplication. The chapter
exercises, as well, draw on examples from languages such as Turkish and
Spanish. Most the chapter is devoted to morphology, with just nine pages
devoted to semantics; given the complexity of explaining ‘meaning’ in
language, it is just as well that this section is shorter. Furthermore, McCabe
is careful to explain that semantics is “meaning independent of situational
context” (p. 112), leaving deeper discussion of contextual meaning for chapter
5, where she explores Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and its concept of
‘meaning’.

Chapter 4 “Syntax and Lexicogrammar”, attempts to survey the fields of formal
and applied linguistics, a formidable undertaking in and of itself, and
explains both Chomsky’s and Halliday’s theories of grammar in one chapter,
which is especially ambitious. McCabe begins this chapter by defining syntax
and follows with a section on the formal study of syntax (i.e., Chomsky’s
Transformational Generative Grammar). This section relies heavily on
illustrations of tree diagrams and simple exercises to help the student along.
Despite this assistance, this section is complex overall, and uses words such
as ‘particle’ which are never defined. From Generative Grammar, the author
moves on to Functional Grammar (i.e., Halliday’s Systemic Functional
Linguistics), covering topics such as the clause (e.g., hypotaxis versus
parataxis), grammatical Mood, transitivity, and Theme/Rheme. This chapter is
long and rich with information, and McCabe uses simple (but not patronizing)
language throughout to aid understanding. Again, the many exercises throughout
may assist the student in practicing and grasping the challenging concepts
here.

In Chapter 5, “Analyzing Text and Discourse”, McCabe goes “beyond the
sentence” to explore the analysis of discourse, defined here as “the totality
of interaction between humans within a given sphere or context” (p. 216).
Carrying on where the previous chapter ended, she starts out with thematic
patterning, moving then to genre (from the point of view of both SFL and John
Swales’s rhetorical move analysis). Genre can be a contentious topic, but
McCabe acknowledges this, and discusses the notions of discourse community and
context in genre research (pp. 228-229). Following genre analysis, this
chapter explores the differences between written and spoken texts, drawing
primarily on SFL and Appraisal (developed by Jim Martin & Peter White). The
final section deals briefly with multimodal texts, examining Kress and van
Leeuwen’s concept of visual grammar as one way to analyse multimodality.

Starting with the development of human language, Chapter 6 “Language Change”,
then moves on to discuss language change and how linguists study it. McCabe
touches on the comparative method, and briefly traces the history of the
English language. Following logically from concepts in earlier chapters, this
section traces semantic, phonetic, morphological, and syntactic change in
English, and the chapter ends with a discussion of why language changes. This
final section, although short, aims to explain various possible reasons for
language change, such as new technology, contact with other languages, and
changing social practices.

A discussion of synchronic variation, sociolinguistics and speech communities
opens Chapter 7, “Language Variation”. This is followed by sections on dialect
and vernacular, pidgins and creoles, and diglossia (i.e., ‘high’, or standard,
varieties of a language versus ‘low’, or more informal, varieties). Following
this section, McCabe delves into sociolects, devoting several pages to
socio-cultural and economic language variation (drawing on work by scholars
such as Labov, Trudgill, and Bernstein), gendered language variation (drawing
mainly on Lakoff’s work and the subsequent challenges of that work by, for
example, O’Barr and Atkins). Also discussed in this section are language
variation based on age and by occupation. The next part of the chapter
revisits the notion of register, with an example of how computational and
corpus linguistics work can be used for register analysis. The chapter closes
with brief sections on sound and morphosyntactic variation.

Chapter 8, “Language, Biology and Learning”, chapter begins with a section on
the brain and language, covering concepts such as where language might be
located in the brain, with a focus on Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. Also
covered in this section are discussions of brain imaging techniques and
genetic research. From there, McCabe explores first language acquisition, and
the controversy surrounding the existence or nonexistence of a Language
Acquisition Device (the innateness hypothesis, or the idea that “we are born
with an underlying faculty which allows for the acquisition of basic
grammatical relations and categories” [p. 382]). This is followed by a brief
section on second language development, and then animal language. This final
section of the chapter also deals with the question as to whether human
language is a unique skill, or whether some animals (e.g., apes) may have more
complex and human-like language than was previously thought.

Chapter 9, “Fields of Linguistics”, covers various linguistic theories and
methods, as explained by various scholars in their respective fields. Here we
find writings on numerous linguistic theories: cognitive and formal,
functional and descriptive, computational and contrastive, corpus and
historical. From applied linguistics, the fields included are: clinical
linguistics, critical discourse analysis, educational linguistics, forensic
linguistics, psycho- and sociolinguistics. Some of the scholars included in
this chapter are David Crystal, Dirk Geeraerts, Thomas Bloor, and Amanda
Miller. Following each writing, McCabe provides a list of readings and seminal
works in the relevant area.

EVALUATION

This book is very ambitious, and it is also very well-written. It covers just
about any introductory topic one could imagine in the study of language, and
it is an excellent survey of the field(s). McCabe has a gift of writing in an
accessible way, even in areas (such as generative grammar or SFL) that are
typically hard to grasp. The exercises throughout the book are genius—any
teacher in these fields could benefit from the practice and discussion
opportunities they provide students. Furthermore, she peppers the chapters
liberally with these exercises, so the reader (or student) has a chance to
apply their knowledge during and after each new topic is presented. The
suggested readings at the end of each chapter (and at the end of each section
in Chapter 9) are a gift, and the glossary is comprehensive, with clearly
written definitions linked back to the bolded terms throughout the book. 

A highlight of this book for me is McCabe’s treatment of Chomsky’s and
Halliday’s theories; it often seems to me that scholars are divided as to
whose camp they are in, but McCabe doesn’t take sides here. Rather, she
presents each theory without apparent bias, and her reference list in this
chapter is rich and balanced.

One problem that plagued me throughout my reading was whether this book would
be useful in a beginner’s classroom (e.g., undergraduate students). As a
graduate student in linguistics and  language studies myself, the concepts and
explanations seemed sufficient and clear to me, but would it be so to someone
new to the field? To test this, I provided a colleague (a non-linguist) with
some excerpts from the book, and she found them extremely challenging. As
well, as mentioned earlier in this review, there are some issues with basic
terminology that need to be addressed (e.g., the use of the word ‘particle’
with no explanation, and the use of the term ‘parataxis’ some pages before it
is defined). That is to say, this book presupposes some previous knowledge of
linguistics and language studies. For that reason, it is not a textbook I
would use for beginning post-secondary students. Furthermore, while McCabe
organized this book logically (e.g., putting morphology and semantics into one
chapter), some chapters are so dense that it would take a great deal of
planning by an instructor to sort out which sections to assign when. Chapter
2, for instance, contains so much information that it would need to be broken
down carefully in order not to overwhelm students (again, I refer here to
students at the undergraduate level).

However, I can envision this text as being useful in a graduate survey class
(or fourth-year undergraduate class, perhaps). Furthermore, it is an excellent
reference book and one I can imagine myself returning to often. Not only does
McCabe incorporate both language studies and linguistics in one book, but she
also goes back and forth between theory and method seamlessly and in an
orderly manner. This book is a pleasure to read.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Lisa Armstrong is a PhD student in the Department of Applied Linguistics and
Discourse Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her work
focuses on the role of language in normalizing sexual harassment in the
hospitality industry.





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