30.1047, Review: General Linguistics: Yule (2016)

The LINGUIST List linguist at listserv.linguistlist.org
Wed Mar 6 21:57:47 UTC 2019


LINGUIST List: Vol-30-1047. Wed Mar 06 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.1047, Review: General Linguistics: Yule (2016)

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Peace Han, Nils Hjortnaes, Yiwen Zhang, Julian Dietrich
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2019 16:57:20
From: Ulrike Stange [stangeu at uni-mainz.de]
Subject: The Study of Language

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36289157


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-4700.html

AUTHOR: George  Yule
TITLE: The Study of Language
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Ulrike Stange, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

SUMMARY 

The Study of Language is an excellent textbook introducing the linguistics
student to key concepts and basic terminology pertaining to the most prominent
fields in language research. It is a highly accessible introduction and thus
aimed at an audience with little or no previous knowledge of linguistics. The
book is divided into 20 chapters, each of which concludes with a list of study
questions, further tasks to gain more knowledge in the respective field, a
variety of discussion topics and/or projects, as well as a well-organised list
of references (general vs. specific texts on individual topics). With an
average length of 10 pages, all of the chapters are rather short. 

This is a revised edition, and the revisions include changes in the content of
individual chapters (specifically the ones on phonetics, grammar and syntax),
the addition of more than thirty new figures and tables, eighty new study
questions and twenty new tasks. The book is complemented by very helpful
on-line resources for both lecturers and students (quizzes, flashcards, audio
files, answer key for the study questions and the tasks). It also contains a
glossary, an index and another list of references.

Chapter 1 is concerned with the origins of language. Making clear from the
start that “[w]e simply don’t know how language originated” (1), this chapter
describes briefly and to the point a variety of theories and potential sources
of human language (God-given, natural sounds, social interaction, physical
adaptation, tool-making, genes). Attention is drawn to the benefits and
shortcomings of the individual sources when it comes to explaining how
language originated, which helps identifying them as more or less likely
sources of human language.  

Chapter 2 contrasts animal communication and human language. Yule lists and
explains the most prominent properties of human language (displacement,
arbitrariness, cultural transmission, productivity and duality) and states for
each of them whether it can also be found in animal communication and, if yes,
to what extent (e.g. a limited type of displacement is found with bees). The
second part of the chapter presents brief summaries of the research projects
that have been done on trying to teach some form of language (oral or sign) to
chimpanzees.  The chapter concludes with suggesting a broad and a narrow
definition of “using language”, which could help settle the question of
whether animals have language or not. 

Chapter 3 covers the basics of phonetics (describing consonants and vowels
using the parameters voicing/ manner of articulation/ place of articulation
and length/ lip-rounding/ tongue position, respectively). It provides helpful
figures and tables which provide an overview of the classification of
consonants and vowels. Attention is also drawn to two important differences in
pronunciation between Southern British English and North American English
(flaps, rhoticity). 

Chapter 4 introduces the core concepts of phonology, addressing phonemes,
phones and allophones, minimal pairs/sets, phonotactics, syllables and
co-articulation effects (assimilation, nasalization, elision) in turn. 

Chapter 5 explores the word-formation processes at work in English.
Borrowings, calques, compounds, blends, clippings, hypocorisms,
backformations, conversion, coinage, eponyms, acronyms, initialisms and
derivations are all explained briefly and illustrated with a number of
examples from English. Yule also stresses the fact that a word can undergo
multiple word-formation processes (e.g. from eponym to conversion, as in
Hoover > hoover (verb), or from acronym to backformation, as in light
amplification by stimulated emission of radiation > laser (noun) > lase
(verb)).

Chapter 6 is concerned with morphology, presenting the different types of
morphemes (bound derivational/inflectional, free lexical/functional) using
relevant examples from the English language. It also discusses morphs and
allomorphs as the concrete representations of the different morphemes, and
draws on a variety of exotic languages (e.g. Kanuri and Tagalog) to illustrate
morphological phenomena not found in English. 

Chapter 7 focuses on grammar in its various meanings. More specifically, one
section is concerned with “traditional grammar”, introducing the different
parts of speech, the notions of agreement and grammatical gender, one section
is concerned with the prescriptive approach and its shortcomings, and still
another section is concerned with descriptive grammar and the means used to
describe actual language use (structural analysis and constituent analysis).
The chapter also covers the grammatical functions phrases can have and briefly
touches upon word order and language typology. 

The chapter on syntax (8) highlights the quest for syntactic rules to account
for all well-formed utterances in a language. It contains a brief description
of generative grammar and creates awareness for the presence of deep and
surface structures in the language we produce. It explains how structural
ambiguity arises and provides the tools for syntactic analysis in terms of
phrase structure rules, lexical rules and tree diagrams. 

Chapter 9 explores the field of semantics. It differentiates between
referential and associative/emotive meaning to set the ground for the
following analyses, which extend to semantic features, semantic roles (agent,
patient/theme, instrument, experiencer, location, source and goal), lexical
relations (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, polysemy and metonymy) and
prototypes. Yule also shows how homonyms and polysemes can be exploited for
humorous effects. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of how the
mental lexicon is possibly organised, referring to collocations and insights
based on corpus linguistics. 

Chapter 10 moves from referential meaning to “speaker meaning” (141) and
introduces the reader to the field of pragmatics. The first part covers
concepts like physical and linguistic context (or co-text), deixis, anaphora,
reference, inference, presupposition, pragmatic markers that are all relevant
to communication in general, while the second part is concerned with the
notions of politeness and (positive/negative) face, and concomitantly, direct
and indirect speech acts. 

Chapter 11 (discourse analysis) explores what mechanisms are at work in
everyday communication that help us communicate successfully and interpret the
interlocutor’s utterances (or messages) correctly. Yule addresses the concepts
of discourse, cohesion, coherence, turns, (filled) pauses, adjacency pairs and
insertion sequences to illustrate the basic principles of conversation. The
Co-operative Principle is used to explain how we communicate successfully even
if, on the surface, we are not adhering to it (viz. when we’re providing
seemingly irrelevant answers or use hedges, etc.). A brief discussion of
background knowledge and schemas and scripts completes the list of
prerequisites for successful communication. 

Chapter 12 highlights what limited knowledge we have about language in the
brain, gives the reasons why and briefly presents what little we know ‘for
sure’ - viz. the locations and functions of the language areas (Wernicke’s
area, Broca’s area, the arcuate fasciculus, parts of the motor cortex). The
chapter also discuss the potential causes for and implications of the
so-called tip of the tongue-phenomenon, different types of slips of the tongue
(in particular spoonerisms, perseveration, anticipation and exchange) and
slips of the ear. The chapter also sketches the three main types of aphasia
(Broca’s, Wernicke’s and conduction aphasia) and explains how the dichotic
listening test provides evidence for left hemisphere dominance of language in
humans. It concludes with a short discussion of the critical period, using the
case of Genie as an example. 

Chapter 13 is concerned with first language acquisition and provides a neat
summary of the stages involved in this process (viz. cooing, babbling,
one-word stage, two-word stage, telegraphic speech), all of which are
illustrated with relevant examples. Yule stresses the importance of adequate
input and lists the most prominent properties of motherese (or caregiver
speech). The author also critically discusses the acquisition process as such
in that there is huge variability among children regarding at what age they go
through the individual stages and in that children are unlikely to learn
through instruction, imitation or correction (as is often assumed).  The
second part of the chapter deals with how children acquire morphology (ten
stages listed), syntax (sample constructions: questions and negatives) and
semantics (overextension, lexicon).

Chapter 14 focuses on second language acquisition or learning and starts by
clarifying the terms foreign and second language as well as acquisition and
learning. It discusses a variety of factors that affect learning a second
language, such as age, degree of exposure, phonological aspects (accent,
unfamiliar sounds) and affective factors (e.g., no connection to target
culture or self-consciousness). The chapter also presents three approaches to
teaching a second language that have been or still are popular
(grammar-translation method, audio-lingual method, communicative approaches)
and identifies their particularities. The last section concentrates on the
learner and introduces the concepts of (positive or negative) transfer,
interlanguage, negotiated input, output and task-based learning. It also
stresses the importance of motivation (whether instrumental or integrative or
other) and communicative competence for successful L2 learning/acquisition. 

Chapter 15 deals with gestures and sign languages. Gestures accompany speech
(in the form of, e.g. iconics, deictics or beats) while signing is a form of
speech/language in its own right. The chapter distinguishes between alternate
sign languages (at work for specific purposes by users who have a first
language they can speak) and primary sign languages (used as first language).
It briefly outlines the differences between Signed English (MCE), American
Sign Language (ASL) and finger-spelling, and introduces the parameters used to
describe signs (shape, orientation, location, movement). The final section of
the chapter stresses the fact that ASL is a natural language, with the
characteristics similar to any `normal´ spoken language (e.g., regional
variation, arbitrariness, syntax). 

Chapter 16 is concerned with written language. It starts by introducing
pictograms, ideograms and logograms as they help explain the development of
written language. It explains the differences between phonographic, syllabic
and alphabetic writing and provides relevant examples for all of these forms.
The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relationship between spelling
and pronunciation in present-day English and explains why spelling is such a
poor guide to pronunciation and vice versa. 

Chapter 17 is about language history and change. It presents the concept of
language families and uses a variety of examples to illustrate how the
relationships between different languages are reconstructed (cognate
comparison through sound and word reconstruction). It also offers a very
condensed history of the English language, listing important changes in
phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. 

Chapter 18 explores regional variation in the English language. It explains
what a/the standard language is and distinguishes between accent and dialect.
Delving into dialectology, NORMs, isoglosses and dialect boundaries are
introduced, as they help distinguish different regional dialects. The chapter
also briefly touches upon bilingualism and diglossia and sketches the stages
involved in language planning. The last section of this chapter is concerned
with (English) pidgins and creoles, the main characteristics of which are
described using the example of Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea).

Chapter 19 concentrates on social variation in language and represents a brief
introduction to sociolinguistics. Labov’s (2006) “department store study” is
used to illustrate the relationship between the linguistic variable rhoticity
and the social variable socio-economic status. The concepts of social marker,
speech style (formal vs. informal), style-shifting and prestige (overt vs.
covert) are all presented succinctly. Well-chosen examples serve to make clear
what the terms speech accommodation (convergence vs. divergence) and register
(incl. jargon and slang) mean. The chapter concludes with a presentation of
African American English and the main phonological and grammatical features of
African American Vernacular English.

The last chapter deals with language and culture. More precisely, it shows how
different languages have different categories with regard to, e.g. kinship
terms, time concepts or terms of address. The notion of linguistic relativity
is discussed critically with respect to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, with the
conclusion that “[t]he human manipulates language, not the other way round”
(304). The chapter also highlights how gender affects language use (relevant
examples include gendered words, structures, speech and interaction).

EVALUATION

The Study of Language is an excellent introductory textbook. Introductory
really needs to be stressed here, as the individual chapters focus merely on
the most essential aspects of the topic in question. The book thus offers
enough material to wet the student’s appetite for the respective fields, but
the student does need to consult more literature to grasp each topic in its
entirety. The tasks at the end of each chapter often introduce relevant
terminology not covered in the text (e.g. suppletion is not discussed in the
chapter on morphology, but it is covered in the tasks), which ensures that the
student learns more about, say, phonology, than is found on the 10 pages
preceding the task. The list of references (also found at the end of each
chapter), then, is very helpful in guiding the student to the relevant works
in case no reference is listed with the task itself. Given that the average
length of each chapter is not more than 10 pages, it is surprising how many
relevant key concepts and terms Yule fit in AND explained them in a highly
accessible way. This is a major achievement worth emphasising in its own way.
However, due to the same page limit, the contents must remain superficial to a
certain extent. Which is absolutely fine, though, as plenty of further reading
is provided.

The internal structure of the chapters is sometimes a bit odd (e.g.
word-formation), as it suggests a hierarchy that is disputable (e.g. coinage
as a super-ordinate term for coinage, eponym and acronym, or clipping for
clipping, hypocorism and backformation). In the chapter on pragmatics, I would
have expected Yule to introduce the classification of speech acts based on
Searle (1969, 1977) or (at least) mention Austin (1962). Yet, they are not to
be found either in the text or in the references. The chapter on
neurolinguistics is a very simplified version of how language is represented
in the brain, and it seems as if language is always found in the left
hemisphere (which is not the case). 

The overall structure of the book is very good. The chapters proceed from the
basic levels of linguistic analysis to the presentation of the major research
areas in linguistics. When reading the book the sequence of the chapters makes
perfect sense, and Yule does a good job linking them by appropriate
transitions, too. At the start of each chapter we find an anecdote or quote
that introduces the topic as well as a brief description of what the
respective chapter is about. From the very first chapter until the last one
this textbook is very reader-friendly and highly accessible. Of course, the
bite-sized chapters have their drawbacks, but all in all, this textbook is
brilliant and I would highly recommend using it in introductory courses. I
have read and used a number of books in my course Introduction to English
Linguistics, but The Study of Language is the best of them, and even better
now in the revised edition. 

REFERENCES

Austin, John L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. In The William James
Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955, edited by J. O. Urmson.
Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press.

Labov, William. 2006. The Social Stratification of English in New York City.
Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Searle, John. 1977. “A Classification of Illocutionary Acts.” In Proceedings
of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presuppositions and Implicatures,
edited by Andy Rogers, Bob Wall, and John P. Murphy, 27–45. Arlington, VA:
Center for Applied Linguistics.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ulrike Stange has a PhD in English Linguistics and is a research assistant at
the Department of English and Linguistics at Mainz University in Germany. Her
research interests include intensifiers, emotive interjections, translation
studies and dialectal variation in British English.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              The IU Foundation Crowd Funding site:
       https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list

               The LINGUIST List FundDrive Page:
            https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-30-1047	
----------------------------------------------------------






More information about the LINGUIST mailing list