Publisher's Synopsis
This book is intended for anyone with a serious interest in language, but particularly for students taking introductory courses in language and linguistics. It is not a catalogue of facts and theories but a book about ideas and issues. Rather than summarize the range of research being conducted in linguistics today, it explores a number of the fundamental questions which concern linguists, setting out what the key issues are in trying to find suitable answers. Although the issues are discussed within the framework of modern linguistics, they are treated in a way that is as accessible as possible. The book includes a glossary of technical terms and a chapter outlining the way language is described in generative grammar.