Experts can’t quite agree on what’s a dialect and what’s a distinct language, but they estimate around 6,000 languages are in use around the world today.  Obviously, English teachers are in high demand, as it’s become the “lingua franca” of our age, and is a widely common second language; the most common first language is actually Mandarin Chinese.  People spend large amounts of time and money every year studying new languages, usually either in hopes of expanding work opportunities or because it’s required by a school, but also sometimes just for fun.

Linguistics is the science of language itself.  Philosophers have been arguing about language about as long as they’ve been arguing about philosophy -- our ability to know anything can’t really be determined unless we are able to talk about what we know, and that leads naturally to questions about how language shapes what we can and can’t talk about.  The infamous Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claims that the specific language we use not only influences what we can debate, but even what we are able to think about; and studies have shown that speakers of a second language may claim to hold different opinions than when they are questioned in their first language, though not without controversy.  

This book is intended as an introduction for readers with no previous experience in linguistics and tries to make the material as relatable and understandable as possible.  It thoroughly explores different aspects of language one at a time and provokes thought and interest in students with numerous proactive “tasks”. An accompanying online guide further illuminates the concepts in the text along with providing tutorials and answers for the tasks from the book, encouraging more activity on the part of the learner.

 SEE THE DEAL