Written for advanced undergraduate students, this introduction covers all aspects of Modern English, including phonology, morphology, lexical and sentence semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. The focus is exclusively on English data, providing an empirical explication of the structure of the language, rather than exploring theoretical questions. It assumes no prior background in linguistics. Accompanying the text is a CD-ROM featuring an interactive workbook, self-tests, and pedagogical applications. Brinton teaches at the University of British Columbia.