This comprehensive textbook provides a practical introduction to English phonetics and phonology. Assuming no prior background, the author outlines all of the core concepts and methods of phonetics and phonology and presents the basic facts in a clear and straightforward manner. In sections marked as advanced reading it is shown how these concepts and methods are applied in language acquisition and language teaching. The textbook contains exercises, an index, suggestions for further reading and many audio examples on the accompanying CD-ROM. An essential text for students embarking on the study of English sounds at B.A. level and beyond.

In Cognitive Linguistics, polysemy is regarded as a categorizing phenomenon; i.e., related meanings of words form categories centering around a prototype and bearing family resemblance relations to one another. Under this polysemy = categorization view, the scope of investigation has been gradually broadened from categories in the lexical and lexico-grammatical domain to morphological, syntactic, and phonological categories.

The present volume consists of nine articles dealing with the role of the constituent ‘phonological word’ (or ‘prosodic word’) in various typologically diverse languages. These languages and their respective families subsume Indo-European (Dutch, German, English, European Portuguese), Bantu (SiSwati, KiNande), Algonquian (Cree), Siouan (Dakota), and Salishan (Lushootseed). One contribution examines the phonological word in a sign language.

In their comprehensive new introduction to phonetics, Ball and Rahilly offer a detailed explanation of the process of speech production, from the anatomical initiation of sounds and their modification in the larynx, through to the final articulation of vowels and consonants in the oral and nasal tracts. This textbook is one of the few to give a balanced account of segmental and suprasegmental aspects of speech, showing clearly that the communication chain is incomplete without accurate production of both individual speech sounds (segmental features) and aspects such as stress and intonation (suprasegmental features).

Making pragmatics accessible to a wide range of students and instructors without dumbing down the content of the field, this text for language professionals:

raises awareness and increases knowledge and understanding of how human beings use language in real situations to engage in social action

fosters the ability to think critically about language data and use

helps readers develop the ability to "do pragmatics"