Kristin Denham is Professor of Linguistics at Western Washington University, USA.Anne Lobeck is Professor of Linguistics at Western Washington University, USA.

• AcknowledgementsChapter 1 - Why read this bookChapter 2 - Questions Linguists StudyChapter 3 - The Study of Sound: Phonetics and Phonology Chapter 4 - The Study of Words: MorphologyChapter 5 - The Study of Sentence Structure: SyntaxChapter 6 - The Study of Meaning: Semantics and PragmaticsChapter 7 - Studying Language ChangeChapter 8 - Studying Language Variation, Language in Society Chapter 9 - Studying Language in the Brain Chapter 10 - After Studying Linguistics ReferencesIndex

"This is a remarkably clear and accessible first introduction to linguistics. Building on students' background knowledge and assumptions, it makes the case for studying language to those who may have never considered doing so. The text's compactness makes it ideal for assigning not only in an introductory linguistics course but also as a supplement to courses in other subjects. The final chapter, which highlights the many ways linguistics can be useful in careers, will be of great interest to both current and prospective students of linguistics."Lise Dobrin, University of Virginia, USA