Manuales de Lingüística de Oxford Serie

An introduction to the history of languages, from distant past to distant future, looking at how languages arise, change, and die, and showing how the histories of peoples and languages are closely connected. It mixes chapters on general processes with accounts of specific languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and English.

'Review from previous edition 'an introduction to general phonetics that integrates the articulatory and the acoustic aspects of the subject in a way that few other introductory works do; that gives a comprehensive view of the whole subject' -Kritikon LitterarumThis book is an introduction to practical phonetics, that is, to the description and classification of the sounds of speech. The book's unique approach leads readers to explore the entire range of human sounds by a series of introspective experiments carried out in their own vocal tracts. This highly practical exploration of the subject is informed throughout by recent research, particularly in the aerodynamics and acoustics of speech. The second edition, now part of the Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics series, has been updated throughout, and is now consistent with the revised International Phonetic Alphabet (1996).

This book provides a readable and clearly articulated introduction to an important area in the broader field of Cognitive Linguistics. Taking as its starting point the categorization of colour it explores the far reaching implications of Eleanor Rosch's seminal work on prototype categorization extending it's application of prototype theory from lexical semantics to the study of morphology, syntax, and phonology. First published in 1989 the third edition of this populat text has been fully revised and updated to include recent developments in Cognitive Linguistics. It introduces basic issues in the study of word meaning, and demonstrates the viability of the prototype approach to the study of phonology, syntax and acquistion. The new edition expands the treatment of polysemy, meaning relatedness, idioms and grammatical constructions The book presupposes no prior knowledge of linguistics and will therefore be particulary suited to undergraduate courses.