- “What is language? How is it organized?
- How is it analyzed? How are its units discovered and tested?
- Where is language stored and processed in the brain? How is it learned?
- What do all languages—including nonvocal systems of communication (e.g. writing and sign languages)—have in common? What do these properties show us about human cognition?
- How did language originate? What does it have in common with animal communication? How is it different?
- How many distinct families or stocks of languages are there in the 6000 or so known languages today? What original languages did they come from? How have they changed over time?
- What does dialectal and social variation show us about the use of language? How has this diversity affected issues of social, political, and educational policy?
- What is the relationship between language and culture? Language and thought?”
“The fundamental relationship
between speech variation and the social background of speakers from
articulatory, acoustic, dialectological, and conversational perspectives, thus
breaking new ground with respect to classical variationist and dialectological
studies. Specialists from a broad range of disciplines – including phonetics,
phonology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive linguistics –
will find innovative suggestions for multiple approaches to language variation.
Although presuming some basic knowledge of experimental phonetics and
sociolinguistics, the book is addressed to all readers with an interest in
speech and language variation mechanisms in social interaction.”
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