《语言学入门》是一本通俗易懂的普通语言学入门书籍。内容包括语言的定义、词汇学、语义学、语音学、音位学、形态学、句法学、文字体系、社会语言学、历史语言学等，书中材料取舍得当，既介绍了普通语言学的各个领域，又没有刻意追求系统和全面。书中语言言简意赅，易于理解，此外，作者用大量实例来讲解语言学的基本概念，真正做到了深入浅出。为了加深理解、拓展知识面，每章后都配有相应的练习题。这本书可以说是语言学初学者的入门书。

当代国外语言学与应用语言学文库（升级版）是主要面向高校英语专业高年级本科生、研究生及英语教师的一套大型、开放的系列丛书。本升级版或保留原有经典图书品种，或继之以经典图书的新版，或引进国外语言学与应用语言学领域的新锐力作以进一步拓展学科领域，希望它能继续对我国语言学教学与研究和外语教学与研究起到积极的推动作用。
《语言学入门》是当代国外语言学与应用语言学文库（升级版）中的一本，本书结构清晰，一章一个学科方向，而且每章都配有练习，有利于读者加深理解，选择未来的研究方向。

斯图尔特·C. 普尔（Stuart C. Poole）,在英国爱丁堡大学任教，是爱丁堡大学继续教育中心语言项目协调人，主要研究方向为语言学。

ContentsPreface xxv
1.What Is Language? 1
1.1.The Significance of Language 1
1.2.What Is Language? 2
1.3.The Functions of Language 5
1.4.What Is a Language? 6
1.5.The Elements of Language 6
Summary 7
Exercises 8

2.Lexis 9
2.1.What Is a Word? 9
2.2.Where Do Words Come From? 12
Summary 20
Exercises 20

3.Semantics 21
3.1.The Function of Lexemes 21
3.2.The Meaning of Meaning 22
3.3.Semantic Range 22
3.4.The Definition of Semantic Range 24
3.5.Collocation and Idiom 28
3.6.Homonymy and Polysemy 30
3.7.The Human Element of Meaning 31
3.8.Pragmatics 33
3.9.Discourse Analysis 37
Summary 38
Exercises 39

4.Phonetics 41
4.1.The Organs of Speech 41
4.2.Consonants 43
4.3.Phonemic Notation 47
4.4.Vowels 49
4.5?Sounds in Sequence 52
Summary 53
Exercises 53

5.Phonology 55
5.1.Sound Systems of Languages 55
5.2.The Phoneme 56
5.3.Phonological Rules 57
5.4.The Phonology of English 58
5.5.The Phonology of Other Languages 62
5.6.Suprasegmental Features 66
Summary 70
Exercises 70

6?Morphology 73
6.1?The Composition of Words 73
6.2?Morphemes 75
6.3?Derivation and Inflection 75
6.4?Productivity and Word Formation 77
6.5?Problems of Morphological Analysis 78
Summary 81
Exercises 81

7?Syntax 83
7.1?Syntax as Opposed to Morphology 83
7.2?Word Classes 84
7.3?Constituent Structure 86
7.4?Noam Chomsky 89
7.5?Syntactic Forms 91
Summary 93
Exercises 94

8?Regional Variation 96
8.1?Variations of Variations 96
8.2?Horizontal Definition of Dialect 98
8.3?Vertical Definition of Dialect 102
8.4?The Nature of Variation 105
Summary 107
Exercises 108

9?Social Variation 109
9.1?The Social Dimension 109
9.2?The Standard Language 111
9.3?The Urban Vanguard 112
9.4?Men and Women 113
9.5?Power and Solidarity 114
9.6?Registers and Diglossia 116
9.7?Taboo and Political Correctness 118
9.8?Slang 120
Summary 121
Exercises 121

10?Historical Linguistics 123
10.1?The Diachronic Dimension 123
10.2?How Language Changes 124
10.3?Why Language Changes 129
10.4?When Language Changes 134
10.5?Divergence 135
10.6?Convergence 139
10.7?Pidgins and Creoles 141
Summary 142
Exercises 143

11?The Languages of Western Europe 145
11.1?The Indo-European Family of Languages 145
11.2?The Germanic Languages 146
11.3?The Romance Languages 154
11.4?The Celtic Languages 162
11.5?Finnish 164
Summary 164
Texts 165
Exercises 174

12?Writing Systems 177
12.1?Communication across Time and Space 177
12.2?Morphemic and Phonetic Script 178
12.3?Chinese Script - A Morphemic System 181
12.4?Roman Script - An Alphabetic System 182
12.5?Allographs 184
Summary 185
Exercises 185

Glossary 186

Guide to Exercises 198