Language through the Looking Glass: Exploring Language and Linguistics

Using Lewis Carroll's Alice As A Starting Point, Marina Yaguello Charts The Major Themes Of Linguistics. Utilising The Devices Of Humour, Word-games And Poetry, She Illustrates How We Can Come To An Understanding Of Language. Introduction: So, You Are A Linguist... -- 1. What Language Is For -- 2. The Tower Of Babel: Universal Characteristics Of Language -- 3. Pink Elephants: Redundancy At Work -- 4. The Canny Canner: The Speech Chain And Its Components -- 5. Anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism: Words And Morphemes -- 6. Did You Say Pig Or Fig? The Sound Systems Of Languages -- 7. Words As Signs -- 8. A Rose By Any Other Name: Are Signs Arbitrary Or Motivated? -- 9. The Incredible Lightness Of Meaning: Sense And Nonsense -- 10. The House That Jack Built: Competence And Performance -- 11. Green Ideas: The Boundaries Of Syntax And Semantics -- 12. Murdering Time: Figures Of Speech -- 13. The Miser And The Prodigal Son: Lexical Meaning -- 14. Tweedledum And Tweedledee: The Tricks And Traps Of Syntax -- Conclusion -- References -- Index. Marina Yaguello ; Adapted From The Original French By Trevor A. Le V. Harris And The Author. Significantly Rev. And Updated Version Of The Author's Alice Au Pays Du Langage. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 162-167) And Index.