本教材以介绍语言学的基本概念和知识为主，不进行详细的阐述和讨论。

本教材应反映语言学研究的最新动态与成果。

本教材在介绍基本概念和知识时，主要以英语语言为例进行阐述，偶尔也可使用汉语或其他语言的例证。

本教材的英语撰写，语言简单明了、通俗易懂。

Chapter 1 Introduction

 1.1 What is language?

 1.1.1 Definition of language

 1.1.2 Distinctive features of language

 1.2 What is linguistics?

 1.2. 1 Definition of linguistics

 1.2.2 Principles for linguistic study

 1.2.3 The scope of linguistics

 1.2. 4 Some basic distinctions in linguistics

 Exercises

Chapter 2 Phonetics

 2. 1 Study of speech sounds

 2.2 Definition of phonetics

 2.2. 1 Analysis of speech sounds

 2.2.2 Process of speech production and perception

 2. 3 Speech organs

 2.4 Production of a sound

 2.5 Transcription of speech sounds

 2.6 Classification of English speech sounds

 2.6.1 Classification of English consonants

 2.6.2 Classification of vowels

 Exercises

Chapter 3 Phonology

 3.1 Phonetics and phonology

 3.2 Phone, phoneme and allophone

 3.3 Distinctive features

 3.4 Minimal pairs

 3.5 Complementary distribution

 3.6 Phonological rules

 3.7 Suprasegmental features

 3.7.1 Stress

 3.7.2 Tone

 3.7.3 Intonation

 Exercises

Chapter 4 Morphology

 4.1 Definition of morphology

 4.2 Classification of morphology

 4.3 Morpheme and al|omorph

 4.3.1 Morpheme

 4.3.2 Morpheme and phoneme

 4.3.3 Allomorph

 4.3.4 Types of morphemes

 4.4 Morphological rules--compounding

 4.4.1 Compounding

 4.4.2 Types of compound words

 4.4.3 Features of compounds

 Exercises

Chapter 5 Syntax

 5.1 Definition of syntax

 5.2 Syntax as a system of rules

 5.3 Sentence structure

 5.4 Types of sentences

 5.5 Linear and hierarchical structures of sentences

 5.5.1 Linear word order of a sentence

 5.5.2 Hierarchical structure of a sentence

 5.5.3 Tree diagrams of sentence structure

 5.6 Syntactic categories

 5.6.1 Lexical categories

 5.6.2 Phrasal categories

 5.6.3 Grammatical relations

 5.6.4 Combinational rules

 5.7 Syntactic movement and movement rules

 5.7. 1 NP-movement and WH-movement

 5.7.2 Other types of movement

 5.7.3 Move a--a general movement rule

 5.8 D-structure and S-structure

 5.9 Theory of Universal Grammar

 5.9. 1 General principles of Universal Grammar

 5.9.2 The parameters of Universal Grammar

 Exercises

Chapter 6 Semantics

 6. 1 Definition of semantics

 6.2 Some major views concerning the study of meaning

 6.3 Lexical meaning

 6.3.1 Sense and reference

 6.3.2 Major sense relations

 6.4 Sense relations between sentences

 6.5 Semgntic analysis

 Exercises

Chapter 7 Pragmatics

 7.1 An introduction to pragmatics

 7.1.1 Definition

 7.1.2 Pragmatics vs. semantics

 7.1.3 Context and meaning

 7.1.4 Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning

 7.2 Speech act theory

 7.2.1 Austin's model of speech acts

 7.2.2 Searle's classification of speech acts

 7.2.3 Indirect speech act

 7.3 Conversational analysis

 7.3.1 The structural features of conversation

 7.3.2 Conversational implicature and the Cooperative Principle

 7.3.3 The Politeness Principle

 Exercises

Chapter 8 Historical Linguistics

 8.1 A brief history of English language

 8.1.1 Old English (449--1100)

 8.1.2 Middle English (1100--1500)

 8.1.3 Modern English (1500--the present)

 8.2 Linguistic changes of English

 8.2.1 Sound change

 8.2.2 Lexical change

 8.2.3 Morphological change

 8.2.4 Syntactic change

 8.2.5 Semantic change

 8.3 Language family and language typology

 8.3.1 Historical comparative linguistics

 8.3.2 Language family

 8.3.3 Language typology

 8.4 Causes of language change

 8.4. 1 Sociological factors

 8.4.2 Development of science and technology

 8.4.3 Phonological and grammatical simplification

 8.4.4 Children's language acquisition

 Exercises

Chapter 9 Soeiolinguisties

 9.1 Variety of language related to the user

 9.1.1 Notion of variety

 9.1.2 Dialect

 9.1.3 Language variety and social class

 9.1.4 Language variety and race

 9.1.5 Language variety and sex

 9.1.6 Language variety and age

 9.1.7 Idiolect

 9.1.8 Standard dialect

 9.2 Variety of language related to the use

 9.2.1 Register

 9.2.2 Scales of formality

 9.3 Standard and non-standard dialects

 9.3.1 Standard dialect

 9.3.2 Non-standard dialect

 9.3.3 Lingua franca

 9.3.4 Esperanto--an artificial lingua franca

 9.4 Pidgin, creole, bilingualism and diglossia

 9.4. 1 Pidgin and creole

 9.4.2 Bilingualism and diglossia

 Exercises

Chapter 10 Psycholinguistics

 10.1 Language and thought

 10.1.1 Early views on language-thought relationship

 10.1.2 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

 10.2 First language acquisition

 10.2.1 Language acquisition

 10.2.2 Stages in first language acquisition

 10.2.3 Children's development of linguistic system

 10.3 Theories on child language acquisition

 10.3.1 Reinforcement theory

 10.3.2 Innate linguistic competence theory

 10.4 Error analysis, and second language acquisition

 10.4. 1 Acquisition vs. learning

 10.4.2 Second language acquisition vs. first language acquisition

 10.4.3 Transfer and interference

 10.5 Types of errors

 10.5.1 Inter-lingual errors

 10.5.2 Intra-lingual errors--over-generalization

 10.5.3 Errors due to communication strategies

 10.5.4 Performance errors

 10.5.5 Errors due to cross-association

 Exercises

Answers to Exercises

Bibliography

An English-Chinese Glossary