《英语语言学导论》的内容主要分为四个部分。第一部分（第一章）介绍语言学这门学科的研究对象、范围及语言的本质特征和功能。第二部分（第二～七章）详细描述了语言学的内部分支，包括语音学、音系学、形态学、句法学、语义学和语用学，并注意各分支间的衔接和不同。第三部分介绍语言和社会、文化的关系；第四部分（第九～十一章）描述了语言习得的理论及其对语言教学和学习的影响。在介绍语言习得理论时，作者王会凯引用日常生活中观察到的中国孩子习得母语的例子和英语学习者的学习经历，来帮助读者理解语言习得理论及其对英语教学的影响。

《英语语言学导论》根据作者王会凯多年研究英语语言学的积累编写而成。全书共11章，分别是Invitation to Linguistics；Phonetics；Phonology；Morphology；Syntax；Semantics；Pragmatics；Language，Culture and Society；First Language Acquisition；Second Language Acquisition；Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning。本书内容紧凑精炼，语言文字简洁易懂，同时配有鲜活生动的语言材料，能进一步帮助读者理解语言学的理论。

本书可以作为普通高等院校英语专业学生的教材，也可以作为中学英语教师的培训材料和英语语言学爱好者的参考读物。

Chapter 1 Invitation to Linguistics

 1.1 Linguistics

1.1.1 What is Linguistics

1.1.2 The Scope of Linguistics

1.1.3 Important Distinctions in Linguistics

 1.2 Language

1.2.1 Design Features of Language

1.2.2 Origin of Language

1.2.3 Functions of Language

Chapter 2 Phonetics

 2.1 What is Phonetics

 2.2 Speech Organs

 2.3 Phonetic Transcription

 2.4 Classification of English Speech Sounds

2.4.1 Consonants

2.4.2 Vowels

 2.5 Coarticulation and Phonetic Transcription

2.5.1 Coarticulation

2.5.2 Phonetic Transcription

Chapter 3 Phonology

 3.1 Phoneme and Allophones

3.1.I Phoneme and Allophones

3.1.2 Contrastive Distribution and Minimal Pair

 3.2 Phonological Rules

 3.3 Syllable

3.3.1 Syllable Structure

3.3.2 Syllabification and the Maximal Onset Principle

 3.4 Supra-segmental Features

3.4.1 Stress

3.4.2 Tone

3.4.3 Intonation

Chapter 4 Morphology

 4.1 Word

4.1.1 What isaWord

4.1.2 Classification of Words

4.1.3 Word Structure

 4.2 Two Fields in Morphology

4.2.1 Inflection

4.2.2 Word Formation

 4.3 Morphophonology

 4.4 Lexical Change

4.4.1 Phonological Change

4.4.2 Morphological Change

4.4.3 Syntactical Change

4.4.4 Semantic Change

Chapter 5 Syntax

 5.1 Traditional Grammar

5.1.1 Parsing

5.1.2 Categories

5.1.3 Syntactic Relationships Between Words in Sentences

 5.2 The Structural Approach

5.2.1 Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis)

5.2.2 Syntactic Relationships in Structuralism

 5.3 Transformational-Generative (TG) Grammar

5.3.1 Generative Grammar

5.3.2 Transformational Grammar

5.3.3 Using PSR to Analyze Sentences

 5.4 Systemic-Functional'Grammar

Chapter 6 Semantics

 6.1 Meaning of "meaning" or "to mean"

6.1.1 The Naming Theory/Referential Theory

6.1.2 Meaning as Context

6.1.3 Meaning as Truth Condition

 6.2 Types of Word Meaning

 6.3 Lexical Sense Relations

6.3.1 Synonymy

6.3.2 Antonymy

6.3.3 Hyponymy

 6.4 Componential Analysis

 6.5 Sense Relations Between Sentences

Chapter 7 Pragmatics

 7.1 What is Pragmatics

 7.2 Micro-pragmatics

 7.3 Macro-pragmatics

7.3.1 Speech Act Theory

7.3.2 Conversational Implicature

Chapter 8 Language, Culture and Society

 8.1 Language, Thought and Culture

 8.2 Language and Society

8.2.1 Language Variation

8.2.2 Standard and Non-standard Language

Chapter 9 First Language Acquisition

 9.1 What is Language Acquisition

 9.2 Theories of Language Acquisition

9.2.1 Behaviorist Theory

9.2.2 Innatist Theory

9.2.3 Interactionist Theory

 9.3 Language Environment and Critical Period Hypothesis

9.3.1 Language Environment

9.3.2 Critical Period Hypothesis

Chapter 10 Second Language Acquisition

 10.1 What is Second Language Acquisition

 10.2 L1 Acquisition and L2 Acquisition

 10.3 Approaches to L2 Acquisition

10.3.1 Contrastive Analysis

10.3.2 Error Analysis

10.3.3 Interlanguage Analysis

 10.4 Factors Influencing L2 Acquisition

Chapter 11 Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

 11.1 Introduction

 11.2 Linguistic Views and Language Teaching

11.2.1 The Traditional Grammar

11.2.2 Structural Linguistics

11.2.3 Transformational-Generative Grammar

11.2.4 Functional Linguistics

11.2.5 The Theory of Communicative Competence

 11.3 Syllabus Design

11.3.1 What is Syllabus

11.3.2 Types of Syllabus

 11.4 Linguistics and Language Learning

11.4.1 Grammar and Language Learning

11.4.2 Language Input and Language Learning

11.4.3 Interlanguage in Language Learning

Bibliography