Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:31:53.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Basics of a language

from Part I - System and function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2014

By
R. M. W. Dixon
Edited by
N. J. Enfield ,
Paul Kockelman  and
Jack Sidnell
N. J. Enfield
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute
Paul Kockelman
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Jack Sidnell
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

This chapter tries to show why any decent linguist must invoke a fair dose of anthropology, and that, in order to achieve significant results, an anthropologist should harness the essentials of linguistics. It focuses on real linguistics, the cumulative paradigm in terms of which grammars are written, programs of language teaching expounded, and examines the social role of language. The main unit of every language is the clause. Every language has a number of word classes. There will be a number of small closed classes, pronoun and demonstrative in all languages, article, preposition, postposition in some. Every language has thousands of nouns; this is an open class to which new words are continually being added. A very important point is that word classes must be recognized separately for each language, based on internal grammatical criteria in that language.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology , pp. 29 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×