KEY TOPICS

• Language for communication

• The structure of this book

Most of the time, if not all of the time, we communicate with each other using language without considering the complex activity we are undertaking, forming complex words and sentences in a split second. We know immediately when someone uses language structures that are inappropriate or incorrect because we have learned the rules that govern the language(s) we use. In this book, we will look at the structures we use in more detail, in order to help us to understand the structures we find in languages that may be arranged in ways quite different from English.

There are many approaches to the study of language. Some linguists are more interested in discovering the basic, innate structures that we all have in our brains, regardless of which language(s) we speak. Linguists working in what is known as the generative tradition seek to understand universal grammar, the structures that human languages have in common and that we may be born with the capacity to use. The generative approach focuses on the formal characteristics of language structure, seeking to uncover the rules that ‘generate’ well-formed sentences. Other linguists take a more functional approach, studying language use in context; in other words, what actually comes out of our mouths rather than what may be stored in our heads. Functional approaches seek to incorporate the meaning and broader context of language in order to fully understand language structure.