Author Description

The English Language: An Owner's Manual is the first text designed to be used in general introductory courses in the English language that is reader friendly, accessible, and fun. Rather than focus on technical linguistics, the book offers a more eclectic set of topics to introduce students to various aspects of language. Its goals are to draw on the daily use of language, especially students' own language; explore the cultural significance of so called “traditional” grammar as a set of tools and terms; and give students a basic understanding of the modern linguistic view of language as a rule governed system. The focus throughout is on language analysis that students should find more relevant: that language is a system of universal qualities, that it is dynamic and always changing, and that studying it pushes us to rethink the assumptions we have about language.