An Introduction to the Study of Language (Classic Reprint)

Discover how language works and why linguistic science shapes everyday life.

This introduction explains the big ideas behind how words form, how sentences relate, and how languages differ. It ties the nuts-and-bolts of morphology and syntax to real-world uses like education, reading, and international communication.

From building blocks like words and affixes to the rules that govern how we combine them, the book shows how linguistics explains our patterns of speech. It compares languages with and without inflection, highlights how meaning shifts with order and context, and explains why teaching reading and writing relies on these ideas.

• Grasp morphology and syntax, and how they shape what we say.
• See how compounds, affixes, and word order affect meaning.
• Explore how different languages handle case, tense, and agreement.
• Learn how linguistic science informs education, translation, and communication systems.

Ideal for readers curious about language, its structure, and its role in culture and progress.

Leonard Bloomfield, an American professor of Germanic languages, created the field of linguistics as a branch of science. In studying such non-Western languages as Tagalog, spoken in the Philippines, he realized the futility of trying to fit all languages into the format of Latin grammar in the common practice in his time. Bloomfield went on to discover the principles of language itself. His book Language (1933) integrated the field of linguistics for the first time.