This fully updated second edition includes a
new introduction, a wide range of new entries (reflecting developments in linguistics since the book's original release) and added specialized further reading for lecturers and more advanced students.
A comprehensive and critical A-Z guide to the main terms and concepts used in the study of language and linguistics, definitions featured include:
- terms used in grammatical analysis
- branches of linguistics from semantics to neurolinguistics
- approaches used in studying language from critical discourse analysis to systemic linguistics
- linguistic phenomena from code-switching to conversational implicature
- language varieties from pidgin to standard language.
Neither a dictionary nor an encyclopedia, Trask's latest entry in the field of linguistics and phonetics deals with important key concepts that every beginning student is likely to encounter from every area of language study. Besides Trask's own previous works, the volume depends heavily on the work of David Crystal, whose encyclopedias and dictionaries of language and linguistics are well respected; the essay on the IndoEuropean language family is an example. There are essays, however, on topics not found in Crystal's
Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (Blackwell, 4th ed., 1997), one being
animal communication.
Key Concepts offers terms related to grammatical analysis, branches of linguistics, discourse analysis, varieties of language, related phenomena, and simple grammatical concepts such as
adverb and
noun. Students will be pleased to find topics like
Black English,
nonverbal communication, and
sex differences in language. For more serious scholars, terms like
deitic category,
onomastics, and
syntagmatic relation abound.
Most entries run three or four short paragraphs, and many are valuable browse material. Each entry begins with a brief definition followed by an indepth discussion of the concept. Historical origins are given where possible. The author admits he has tried to provide the "kind of explanation not readily available elsewhere for concepts not found in textbooks." There are no separate entries for key individuals. Related concepts are adequately crossreferenced not only in the text but also at the ends of entries. Each entry concludes with further reading that identifies the author's sources, and there is a lengthy bibliography at the end of the work. The index is important because there are no see references to guide the reader who may be looking for Ebonics, for example, to the article Black English.
Middle-and high-school students may enjoy the much briefer definitions of many of these concepts in Trask's Student's Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (Arnold, 1997). A work for more advanced scholars is Hadumod Bussmann's Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (1996), which defines most of Trask's concepts, with lengthier bibliographies and brief etymologies. Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics would be a worthwhile addition to language and linguistics collections in academic and large public libraries.
