English words: A linguistic introduction (review)

Heidi Harley’s English words: A linguistic introduction is a new addition to the list of textbooks on the history and structure of English words. The author’s aim is to initiate readers to the technical study of words in six theoretically informed areas: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, language acquisition, and historical linguistics. This book is specifically intended for use by university students with no background in linguistics and who may never take a linguistics-related course. The concepts are presented in a very clear and engaging way and give the reader the necessary tools to analyze a number of phenomena pertaining to English vocabulary. This textbook would be an excellent choice to accompany a non-specialist course in English linguistics.

The book is divided into nine chapters. The chapters are preceded by an IPA transcription key, a list of the vowel symbols belonging to the Received Pronunciation transcription system, and a list of the corresponding transcriptions matching the American ones in the text. The chapters are followed by a glossary of 113 technical terms, a small list of additional works that the author consulted but did not cite in the chapters, and a six-page subject index.

The chapters progressively develop and build on concepts, and each begins with a concise description of the material that will be covered. Harley uses a number of techniques to keep her reader engaged. Each chapter and section starts off with a hook—a question, a provocative statement, a paradox—which immediately draws the reader in. Informal exercises inserted in the middle of a discussion encourage the student to reflect on what has been presented and actively anticipate the direction the analysis will take. The chapters are also interspersed with grey boxes that supply additional information, from definitions to related points that are not developed in the main text. The book makes good use of maps, diagrams, and easy-to-read tables. Concepts are illustrated by plenty of examples, many of which are taken from pop culture: song lyrics, Bushisms, tongue twisters, cartoons, jokes, humorous citations, advertisements, etc. Each chapter ends with a set of study problems (no answer key is provided) and suggestions for further reading. Appropriate to the purpose of the book, terminology, footnotes, and references are kept to a minimum.

Chapter 1, “What is a word?”, challenges the uninitiated student’s intuitive definition of what a word is. The chapter reads as if Harley herself were giving an informal lecture, calling on the reader to progressively build on his or her own idea of a word in order to arrive at the desired conclusion that there are two different notions of a word: a listeme—or sound meaning correspondence—and a phonological word. The author lays out the necessary information that must be learned in order to know a word: its phonology, semantics, syntax, and morphology—all of which correspond to the material to be covered in subsequent chapters. The section describing the basic design of language, “Language is a secret decoder ring”, is particularly well presented. It begins with the hook “Language lets us see into other people’s minds, and lets other people see into ours” and then engages the reader in a discussion about the crucial distinction between communication systems that are based on unstructured clusters of words and the recursive, rule-based system that is human language.

Chapter 2, “Sound and fury: English phonology”, provides a concise description of articulatory phonetics as it applies to English. The chapter begins with a discussion of the mismatch between orthography and pronunciation and then presents the elements of the vocal tract, the IPA, and the properties of English consonants and vowels. Grimm’s law is effectively introduced here in order to demonstrate that languages have consistent patterns of organization and pronunciation that apply to families of sounds.

Chapter 3, “Phonological words: Calling all Scrabble players!”, presents English phonotactics, the three constituents of a syllable, rhythm, and word stress. While the section on phonotactic restrictions, in which 14 different rules...