How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction

by Anne Curzan, Michael Adams

This accessible introduction to the structure of English, general theories in linguistics, and important issues in sociolinguistics, is the first text written specifically for English and Education majors. This engaging introductory language/linguistics textbook provides more extensive coverage of issues of particular interest to English majors and future English instructors. It invites all students to connect academic linguistics to the everyday use of the English language around them. The book’s approach taps students’ natural curiosity about the English language. Through exercises and discussion questions about ongoing changes in English, How English Works asks students to become active participants in the construction of linguistic knowledge.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Grad School, Education, Reference, Textbooks

592 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2005

About the author

Anne Curzan is the Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature, Linguistics, and Education and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan, where she also currently serves as the dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Since this book is over 10 years old, it really needs an updated version. I did not like this book. First of all, it was not interesting. The only interesting parts were the boxes put off to the side which had tidbits about language. The rest of the book is bulky. The chapters are long and tiresome, and I didn't know someone could talk about so much for so long. If you have to read this book for a class like I did BEWARE. However, if you're having trouble sleeping definitely read this before bed as it'll put you right to sleep.

[David Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

First chapter was so well written. The rest of the book is just technical, boring and not worth anyone's time. Well, the intros to each chapter are interesting. If I just read those, I might enjoy reading about linguistics... otherwise, this book infuriated me. The more I read, the less valuable I thought the topic was, which I don't think was the point of me reading it for class.

[kelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a textbook. It reads like one. Yes, I'm selling it back to the school.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a text for my "Linguistics for Teachers" class that I took at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) during the summer of 2011. Unsatisfied with my full time job and unable to find a new one, I thought perhaps I'd take some classes in Teaching English as a Second Language/Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TESL/TEFL). As an undergraduate, I earned a certificate to teach high school English and psychology as well as junior high school language arts and social sciences; I needed some continuing education (C.E.s) credit for the certificate and also contemplated teaching English in Poland -- either of those would be a better option than the current job.

The Linguistics for Teachers class was actually very interesting (save the part on phonetics, which was my least favorite part of the class and felt like mostly tedium). However, the professor for the class was frustrating; she missed well over a week of class to go on vacation -- she claimed it was a family reunion. Additionally, the feedback she gave on her exercises never revealed how to do things correctly, and only indicated what was correct. There were several unhelpful parts to class that could have improved it, but the project for the class was useful and interesting; I had to transcribe and do a close linguistic analysis of a non-native speaker's experience speech. For my particular project, I interviewed my mother about her experiences learning English when she came to the United States from Poland when she was sixteen.

When my professor was away, she gave us an assignment corresponding to the third edition of the text (the third edition had just come out a week or two before class started, and both the second and third edition of the text were listed on the syllabus as acceptable). I purchased the substantially cheaper second edition. Apparently, the third edition goes into research by Lera Boroditsky, a psychology professor at Stanford who is so kind as to host her academic papers on her web site. Boroditsky's work was fascinating, and addressed some issues relating to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which states that the way one's language works influences the way one relates to the world. I read the original source materials, and would love to read more about this area; unfortunately, it hasn't come up again in my other TESL/TEFL classes (at least yet, that is), and it may not. I should make it a priority to read from Boroditsky's web site, as she was called a "visionary" by Utne Reader in 2011 (this was taken from Wikipedia, but that's where I started my research on Boroditsky when the assignment asked me about a person that wasn't in the second edition of the text). Some of her research included a discussion of how individuals from language systems that have less developed number numeric words have trouble with mathematics problems. I wish I was writing from my home computer rather than my school one, as then I could write even more details.

In the spring of 2012, I find myself taking advanced linguistics nor NEIU's M.A. in TESL/TEFL program (I'm actually a student at large -- I need three classes for my C.E.s, but may take more for the M.A.). Alas, we're reading a whole book on phonology, and there's nothing on the syntax and semantics I liked so much. I should be reading about phonology now, but instead, I'm writing about the Curzan and Adams linguistics book...

[Emily Revelas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my graduate program. Most chapters were interesting enough to skim through. Educational and easy to cite in my papers.

[Becky Filipek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I think this is a good textbook. It had lots of good information, but I doubt the authors realize they have a bias. It's amazing how relativism has worked it's way even into what I thought was going to be a book about grammar and language structure. But maybe that reveals my bias. Grammar and a discussion of the structure and history of the English language were certainly included in the book, but I'm tired of directly and indirectly being told to "check your privilege." I have no more control over who my parents are than you did, buddy.

[Katelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I did not really like having to read this book for one of my classes. The class was not my favorite class. But overall, the book did a fairly good job of explaining things. I feel like it could have explained things a little bit better for those of us who aren't linguistics majors, but it was fairly good. But definitely not something that I will probably ever read again!

[Andrea Dennison · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the least boring linguistic textbook I've ever read.

[Pam Dise-Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for a class. For an applied linguistics book, it had clear examples & helpful charts. I find linguistics fascinating but difficult.

[Dr. Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slogged through it for a grad class. It was not fun, but I did learn a lot.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on English language.

[Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for school, but good information

[Delaney]

Class textbook 😌

[Catherine Norman]

I suppose this did the job it was supposed to do while being fairly outdated with pop culture references and general slang. I think they are due for an update if they want to stay relevant!

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my textbooks for my Intro to the Study of Language class. It’s a brilliant textbook and I recommend it. The authors write with personality and the information is conveyed really effectively. It covers the very fundamental aspects of language, primarily the English language (but it also explains the IPA). It talks about phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, semantics, you name it. It finishes up with a very brief history of English (Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English) and a few thoughts on how it might be in the future. This is one of the few books I’ve read that really goes into the most basic aspects of grammar and syntax and for that I find it invaluable. I do think that the authors get a little too friendly at times and the editing wasn’t perfect, but as an introduction to the language I think it does an overall marvellous job. It also makes a grand effort to cover all types of English, from Standard to nonstandard, American to British (and Canadian, Australian, and others), and regional dialects to accents. There is even some philosophy in here too, as well as the science of language acquisition. It really covers a broad range of topics and for that it is worth the price. It’s not a resource I would consult regularly, but if I need a refresher on a specific topic (I can see myself brushing up on the IPA frequently) it’s good to have on hand. There are also many topics in it that I’d love to discuss further in a blog post or essay. This has been one of my most useful textbooks for any class, but I might be biased since I love the English language so much.

Awesome Book Assessment.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

The other day I got caught out in the pouring rain and after 500 other horrible things happened on the way to my class that uses this book, I decided going to class was futile. Then I was assigned to do a bunch of morpheme trees for homework. So I merrily open this book to learn how to do morpheme trees, since I missed my lecture, only to find out the book does not tell you. It gives you one example, which has about 1/4th of the possible prefixes/suffixes one may encounter while making morpheme trees. Then it gives you THREE "wrong" examples, and is all, ~LOL can u guess why these are wrong????~ well, no, because you never told me how to make one properly.

Also it uses two different characters for the same IPA symbol. Brilliant.

ETA: OH MY GOD THIS IS A REAL (partial) SENTENCE: "... and the possible deletion of forms of 'to be' in third person, as well as in the second person." ARE YOU SERIOUS? "in the second and third person" THERE I WROTE YOUR TEXTBOOK FOR YOU. I am just overly upset about having to take tiny notes in a very limited space and I was in the middle of copying that sentence exactly when I realized they made the most RIDICULOUS OBNOXIOUS SENTENCE EVER. It is. It just is.

[Ellen]

I enjoy reading this textbook because it's not pretentious as other textbooks seem to be. I'm only finishing up the second chapter right now, but I have to say I think Curzan wrote this in order to inform students "how English works." She informs her readers that the majority of English speakers break the grammatical rules, and because it's all arbitrary, there really is nothing wrong with them, but as a society, we tend to look down on those who don't follow standard English. But she also explains that just because these rules are arbitrary doesn't mean it's a perfect excuse for a student to write however they want because without rules, we couldn't communicate with each other. Overall, this is a very enlightening textbook, and I enjoy Curzan's style. If you are required to read this textbook for a class or for personal knowledge, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Ethan Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book elucidated some linguistic concepts I only vaguely understood before reading it. Morphemes, lexemes, phonemes, semantics etc, were all laid bare in my cognition thanks to Curzan's expert skill at description and analysis. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to gain greater mastery of the English language. While performing textual analysis, I feel an expanded pallet (especially regarding language mechanics) has been given to me as a result of having read this book.

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an engaging and understandable text book, but it was still a text book. As a linguistics major taking a required basic linguistics course for a graduate program I felt this was a comprehensive intro text. My favorite part of the book was the insets with interesting information about scholars, or fun linguistic tidbits.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a textbook for one of my Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse graduate classes (sociolinguistics). It was actually really well-written and pretty accessible and of course, extremely informative! I might buy this one day...

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the "ask" to "aks" controversy, to the disdain of Southern drawl, to the internet neologisms, almost everything you believe about English is WRONG. This book was an eyeopener in college, and it's still great now. Grammar Nazis beware: your superiority will be challenged.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

In short: My college Introduction to Linguistics textbook. Well written and interesting!

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed for class. Some interesting facts but definitely not a leisure read.

[Danica is Booked · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not boring for a textbook. Really informatvie and one that I liked.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A veteran English teacher of about 30 years found this useful, thus I have increased the rating. I did not give it four stars because it is simply not "exciting", but is useful, thus 3 stars.

[Xilks · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay book. Starting to get dated. I had to use it for a class. That's all I can really say about it. Meh.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating dip into the study of linguistics. I read this for a class and only rented the text. I wish now I had purchased it.

[Kath · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent text fir breaking diwn creative wroting. The copy is reader friendly and easy to engage with.

[Terra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read most of this book for a class.