Discovering Language: The Structure of Modern English

by Lesley Jeffries

Ideal for those who are starting a degree in English language or linguistics, this textbook covers all the basic knowledge and tools of analysis students need for studying language. It introduces methods of English language description and enables readers to learn about the smallest units of language (sounds) and work through the subsequent levels (morphology and syntax) until the sentence is reached. The book also contains a chapter on basic lexical semantics. The final chapter in the book introduces readers to text structure, discourse and linguistic theory.

This book is core reading for students taking introductory modules as part of an English language or linguistics degree. It will act as a foundation for more advanced work further into the curriculum.

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2006

Reviews

[Ilaria ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good textbook that intruces students to the bases of English linguistics.
The language used is rich but quite understandable and plenty of examples are provided to support all the topics.
I didn't quite like the "Syntax" chapter as syntactic trees were not correctly displayed and crated by the author, so that is something I would check and rewrite if I were them.
All in all, a good basic textbook.

-Ilaria