Preface to the first edition -- Preface to second edition -- Preface to 3rd edition -- I. Popular ideas about language -- 1. The prescriptive tradition -- 2. The equality of languages -- 3. The magic of language -- 4. The functions of language -- 5. Language and thought -- II. Language and identity -- 6. Physical identity -- 7. Psychological identity -- 8. Geographical identity -- 9. Ethnic and national identity -- 10. Social identity -- 11 Contextual identity -- 12. Stylistic identity and literature -- III. The structure of language -- 13. Linguistic levels -- 14. Typology and universals -- 15. The statistical structure of language -- 16. Grammar -- 17. Semantics -- 18. Dictionaries -- 19. Names -- 20. Discourse and text -- 21. Pragmatics -- IV. The medium of language : speaking and listening -- 22. The anatomy and physiology of speech -- 23. The acoustics of speech -- 24. The instrumental analysis of speech -- 25. Speech reception -- 26. Speech interaction with machines -- 27. The sounds of speech -- 28. The linguistic use of sound -- 29. Suprasegmentals -- 30. Sound symbolism -- V. The medium of language : writing and reading -- 31. Written and spoken language -- 32. Graphic expression -- 33. Graphology -- 34. The process of reading and writing -- VI. The medium of language : signing and seeing -- 35. Sign language -- 36. Sign language structure -- 37. Types of sign language -- VII. Child language acquisition -- 38. Investigating children's language -- 39. The first year -- 40. Phonological development -- 41. Grammatical development -- 42. Semantic development -- 43. Pragmatic development -- 44. Language development in school -- VIII. Language, brain, and disability -- 45. Language and the brain -- 46. Language disability -- IX. The languages of the world -- 47. How many languages? -- 48. How many speakers? -- 49. The origins of language -- 50. Families of language -- 51. The Indo-European family -- 52. Other families -- 53. Language isolates -- 54. Language change -- 55. Pidgins and creoles -- X. Language in the world -- 56. The language barrier -- 57. Translating and interpreting -- 58. Artificial languages -- 59. World languages -- 60. Multilingualism -- 61. Language planning -- 62. Foreign language teaching and learning -- 63. Language for special purposes -- XI. Language and communication -- 64. Language and other communication systems -- 65. Linguistics -- Appendices -- I. Glossary -- II. Special symbols and abbreviations -- III. Table of the world's languages -- IV. Further reading -- V. References -- VI. Index of languages, families, dialects, and scripts -- VII. Index of authors and personalities -- VIII. Index of topics.