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.

This fully updated second edition includes a new introduction, a wide range of new entries (reflecting developments in linguistics) and added specialized further reading for lecturers and more advanced students.

Praise for first edition:

'This is a brilliant book. It combines the readability of Pinker with the breadth and erudition of Crystal, and deserves a place of honour as a summary of the best of twentieth-century linguistics – liberal, scholarly, forward-looking, undogmatic, sensible, practical and above all wide-ranging. Every linguist will be pleased ... Every student of linguistics will cling to it and love it.' – Richard Hudson, University College London, UK

R.L. Trask (1994-2004) was the highly regarded Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex. His numerous publications included Language: the Basics (1995) and A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology (1995).

Peter Stockwell is Professor of Literary Linguistics at the University of Nottingham and the editor of the Routledge English Language Introductions Series.