Presupposing no prior knowledge of linguistics,The Handbook of Linguistics is the ideal resource for people who want to learn about the subject and its subdisciplines.

List of Contributors.Preface.1. Origins of Language: Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy.2. Languages of the World: Bernard Comrie.3. Writing Systems: Peter T. Daniels.4. The History of Linguistics: Lyle Campbell.5. Historical Linguistics: Brian D. Joseph.6. Field Linguistics: Pamela Munro.7. Linguistic Phonetics: John Laver.8. Phonology: Abigail Cohn.9. Morphology: Andrew Spencer.10. The Lexicon: D.A. Cruse.11. Syntax: Mark C. Baker.12. Generative Grammer: Thomas Wasow.13. Functional Linguistics: Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.14. Typology: William Croft.15. An Introduction to Formal Semantics: Shalom Lappin.16. Pragmatics: Language and Communication: Ruth Kempson.17. Discourse Analysis: Agnes Weiyun He.18. Linguistics and Literature: Nigel Fabb.19. First Language Acquisition: Brian MacWhinney.20. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition: One Person withTwo Languages: Vivian Cook.21. Multilingualism: Suzanne Romaine.22. Natural Sign Language: Wendy Sandler and DianeLillo-Martin.23. Sociolinguistics: Florian Coulmas.24. Neurolinguistics: David Caplan.25. Computational Linguistics: Richard Sproat, ChristerSamuelsson, Jennifer Chu-Carroll and Bob Carpenter.26. Applied Linguistics: Janie Rees-Miller.27. Educational Linguistics: James Paul Gee.28. Linguistics and Reading: Rebecca Treiman.29. Clinical Linguistics: David Crystal.30. Forensic Linguistics: Roger W. Shuy.31. Translation: Christoph Gutknecht.32. Language Planning: Frank Anshen.Bibliography.Index.