George Yule

General extenders are phrases like 'or something', 'and everything', 'and things (like that)', 'and stuff (like that)', and 'and so on'. Although they are an everyday feature of spoken language, are crucial in successful interpersonal communication, and have multiple functions in discourse, they have so far gone virtually unnoticed in linguistics. This pioneering work provides a comprehensive description of this new linguistic category. It offers new insights into ongoing changes in contemporary English, the effect of grammaticalization, novel uses as associative plural markers and indicators of intertextuality, and the metapragmatic role of extenders in interaction. The forms and functions of general extenders are presented clearly and accessibly, enabling students to understand a number of different frameworks of analysis in discourse-pragmatic studies. From an applied perspective, the book presents a description of translation equivalents, an analysis of second language variation, and practical exercises for teaching second language learners of English.

This bestselling textbook provides an engaging and user-friendly introduction to the study of language. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, Yule presents information in bite-sized sections, clearly explaining the major concepts in linguistics and all the key elements of language. This eighth edition has been revised and updated throughout, with major changes in the chapters on Origins, Phonetics, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, First and Second Language Acquisition and Culture. There are forty new study questions and over sixty new and updated additions to the Further Readings. To increase student engagement and to foster problem-solving and critical thinking skills, the book includes over twenty new tasks. The online resources have been expanded to include test banks, an instructor manual, and a substantial Study Guide. This is the most fundamental and easy-to-use introduction to the study of language.

General extenders are phrases like 'or something', 'and everything', 'and things (like that)', 'and stuff (like that)', and 'and so on'. Although they are an everyday feature of spoken language, are crucial in successful interpersonal communication, and have multiple functions in discourse, they have so far gone virtually unnoticed in linguistics. This pioneering work provides a comprehensive description of this new linguistic category. It offers new insights into ongoing changes in contemporary English, the effect of grammaticalization, novel uses as associative plural markers and indicators of intertextuality, and the metapragmatic role of extenders in interaction. The forms and functions of general extenders are presented clearly and accessibly, enabling students to understand a number of different frameworks of analysis in discourse-pragmatic studies. From an applied perspective, the book presents a description of translation equivalents, an analysis of second language variation, and practical exercises for teaching second language learners of English.

Oxford Practice Grammar knows that students need different types of explanation and practice at each stage of their study. Advanced gives challenging practice activities and in-depth explanations. Great for classroom or self-study and it helps you prepare for standard exam questions asked in C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency, IELTS, TOEFL and other advanced-level exams.

Grammar Advantage is a course text and self-study tool for advanced learners of English as a second language (C-TOEFL score of at least 190 or equivalent). Clear examples and explanations are followed by varied and abundant exercises. Topics that are important in academic contexts are highlighted: sentence structure, transitions, and sentence flow, verb tenses, active and passive voice, gerunds and infinitives, reporting and noun clauses, relative clauses, adverbials, and conditionals. Coverage of basic rules and finer points of usage help students understand not just basic grammar but how individual words are used (lexical grammar). Easily referenced subsections and sections on errors to avoid enable teachers to guide students to edit their work. The text includes four appendices (Tense Overview, Basic Punctuation for Joining Clauses, Transition Expressions Word by Word, and Principles of Sentence Flow), a glossary of grammar terms, an index and, on request, answer keys.

Puzzlings ("little linguistic puzzles") are word games using examples from a hundred and one different languages. They are exercises for the mind that will help improve analytic skills and develop problem-solving strategies. These puzzles will make you smarter. On each page of the book you will find examples from different languages, with English translations, arranged in order to create a puzzle. The answers to each part of the puzzle are provided in lists on the same page. You just have to decide which answers go in the blanks. Correct solutions are provided in the back of the book. We have tried to divide the puzzles into groups that we think will be least difficult (Level 1) through to those that seem most challenging (Level 5). Within each level, the source languages are simply listed and the puzzles can be done in any order.

For teachers, one of the most challenging student reactions to being taught grammar is this: 'I understand how to use this structure, but why do I have to use it?' In this book, George Yule focuses on the grammar topics that give rise to these why-questions. His explanations link form, meaning, and real-life use, and are supported throughout by exercises and discussion points.

Referential communication is the term given to communicative acts, generally spoken, in which some kind of information is exchanged between one speaker and another. This information exchange is typically dependent on successful acts of reference, whereby entities (human and non-human) are identified (by naming or describing), are located or moved relative to other entities (by giving instructions or directions), or are followed through sequences of locations and events (by recounting an incident or a narrative). These "activities" are examples of events that are more typically described as "tasks" in the area of second language studies. These might be real world tasks encountered in everyday experience or pedagogical tasks specifically designed for second language classroom use. This volume comprehensively documents and describes the veritable explosion of task-based research in language acquisition. In a succinct, yet easily accessible fashion, it presents the origins, principles, and key distinctions of referential communication research in first and second language studies, complete with exhaustive analyses and illustrations of different types of materials. The author also describes and evaluates different choices for using or modifying these materials, provides analytic frameworks for focusing on various aspects of the data elicited by these tasks, and includes an extensive bibliography plus an appendix showing original task materials.

Referential communication is the term given to communicative acts, generally spoken, in which some kind of information is exchanged between one speaker and another. This information exchange is typically dependent on successful acts of reference, whereby entities (human and non-human) are identified (by naming or describing), are located or moved relative to other entities (by giving instructions or directions), or are followed through sequences of locations and events (by recounting an incident or a narrative). These "activities" are examples of events that are more typically described as "tasks" in the area of second language studies. These might be real world tasks encountered in everyday experience or pedagogical tasks specifically designed for second language classroom use. This volume comprehensively documents and describes the veritable explosion of task-based research in language acquisition. In a succinct, yet easily accessible fashion, it presents the origins, principles, and key distinctions of referential communication research in first and second language studies, complete with exhaustive analyses and illustrations of different types of materials. The author also describes and evaluates different choices for using or modifying these materials, provides analytic frameworks for focusing on various aspects of the data elicited by these tasks, and includes an extensive bibliography plus an appendix showing original task materials.

In this book the authors examine the nature of spoken language and how it differs from written language both in form and purpose. A large part of it is concerned with principles and techniques for teaching spoken production and listening comprehension. An important chapter deals with how to assess spoken language. The principles and techniques described apply to the teaching of English as a foreign and second language and are also highly relevant to the teaching of the mother tongue

Discourse analysis is a term which has come to have different interpretations for scholars working in different disciplines. For a sociolinguist, it is concerned mainly with the structre of social interaction manifested in conversation; for a psycholinguist, it is primarily concerned with the nature of comprehension of short written texts; for the computational linguist, it is concerned with producing operational models of text-understanding within highly limited contexts. In this textbook, the authors provide an extensive overview of the many and diverse approaches to the study of discourse, but base their own approach centrally on the discipline which, to varying degrees, is common to them all - linguistics. Using a methodology which has much in common with descriptive linguistics, they offer a lucid and wide-ranging account of how forms of language are used in communication. Their principal concern is to examine how any language produced by man, whether spoken or written, is used to communicate for a purpose in a context. The discussion is carefully illustrated throughout by a wide variety of discourse types (conversations recorded in different social situations, extracts from newspapers, notices, contemporary fiction, graffiti, etc.). The techniques of analysis are described and exemplified in sufficient detail for the student to be able to apply them to any language in context that he or she encounters. A familiarity with elementary linguistics is assumed, but the range of issues discussed in conjunction with the variety of exemplification presented will make this a valuable and stimulating textbook not only for students of linguistics, but for any reader who wishes to investigate the principles underlying the use of language in natural contexts to communicate and understand intended meaning.