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This book is an introduction to the field of linguistics, with a focus on language in its broad sense. It begins with a discussion of how children learn to speak, and goes on to discuss the nature of human language, how it is processed in the brain, why people sometimes have difficulty learning to talk or understand speech, and what you can do about it. The most important part of this book is the chapter on languages around the world. Here we pay attention not only to individual languages but also to similarities and differences among them. There are lots of examples from different parts of the world so that you will get a feel for their diversity. In this way, the chapter prepares you for further study of language as a human phenomenon. As a finishing touch, there is a section on the brain and language. Professor John Lyons taught linguistics for more than 30 years at City University London. He was born in Australia and educated at Australian National University, the University of Melbourne and Harvard University, where he obtained his PhD in 1966. He has also been a Fellow of St Cross College Oxford and Honorary Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Life Fellow of the British Academy, a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Australian National University and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technology. He has been awarded prizes from the Japan Foundation, the Australian Academy of Science, and is an Honorary Professor at Kyoto University. In 2001 he was honoured by being made an Officer in the Order of Australia. In 1989 he completed his most celebrated work: "The Nature and Origin of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics." John Lyons argues that language has evolved in human evolution over many thousands of years. According to him, language is a product of the brain. The individual languages are far from being equal, "and unique languages are not unique, but part of a network of similar structures." The purpose of these similarities is that each new culture can share some language structures with neighbouring cultures. John Lyons's new book "Language" has been reviewed by Cambridge historian and writer Simon Schama. Schama praises Lyons as "without doubt the most original and provocative linguist around today", and notes that his theories about language's origins have been "long emphasised by other writers, but since taken up with enthusiasm by Lyons". Schama regards Lyons as a linguistic relativist (on the same page as the linguistic prescriptivist who adopts the viewpoint that 'there is one best way to say it'). Schama's review goes on to hint at the paradox at the heart of linguistics: "Make no mistake about it: Lyons is a foundationalist; but not one for whom you need a tower and a plumb-line and a drop-cord. He recognises that language evolves and mutates and can be shaped to fit any purpose. Yet for all its elasticity, he argues, language remains bounded by 'the human mind, human needs and human nature'. cfa1e77820
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