Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Linguistics for Teachers of English
Carol Russell · New Prairie Press · 2018
The primary goals of this text are to acquaint prospective teachers of English with certain aspects of the history, structure, and use of the English Language. Through considering the nature of the English language; how language and culture are interconnected as well as how it is acquired and how and why it changes, readers will come to a fuller understanding of sociolinguistics. This text discusses the nature of language, as well as how it is acquired; how and why languages change, and how the English language in particular has changed (and continues to change); why different varieties of English have developed, and why they continue to be used; how linguists have attempted to account for the (ir)regularities of English; how language and culture are related; and how linguistics can be used as a tool in the classroom. This text presents important topics for English teachers to know: the relationship between “standard” and “nonstandard” dialects, how and why language varies, how we can make informed decisions about what is “right” and “wrong” in language use, and generally how a sound knowledge of how language works can inform and benefit the pedagogical strategies needed to develop as a teacher. Ultimately, I want readers to think about language in ways not thought of before: objectively, passionately, critically, analytically, and logically. This allows readers to move beyond memorization of facts to original thought (which is sort of like the difference between knowing how to add and subtract, and being able to balance a checkbook).
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Essentials of Linguistics, 2nd Edition
Catherine Anderson; Bronwyn Bjorkman; Derek Denis · eCampusOntario · 2022
This Second Edition of Essentials of Linguistics is considerably revised and expanded, including several new chapters, diverse language examples from signed and spoken languages, enhanced accessibility features, and an orientation towards equity and justice. While the primary audience is Canadian students of Introduction to Linguistics, it is also suitable for learners elsewhere, in online, hybrid, or in-person courses.
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Psychology of Language
Dinesh Ramoo; Marie Bartlett · BCcampus · 2021
In this textbook, students are introduced to the fundamental principles of linguistics and psycholinguistics. Students will explore theories and models of language development, comprehension and production as well as bilingualism and reading. All of these topics are approached from a Canadian perspective and include ideas from indigenous cultures and languages of Canada.
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Mind, Body, World: Foundations of Cognitive Science
Michael Dawson · Athabasca University Press · 2013
Cognitive science arose in the 1950s when it became apparent that a number of disciplines, including psychology, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy, were fragmenting. Perhaps owing to the field's immediate origins in cybernetics, as well as to the foundational assumption that cognition is information processing, cognitive science initially seemed more unified than psychology. However, as a result of differing interpretations of the foundational assumption and dramatically divergent views of the meaning of the term information processing, three separate schools emerged: classical cognitive science, connectionist cognitive science, and embodied cognitive science. Examples, cases, and research findings taken from the wide range of phenomena studied by cognitive scientists effectively explain and explore the relationship among the three perspectives. Intended to introduce both graduate and senior undergraduate students to the foundations of cognitive science, Mind, Body, World addresses a number of questions currently being asked by those practicing in the field: What are the core assumptions of the three different schools? What are the relationships between these different sets of core assumptions? Is there only one cognitive science, or are there many different cognitive sciences? Giving the schools equal treatment and displaying a broad and deep understanding of the field, Dawson highlights the fundamental tensions and lines of fragmentation that exist among the schools and provides a refreshing and unifying framework for students of cognitive science.
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Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches
Stefan Müller · Language Science Press · 2019
This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.
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Bate-Papo
Eduardo Viana da Silva · University of Washington · 2019
An Introduction to Portuguese
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La lingüística hispánica: Una introducción
Ashwini Ganeshan; Paige Wison; Margaret Saine · Ashwini Ganeshan · 2019
Editoras: Paige Wilson, Margaret Saine, y Anna Traini Este libro, todavía en desarrollo, se dirige a estudiantes de español en universidades estadounidenses y pretende ofrecer una breve y simple introducción a la lingüística hispánica. Incluye conceptos básicos de la lingüística, brinda ensayos que abarcan temas de interés social conectando la lingüística con la vida diaria, y ejercicios para practicar los conceptos. También hay enlaces a materiales relevantes disponibles en la red. El libro está creado enteramente por textos escritos y materiales compartidos por estudiantes mayoritariamente de pregrado y también cuenta con el trabajo y esfuerzo de estudiantes-editoras en un proyecto a largo plazo de pedagogía abierta. Editors: Paige Wilson, Margaret Saine, and Anna Traini This book, a work in progress, is aimed at students of Spanish in universities in the USA and intends to offer a brief and simple introduction to the field of Hispanic Linguistics. It includes basic concepts in linguistics, essays that address topic of social relevance connecting linguistics to everyday life, and exercises to practice the concepts. Links to relevant material across the internet are also provided. The book is entirely created from texts and materials authored by mainly undergraduate students and it also includes the work and effort of student-editors, as part of a long-term open pedagogy project.
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A grammar of Pite Saami
Joshua Wilbur · Language Science Press · 2014
Pite Saami is a highly endangered Western Saami language in the Uralic language family currently spoken by a few individuals in Swedish Lapland. This grammar is the first extensive book-length treatment of a Saami language written in English. While focusing on the morphophonology of the main word classes nouns, adjectives and verbs, it also deals with other linguistic structures such as prosody, phonology, phrase types and clauses. Furthermore, it provides an introduction to the language and its speakers, and an outline of a preliminary Pite Saami orthography. An extensive annotated spoken-language corpus collected over the course of five years forms the empirical foundation for this description, and each example includes a specific reference to the corpus in order to facilitate verification of claims made on the data. Descriptions are presented for a general linguistics audience and without attempting to support a specific theoretical approach, but this book should be equally useful for scholars of Uralic linguistics, typologists, and even learners of Pite Saami.
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A grammar of Mauwake
Liisa Berghäll · Language Science Press · 2015
This grammar provides a synchronic grammatical description of Mauwake, a Papuan Trans-New Guinea (TNG) language of about 2000 speakers on the north coast of the Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. It is the first book-length treatment of the Mauwake language and the only published grammar of the Kumil subgroup to date. Relying on other existing published and unpublished grammars, the author shows how the language is similar to, or different from, related TNG languages especially in the Madang province. The grammar gives a brief introduction to the Mauwake people, their environment and their culture. Although the book mainly covers morphology and syntax, it also includes ashort treatment of the phonological system and the orthography. The description of the grammatical units proceeds from the words/morphology to the phrases, clauses, sentence types and clause combinations. The chapter on functional domains is the only one where the organization is based on meaning/function rather than structure. The longest chapter in the book is on morphology, with verbs taking the central stage. The final chapter deals with the pragmatic functions theme, topic and focus. 13 texts by native speakers, mostly recorded and transcribed but some originally written, are included in the Appendix with morpheme-by-morpheme glosses and a free translation. The theoretical approach used is that of Basic Linguistic Theory. Language typologists and professional Papuanist linguists are naturally one target audience for the grammar. But also two other possible, and important, audiences influenced especially the style the writing: well educated Mauwake speakers interested in their language, and those other Papua New Guineans who have some basic training in linguistics and are keen to explore their own languages.
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Basic Persian
Nahid Shiran; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2023
Basic Persian is an online, interactive, tech-enhanced, theme-based textbook for the true beginner of Persian language which promotes speaking, listening, reading, writing and cultural skills. Basic Persian promotes communicative, linguistic, and cultural competence. It has a mixture of pedagogical approaches to fit all types of learning and teaching philosophies/styles to achieve intermediate low to mid ACTFL proficiency level within a two-sequence semester.
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Intermediate Persian
Nahid Shiran · Michigan State University · 2026
This resource is an online, interactive theme-based textbook for intermediate students in the Persian language that promotes communicative, linguistic, and cultural competence. It has a mixture of pedagogical approaches to fit all types of learning and teaching philosophies and styles to achieve the Intermediate High ACTFL proficiency level within a two sequence semester.
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Intermediate Arabic I
Ayman Mohamed; Sadam Issa · Michigan State University · 2026
This is an open textbook on Intermediate Arabic for undergraduate students who are taking Arabic in their third semester. It addresses language structures in theme-based modules that cover the four language skills. The book can be used as a self-study resource or as the main textbook in intermediate Arabic classes.
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Basic Tibetan
Jampa Khedup; Sonam Tsering; Rajiv Ranjan; Erlin Barnard · Michigan State University · 2026
Basic Tibetan is a first-of-its-kind, multimedia interactive online textbook designed for learners of Tibetan in higher education. Learners are encouraged to listen, repeat, and internalize the sounds of Tibetan through audio recordings. To support vocabulary and sentence structure acquisition, the book offers a wide range of interactive exercises, making learning both effective and enjoyable.
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Basic Telugu
Asfar Mohammad; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
This book is a modest effort to make your learning process in Telugu a practically viable experience. Though it’s great fun to learn Telugu, learning script might take a while as it contains secondary symbols and double consonants. We tried our best to make this process a simpler one. As we follow the standard Telugu patterns in planning this book, the learners who get an opportunity to visit Andhra should be aware of various dialects, slangs and colloquial practices. You should be able to transfer your knowledge of the standard Telugu to the real–life contexts accordingly.
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Basic Punjabi
Rinku Kathuria; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
Basic Punjabi is an online interactive theme-based textbook for the true beginner of the Punjabi language. It promotes communicative, linguistic, and cultural competence. It has a mixture of pedagogical approaches to fit all types of learning and teaching philosophies/styles to achieve intermediate low to mid-ACTFL proficiency levels within a semester.
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Basic Bangla
Prasenjit Dey; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
This theme based, interactive, open-source online textbook is designed for beginning level learners of Bangla language. By using this book, a learner will learn Bangla vowel and consonant sounds and letters, basic grammar of the language, important vocabulary, useful expressions, and—most importantly—communicative skill.
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Advanced Indonesian
Agustini; Juliana Wijaya; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
In response to the lack of advanced Indonesian instructional materials, our lessons aim to elevate learners’ language skills to an advanced-mid to advanced-high level, aligning with ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The lessons in this textbook address the dearth of advanced Indonesian language resources by delving into current topics and events related to gender, lifestyle, human rights, environment, economy, and language preservation. We utilize authentic materials sourced from online newspapers, editorials, blogs, vlogs, journals, and YouTube, ensuring that learners engage with real-world language contexts.
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Virgil, Aeneid 4, with Study Questions, Vocabulary, and Commentary
Ingo Gildenhard · Open Book Publishers · 2026
In Dido’s encounter with Aeneas, the Aeneid explores abiding themes of love and loyalty, fate and fortune, the justice of the gods, imperial ambitions and its victims, as well as cross-cultural encounters and the geopolitics of colonial settlement. As Aeneas’ most significant other, Dido also assumes a crucial role in Virgil’s epic aetiology of Roman history and the Augustan principate. She owns the dark plot of Aeneid 4, in which divinely engineered erotic obsession culminates in divinely orchestrated sex that leads to personal and political tragedy: the cave encounter in Carthage entails a world-historical curse that operates in counterpoint to Jupiter’s triumphal destiny. Poetry that has fascinated readers since antiquity is here presented in an innovative, student-friendly edition, with study questions, vocabulary, commentary and visual material designed to facilitate engagement with Virgil’s text. The companion volume Teaching Dido: Critical Perspectives on Aeneid 4 (OBP 2026), also edited by Ingo Gildenhard, brings together interpretative essays and select works of scholarship to further enhance readers’ appreciation of the psychological depth, literary artistry, and thematic complexity of Virgil’s Dido.
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Introduction to Speech Pathology Practice: Foundational Concepts for Australian First-year Students
Frances Cochrane; Louise Brown; Deborah Denman; Roger Newman · James Cook University · 2025
This eBook is designed for emerging speech pathology professionals. This peer reviewed resource lays a strong foundation for first-year speech pathology students by covering the core principles and concepts for speech pathology practice. The eBook begins with an exploration of the anatomy involved in communication and swallowing, offering insights into how the structures of the human body support these crucial functions. It then delves into the core aspects of communication development, covering the typical progression of speech, language and literacy skills from infancy through adulthood. It offers students a framework for understanding both typical and diversity in development, essential for effective assessment and intervention. Linguistics is another key area covered, offering insights into the structure and function of language, including syntax, pragmatics, semantics, morphology, phonology, and phonetics. This understanding is crucial for diagnosing and treating communication disorders. The eBook advocates for culturally responsive practice, outlining strategies for delivering effective and sensitive care to clients from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, the text addresses the practical application of foundational principles in assessing and treating communication and swallowing disorders.
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An Introduction to Logic: From Everyday Life to Formal Systems
Albert Mosley; Eulalio Baltazar · Smith College Open Educational Resources: Textbooks · 2019
An introduction to the discipline of logic covering subjects from the structures of arguments, classical and modern logic, categorical and inductive inferences, to informal fallacies. Over 30 years of development provides a sound empirical based pedagogy throughout the text. Examples in ordinary language using familiar examples avoids the suggestion of an alien cultural imposition. A focus on the basic representational techniques of classical and modern logic. Students introduced to basic concepts of set theory, using Venn diagrams to represent statements and evaluate arguments. Students introduced to basic concepts of propositional logic and the use of truth-tables. Students introduced to basic concepts of predicate logic and the use of mixed quantifiers. Students introduced to the relationship between logic diagrams, circuit diagrams, and gate diagrams in computer science. Students introduced to the use of logic in ordinary and scientific contexts. Students provided a historical introduction to the development of modern probability theory and its relationship to logic. Students introduced to basic concepts of statistical inference, with non-technical treatments of hasty and biased statistical generalizations. And a unique treatment of stereotypical thinking in terms of statistical syllogisms. Students introduced to basic notions in analogical and causal inference. Exercises requiring both passive (recognition) and active (construction) skills. Exercises including locutions and examples from standard English and ethnic dialects of English (African-American, Hispanic-American, etc) Answers for sample exercises provided, making the text closer to a self-teaching module