This revised and updated edition incorporates many changes that reflect developments in language study over the past decade, including a new chapter on pragmatics, and an expansion of the chapter on semantics. There are additional sections on speech recognition systems, sign languages, women's and men's language, input in language learning, and several other topics. The Study Questions and Discussion Topics following each chapter have also been thoroughly revised, with the addition of more than 30 new tasks for students; and the Further Reading sections have been revised, updated and expanded. The new edition also has many more illustrations, examples, and quotes from a wide range of commentators, from Groucho Marx to Gary Larson. The presentation retains the clear and lively style which made the first edition a hugely popular introduction to the study of language.