Conclusions

Abstract

If you made it to this point, this is what we have tried to offer you: a view of language like no other book has provided before. It is quite possible that this is one of very few books you have read on the subject; it could even be your first. Chances are that those you have read were written for a general audience. Some of them are very good, but they usually try to push a particular viewpoint of their author. Or you may have followed an introductory linguistics course at the university level. Such courses, and their textbooks, focus on technical aspects of the subject: the details of theories of phonology, syntax, semantics and so on. Knowledge of all of these areas is absolutely necessary for a deep understanding of the subject. But both single-author general books and technical textbooks have the same shortcoming: they do not give the reader a broad and complete account of how language works.