Language and Symbolic Systems

Thisisanintroductiontothestudyoflanguageforthenon-specialistorbeginnerinlinguistics.ProfessorChaocoversthewholefieldoflanguageandofmoderndevelopmentsinlinguistics,withparticularemphasisonthoseaspectswhicharelikelytobemostinterestingtothelayman.ProfessorChaoemphasisestherelationshipbetweenlanguageandotheraspectsofhumancultureanddiscussessystemsofwriting,minoritylanguagesandproblemsoftranslationinthiscontext.Animportantpartofthebookreviewssymbolicsystemsinlanguage,writingandmoderncommunicationtechnology,withapplicationssuchasautomaticspeech,machinetranslationandrelatedtopics.ProfessorChaolaidthefoundationsofmodernlinguisticsinChinaandhasbeenassociatedwithanumberofimportantlinguisticprojectsbothinChinaandintheUSAwherehehastaughtformanyyears.Inthisbookheapproacheshissubjectwithclarity,warmthandhumour.