This popular introductory linguistics text is unique in the way various themes are intergrated throughout the book. One primary theme is the question,"How is a speaker's communicative intent recognized?" Rather than treat phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics as completely separate fields, the text shows how they interact in principled ways. Similarily, language variation and acquisition are informed by results in these fields. The text provides a sound introduction to linguistic methodology while also revealing why people are intrinsically interested in language-the ultimate puzzle of the human mind.