Contemporary Linguistics can be used from first year through to final year as a main text for students taking degree courses in linguistics, English language and cognitive science and by MA students on TEFL courses. It is also highly suitable for students taking language options in media and cultural studies, modern language, psychology and philosophy, as well as for speech therapy courses.

Contemporary Linguistics : An introduction is a comprehensive, fully up-to-date introduction to linguistics. The book covers not only how language is structured, but also how it functions both socially and culturally, and how it is acquired and processed by speakers. It will prepare students to go on to more advanced work and, at the same time, will serve as a basic reference that students can continue to consult throughout their studies.

The text explores all the core areas of linguistics as well as numerous interdisciplinary and related areas.

Core topics covered include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, the genetic and typological classification of the languages of the world, and historical linguistics.
Interdisciplinary areas discussed include language and the brain, psycholinguistics - the study of language processing, first and second language acquisition, language in social contexts and the fast-growing area of computational linguistics.
Related areas explored include writing systems and animal communication.