literate ones and “elaborated” codes, my reading of his work is not an
unusual one.
20 In a persuasive essay on the advantages of multiculturalism, Charles
Taylor (1994) discusses examples of the kind of reasoning which ranks
literate cultures as inherently more valuable than oral ones.
21 Earlier it was established that all living languages change; it can also
be stated unequivocally that all change is preceded by variation.
However, it cannot be claimed that all variation is followed by change.
Suggested further reading
Asking a linguist how many languages they speak is like asking a
doctor how many diseases they have.
(Lynnequist, http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/)For those with little or no background in linguistics who would like to
learn more, the following books and articles provide an introduction to a
sampling of relevant topics. Note that some are more general and others
more specific; some are more conversational in tone, and others more
technical. Please also consult the Shortened bibliography on p. 337.
Morphology
Aronoff, M. and Fudeman, K.A. (2010) What Is Morphology? Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Phonetics and phonology
Ashby, P. (2005) Speech Sounds. New York: Routledge.
Odden, D.A. (2005) Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Syntax, grammar
Crystal, D. (2003a) Grammatical Mythology. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2003b) The Structure of Sentences. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Veit, R. (1999) Discovering English Grammar. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
General introductions