The Study of Language (3 rd ed.) by George Yule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, x+273 pp. Reviewed by Innhwa Park University of California, Los Angeles The third edition of the highly influential and widely used introductory text on linguistics, The Study of Language, offers a comprehensive understanding of how language works. With an updated overview of studies of language, it presents a wide variety of issues that involve both the form and function of language. The scope of topics includes linguistic aspects of language such as its phonological, morphological, and syntactic structures, as well as pragmatic and conversational practices. Furthermore, Yule addresses emerging issues in the field with respect to language acquisition, language change, and language variation. The text contains twenty chapters. Chapters 1 through 3 introduce basic concepts to understand human language with discussions on its origin and develop- ment. Chapters 3 and 4 present the sound system of language, in which a concise overview of phonetics and phonology is provided. Based on the discussion of word- formation processes provided by chapter 6, the author addresses the morphological structure of language in chapter 7. In this chapter, the author draws examples from languages other than English in order to promote understanding of morphological rules. Chapters 8 and 9 focus on grammar and syntax. The author first discusses familiar concepts such as parts of speech and agreement before introducing symbols and rules used for syntactic description of language (e.g. transformational rules). Chapters 10 and 11 survey semantics and pragmatics respectively. The dis- cussion develops from conceptual meanings of words and sentences to contextual understandings of the speakers’ communicative intentions. Chapter 12 introduces discourse analysis and shows how language is used in both written and spoken discourse. In the following chapter, the author discusses the relationship between language and the brain. He explicates how slips of the tongue/ear and aphasia oc- cur with reference to different parts of the brain. The concept of critical period is also introduced in relation to the lateralization of the brain. Chapters 14 and 15 present developmental stages and issues in first and second language acquisition (SLA). With respect to SLA, the author introduces different instructional methods including the grammar-translation, audiolingual, and communicative approaches. In chapter 16, the author surveys types of gestures and sign languages; focusing on the American Sign Language, he discusses the structure and meaning of signs. Chapter 17 is on language history and diachronic variation. Upon a brief overview of Old and Middle English, the author explicates the process of language change in terms of its sound, structure, and meaning. Finally, the last three chapters Issues in Applied Linguistics © 2008, Regents of the University of California ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 16 No. 2, 191-192