An Introduction to Linguistics Through Popular Music

This textbook introduces the field of linguistics, demonstrating syntactic categories, morphological structures, phonological/metric structures, syllable structures, and varieties of English in an accessible way by using portions of song lyrics from popular music.

The varieties of English covered include Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American, as well as some features of Australian English, southern US varieties, and Scottish English. Drawing on shared characteristics between language and music, including metrical structure, the author suggests a different approach to linguistic analysis and the description of spoken language.

The book introduces both students and instructors to a novel and engaging method of description, and provides a fresh vocabulary with which to start thinking about language. It demonstrates complex topics by using music as a fun and familiar starting point, and will be an ideal resource for introductory linguistics courses worldwide.

Patrice Larroque is Professor of Linguistics at the Université Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France. His main interests are in the domain of linguistic variation. He is the author of English Rhythm and Blues: When Language and Music Come Together (2021), first published in French as English Rhythm and Blues: Les liens étroits entre le blues et l’anglais (2015).