Historical incidents, photographs of sheet music, cartoons, and advertisements are employed to study language in this textbook. The text, suggestions, and quoted material in the book are to be used not only for the study of language but also as sources for writing. It is recommended that journal entries, more fresh and spontaneous than formal essays, be the basis of student writing. Topics explored in the book are the nature of language; signs and symbols of communication; communication among humans and nonhumans; how language works; levels of abstraction and classification; abstract and concrete words; stereotyping; denotation, connotation, and the dictionary; euphemism; dialects; the limits of language; persuasion and propaganda; sexism, racism, and language; and imposed and natural order. (JM)