The authors begin this introductory text by posing four major questions for the study of language: what is the nature of language, how do we acquire it, how do we use it in speech production and comprehension, and how is it represented in the brain? These questions also define the orientation of the book, which aims to introduce the reader to the study of linguistics through four interrelated subfields: linguistics proper, developmental linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. Conspicuously absent from the list, of course, is a fifth fundamental question about language: what is the relationship between language use and social structure? Sociolinguistics is only briefly defined and introduced, and discussion of sociolinguistics throughout the text is limited to the relationship between social structure and language variation and change.