Chapter 5 examines syntax, how sentences and phrases are built. It explores the relation between structure and meaning, showing how structure allows us to clarify ambiguity. Readers see how sentences are made up of phrases that in turn are made up of different words. These words belong to specific categories, with the category of the phrase determined by its head. The chapter explains the distinction between lexical and functional categories and presents the two basic processes for building sentences: Merge and move. Readers explore and practice the representation of sentence structure with tree diagrams. They are presented with a template for the representation of structure and shown how to use trees to indicate the difference between complements and adjuncts, and how the tree must represent not only word order but also how different phrases relate to each other. Tense is presented as the head of the sentence, with the verb phrase as its complement. In a parallel fashion, the determiner is presented as the head of the determiner phrase, with the noun phrase as its complement. Different structures such as questions, passives, and relative clauses are introduced and practiced. An appendix details step-by-step how to build syntactic trees.

Government exists to solve problems. To do this it must take decisions. In one sense, the whole process of government is little else than a ceaseless process of decision-making: how to respond to the latest international crisis; whether to increase taxes or cut services; how to reduce pollution and protect the environment; how to handle an economic crisis; what to do about traffic congestion. Politics never sleeps, and governments can never pause for rest. They are assailed from all sides by endless cycles of demands and events, and they must constantly make decisions about options, priorities, policies and courses of action.

Chapter 14 explores how language is processed. In sound processing, we use auditory information in the speech signal to extract and process linguistic input. Motor theory states that we also use our knowledge of sound articulation and reading lips to comprehend speech. Two important models that explain sound processing and lexical access are the TRACE model and cohort model. The chapter examines the mental lexicon and lexical access during word processing and identifies factors that may affect the recognition of words such as frequency, ambiguity, when it was last accessed, and its sound environment. The chapter also studies sentence processing, that is, assigning structure to a sentence or phrase. Readers are introduced to different data collection techniques including naturalistic methods such as analyzing speech errors. Other experimental methods examined include self-paced reading tasks and eye tracking. The chapter illustrates how these recent methodologies contribute to our understanding of issues such as the role of working memory and long-term memory in language processing; serial and parallel processing; single- and dual-route processing; and connectionist approaches.

Chapter 12 focuses on the development of language among infants and children. It follows the infant’s productions from first cries to the development of the complete phonology of native language(s). The chapter examines the acquisition of words and their meaning and shows how, across languages, certain content words are acquired before others. Children’s morphological development is amply illustrated. Overgeneralizations are shown to be part of the acquisition of a rule-based morphology, as shown in the classic “wug test.” Syntactic development is considered in depth, from the one word and two-word stages to the production of adult-like negatives and interrogatives. Differences between languages, particularly in the area of functional categories such as inflection, are shown to affect variations in the rate of acquisition. The reader is guided through the development of conversational and pragmatic skills. The chapter explores the role of different factors in acquisition, both internal, such as innate principles and general cognition, and external, such as input and experience. The chapter ends with a presentation of atypical language development and bilingualism.

Some states provide a very large number and wide range of public services; others do not. Yet even in minimal states a full list of public functions would be long and their administration too complex to be described briefly. The politics of taxing and spending are also highly controversial and the source of fierce political debate. Consequently, we cannot cover all aspects of government activity in one chapter, so this one focuses on social protection to illustrate the ways in which democratic states are similar and different in the services they provide, how much they tax and spend and how they use different means to achieve their goals.

What is the proper role of the news media in a democracy and do they perform their function adequately? In theory, they should provide a comprehensive, reliable and unbiased account of the news, but in practice many believe that they are as much a threat to democracy as guardians of it. They have never acted simply as channels of communication that simply report the news because they have always been political actors in their own right, often with political agendas to promote. This raises questions about the power they exercise without a corresponding responsibility to maintain high professional standards of accuracy, truth and impartiality. Consequently, it is necessary to understand how much political influence they wield and whether they are biased in their treatment of the news. In recent years, the digital media have added concerns about fake news, the political content of social websites, the use of digital media for state surveillance of its citizens and the use of private information for commercial and political purposes.