This successful textbook introduces beginning university students of English to the study of English linguistics, with a strong focus on linguistic analysis and argumentation. Students are familiarized with the methodological tools to obtain relevant data (e.g. corpora, dictionaries, experiments). They learn to systematically analyze linguistic data and to relate their findings to theoretical problems in the traditional core areas of linguistics and beyond. Each chapter is accompanied by exercises and suggestions for further reading. The book draws on insights from various research traditions. Now updated and expanded, the second edition features a more detailed discussion of the differences between British and North American English, and explains the differences in the two traditions of phonetic transcription.