Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Part I. Preliminaries -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Chapter 2 Background -- Chapter 3 Variation and Change in Nihongo -- Part II. Sounds and Scripts -- Chapter 4 The Nihongo Sound System -- Chapter 5 Scripts -- Part III. Words -- Chapter 6 Kinds of Words -- Chapter 7 Words in Grammar -- Part IV Grammar -- Chapter 8 Simple Sentences-Essential -- Chapter 9 Simple Sentences-Enhanced -- Chapter 10 Complex Sentences -- Chapter 11 Emotive Expressions -- Part V. Use -- Chapter 12 Interaction Strategies -- Chapter 13 Conversation Management -- Chapter 14 Gestures and Signals -- Chapter 15 Rhetorical Figures of Speech -- Chapter 16 Discourse Organization -- Part VI. Genres -- Chapter 17 Genre Appreciation -- Chapter 18 Selected Popular Culture Genres -- Part VII. Learning Nihongo -- Chapter 19 Methods -- Chapter 20 Tools and Resources -- Appendixes -- List of Author's Works -- Subject Index (English) -- Subject Index and Key Phrases (Japanese) -- About the Author