Customer Reviews

Introducción a la lingüística española

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4 star:		(1)
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I purchased this book to be used in a Spanish linguistics class. Intially, I liked the book because it was easy to read and understand, but I later discovered the second edition had several errors. With the edition of examples, charts and exercises came several evident problems. Overall, the book fulfills its purposes, but it has errors that can cause confusion among students. The errors appear throughout several chapters and need to be carefully noted to avoid confusion. There is an instance where terminology is switched as well as several incorrect examples of phonemes. The exercises lack clarity and need models or further explanation. Several of them made no sense to my class and my instructor. Overall, the book has a good purpose, but its errors need to be addressed.

I am sorry, this book has so many errors! The history of the language was interesting, and it does teach a lot of different points...however, there are typographical erros on about every 2nd or 3rd page! It seems like it wasn't proofread before it went to print.
Furthermore, you cannot say "del el" together, it is redundant...many errors like this were committed, and students will be learning the wrong way.
Also, some words are used that do not exist, it is just a slang or lazy pronunciation, but it shouldn't be written that way.
Finally, I am not sure if the section on vulgarities was really necessary or appropriate for a classroom...

Milton M. Azevedo's book, 'INTRODUCCIÓN a la LINGÜÍSTICA ESPAÑOLA', has proven to be an essential text for the serious, and even curious, student of Spanish linguistics. Professor Azevedo thoroughly examines the basic principles of phonetics and phonology, to fundamentals of syntax and semantics, to comparing old-school Spanish with good ol' U.S. "Spanglish".

He uses a myriad of examples to effectively illustrate his numerous points. One of the most useful tools in this book is the 'Práctica' section at the end of each chapter, preceded by a concise summary. I feel that this leaves the reader clear and refreshed about what they just read. Furthermore, I also enjoyed how every chapter began with a quote from a literary text to focus the reader on what it will uncover. The author even dares to include an interesting quote from Genesis for chapter 7--"El cambio lingüístico"--albeit very pertinent to the detailed information that follows.

As a former student of Professor Azevedo at UC Berkeley, I can only highlight his need to share his remarkable knowledge and equally outstanding research on the subject of Hispanic Linguistics. Therefore, I think that this combination, coupled with the fact that 'INTRODUCCIÓN a la LINGÜÍSTICA ESPAÑOLA' IS written in Spanish, only reflects Azevedo's strive for excellence. Believe me, it makes one appreciate it more this way. "Attaboy, professor!"

I find this book a particularly good book for somebody interested in coping with the Spanish language from the Natural Language Processing perspective. The book has a tranformational grammar approach to syntax but it can be easily extended to other more up-to-date formalisms. It is much useful that "usual" normative grammars. However, the fact that it is written in Spanish limits is possibility of wide-spreading somehow. In any case the book is well-written and full of content.

I bought this book to help me study for a CSET Spanish test on linguistics. If I were a fluent Spanish speaker, this book might have been worth the trouble to study -- but I'm not so it was a mistake to buy it. Not a good CSET Spanish test prep book.

Just what I needed for my Spanish class and much cheaper than the college bookstore. Speedy delivery too.