Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Language

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book might be the most used introductory linguistics book in the world. I am very glad to have read its seventh edition. The number of editions might be proof of the quality and popularity of this book. How many textbooks can be in print for such a long time?

The theme of this book is to make linguistics fun, and accessible. The use of cartoons, the quotes from famous authors, paragraphs discussing everyday use of language, and many more, all make the reader enjoy reading and studying linguistics.

But on the other hand, the effort to make it fun will probably turn those serious students away. Anyways they are here for a university level course on the science of linguistics, where they expect to see compelling arguments, and serious discussions, rather than cartoons and funny word games.

Moreover since this book was first written in the 70's, there are still many outdated data in the seventh edition, although it has been updated.

The chapters on the core fields of linguistics, i.e. phonetics/phonology, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics, seem to be a little too thin. While chapters on sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, and writing systems can be interesting, students still need to be solidly grounded in the core fields of linguistics before they can successfully tap into the more interdisciplinary fields.

Overall, this is one of the best introductory linguistics textbooks, although it tends to be not very serious, and in-depth, which could be excused for an intro textbook.

I find it odd that some people didn't like this book, for I thought the action thereof was exceedingly sweet. I guess different strokes for different folks. Anyway I took an Introductory linguistics course that used this textbook, and found myself enjoying the reading assignments. I even read chapters I wasn't assigned to and ended up reading the whole thing. The book was easy to follow, entertaining, and really taught me a lot about linguistics.

Given that it is designed for intro courses in linguistics, this is a good textbook. It's pretty readable for a textbook, too; after slogging through my dry, jargon-laden statistics and education texts, this book was a breath of fresh air.

For those of us wishing to continue learning, this is a very educational book. It is written so that you can consume small chunks, digest them, and come back for more.

Wonderful product, very easy to read book and the content is exactly like the 8th edition. I had to use the 8th edition for a class and bought this one, and it is exactly the same...all that changes is the page numbers. It is also very interesting and has a lot of comic strips and fun information.

As an introduction book this book is perfect; it's written in short chapters(will not make you feel bored) and it has exercises(helps you with understanding) in it. To those who are interested in Linguistics and do not have any prior knowledge this book is The One.

I had to buy this book for school, but I actually enjoyed it. I don't usually read text books, but this was one worth reading. Very interesting facts, and really helps to spark interest about language.