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Title: Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction by William O'Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller, St Martins Press ISBN: 0-312-24738-9 Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's Pub. Date: January, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $68.90 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An Excellent Introduction
Comment: I am not a Linguist, but this book helped me to appreciate all of the differing theories and various fields within what is known as linguistics. If you are seeking a book that is simple to read, yet very comprehensive, I recommend this volume. If you enjoy languages, speech development, regional dialects, language acquisition, theory of language, language trends, and more - this book is for you.
Major disciplines coverd include: phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also included in this new addition are new chapters on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.
One of the best features of this text is how well it is laid out. It is a pleasure to peruse and even study because of it's logical and user friendly format.
If you love anything about language- whether knowing it's origins, or what part of the mouth is used to create certain sounds, or how language changes over time and for what reasons, or a host of other curiosities, you will certainly enjoy the wealth of information within Contemporary Linguistics!
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent introduction to linguistics
Comment: "Contemporary Linguistics" (CL) is a wonderfully clear and accessible introduction to the field of linguistics. The authors begin by introducing the methodological assumptions that underlie present day Chomskyan linguistics and then reserve a chapter each for almost all major research directions within linguistics.
One thing in particular that I liked about the format of CL was the treatment of more advanced material (marked "Advanced") in each chapter. The "Advanced" sections augment the material in the rest of the chapter and are placed in logical sequence with the rest of the material instead of appearing in an appendix at the end of the chapter. For example, a section marked "advanced" on X' (read X-bar) Theory appears fairly early in the syntax chapter. Having some knowledge of X' Theory allows the reader to proceed to examine the rest of the material with the knowledge that there exists an intermediate level of structure between lexical categories (N, V, ...) and phrasal categories (NP, VP, ...).
Most chapters in CL are pretty well written and technical tools to treat linguistic phenomena are almost always introduced at the correct juncture. However, CL does not treat Innateness properly (why Innateness and arguments for and against Innateness), and has a weak chapter on semantics. The reader would do well to augment the material in CL by reading Pinker's "The Language Instinct" or Jackendoff's "Patterns in the Mind" for a non-technical introduction to some ideas in linguistics, as well as sections of De Swart's "Intro to Natural Language Semantics" to get an idea of how semantics is done. If the reader is interested in looking at language from a cognitive science perspective, she would also do well to read most of Gleitman et al's "An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Language".
All in all, CL provides a relatively painless initiation into linguistics and I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly recommended. Very accessible.
Comment: Speaking as a newcomer to the subject, I found this book to be an excellent intro. Very useful.
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Title: The Language Instinct : How the Mind Creates Language by Steven Pinker ISBN: 0060958332 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication by Adrian Akmajian, Richard A. Demers, Ann K. Farmer, Robert M. Harnish ISBN: 0262511231 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Teaching American English Pronunciation (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers) by Peter W. Avery, Susan Ehrlich ISBN: 0194328155 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: June, 1992 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina M. Hyams ISBN: 015508481X Publisher: Heinle Pub. Date: 02 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $65.95 |
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Title: Teaching Language In Context by Alice Omaggio Hadley, Robert Terry ISBN: 0838417051 Publisher: Heinle Pub. Date: 18 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $68.95 |
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