Job Discussion Forums

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

Can anyone recommend a book that introduces linguistics? I have applied for some further study and during the interview process I was told to read up on linguistics and should get an introduction to linguistics book. I have no background in linguistics at all and realize that I need to do some homework. I've already found a few books but thought some people here may have some suggestions.

steki47 · Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka

robertokun · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 199

I'm interested in this, too. More general linguistics than applied, and more of an easy to digest reference than a dry textbook. A nice quick and easy grammar reference would be nice, too, if anyone knows one.

natsume · Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 409 Location: Chongqing, China

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Language-Victoria-Fromkin/dp/1428263926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274209588&sr=8-1

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

Was told by the member of the English faculty during the interview "An Introduction to Linguistics", so I assume there was no applied (she did mention phonology and asked how much I knew about it). I know I should have asked for more details but it was a drilling process and I was a little like a deer caught in the headlights of a car being asked stuff that I knew very little about. I honestly don't know if she meant applied linguistics or just linguistics, but thanks for the feedback.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 7:07 am Post subject:

From Input to Output,

by Bill Van Patten

Best,
Justin

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

creztor and robertokun,

Trinley · Joined: 29 Apr 2010 Posts: 144

Hi there,

I got my degree in Linguistics a couple years ago and I'd highly recommend this book, which was written by my professors. Their style is very easy to read, not overly technical. An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science by Daniela Isac and Charles Reiss

This website allows you to read a lot of it for free.

http://books.google.fr/books?id=XRyfPjSbfSUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=linguistics+charles+reiss&source=bl&ots=0KF2vCKvoR&sig=EPiaX6Z3AA0rRu5nMEmjDyVYNkc&hl=fr&ei=it7zS4b1DpOk-Aabm_ydDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

michgreen · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 27

I've taught with Contemporary Linguistics by William O'Grady etal. ts a decent introductory book.

In most English faculty, I think when they say linguistics, they are covering the whole field not just grammar or phonology, but historical, classification of languages, FLA, SLA, DA, sociolinguistics...

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 6:19 pm Post subject:

I was thinking the same thing as GBBB (in fact, we both posted a while back on a thread asking about MA program specifics, and in relation to much the same issues); it would be a great shame if a prospective teacher/AL professional (which is what I'm assuming the course of study that Creztor is considering will still make him or her) were made to wade through too many theoretical (i.e. Chomskyan) formalisms, and little or no mention made of other (and possibly more appropriate) approaches. A far better (though "less cohesive") introduction therefore IMHO would be something like the Blackwell Handbook of Linguistics (eds Aronoff & Rees-Miller), which is previewable on Google Books; then, there has been a range of books from Sampson over the years (which chart his development beyond or at least away from the formalist mainstream) such as Schools of Linguistics (1980), Educating Eve/The Language Instinct Debate (1997/2005), Empirical Linguistics (2002), and Corpus Linguistics (2005) (again, all previewable on Google Books), but some of these may be more a reflection of my personal tastes than what is actually popular/in vogue. Lastly, historical surveys like Matthews' A Short History of Structural Linguistics might be of interest (and I certainly have his Syntactic Relations: A Critical Survey on my "must-read" [must-somehow-actually-finish!] pile).

All that being said, I quite like the look of the book that Trinley recommended, and would like to welcome him or her to the forums! Smile

Robertokun, for grammary reference (in the wider context of general linguistics rather than just ELT) I'd try any or all of the following dictionaries (in roughly increasing order of complexity if not price):
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=q83UxclhL_cC&lpg=PP1&dq=trask%20concepts&pg=PR13#v=onepage&q&f=false
Trask's The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar.
Chalker & Weiner's The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar. (This is probably the best overall buy of the four for an English teacher).
Crystal's A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics.

Chancellor

fluffyhamster · Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 7:15 pm Post subject:

Hi Chancellor. Hmm, I wasn't under the impression that Trask was one to exactly 'deify' Chomsky - Trask seems to me to be an agnostic (though a very well-informed one!) rather than particularly pro- (or indeed anti-) Chomsky.

See for example the entries on 'government-and-binding theory' and 'genetic hypothesis of language' etc in Trask's Language and Linguistics: the Key Concepts (see link in my previous post), and the following review by Trask of Baker's The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar: http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/trask.html

Trinley (though it may have been Steki's or Natsume's link that did it!), if you don't mind, can I make a suggestion: that you (all) edit out the looong link(s) (cos this thread will otherwise remain difficult to read) from your post(s) and simply direct people to search generally for the author(s) and/or title(s) (people should be able to copy and paste those details without too much difficulty!) on Google Books or Amazon or wherever? Cool