Linguistics: An Introduction

by Andrew Radford, David Britain, Martin Atkinson

This textbook is a self-contained introduction to linguistics for beginning students. It offers a unified approach to language from several perspectives. A language is a complex structure represented in the minds of its speakers, and this book introduces the tools necessary for understanding this structure. In addition, it focuses on how small children acquire their native language; the psychological processes which are involved in mature speakers producing and understanding language; linguistic difficulties that arise as a consequence of brain damage or genetic disorders; and additional issues that arise when we consider individual speakers as part of a social community.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Reference

454 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 1999

Reviews

[Tamisha]

Theory: The poor rating is likely due to undergrads having this textbook forced upon them as compulsory reading.

[Anna]

A highly technical deep dive into the world of linguistics and introduction to the different facets of phonology, morphology, syntax, and speech disorders. Definitely will be rereading this at some point. The only draw is that the book does not teach IPA or first order logic very well.

[Remus Rimbu]

A good introduction to the field of modern linguistics, using an approach inspired by Noam Chomsky

[Lilli Feldeborn]

the semester is finished (at least i don't have lectures anymore), and i have given up reading this during the sentences part

[Zakaria Bziker]

I had to read this book in order to enlarge my Linguistics' knowledge seeing that I am a Linguistics' major student. This book did in fact help me to have an overview picture about the science of language.

[Nat]

This is a nice, economical intro to a wide range of linguistic issues from sound to meaning.