An Introduction to Language

by Victoria A. Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams

An Introduction to Language is ideal for use at all levels and in many different areas of instruction including education, languages, psychology, anthropology, teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), and linguistics. All chapters in this best-seller have been substantially revised to reflect recent discoveries and new understanding of linguistics and languages.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Textbooks, Reference, Academic, Education

620 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Sali-steady-read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the books which made me realize I long to learn more about languages and how to teach them, English in particular, effectively! It motivated me to choose English teaching in my postgraduate studies.

[Exina · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Every chapter ends with a summary, references for further reading and exercises – all are very useful. An Introduction to Language is a practical, interesting and entertaining read of linguistics, with clear structure and elaborate content.

Some quotes:

In 1762 Bishop Robert Lowth wrote A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes. Lowth prescribed a number of new rules for English, many of them influenced by his personal taste. Before the publication of his grammar, practically everyone—upper-class, middle-class, and lower-class—said I don’t have none. and You was wrong about that. Lowth, however, decided that “two negatives make a positive” and therefore one should say I don’t have any; and that even when you is singular it should be followed by the plural were. Many of these prescriptive rules were based on Latin grammar and made little sense for English. Because Lowth was influential and because the rising new class wanted to speak “properly,” many of these new rules were legislated into English grammar, at least for the prestige dialect — that variety of the language spoken by people in positions of power.

Birds cannot tell us their story, however beautifully they sing. Human language is different of course. Our words and sentences are not simply responses to internal and external stimuli. If you’re tired you may yawn, but you may also say “I’m tired,” or “I’m going to bed,” or “I’m going to Starbucks for a double espresso.” Notably, you also have the right to remain silent, or talk about things completely unrelated to your physical state—the weather, the movie you saw last night, your plans for the weekend, or most interesting of all, your linguistics class. The linguists call this property of human language displacement: the capacity to talk (or sign) messages that are unrelated to here and now.

Language itself is not sexist or racist, but people can be, and because of this particular words take on negative meanings. In his book The Language Instinct, the psychologist Steven Pinker uses the expression euphemism treadmill to describe how the euphemistic terms that are created to replace negative words often take on the negative associations of the words they were coined to replace. For example, handicapped was once a euphemism for the offensive term crippled, and when handicapped became politically incorrect it was replaced by the euphemism disabled. And as we write, disabled is falling into disrepute and is often replaced by yet another euphemism, challenged. Nonetheless, in all such cases, changing language has not resulted in a new worldview for the speakers.

Some word creation comes from deliberately miscast back-formations. The word bikini comes from the Bikini atoll of the Marshall Islands. Because the first syllable bi- is a morpheme meaning ‘two’ in words like bicycle, some clever person called a topless bathing suit a monokini and a tank top with a bikini bottom a tankini. Historically, a number of new words have entered the English lexicon in a similar way, some of the most recent being the appletini, chocotini, mintini and God-knows-what-else-tini to be found as flavor additives to the traditional martini libation.

In 1888 members of the International Phonetic Association developed a phonetic alphabet to symbolize the sounds of all languages. They utilized both ordinary letters and invented symbols. Each character of the alphabet had exactly one value across all of the world’s languages. Someone who knew this alphabet would know how to pronounce a word written in it, and upon hearing a word pronounced, would know how to write it using the alphabetic symbols. The inventors of this International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA, knew that a phonetic alphabet should include just enough symbols to represent the fundamental sounds of all languages.

[Hiba⁷ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect read for an introduction into linguistics, it has everything and so much more. I'll need to re-read it some other time because I skimmed through some parts real quick and didn't read properly through them.

This is an all-timer, good for everyone who wants to major in linguistics or even those who just want more insight on the discipline.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my holy interesting!!! Everything you ever wanted to know about language, and much, much more! Keep in mind that this is a text book, so it's going to be dry. But for a text book, it wasn't so bad. If this is an area of interest to you, why not try looking up Steven Pinker's book "The Language Instinct" which paralled "An Introduction to Language" almost perfectly, yet was much more enjoyable. Another book to check out is "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher. By far the most interesting book I've read on this subject, yet not comprehensive like the other two.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to buy this book for a linguistics course that I had to take way back when I started studying English at the University. The linguistics course was extremely dull and one of the many reasons I decided to switch to another branch of study. I never even started reading An Introduction to Language and it was stuck in a pile of educational books that I wanted to give to charity. Since I am always having a hard time getting rid of books, I flicked through it one last time and thought „Hmm, actually this sounds interesting“.
Lucky for me that I did that, because I almost gave away a total gem of a book! Yes, some chapters are more than challenging and I have to admit that I am happy that I don’t really have to study it, but was able to read and enjoy it without the pressure of memorizing every information that went into this book. Especially the chapters about Phonology and Phonemics and the ones about the structure of language are not an easy read. Still, I thought they were extremely interesting. Some chapters, especially the ones referring to computer electronics are way outdated now, but I guess that would be different with more recent editions.
I loved that the authors did their best to bring a little humor into (sometimes) very dry topics, this definitely helped to make the matter more relatable.

[Reza Qalandari · Rating 4 out of 5]

زیاده‌گویی زیاد داشت ولی برای شروع زبان‌شناسی کتاب خوبی بود. هرچند کتاب یول رو ترجیح می‌دم.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook, I'm glad to say this was not terribly dry. However, I feel that the book presents a limited view of current topics of interest. For example, various contemporary linguists qualify or refute Chomsky's innateness hypothesis, yet this text presents the innateness hypothesis and Universal Grammar as virtually uncontested. I understand that Chomsky's views are widely accepted by linguists, I just would prefer it if the text at least mentioned other viewpoints. Especially since there have been so many in the last decade.

Admittedly, there is a new edition of this book. Hopefully the new edition addresses this issue.

[Arezu Wishka · Rating 3 out of 5]

واقعا کتاب سختی برای امتحان دادن بود. فعلا هشت فصلش رو خوندیم و گذاشتیم کنار تا بعد. متن روونی داره اما سخت کردنش واقعا واقعا واقعا سخته!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for the class The English Language, which was maybe the most generally interesting class I have ever taken. This book is absolutely fascinating and very easy to read, especially considering that at times it's dealing with complicated ideas. It covers everything from the basics of what makes up words and sounds to how children develop language to dialects and hispanic and black english. It really will change the way you think about words and speaking.

[حياة الياقوت · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite college textbooks.
I lost my copy and had to buy another one, can't stand the fact that it does not exist in bookcase.

[Shadi Saleh]

This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in languages in general and linguistics in special.

[Lidiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have linguistics manual for anyone working with teaching or research!

[Marijana MF · Rating 5 out of 5]

Čitajući nesvojevoljno Fromkinu knjigu, vrlo sam lako uronila u tekst koji je svakim poglavljem postajao sve bolji. Stil autorice je pristupačan, neke od težih lingvističkih pitanja objašnjava na razumljiv i neopterećen način (u smislu mogućih nacionalnopolitičkih zavrzlama). Ne forsira u krajnosti strogi znanstveni diskurs, ali donosi obilje primjera kojima se i širem čitateljstvu nastoji prikazati i ukazati na sve razine jezika. Međutim u nazivu knjige možda bi se trebao dodati atribut "engleskog" jer se doista općenite jezične postavke donose prije svega iz perspektive gramatičkih zakona u engleskom jeziku (ponegdje vrlo rijetko i drugih jezika). Ipak je to možda moja kroatistička deformacija jer se engleski jezik smatra univerzalnim jezikom znanstvenog diskursa pa stoga ne čudi naslov. U svakom slučaju sveobuhvatna knjiga, donosi neke osnovne alate za sve koje zanima jezik te se iz nekog razloga bave ili se žele baviti jezikom. U knjizi se donose i meni posebno zanimljiva poglavlja: Language Change: The Syllables of Time, Language Processing and the Human Brain, Computer Processing of Human Language. Ipak je jezik fascinantan fenomen, nikad do kraja shvatljiv i samoj medicinskoj struci. Činjenica je da jezik nije evolucijski nastao kao fizička potreba (u tom smislu on je popratna pojava razvoja ostalih organa) te se ne može točno locirati u mozgu (kao npr. centar za vid i sl.) već je njegova aktivnost raspršena i umrežena u istom. Činjenica je i da formalni, logički jezika računala (baziran na Chomskyjevom modelu generativne gramatike) nije u potpunosti pokazao kao adekvatna zamjena ljudskoj jezičnoj sposobnosti u produkciji značenja. Istraživanje jezika doista je često intrigantnije od čitanja kakve znanstvenofantastične knjige.

[محمد حسين ضاحي · Rating 4 out of 5]

استغرق مني وقتا طويلاً، لكنها كانت قراءة ماتعة، بجوار قراءات أخرى، أرجو من الله ألا تنقطع، وأن تكون الأشياء التي أثارتني وجذبت انتباهي مدعاة إيجاد موضوع للدراسات العليا، ولمزيد قراءات من خلال الترشيحات التي قدمها الكتاب، وقد بدأت قراءته في ۲۰۱۳م متحمسا بإنهاء دبلومة تمهيدي الماجستير راجياً من الله ببدئي في قراءة منهجية أن أصل لموضوع ماجستير وأن أحيط علماً بموضوعات شائقة قيمة قصرت مناهج الدراسة في مرحلة الكلية الجامعية عن أن تستوعب أغلبها.
كما أرجو أن يتاح لي يوما ما تقديم مراجعة قيمة لمثل هذا الكتاب الشهير، أستفيد منها وأفيد بها، وتكون مراجعة بالعربية.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually find introductory texts to be either lacking in content or boring and this one was neither. This book was a pleasure to read.

[Ehsan Gazooki]

http://gazooki.blogfa.com

[Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next time someone asks what language I speak, I'm going to tell them I speak a regional dialect of Proto-Indo-European.

[Nauplius · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introductory textbook which really encompasses a lot of different aspects. There are exercises after each chapter, lot's of examples and jokes to keep things light and a clear structure to everything so you can pick and choose different parts to read.

Random thoughts only tangentially related to the book:
While reading the book I started to think kind of mechanically about jokes - I would read something and say to myself "oh, neat...this exploits that ambiguity..." etc. coincidentally during this time I made the aquaintance of someone who works as a writer, who said he learned to write jokes this way: First learning a ton about language and then memorising very simple algorithms for how to subvert expectations. Which I found fascinating, since as it is made clear in the book I'm reviewing, most of these things are normally learned intuitively. So, yeah, really impressive that someone did this "by hand".

[Soroosh Akef · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a thorough book in introductory linguistics, you need look no further than this book. The 13th edition of 600-page "Introduction to Language" covers topics as recent as computational linguistics and forensic linguistics.

However, if you're studying for an exam, and you're pressed for time, you may not appreciate the verbosely explained examples, which provide a language aficionado with plenty of content for showing off their linguistics knowledge through fun facts at social events (which I'll totally be doing). 😂

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me, it was a very good introduction to language, indeed.
There have been many theories about language during the past decades and some of the theories have been dismissed or falsified today. Yet, it's better if you begin understanding everything from the very beginning. When you adopt the changes one after another, you could see the biggest picture of all.

[Merel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really funny and clear introduction to all aspects of language.

Beware: you will become a linguist after reading this book. :)

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saying this book is dense is being kind. I'll give it 2 stars because it is well researched, but it should not be used for an Intro to anything class. I had to look up video after video to actually understand a lot of it, and I'm far from unintelligent. Got an A in the class, but it was because of my own significant work to understand the concepts, not because of this book.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this textbook in my intro to linguistics class as an undergrad and reread it in preparation for grad school. I remembered this text as being better than it really is. I certainly would not have developed a love for linguistics if I had not had a passionate teacher to supplement the text. It is a decent overview of the subject and I did appreciate the comic strips included throughout, but the text was often unnecessarily repetitive and dry.

For example, in the chapter on language acquisition there are six pages devoted to answering the question of if chimps can learn human language. I don't think the scope of an intro text requires reading a blurb on every study that has been done with teaching gorillas and monkeys sign and artificial languages. Those six pages can be summed up as chimps can communicate in a limited way on very specific subjects but lack the creative aspect and grammatical complexity of human language.

Part of my issue with the text may be that I read it cover to cover in less than a month, whereas in a class you would read the book in smaller sections over a semester. Some of the repetition from chapter to chapter that annoyed me could be helpful in that environment.

But I did still like the book and still find the idea that I can write all of this and other people can read and understand it utterly amazing. Linguistics is a great subject and if you are looking for an overview this isn't a bad place to start.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serves its purpose as an introduction to linguistics by covering a vast amount of necessary subjects, such as morphology & syntaxis. Every new bit was accompanied by a relevant quote, which maybe wasn't necessary but made it fun, and the same goes for the comics which were added here and there. A book that's very up-to-date (includes references to Harry Potter & Twitter and names Obama as president, for example) and therefore still very relevant.

Something that I liked a bit less however was that it mostly focuses on (American) English. And another fair warning would probably be that according to my professors, the chapter on Sociolinguistics is "rubbish". Their words, not mine.

[Mikael Lind · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty decent introduction to linguistics which deals with most general topics in the field. However, I don't like how they consider Chomsky's theories on language in an almost dogmatic way. It sounds as if they were simple truths, known to everybody, but they really are not. There's a widespread discussion on the topic, and opposing views (which this book doesn't cover at all) can be found within followers of Wittgenstein (on a philosophical level) and cultural linguists (like Daniel Everett and Guy Deutscher). Too simplistic a book, too preaching for just one view of many!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, because the authors have excellent writing skills and are very interesting. However, it is impossible for children to have a vocabulary of 20,000 words as claimed in the book. Only college-educated adults can have such a large vocabulary. I want to know where the author got these data. For readability, academic rigor is sacrificed. There are other suspicious claims in this book, but I forgot to highlight them. I very much doubt that there are such things as general grammar. Perhaps there is only a set of universal grammar used by various civilizations.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally, I didn't really enjoy reading this. However, it's *very* well structured, intelligible, and a little quirky; making the learning experience all the less boring. Overall, if you're interested in studying the foundations of linguistics in an academic or recreational setting, I'd definitely recommend picking this book up.

[livros.da.sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a dreadful little thing linguistics are. There were some interesting bits but way too repetitive in my opinion...so... I had to push myself through it most of the time. I had to read this book for class, but now that I am done with it I can finally say goodbye to this. thank heavens. May the Linguistics God be with you and help you pass.

[albatool · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books for a linguistic student.
Usually educational books are dry and dull to read but this was very interesting, gripping and easy to read.
The book is comprehensive and covers every part of linguistic studies.

I'm really happy I came across this book and I would suggest it to any one interested in Languages.

[Autumn Kotsiuba · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the English Major nerd it me, but linguistics is wonderfully fascinating!