The Study of Language

Rating:
Summary: A good general introduction
Review: 1-words and word-formation processes.2- morphology.

Rating:
Summary: Great Intro and Overview of Linguistics
Review: As others have already noted, this book by George Yule is not really comprehensive, but the concepts in this publication are well explained and clarified by tables and examples. Yule reviews disparate and competing theories on the origin of language. He also includes material on phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics. There are even chapters on discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and second language acquisition/learning. One could not ask for a more useful intro to the study of language. Lastly, Yule's approach is relaxed and sprinkled with humor. Is it ok to split the infinitive as the show Star Trek does in the sentence, "To boldly go where no man has gone before"? What is the difference between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme? Read Yule to find out the answer to that question, if you don't already know. All in all, a five star read.

Rating:
Summary: Good overview
Review: It's not the most comprehensive, analytic, graphically-appealing of the many linguistics texts out there. But for undergraduates I've found it to be the most readable and practical. Students can handle the book in a single semester, insuring that they will come away with an understanding of what linguistics is about. If the goal is to produce linguists, I'd look to other texts.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat informative, but entirely untrustworthy
Review: THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE is a basic linguistics introductory published by Cambridge University Press. Generally CUP's linguistics textbooks are the best in the field, so I acquired this book to see how its basic introduction was. Unfortunately, I was left very disappointed, and doubt that this is a trustworthy introduction to the field.

The first warning sign is that there is no biography of the author George Yule, and therefore the reader cannot see how he is qualified to prepare a textbook, where his graduate degrees are from, etc. The author then goes on to pepper his work with urban legends, such as the assertion that English spelling comes from Dutch printers, and the tired yarn that William James had a run-in with a crazy old lady who believed the world was on the back of a turtle.

However, the greatest mark against the book comes in its use of Bill Bryson as a source. Bryson produced two popular-linguistics books over ten years over, even though he had no training in linguistics. Many linguists have condemned the books for their abundance of urban legends, misunderstandings, and total lack of error-checking ("Eskimo's have 50 words for snow", "Russian has no word for "engagement ring" or "fun"). In THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE, Yule uses questionable passages from Bryson's books to illustrate points, and even seems to recommend them to students.

Concerning other aspects of the book, it does not seem usable. Yule spends very little time on phonetics and phonology, and introduces only concepts found in English, even though most students undoubtedly wish to know about more exotic languages. The insubstantial offerings on phonetics and phonology make this book entirely unsuitable for students of philology; how can you teach the comparative IE philologists of tomorrow if you don't even mention laryngeals? Yule also has an annoying tendency to speak to the reader as if he was a child. While this is an undergraduate textbook, it is written at the reading level of a high school work. The epigraphs of each chapter are amusing, but any writer who quotes "Beavis and Butthead" is certainly not teaching at an intellectual level.

In summary, I recommend against the use of THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE as a textbook. The book is clearly not trustworthy, and does not seem an effective and rigorous introduction to linguistics. I feel it would be better to teach from Cambridge University Press' individual introductions, such as Laver's PRINCIPLES OF PHONETICS, Lass' PHONOLOGY, etc.

Rating:
Summary: A Basic Introduction to Linguistics
Review: This book is a good basic introduction to the field of Linguistics. Most of the subfields of Linguistics are covered. Of particular interest are the chapters on second-language acquisition and dialects. As a language teacher, I found that by reading this book, I could understand a little more about how to explain the language I teach. If you teach, it really helps to understand the basic building blocks of a language. As I mentioned, this is an introductory level book, but the great thing about it is that it provides a reading list for each subfield, so you can easily find a lot of books to read in the subfields you're interested in. If you're thinking of studying Linguistics, get this book first to see if it interests you before you commit.

One point of caution--this book tries to present the field of Linguistics from the viewpoint of the development of the field. In reviewing the history of Linguistics for each subfield, the book covers some theories that have been disproven or are currently out of fashion. Be careful to read this critically.

Rating:
Summary: A Basic Introduction to Linguistics
Review: This book is a good basic introduction to the field of Linguistics. Most of the subfields of Linguistics are covered. Of particular interest are the chapters on second-language acquisition and dialects. As a language teacher, I found that by reading this book, I could understand a little more about how to explain the language I teach. If you teach, it really helps to understand the basic building blocks of a language. As I mentioned, this is an introductory level book, but the great thing about it is that it provides a reading list for each subfield, so you can easily find a lot of books to read in the subfields you're interested in. If you're thinking of studying Linguistics, get this book first to see if it interests you before you commit.

One point of caution--this book tries to present the field of Linguistics from the viewpoint of the development of the field. In reviewing the history of Linguistics for each subfield, the book covers some theories that have been disproven or are currently out of fashion. Be careful to read this critically.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro to linguistics
Review: This book was my textbook for an intro linguistics course. I found it very helpful, and easy to use in the span of one semester. It gives a great overview of different linguistic sections without getting too technical. I highly reccomend it as a jumping-off point to anyone interested in language.