The Spanish Language Today

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction given the right context of use
Review: This book has obviously been written for an introductory course of linguistics in a Spanish curriculum of an English-language university. Ideally, an introduction to general linguistics is offered in a parallel course.

In such a context, items such as phonological and syntactic variation and change as well as pragmatic and sociolinguistic issues are further illustrated and brought to life for the student by the application to her or his main discipline.

To the general, non-student reader, this book is also useful as an introduction to certain aspects of Spanish. It has an accessible style and Spanish examples which are more than one or two sentences or are difficult for one reason or another are translated in footnotes. In some chapters, however, general linguistic insights are described in so much detail that for the general reader the text is somewhat redundant.