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Good books on the subject of linguistics   11-13>|

imagefallingJan 12, 2005 11:00am
although i haven't read any books specifically geared toward linguistics besides some painfully generic books on general semantics (i guess thats why it's called "general semantics"), and i'd like to read some...amazon seems awash with pop-linguistics books, and despite my lack of pedrigree, thats not really what i'm looking for.

"The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language" (Pinker) sounds promising, if not bombastic..as does
"On Nature and Language" (Chomsky)

any comments, ideas, suggestions?
baesparzaJan 12, 2005 11:10am
Is there a particular area of interest within linguistics you have? I have been tending towards historical and areal linguistics. Color terms have also been a fascinating area for me, too.
"Berlin, Brent and Paul Kay Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Distributed for the Center for the Study of Language and Information. 200 p. 6 x 9 1999 Series: (CSLI-DHS) Center for the Study of Language and Information - The David Hume Series
ISBN 1-57586-162-3"
It runs for around $23.95

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pjdJan 13, 2005 12:26pm
You can't go wrong with Chomsky.

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kurt37Jul 4, 2005 2:59pm
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language is by far one of the best I've seen. A little big, but covers almost everything you can think of dealing with linguistics.
163118Nov 14, 2005 7:59am
Hi and good afternoon (for those in the appropriate time zone)

One book i enjoyed gratly was "travels among endangered languages" very insightful.

andygavinNov 16, 2005 6:18am
Just a note on the [1]. I found the Language Instinct to be good, it made me go on and read some chomsky. Certainly I think it's an easier read than much of the techical details. You would pick up some chomsky but this would be harder going. Pinker elaborates the argument for the universal grammar and arguably adds new material that points to, not just a language center that's parameterised but the instinctual nature of language aquinsition. If you want to get into the details fast you're better off with an introductory text before hitting the sources. This would allow you to be chooser on the area you need to get into. It's been some time since I've read this stuff, so there might be other more recent books. But for chomsky I found that:

amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0631195564/qid=1132150398/sr=8-1/ [amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0631195564/qid=1132150398/sr=8-1/]
ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-1842187-6714056

was good. Principle and parameters, if you want to study syntax, might be a good choice as it's quite modular. You could exclusively look at a principle at a time for instance.

But then if you are into pragmatitics or morphology there's probably another way.

What also will be limited in these sources is details of the Minimalist Programme. Which I'm not sure of the status of.

I also have a book called morphosyntax which is a guide for feild linguists to document dying language which has good breadth. It's instructions for documenting a language.

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stringoNov 21, 2005 5:05am
yes. the language instinct is a good, entertaining read, although sometimes he can go off on a rant against those he does not agree with - this is something one finds in all his books.

andygavinNov 28, 2005 10:23am
7: It sounds like you disagree with him on some subjects. Can you elaborate a bit? Could be enlightening/an interesting discussion.
559483Jan 13, 2006 8:56am
Noam Chomsky's books are very good when it comes to language, a lot of times difficult to comprehend and dense but i think he is a professor on the subject.

the-librarian181Feb 14, 2006 1:21pm
Mario Pei's my personal favorite linguist. He's good for traditionalists who don't want to deal with too much tough science, like what Chomsky writes. His "Story of Language" was the most comprehensive work on general linguistics I've ever read.


Good books on the subject of linguistics   11-13>|