The Five Minute Linguist is an excellent book to introduce beginners or laypeople to topics of current interest in linguistics. Composed completely of short chapters on subjects like what the original language was, who speaks Italian, and  how children acquire grammar, the authors of the articles are often leaders in the subfields they

explain (for instance Mark Baker on grammar, and Peter Ladefoged–who wrote the essay on phonetics shortly before his passing). The essays are all short enough to be read during a morning bus ride, and can be read in any order. Each chapter ends with an “about the author” and suggestions for further reading, including other chapters in the book and web resources. Although probably not entirely sufficient for the only book used in an introductory course, The Five Minute Linguist makes a great companion text. While not a must read, if you read it, you will have a good understanding of what linguists study, and may even be reminded of some ideas you forgot about.

Carnie’s Introduction to Syntax is a decent place to begin an exploration of syntactic theory. Carnie is often cited in many syntactic papers and proves himself to be a fairly easy read.  If one is serious about syntactic theory or if you are an instructor of syntax, problems might arise from both the length of time spent on the subject of X-bar Theory and the lack of a complete explanation of the Minimalist Theory of syntax.  X-bar Theory certainly has its merits, but it has been largely replaced by Minimalism for quite some time.  The same would go for the chapters on Government and Binding.  It is important to know these things to understand some of the reasoning behind present theories and to understand older papers on syntax.  However, since syntax has changed so much over a short period of time, students can easily get skeptical about the merits of any of it.  Also while the inclusion of competing, Non-Chomsky governed, theories such as Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) and Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is good, they are placed almost as optional chapters at the very end and are thus easily ignored.  Moreover, the problem sets at the end of each chapter could be helpful for an instructor, but as a beginner may not be helpful, as no solutions are provided.  Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to both true beginners and those who have completed an introductory course in Linguistics.

David Odden’s Introduction to Phonology text is an ok introduction to the field.  Strong points include problem sets with data from a wide variety of languages, approaches to phonology from the different schools of the past hundred years (phonemicist, generative phonology with features, and non-linear representation), and good layout and formatting.  Weaknesses include a bad first chapter on phonetics, obstinate use of APA at the expense of IPA throughout, inadequate motivation concerning changes in theoretical perspective, and omission of optimality theory.  Furthermore, the glossary is incomplete and the index was not well-updated for the second addition.  In conclusion, if your teacher is using this, you have to buy it, but if you can choose, try to get one that uses IPA.

Whaley’s Introduction to Typology is an excellent introductory textbook for courses that deal with language typology or linguistic structures.  It assumes no prior knowledge of typology and is accessible to students who lack an advanced understanding of linguistics.  Covering not only basic concepts of typology, but also significant issues as diverse as word order typology, morphosyntactic and semantic universals and differences, and principal strategies to form complex clauses, this textbook can equip students with the most essential notions and tools to analyze any language from a typological perspective.  The comprehensive coverage of typological studies also makes this textbook suitable for advanced students who want to explore potential topics for their research.  Instructors will find it useful in class as all basic terminology is defined clearly and explained with examples from a wide variety of languages.  This textbook is highly recommended for instructors and students of typology classes and also for those who intend to do independent study on this area of research.

The very existence of this book can be both a convenient text selection for grad research class professors in linguistics departments and an encouragement and a comfort for anyone working in the field.  It is the only book of its kind and therefore not facing any competition.  In our department, every student received a copy as part of their graduate research class.  It’s a thin reader that is meant to serve as a kind of training manual for the linguistics graduate student.  The section “How to Write Like a Linguist” is useful and prudent.  Many of the sections could really appeal to any graduate student of the liberal arts or social sciences.  The sections that are specific to linguistics student face two primary challenges.  There are two challenges that a printed book of this kind faces.  The first is that the material goes out of date quickly.  Most of the resources mentioned in the book are online and the links and resources change so quickly that one is left to wonder if most of the information in this book wouldn’t better be presented online as well, where it could be updated frequently, with clickable links to outside resources, rather than having links to websites (some of which have changed their address, content, or simply don’t exist anymore) printed on the page in this traditional book form.  The second challenge for a book like this is that most of the really important hurdles that one faces in trying to make their way through a linguistics program are more department-specific than they are field-specific.  So, in terms of “surviving” the program, this is more about getting useful information from the senior students in your program and learning how to navigate successfully through your particular department and its unique challenges and faculty, than it is about “surviving” linguistics as a discipline.  Having said that, most all of us face the same job market after graduation, and this book provides useful information things to keep in mind as you navigate through your program to ensure that you will have the best chance of finding a good job after you graduate.  All in all, I would say that one would do better on a site like this one (FloridaLinguistics.com) than they would with this book for links to outside resources for linguists.  On the other hand, for information about general graduate research methods and advice on writing and preparing yourself for the job market, I would say that a current version of this book would be a good choice.  A book like this could be written many ways, and though I would have done it differently (by including more information about the discipline in context and different types of programs in the United States and internationally, for example), I think Macaulay did a decent job of providing a linguistics-specific manual for a required graduate research class in the United States.