Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 @ 10:37AM

by Lindsay J. Whaley
–Review by Dong-yi Lin

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.

Posted by floridalinguistics
Categories: Book Reviews, Dong-yi Lin