Book Reviews
The Five Minute Linguist
ed. by Rickerson and Hilton –Review by Lee Ballard 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,…
Syntax: A Generative Introduction
by Andrew Carnie –Review by Joel Deacon 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…
Introducing Phonology
by David Odden –Review by Lee Ballard 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,…
Introduction to Typology: The Unity and Diversity of Language
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…
Surviving Linguistics: A Guide for Graduate Students
by Monica Macaulay –Review by Tyler McPeek 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…