R. L. Trask (1944–2004)

This is an impressively well-written textbook! As much as I love linguistics, my assigned reading is not always so well loved, but this book is legitimately an enjoyable read in addition to being informative, which is a good thing considering the size of the book.. A few critiques: some explanations of phenomena and processes would be more clearly explained with the addition of charts detailing changes instead of just textual descriptions. I would encourage readers to diagram things out when show more they get a bit fuzzy-- that often really helps. Also, there are some inconsistencies with the transcription used in the exercises, so beware of that. Finally, you will walk away from the text knowing more about Basque and Scots than you'd probably like. That's fine and great-- the examples are good ones-- but the authors' specialties are very apparent at times, and there are both pluses and minuses to that. show less

This is the best general introduction to linguistics I have ever read. It gives an excellent overview of all the main areas in a lively and entertaining style; the jargon is kept to a bare minimum, and, when it must be introduced, it is well explained.

One of the things I particularly like about this book is that it has an exceptionally helpful bibliography. If you want to read further on a given sub-speciality, Trask not only gives you a reading list at the end of each chapter which is show more linked to the bibliography, but also adds his own comments on each book so that you can see at a glance exactly which books you will find most helpful for your own studies. I wish every academic writer took the trouble to do this.

In short - even if you have only a passing interest in linguistics, go and buy this book. It rocks! show less

This book is a lot of fun! Easy to flip through, it’s packed with interesting pages full of information chunks, wittily written, and broken up with fun illustrations.

This book is a high-level graphic description of linguistic theory, and it interesting reading if you like learning about languages. I would recommend it to anyone that is interested in linguistics and is just starting the process of reading more about this field.