A general introduction to linguistics

by Tariq Rahman

A general introduction to linguistics takes the lay reader through the scientific study of language and linguistics moving away from a eurocentric premise, the author begins with paninis description of sanskrit grammar in his eight books, the ashtadhayi and moves on to linguists who have contributed to the discipline like de saussure, bloomfield and chomsky, whose theories it conveys simply and lucidly it also deals with current linguistic theories and touches upon issues in socio-linguistics, linguistic human rights and language death

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 10, 2010

About the author

Tariq Rahman PhD is presently Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. He is also HEC Distinguished National Professor and Professor Emeritus at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Dr Rahman has been a guest professor in Denmark and Spain, and a Fulbright research scholar (1995-96) at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He was also the first incumbent of the Pakistan Chair at U.C. Berkeley (2004-05). He has been a research fellow at the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies and the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg. He has been given several awards: the Presidential Pride of Performance (1994), HEC lifetime achievement award, the highly prestigious Humboldt Research Award (2012) from Germany, and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2013. He was awarded a higher doctorate (D.Litt) by the University of Sheffield for all of his published research in 2014.

Reviews

[A. B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of linguistics adapted to the South Asian context. The middle few chapters on Chomsky are especially succinct and well exposited. Skimmed the rest.