Escrito por um dos mais conhecidos lingüistas britânicos da atualidade, este livro começa com uma exposição geral sobre os objetivos, métodos e princípios básicos da teoria lingüística, seguindo-se uma introdução a cada um dos principais subcampos da lingüística - os sons da língua, a gramática, a semântica, as modificações lingüísticas, a psicolingüística, a sociolingüística, a linguagem e a cultura. Em cada uma dessas seções, o professor Lyons refere-se às tendências atuais mais significativas e examina obras com elas relacionadas, dando ênfase aos aspectos da disciplina que parecem mais fundamentais e duradouros.
God help you if you want to learn about linguistics on you're own. The book helps enormously, but half the time it's very dry and the other half it's technobabble (or linguobabble, I guess) and it doesn't do a good job of reminding you of things you were supposed to have learned earlier on. For example, I took a break between chapter three and chapter four, and forgot most of the stuff from the earlier chapters. I had to go back and reread them. I decided to start taking notes, and that helped, but it would've been nice for the exercises in the book to be a bit more clearly laid out.
But it did have some nice exercises, overall great presentation of material, and I did learn a lot.
This is a scientific book that you feel the author's presence in an unexpected way when you read it. Unlike usual books you read on this subject, it is not rewriting a pre-determined syllabus; it is not a personal discovery or an intuitive monologue; it is a narrow and exciting path between the two. Another nice thing about this book is that the author generously shares his ideas with you at every stage of their rawness or maturity. This book is a call to talk about language and linguistics with someone who knows more than you but still has the patience to make a dialogue with you. این یک کتاب علمی است که با خواندن آن به شکلی غیر منتظره حضور نویسنده را احساس میکنید. برخلاف کتابهای معمولیای که در این موضوع میخوانید، این یکی بازنویسی یک برنامهی درسی از پیش تعیینشده نیست.، یک کشف شخصی یا یک مونولوگ شهودی هم نیست؛ یک مسیر باریک و هیجان انگیز بین این دو است. یکی دیگر از چیزهای خوب در مورد این کتاب این است که نویسنده سخاوتمندانه ایده های خود را در هر مرحله از خامی یا بلوغ آنها با شما به اشتراک گذاشته است. این کتاب فراخوانی است برای صحبت دربارهی زبان و زبان شناسی با کسی که بیشتر از شما میداند اما هنوز حوصلهی گفتوگو با شما را دارد.
Oh! this book is outstandingly elucidated and detailed about the so-called "linguistics" . I really did whatever it took me, and finally I got it. n______________________________i_________ce
This book was published in 1981, when the term morphology was still a little new and uncomfortable to linguists. This has to be borne in mind before reading this book.