Introduction to English Linguistics

by Ingo Plag, Maria Braun (Contributor), Sabine Lappe (Contributor)

This successful textbook introduces beginning university students of English to the study of English linguistics. Now updated and expanded, the second edition features a more detailed discussion of the differences between British and North American English, and explains the differences in the two traditions of phonetic transcription. Introduction to English Linguistics concentrates on gaining expertise and analytical skills in the traditional core areas of linguistics, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Each chapter is accompanied by exercises and suggestions for further reading. A glossary and an index facilitate access to terms and topics.

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Language, School

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[zora · Rating 3 out of 5]

ive read enough of this for uni to count it as read-

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️ i deserve to have this on my goodreads. i had to read a godsdamned chapter every week for uni. i do have to say the topics are explained fairly well, EXCEPT for the syntax chapter. respectfully, that was shit. still don't like linguistics. i swear to the gods if i don't pass my linguistic exam i will blame it all on this book.

[cloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This exam is gonna kill me

[bug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alors, je pense overall bien écrit avec suffisamment d'exemples pour comprendre. Néanmoins, parfois trop d'exemples avant la théorie donc on se perd... Sinon le dernier chapitre, c'est ciao, je DETESTE les statistiques

[Defne · Rating 4 out of 5]

every topic was explained very well and it didn't feel like i was reading a textbook at all! (read for my english linguistics module)

[Kira☀️ · Rating 1 out of 5]

i oh so desperately need to buy a gun

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the pitiful standards of the genre, a very readable intro to linguistics. The "English" is just a warning that it uses English exclusively, or almost, for examples, "evidence", etc.
It's aimed at newcomers to linguistic theory, and avoids aligning itself with any particular variant of linguistics. By the same token it reveals many of the numerous theoretical assumptions, simplifications and distortions required to sign up to pretty much any flavour of linguistics, and therein lies much of its value, imo. Procrustes is the patron saint of linguistics: if real language phenomena don't fit, find some way - any way - to rule them irrelevant.
Besides that, I read some interesting observations that I hadn't noticed or hadn't thought about in my long-ago immersion in linguistics, such as various contrasts between inflectional and derivational morphology, and the mismatch between placement and scope of morphemes such as the plural "-s" (or whatever English plural marker), such that we represent and conceive it as attaching to the head noun, whereas its scope embraces the whole noun phrase. This is of course one instance where the "English" in the title is relevant: compare: "the big black dog"/"the big black dogs" with the French "le grand chien noir" / "les grands chiens noirs". Of course one can ask, what is multiple here: is it the bigness and the blackness and the the-ness, or just the dogness? Maybe French should be saying "le grand chiens noir" sorta like we do. Either way, language offers no possibility of just applying one plural marker at the phrasal level, because the phrasal level per se has no visible/audible representation to apply it to; in fact, it's a theoretical construct (of linguistics), albeit a highly obvious and reasonable-looking one - e.g. all elements of a noun phrase will typically carry the same case markings, where applicable.
In short, I enjoyed the book for highlighting the reductiveness of linguistics and the endless, uncontainable complexities of language.

[Lena Seidenstücker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for uni and it was honestly really well written and made the topic fun and easily comprehensible! Would recommend it to any nerds and people that have to understand English linguistics. :))

[Jenni 69513 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Describes and explains the different disciplines and features of English linguistics precisely and in detail. Very nice book, helped me a lot with my studies!

[Momo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, this is a textbook but I read the whole thing this year and I need to acknowledge that because it took me ages 😭
In all honesty tho, solid book, helped me more than my lecture did

[Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

very simple and straight to the point (not many scientific books manage to do that, so well done)

[Leandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

It fulfils its function, but it could have done so much more concisely and with far less meandering and paragraphs explaining complete banalities.

[AnaConda · Rating 2 out of 5]

my professor is obsessed with trying to make us read this book and frankly, i’m not sure why. every single other textbook i’ve read on linguistics was easier to understand

[Zeyneb Azra · Rating 3 out of 5]

where was the plot twist tho😓?

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear introduction, though it dragged at times. There were also a handful of foundational points for which the author did not show the proofs sufficiently for me. I was left feeling that certain things might be conventions or blind spots, but not knowing enough about linguistics to be able to really tell. Overall though, enjoyable for this sort of book.