|
 |
Books on more than grammar? (linguistics) | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6551 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes  1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 8 10 October 2009 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
|
I've got several grammar books in several languages, but I'm interested in knowing if someone has come across a book about grammar not English grammar, or French grammar or German grammar but just a comparitive study or terminology explicatory focus, more liguistics oriented covering general and local terminologies, evolution, etc.
Or a web site? Or should I just look into general linguistics textbooks? Edited by zenmonkey on 21 October 2009 at 10:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 2 of 8 10 October 2009 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think linguistics textbooks would be your best bet. Chances are you'll have to get
two books, one on syntax and one on morphology. When I was studying linguistics at university, we never just studied "grammar". They always divided it into syntax and morphology. Also, if you are interested, you may want to get a book on linguistic typology. I find typology to be one of the most fascinating parts of linguistics. Basically it explains which kinds of features (mostly grammatical features) show up together in different languages, which ones never or rarely show up together, and why. A typology book won't explain any of the grammatical terminology to you though. If you're interested in an overview of the grammar of the world's major languages, I can't recommend Bernard Comrie's The World's Major Languages highly enough. Edited by Levi on 10 October 2009 at 5:01pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| theallstar Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5801 days ago 81 posts - 85 votes Studies: Japanese, Esperanto | Message 3 of 8 10 October 2009 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Levi, are you were studying linguistics could you recommend any books on the three subjects you mention?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 4 of 8 10 October 2009 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Unfortunately, no. I don't have my textbooks anymore, and I forgot what their titles and authors were. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6551 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 8 21 October 2009 at 10:50am | IP Logged | ||
|
I've recently picked up Linguistics (Akmajian, Demers, Framer, Harnish) and it seems to be a good introductory text covering various aspects from Syntax, Semantics, Morphology, Phonetics but also a Cognitive Science primer (an added bonus for me).
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7155 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 6 of 8 21 October 2009 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | ||
|
There a couple of ways you can approach getting more information on linguistics.
One way is to get books meant for the general reader about linguistics. I recommend "Teach Yourself Linguistics" by Jean Aitchison or "How Language Works" by David Crystal. Another way is to get encyclopedias or glossaries on linguistics for non-specialists. These would give concise descriptions about the branches or sub-topics in linguistics. You can thus get a quick understanding about a sub-topic and if you're interested, you can read more about it in a specialized book. A good book for this is "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" by David Crystal. Lastly, you can always look for linguistics textbook meant for university students. There are plenty of these, but unfortunately I've browsed through a few and I found myself focusing on aspects that interested me most such as sociolinguistics, language change, comparative linguistics, and typology. I'm not as interested in phonology or cognitive linguistics to name a couple of areas. Have fun! Chung 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7143 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 7 of 8 21 October 2009 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
One book you might take a look at is "Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists", by Thomas E. Payne. It's written to help linguists working in the field to describe languages, but includes a lot of explanation of different linguistic terms and structures, with illustrative examples taken from a broad range of different languages. You don't have to know a lot about linguistics ahead of time to use it, but I think that, after working through it, you'll know a lot more about different linguistic phenomena and how they're described than you'd get from most elementary linguistics books.
You can get a feel for it at the Amazon site, where it gets three five-star reviews, including one from somewhere who, like me, sees it as a useful introduction to linguistics. http://www.amazon.com/Describing-Morphosyntax-Guide-Field-Li nguists/dp/0521588057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256138 781&sr=8-1 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6478 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 8 of 8 23 October 2009 at 11:42am | IP Logged | ||
|
In Russian Universities we use textbooks called "Theoretical Grammar" that cover all the points described above (written in English). You can try to google and find them in the net.
1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
