The organization of the topics is another strength. That is, the text is not condensed or dense to the extent that it overwhelms students. Also, each page has enough margins, and the texts are not too small, which makes reading easier and pleasant. Each chapter consists of short, small sections, so students will not be overwhelmed. Modularity is another strength of this textbook. Students will not be confused with any of the terms being used across chapters and framework of the contents. The text is consistent in terms of language and terminology in linguistics. This makes linguistics, a field of study that can be quite comprehensive and intimidating to undergraduate students, easily accessible. There is no jargon, and whenever the author introduces a new topic, she gives further explanation using simple language. The language used in this textbook is very clear and accessible. In addition, each branch of linguistics that was covered in this book is a fairly well-established area, and even if it needs updates in the near future, I don’t think the updates will have any significant departures from the current contents.Ĭlarity seems to be one of the strengths of this textbook. Thus, it doesn’t seem that the text will become obsolete within any short period of time. This is a second edition of the book, which was published in 2022. Nevertheless, it seems appropriate for undergraduate students who have never studied linguistics before. Even though the content generally seems error-free, given the depth and breadth of knowledge in each branch of linguistics, it does seem a bit too simplified. In Chapter 8: Forming Sentences, which covers syntax, the content is greatly simplified to the extent that it is easily accessible to undergraduate students. It should be noted that this book covers Canadian English, and the author makes it very clear about it, so there is no confusion. However, this book is probably not appropriate for graduate-level introductory linguistics courses, in terms of comprehensiveness. For an undergraduate level, introductory linguistics course, the book’s coverage seems enough. In this regard, the book does not fully cover all 6 branches of linguistics. The book does not include a chapter on pragmatics, which is one branch of linguistics. The book covers the major branches of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics.

Reviewed by Senyung Lee, Assistant Professor, Northeastern Illinois University on 4/24/23 Journalism, Media Studies & Communications +.

The study of language book