Re: What book(s) might you recommend for linguistics in general?
- From: "Neeraj Mathur" <neemathur@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 22:58:04 -0400
"Phoebe" <no@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%t%xe.105617$9A2.41306@xxxxxxxxxxx
> What I might find useful is a book that isn't too centred around one
> particular language or even a category of them, which teaches about
> linguistics in general. Something that might make a good textbook for a
> low level university course, perhaps. Does anyone have any
> recommendations, either for the book, or for which languages I might want
> to focus on. It would pretty much be mostly self study (self study is how
> I usually learn best at other subjects) and I would eventually go into
> chatrooms which speak the language (I've tried French ones before, and I
> can follow some of what's going on but I look through the dictionary a
> lot, so I need practice), and any speaking/listening practice I can get
> from local speakers. I may also look into finding Pimsleur tapes at the
> library or something like that
Hi Phoebe,
I think it's important to keep in mind that learning languages and learning
linguistics are two very separate and distinct pursuits and goals. What
interests you about linguistics, or what field or branch of linguistics are
you most drawn to? In my experience, most texts on linguistics tend to deal
either with Chomsky or post-Chomsky grammar and theoretical linguistics;
most of their methods, of course, work best for English and draw the bulk of
their examples from that field. Otherwise, you might find yourself
interested in a very different field, like historical linguistics for
instance, in which case the introductory texts will be very different indeed
(and have virtually no overlap).
First-year North American linguistics courses tend to focus on
transformational grammar and things like that. For that sort of text, I
would recommend some of the textbooks edited by Victoria Fromkin. There are
a few; browse your local bookstore or library.
A smaller, shorter and much more manageable introduction can be found in
Neil Smith and Deirdre Wilson's fantastic work _Modern Linguistics: The
Results of Chomsky's Revolution_. I really, really like this book and highly
recommend it, especially if you've never studied any linguistics before and
aren't sure whether a large and thorough textbook is the best investment.
Look for it in libraries (it's probably out of print).
An interesting approach to descriptive linguistics can be found in Marianne
Mithun's _The Languages of Native North America_ in the Cambridge Language
Surveys series. While the book is, of course, focussed on providing a
description of the languages of Native North America, the book is filled
with all kinds of very useful information aimed at introducing concepts of
descriptive linguistics in general. A very eye-opening book, and a favourite
of some well-known academics.
Now, for your other question of which language to learn. Given your
background in French and Japanese, your goal to be able to read novels, and
your location in Western Canada, my advice would be to study Spanish first.
The prime reason for this is that the language will be a quick study for
you. Most English-speakers find Spanish particularly easy for them to learn,
and there are plenty of excellent learning materials available to you.
Therefore, the biggest advantage of studying Spanish will be that you will
be able to learn how you learn languages - what techniques and methods work
best for you and how you need to spend your time and resources to ensure
success. You will then be able to take these transferable skills to the
study of languages that most people find harder, such as Cantonese, Russian,
or Arabic.
The most important thing, however, is to study a language that you feel
particularly motivated to learn. If the language for which your motivation
is greatest is not Spanish, ignore the above paragraph and study it
instead - motivation counts for much, much more than any other factor once
you get past the honeymoon phase of learning a new language and try to move
into the position where you can read a novel or follow a movie with some
fluency. Your message sounded a bit unfocussed in this regard - it sounds as
though you are more interested in being a polyglot than in mastering any
particular tongue. I would recomend setting yourself some kind of goal -
since you mentioned novels, for instance, I might pick a novel you know
really well and really enjoy in the target language and work towards the
stage where you can enjoy it. Whatever that goal is should be able to keep
you motivated enough as you wade through the language. For instance, my goal
in learning Latin was Ovid's Metamorphoses - I loved it in translation, and
adored the text through high school; last term I was able to finally savour
the delights of fulfilling something I'd promised myself when I read through
it in Latin. There was something similar when I read Pablo Neruda in
Spanish, the Bacchae in Greek and the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. On the
other hand, the failure to set myself a particular goal I was completely
devoetd to is probably the biggest reason that I have not yet mastered
German (I know the grammar structures but have virtually no vocabulary),
Arabic, Welsh, Farsi, Russian or any of the other languages I've embarked
upon at various times. Motivation is the key to getting from the stage where
you know your way around the grammar of a language and actually know the
language.
Good luck!
Neeraj Mathur
.
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