hey all, was wondering if anyone knew of a good, readable book on language. i dont mean on a specific language, but rather on the basics of how different languages structure themselves, lists of tenses, grammatical terms, etc… i just thought id want to read one, but am not totally sure what it would entail, i mean theres definitly a lot of books on this sort of thing (there has to be) but was wondering if anyone had any reccomendation of readable ones, not incredibly old or erudite tomes that are completly inpenetrable. im kinda imagining somthing similare to a collection of wikipedia articles like this
but linked together, with more examples across different langauges.
for the context, as im sure many people are, im learning chinese and about to be teaching english, so thought somthing like this, at the root of both subjects (with interesting links to other wider issues) would be extremly helpful…
If you want something user-friendly, Michael Swan’s “Learner English” is worth a read. The book focusses on different aspects of L1 interference (pron, syntax. etc) for different EFL learners. It’s one of the must read books on CELTA courses.
For something more theoretical, read Guy Deutscher’s “The Unfolding of Language”. He explores the roots and evolution of languages. A fascinating, painless read. Pinker is equally interesting, but a lot more challenging as has been pointed out.
the swans thing looks really good, any idea of a similar thing for chinese (like a list/reference of verb-objects/stative verbs and such, with examples)?
will look into the more theoretical stuff also, looks interesting, albeit a more deep read
The book I used to use as a coursebook for first year linguistics students (native-speakers, that is; not here in Taiwan) is:
An Introduction to Language by Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams.
It may be what you want, insofar as it discusses the structure of lanuages in a general sense.
The later chapters get a bit technical, but the earlier chapters are accessible enough.
Basically, it’s a fairly standard Linguistics 101 coursebook.
You can view it on Google Books.
BTW, I recently discovered how to download books (well, at least pages of books) from Google Books.
First, clear your Temporary Internet Files folder.
Then, view the book you want to download, page by page.
Re-open your Temporary Internet Files folder.
Rename (with sequential page numbers) all your *.PNG files and save them to a different folder
Use Adobe to combine them all together into a PDF file.
Note, because of the way Google Books doesn’t display all the pages of a book, this method tends to work better for individual chapters, rather than whole books.
Still, it’s cheaper than buying the book, and totally legal (I think.)
