An Introduction to Language

This book might be the most used introductory linguistics book in the world. I am very glad to have read its seventh edition. The number of editions might be proof of the quality and popularity of this book. How many textbooks can be in print for such a long time? The theme of this book is to make linguistics fun, and accessible. The use of cartoons, the quotes from famous authors, paragraphs discussing everyday use of language, and many more, all make the reader enjoy reading and studying linguistics. But on the other hand, the effort to make it fun will probably turn those serious students away. Anyways they are here for a university level course on the science of linguistics, where they expect to see compelling arguments, and serious discussions, rather than cartoons and funny word games. Moreover since this book was first written in the 70's, there are still many outdated data in the seventh edition, although it has been updated. The chapters on the core fields of linguistics, i.e. phonetics/phonology, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics, seem to be a little too thin. While chapters on sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, and writing systems can be interesting, students still need to be solidly grounded in the core fields of linguistics before they can successfully tap into the more interdisciplinary fields. Overall, this is one of the best introductory linguistics textbooks, although it tends to be not very serious, and in-depth, which could be excused for an intro textbook.

I find it odd that some people didn't like this book, for I thought the action thereof was exceedingly sweet. I guess different strokes for different folks. Anyway I took an Introductory linguistics course that used this textbook, and found myself enjoying the reading assignments. I even read chapters I wasn't assigned to and ended up reading the whole thing. The book was easy to follow, entertaining, and really taught me a lot about linguistics.

I was a little shocked to read some of the bad reviews other people gave this book. Although it's not my major, I took an introductory linguistics course using this book for a general education requirement. I have really enjoyed the book and the writing style, and find myself reading chapters for fun which weren't even assigned! Well done.

20 years ago, I was toying with the idea of taking the linguistics option as part of my English degree at Oxford University. My course tutor recommended I read Fromkin & Rodman to "see if the subject suited me". F & R hooked me completely: All the major areas are covered, simply presented and introduced by a cleverly chosen cartoon which helps to breaks the ice. I must have recommended the book to more than 100 people since then and am ordering another copy now because a [former!] friend lost my (heavily thumbed and annotated) original. I now lecture on communications-related subjects and still find myself referring regularly to this seminal work. A must for any serious student of communications science; it draws you gently into a complicated subject and makes the process highly enjoyable.

This book uses lots of funny cartoons and its use of words is quite easy and udnerstandable. So it's good for non-English speakers as well as native speakers. This book gave me all the basic concepts of linguisitcs, and no matter you have lingusitics background or not, you will get much through careful reading.