Contemporary Linguistic Analysis: An Introduction

I have an earlier edition of this text that I used in a linguistics course several years ago, and I understand that the 5th edition is very similar. This book is clearly, simply written, making some very complex and abstract concepts clear and understandable. I'm currently working on my Masters in Linguistics, and I regularly refer back to this text in my higher-level classes for clarification of things like Theta roles and x-bar theory (syntax), morphology, phonology, etc. The text is fairly comprehensive, covering all the major sub-categories of linguistics. It doesn't pretend to cover any of the subjects in depth, but it does provide an excellent foundation for anyone who wants to understand the basics.

Speaking as a newcomer to the subject, I found this book to be an excellent intro. Very useful.

This is one of the best introductory texts that I have seen in a long time. I use it to teach all of my intro. courses and the students have adapted well to it. It's wonderful and insightful.