Patterns of Language: Structure, Variation, Change

By Robbins Burling

This book is a comprehensive advanced introduction to linguistics, unique in its integration of variation and change with the more structural or synchronic topics. It includes chapters on variation and change in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. It also covers the topics of pidgins and creoles, on first and second language acquisition, on the development of language in the human species, and on the growth of writing, printing in information technology and how these have affected, and continue to affect, language. Key features include: integration of variation and change; new treatment of functional and typological approaches to syntax; emphasis on the widest possible diversity of languages. It offers alternative ways of looking at language.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0121449203
• ISBN13: 9780121449209
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
• Length: 476 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

good intro to linguistics

I had to read this book for my Intro to Linguistics course, and I thought it did a fairly decent job of going over all the basics. If you don't know anything about linguistics, you might want to take a look at this book, although it would still be helpful to have someone who does know something about it around to explain some things. The author's descriptions of what the phonetic symbols sound like don't always help very much. The organization of this book is a bit odd; the most obvious example is that phonetics isn't discussed in detail until Chapter 5, even though the author makes use of phonetic symbols in the previous chapters. If you read the book from the beginning to the end, you may get a little confused - reading the chapters out of order is practically a must. Also, there are far too many examples. I found myself skimming over a lot, because, after the first example, I understood what was being discussed and didn't need the next page or so of examples. The charts are wonderful, though, and there are a lot of them.