# Reccomend me some beginner books on linguistics **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133 "2004-01-07T02:19:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![darik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@darik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darik)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/1 "2004-01-07T02:19:43Z")
I found to my surprise I’m terribly interested in the subject after threading avidly this entire thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=230385](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=230385) , even the squabbling in the second half. I don’t really know anything about it, so what would be some interesting books on language and linguistics aimed at my level? ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/2 "2004-01-07T04:45:57Z")
Try [The Language Instinct](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060958332/qid=1073450283/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/102-9955750-5397769) by Steven Pinker. He’s an excellent science writer and it’s a great introduction to linguistics (much mroe readable than Chomsky). Hmmmm, I see he’s got a newer book on words that I haven’t read. ARGH, like I need to buy _more_ books:) Recently, I read [The Atoms of Language](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465005225/qid=1073450830/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9955750-5397769?v=glance&s=books) by Mark Baker which was interesting but nat as readable as Pinker. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/3 "2004-01-07T05:27:13Z")
A great starting point would be Steven Pinker’s [_The Language Instinct_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060958332/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/102-6261829-3145724?v=glance). There are many people who are convinced that Pinker (and Noam Chomsky, from whose work many of Pinker’s ideas derive) are dead wrong, but as you’ve seen, there’s lots of room for dispute about language and linguistics, and the theories that he presents are, if not the dominant ones in today’s world, at least extremely widespread and influential. Pinker’s book is eminently readable and frequently very funny without dumbing down the subject matter too much. You could also do worse than Ferdinand de Saussure’s [_Course in General Linguistics_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0070165246/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/102-6261829-3145724?v=glance), compiled from student’s lecture notes and de Saussure’s own notes from his University of Geneva lectures nearly a century ago. Much of de Saussure’s work has been superceded in the intervening years, but his work is the foundation of all modern linguistics, and the structuralist approach he pioneered influenced much of twentieth-century literary theory and social science as well as linguistics. After that, the refernces in Pinker’s book should give an idea of what to dig into next. ---
**Author:** ![darik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@darik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darik)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/4 "2004-01-08T19:43:25Z")
I picked up The Language Instinct from the library the other day, and 150 or so pages in this seems to be exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot, guys. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/5 "2004-01-08T20:32:50Z")
Another good intro is _Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Nature_ by Ray Jackendoff. Although how you survive middle school with a name like that is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/6 "2004-01-09T01:58:59Z")
It’s not really a linguistics primer, but [The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language](http://www.langmaker.com/db/bks_thepowerofbabel.htm) by Berkeley Linguistics Prof John McWhorter. It’s very accessable regardless of previous knowledge. Also, I credit my membership here at the SDMB for my interest in Linguistics. ---
**Author:** ![odd-socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@odd-socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/odd-socks)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-some-beginner-books-on-linguistics/223133/7 "2004-01-13T20:23:20Z")
“The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language” by David Crystal is also an excellent introduction.