# Recommendations for books on linguistics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2009, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579 "2009-01-02T11:27:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/1 "2009-01-02T11:27:10Z")
I am studying person-centred and existential counselling, and have become very interested in linguistics, semantics, and all that jazz. I know nothing about any of it, other than I was wiki-hopping and found loads of cool pages linked from Nietzsche, including aphorism, antanaclasis, metonymy, rhetoric etc right down to all the different sorts of pun. In short, it really floated my boat. I would love to know more but not sure where to start. I have some vouchers from Christmas which means I have about £60 to spend on books; I’m planning on going shopping this weekend. Can anyone recommend any books, authors, topics, further internet reading, anything at all that is related to what I have described? Many thanks. Also if this should be in IMHO instead(I wasn’t sure), mods please move it. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/2 "2009-01-02T14:22:59Z")
There are a few professionals around, who will be along shortly, I’m sure. Until then, let me recommend _[How Language Works](http://www.amazon.com/How-Language-Works-David-Crystal/dp/158333291X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230905837&sr=8-1)_ by David Crystal as an excellent overview. In addition, it’s broken into short chapters on focused topics, cross-referenced, so you can skip around if some topics are of more interest to you than others. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/3 "2009-01-02T14:55:48Z")
**Twickster’s** recommendation of Crystal’s _How Language Works_ is an excellent primer for someone new to linguistics. _How Language Works_ is a distillation of Crystal’s earlier work _[The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language](http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Encyclopedia-Language-David-Crystal/dp/0521559677)_, which is beefier, but still accessible to non-professionals. I’d look over the _Cambridge Encyclopedia_ in a library or bookstore first before purchasing to see if you find it engaging enough to buy. Another excellent ground-level reference to the field is [_Language: The Basics_](http://books.google.com/books?id=B8VisT1F8AQC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=Larry+Trask,+Language&source=web&ots=RHAZKxHuYF&sig=g1Trs9jNNcb873k4LpZfil36BJU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP1,M1) by the late Larry Trask. Trask’s writing is a tiny bit more academic than Crystal’s, but nowhere near enough to get in the way. Most of the other linguistics books I’ve read are slanted in the direction of phonetics (sounds of human language) and grammar (e.g. Steven Pinker’s works). I’m not sure those will be up **Lo-Slung’s** alley, but I’ll be happy to expound if there is interest. ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/4 "2009-01-02T15:48:55Z")
Thanks for this. Good job it’s a slow day at the office today! 🙂 **Twickster** , I had a look at the link for the David Crystal book, and was pleased to note I could peek in the book! I liked what I saw. Seemed to be just what I am looking for - starting with the basics. The whole reason I was wiki-hopping was because one article would say that a homograph can be a homonym or heteronym, then I had to look up both of those words and try to understand them, it was taking ages. **bordelond** , I have looked up Steven Pinker previously as I understood he had some thoughts on mental health which is my current professional background, so I would be very interested in anything else you have to say! Perhaps I should give a little more info - I’m looking for anything that would be helping in terms of interpreting use of language in a therapeutic setting. I would like to direct the focus of my therapeutic work on to grasping the meaning and feeling expressed by words, sounds, emoting with body language. I should note that although I have considered getting some Pinker’s works, I’m not so interested in grammar unless you think it is pertinent; I feel that as the interaction is verbal I don’t need to focus on that so much. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/5 "2009-01-02T16:10:53Z")
IMHO, Pinker is way more technical, and not in ways that would be helpful to you. ---
**Author:** ![Clare\_de\_Loone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/clare_de_loone/32/3407_2.png) [@Clare\_de\_Loone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clare_de_Loone)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/6 "2009-01-02T16:34:32Z")
I concur with the David Crystal recommendations. You might also want to wade into sociolinguistics. [Deborah Tannen](http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mozilla-20&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=deborah%20tannen&sourceid=Mozilla-search) has written for general audiences as well as more scholarly works. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/7 "2009-01-02T16:43:28Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > IMHO, Pinker is way more technical, and not in ways that would be helpful to you. Certainly he can be a bit hard to follow, but I found a lot of stuff in _The Language Instinct_ fascinating – like the ways the children will invent languages, and how people with very low IQs can have amazing language skills and vice versa, and how most “language mavens” are full of crap – since the OP has some Christmas money to spend, a think a used or other inexpensive copy might be a good investment. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/8 "2009-01-03T00:49:38Z")
If you’re interested in how languages change and evolve, I’m in the middle of reading _The Unfolding of Language_ by Guy Deutscher, and it is quite good. Easy to understand, interesting examples, and the author’s tone is not dull and is occasionally amusing. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/9 "2009-01-03T01:03:46Z")
A vote for Pinker’s [Words and Rules](http://www.amazon.com/Words-Rules-Ingredients-Language-Science/dp/0465072690) ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-books-on-linguistics/479579/10 "2009-01-03T13:46:26Z")
Thanks for all the pointers, I’m off to support my local independent bookshop, thanks to National Book Tokens!