Linguistics [antikvár]

Preface There are many excellent introductions to linguistics already available; but it seems to me that they all presuppose a great deal of understanding on the part of a reader - and I mean 'understanding' both in the sense of 'sympathy' and of 'prior knowledge'. Many questions of a pragmatic, historical and philosophical nature are taken quite for granted. I have therefore tried in this book, especially in Chapters 1-3, to look rather more thoroughly at these preliminary questions than is usually the case in short introductions. In a paperback introduction, also, it is inevitable that certain topics will be dealt with summarily which really deserve more space. In particular, I have had to avoid entering into details of controversial issues, relying on the existence of the many textbooks on more restricted topics to develop the positions sketched out here. I have also avoided any unnecessary duplication with the Pelicans on Grammar and Phonetics, which were being written simultaneously with this one. But I hope that the preliminary topics covered in the first three chapters will be able to make good my partial coverage, and provide a satisfactory general foundation for the interrelating of more specialist issues. Chapter 4 is the main chapter, presenting the various branches and current trends of the subject in a largely historical perspective. Chapter 5 looks at the overlap between the subject-matter of linguistics and that of other fields, and attempts to suggest points of contact between the theoretical emphasis of Chapter 4 and the practical demands of Chapter 1. And I have incorporated an extended illustration of one kind of linguistic reasoning as an interlude between the more 'academic' ruminations of Chapters 3 and 4. My thanks are due to John Lyons, Frank Palmer, and Ron Brasington, for much-needed advice while this book was in preparation.