A first course in linguistics

Plot

This book is based on a consistent view of the nature of science and of epistemology. It address itself to all literate people of good will. And it believes linguistics has a human face.

The author build it on three principles. First, he believes that a historical approach offers a fruitful way into the subject; Second, that a knowledge of articulatory phonetics is indispensable; Third, that there is no Promised Land. However much attention must be paid to transformational - generative grammar and to Chomsky's Syntactic Structures ( and this book offers a thorough explanation), the student must be made to understand that other approaches exist.