The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language

I picked up a first edition of this book in a used book store some years ago, and found it useful even before I took a course in linguistics in graduate school. When I started my course, I bought the new edition of the book to use as a secondary reading for my course. I have found this book extremely helpful: it broadly comprehensive, sufficiently technically detailed to help get reader a grip on any particular sub-area of linguistics, yet quite readable. The illustrations, charts, and maps make it inviting to open up and start reading. I used this book to supplement the required readings in my course (and often used this as a gateway to the more difficult readings). I would enthusiastically recommend it to any person interested in language, whether as a formal student or simply an interested reader.

I had the 2nd edition of this book for a very long time (almost 15 years) and am glad I updated to the newer 3rd edition. This edition has welcome updates to make it feel more modern and current, particularly when dealing with things like computers/technology and language. This really is an encyclopedia, with coverage on just about any topic of language you can think of. It doesn't delve very deep in some of the entries, but it is a very good starting point and easily accessible. This book is often the first stop I make to get information before venturing on to more detailed or focused books on a particular language topic. In short, if I was stranded on an island and could only have one book on language, this would probably be it! Highly recommended.

I read an interview with Steven Pinker in the NY Times Review of Books and read where Pinker said Crystal was really THE MAN when it came to language acquisition and linguistics. This is an affordable (in paperback) monster encyclopedia just loaded with all kinds of information about language(s). it should be a must have resource for parents and early childhood teachers. I find myself referring to it in all my literacy education courses I teach.

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This is a big book, over 500 pages. A great primer for all things linguistics and a very good introduction to the discipline. If you are planning on studying English or linguistics, read this first! The book covers language and identity, the structure of language (grammar, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics, phonology), child language acquisition, and much more. Highly recommended! It's also written in an easily accessible style, without much prior academic knowledge required.

Good overview on Language and its history. Divides the book up by different topics on language, such as speech acts, sign language etc.. Since it does talk about many aspects of language and many topics, each topic is briefly talked about, so this is good as a base, but if you are looking for really in-depth detail on a specific topic then it might not be as useful, however, he does talk about the founders for each type of topic, which is useful for researchers who are new to a topic.

More than 20 years ago I bought the first edition of this book. The third edition has really undergone a great evolution since then. New chapters have been added to expand general linguistic approaches, studies and researches. Language, as everyone knows, is always changing as it represents human life style on the "go".This book is epitomized by the human life style. Particularly the chapter on the Internet language is very interesting. If you are interested in language and liguistics. the book is "must-read".

Everyone interested in language should own this book. It is wide-ranging, accurate, lucid, engagingly written, well illustrated, and reasonably priced. I will be giving a short Elderhostel-type lecture course on language this fall (I am a retired linguist) and wanted to have the current edition of this book as a backup in case one of the participants asks me a question I can't answer off the top of my head.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (英語) ペーパーバック – 2003/8/4 David Crystal (著) の新装版として記載されていたので購入してみたのだが、どうも内容が異なるようでこちらは言語関連主体の内容でした。 英語自体の百科事典を探していたので買い直しする必要が出てきました。 よく吟味してなかったのも悪いのですが、ちゃんとこちらのも中見せをしておいてほしかったです。 まあ、この本自体は興味深い内容では有ったのでこのままパラパラとページをめくりながら楽しんで読んでます。

This book is truly amazing and worth every penny. The scope is enormous, and yet the reader never feels either overwhelmed or deprived of information on the topic no matter how deep Crystal goes. The graphics and inserts help to make the enormous amount of sheer knowledge and information it contains more digestible. A must-own for students and teachers of language and literature, and highly recommended for anyone interested in anything and everything related to language. A fascinating, beautiful book with amazing, full-color graphics, photos, charts, maps and more in addition to the engaging and very readable prose that underpins the work. The only reason I didn't give five stars is because I purchased a new paperback copy and the one I received seems lightly used. The gloss on the jacket is dull and smudged in some places, the top rear corner is dog-eared, the bottom edge pressed and creased in places, with a noticeable crease and wrinkling on the rear jacket in a place that suggests it has been perused more than once. Shipping was very fast and the price is more than worth the product. All in all, I would happily buy this same book again and am satisfied with the product. Not only is it a great addition to my library that I will always cherish, but one that I will surely read from cover-to-cover and refer to again and again in my teaching practice and ongoing learning.

Na minha humilde opinião, o melhor livro sobre linguística que tive a oportunidade de ler em minha vida. Bem completo e engloba todos os campos da linguística. Valeu cada centavo.

Es ist unglaublich, wieviel an Information in gut verständlicher Form der Autor in dieses Buch gepackt hat. Ist für den interessierten Laien ebenso geeignet wie für den Spezialisten. Sogar in Zeiten, in denen man denkt, dass alle Information über das Internet verfügbar ist, ist dieses Buch eine gute Investition. So kompakt und kompetent wird man sonst nirgends über alle Aspekte menschlicher Sprache informiert.

I like research area