I've been reading a lot of psychology and neuro-science and behavioral economic books, etc. And I keep encountering snippets from linquistics. So I thought I'd pick up something that would start at the beginning and give an overview. Well. Maybe some of the other books, in the nicely annotated 'recommended reading' list, would have been a better choice.

This one does not start with basic concepts. The terms are seldom sufficiently defined in the text, and there is no glossary. There's no answer key to the review questions for each chapter. There's no attempt to address the reader, but it's rather just a straight cold explanations. That is to say, it reads as if the author is writing answers to her professor to show that she understands each lesson.

Ok, she did use the word 'umpteen' once. That startled me; it was special.

It's also dated. The earliest work on the topic, in the last century...." Ok, never minding that it's just not good clear writing to be so vague, apparently she didn't predict that people might still be reading her book in the 21st C - because obviously she's actually referring to the 1800s.

Oh I could go on picking nits, but why bother. There are better choices out there - that are more up-to-date and easier to use and more thorough. There's no reason for you to consider this one. I saved you the trouble.

I just wish she'd had some laypeople read it to save *me* the trouble!

ETA - it's also British, so most of the phonetic analyses meant little to me. In the US we don't form our words that same way....
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