Re: CHAT: query: where to start?

At 03:48 PM 8/9/2000 -0400, The Gray Wizard wrote:
>> From: nicole perrin
>> Subject: Re: query: where to start?
>>
>
>> Well, if you want to learn some about the structures of other languages
>> without reading a whole grammar on them, maybe you'd want to check out
>> (or buy) a book like Comrie's The World's Major Languages or Lyovin's An
>> Introduction to the Languages of the World.  The former is the better
>> book but they're both really neat.  They have short essays on a whole
>> bunch of different natlangs so you can learn about the more interesting
>> parts of their grammars and then steal them!
>
>Haven't seen the latter, but can join Nicole's recommendation of the former.
>Once you've gone through this compendium, start collecting as many "Teach
>Yourself ..." books as you can find.  These are great for "tasting the
>grammar of a language without having to delve too deep.  Great sources of
>ideas.  I have a whole shelf full of them.
>
>David
I have both the Comrie and the Lyovin, and IMHO the Comrie is much better.
The Lyovin covers far fewer languages, and also shows clear signs of sloppy
or nonexistent copy-editing.  (If there are lots of mistakes that even I
can spot, with little or no prior knowledge of most of the languages, there
must be far more that I can't spot.  But I understand that this problem is
endemic to the publishing business nowdays, and that the university presses
are often the worst offenders.)  On the other hand, the Lyovin does include
some languages that aren't "major" and therefore didn't make it into the
Comrie.

And while I'm in book-recommending mode, I'll put in yet another plug for
another of Comrie's books, which I've recommended many times before to
other newcomers to this list: _Language Universals and Linguistic Typology_
(University of Chicago Press, 1989, 0-226-11433-3).  If you're interested
in cross-linguistic patterns, rather than just information about individual
languages, this is a great place to start.

- Tim

------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Smith

"To live outside the law you must be honest."
        -- Bob Dylan