The latest languages and linguistics textbooks

Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction
Authors: Vivian Cook and Martin Newson
Edition: Third
Publisher: Blackwell
Price: £19.99
ISBN 9781405111874

Linguist, philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky has spent six decades developing his theory of Universal Grammar, a concept now central to contemporary linguistics. The authors provide a cogent, accessible introduction that situates the still-evolving concept in the broader framework of Chomsky's work.

From Old English to Standard English: A Course Book in Language Variation across Time
Author: Dennis Freeborn
Edition: Third
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Price: £20.99
ISBN 9781403998804

Originally written as an A-level text, this weighty higher-education coursebook is suitable for both English and linguistics students. It assumes no prior knowledge, emphasises primary sources and is supplemented with a website. New sections include an introduction to palaeography and the development of handwriting.

English Vocabulary Elements
Authors: Keith Denning, Brett Kessler and William Leben
Edition: Second
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Price: £45.00 and £11.99
ISBN 9780195168020 and 5168037

Two US linguists and a cognitive scientist compatriot draw on modern linguistics to help readers develop familiarity with some 350 Latin and Greek building blocks of the evolving English language. Target groups include undergraduates in English, linguistics and classics, English as a second language students and general readers.

Prego! An Invitation to Italian
Authors: Graziana Lazzarino, Andrea Dini and Marina Cristina Peccianti
Edition: Seventh
Publisher: McGraw Hill
Price: £30.99
ISBN 9780071101585

Two US-based professors and a colleague at Siena's Universita per Stranieri update this attractive introductory text, which emphasises skills development over grammar and boasts ancillary programmes such as a supporting website and video footage shot in Italy.

An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Authors: John Clark, Colin Yallop and Janet Fletcher
Edition: Third
Publisher: Blackwell
Price: £22.99
ISBN 9781405130837

Australian linguists update this key general-reference text, which assumes no prior knowledge. In this edition, emphasis is placed on acoustic phonetics and phonological analysis, and it incorporates new material on developments in speech production studies, prosody, optimality theory in phonology, L1 and L2 acquisition and sociolectal variation.

An Introduction to Psycholinguistics
Authors: Danny Steinberg and Natalia Sciarini
Edition: Second
Publisher: Pearson Longman
Price: £17.99
ISBN 9780582505759

In this comprehensive introduction's edition, the authors argue for "natural grammar", which seeks to account for speech comprehension and speech production. Using concrete examples, the text explores subjects ranging from "feral children" to mental grammar and sentence processing, deaf-language education and problems associated with bilingualism.

The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World
Authors: J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams
Edition: First
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Price: £75.00 and £.50
ISBN 9780199287918 and 96682

What was Proto-Indo-European - no text of which survives - and what does it reveal about the people who spoke it? Indo-Europeanist James Mallory of Queen's University Belfast and his colleague D. Q. Adams of the University of Idaho trace the language's reconstruction over the past two centuries from its descendent languages, outline its grammar and key vocabulary, and reveal much about the people who had verbs to describe strife.