This page provides an unofficial list of linguistics books which our faculty members wish to recommend. These suggested books are intended for graduate students who (a) are looking for summer reading in between regular courses; or (b) are looking for preparatory and additional readings to regular graduate courses. They are divided into the following sections: Introductory materials, General overview, Historical perspective,  Linguistic subfields, Quantitative analysis, Writing an academic article, and Linguistic publications and open-access resources.

 

Introductory materials

▶️Crash Course Linguistics [Watch Here]: engaging visuals for easy learning. Perfect for beginners and those new to the field.

▶️Introduction to Linguistics by Richard Futrell [Watch Here]: requiring more focused and prolonged engagement. Suitable for beginners ready for a deeper study and students with some background in linguistics.

📚Language Files by Ohio State University [Latest Edition]: a widely adopted introductory linguistics textbook. Suitable for students seeking both foundational and in-depth linguistic knowledge.
 

General overview

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2013). An introduction to language (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Jackendoff, R. (2002). Foundations of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Levelt, W. (1993). Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Pinker, S. (1995). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: W. Morrow.

Smith, N. V. (2002). Language, Bananas and Bonobos: Linguistic problems, puzzles and polemics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Smith, N. V. (2005).  Language, Frogs and Savants: More Problems, Puzzles and Polemics in linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.

 

Historical perspective

🎙️History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences podcast. [Website] [Youtube]

Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: De Gruyter.

Harris, R. A. (2021). The Linguistics Wars: Chomsky, Lakoff, and the Battle over Deep Structure (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Robins, R. H. (1997). A Short History of Linguistics (4th ed.). New York: Longman.

Saussure, F. de (1992). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris, Payot DL. (Spa. Translation: Curso de lingüística general, Barcelona, Planeta, 1985; Cat. Translation: Curs de lingüística general, Barcelona, Edicions 62, 1990).

Saussure, F. de (1992). Écrits de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard. (Spa. Translation: Escritos sobre lingüística general, Barcelona, Gedisa, 2004).

Benveniste, É. (1966). Problèmes de linguistique générale I. Paris: Gallimard.

Benveniste, É. (1974). Problèmes de linguistique générale II. Paris: Gallimard.

 

Linguistic subfields

Formal Linguistics

🎙️Lingthusiasm: A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. [Website]

Gutzmann, D., Matthewson, L., Meier, C., Rullmann, H., & Zimmerman, T. E. (Eds.) (2021). The Wiley Blackwell companion to semantics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Everaert, M., & van Riemsdijk, H. (Eds.) (2017). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Horn, L., & Ward G. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Oostendorp, M. v., Ewen, C., Hume, E., & Rice, K. (Eds.) (2011). The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

 

Computational Linguistics

Jurafsky, D., & Martin, J. H. (Draft of August 2024). Speech and language processing: an introduction to natural language processing, computational linguistics, and speech recognition (3rd ed.) [PDF] [Youtube]

Voita, E. (2020, September). NLP course for you. [Website]

▶️Karpathy's "Neural Networks: Zero to Hero" [Website]

 

Language Acquisition

Brooks, P., & Kempe, V. (Eds.). (2014). Encyclopedia of language development. New York, NY: SAGE.

Matthews, D. (Ed.). (2014). Pragmatic development in first language acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Prieto, P., & Esteve-Gibert, N. (Eds.). (2018). The development of prosody in first language acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

 

Language Learning and Teaching

Muñoz-Basols, J., Gironzetti, E. & Lacorte, M. (2018). The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Language Teaching: Metodologías, contextos y recursos para la enseñanza del español L2. Londres: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Trujillo, F., Cassany, D., Combe, C., Ferreira, A., Ollivier, C., & Román-Mendoza, E. (Ed.) (2022). Tecnología versus/para el aprendizaje de lenguas. Reflexiones y conversaciones sobre el futuro de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas mediados por la tecnología. Barcelona: Difusión. (Versió francesa: Technologie versus/pour l’apprentissage des langues. Barcelona: Difusión.)

Gironzetti, E., & Lacorte, M. (Eds.). (2025). The Routledge Handbook of Multiliteracies for Spanish Language Teaching: multimodalidad e interdisciplinariedad. Londres: Routledge.

Lankshear, C. y M. Knobel. (2006) New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning (2nd ed.). Nueva York: McGraw Hill. (Versión española: Nuevos alfabetismos. Su práctica cotidiana y el aprendizaje en el aula. Madrid. Morata / Ministerio de Educación. 2008. 3ª ed.: New Literacies, 2011.)

 

Lexicon: lexicology, lexicography, and terminology

Bernal, E., Freixa, J., & Torner, S. (2022). La neología del español: del uso al diccionario. Madrid: Iberoamericana.

Faber, P., & L’Homme, M. C. (Eds.) (2022). Theoretical Perspectives on Terminology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

 

Sign Language

Pfau, R., Steinbach, M., & Woll, B.  (Eds.) (2012). Sign Language: An International Handbook (1. Aufl., Vol. 37). Berlin/Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.

Baker, A., van den Bogaerde, B., Pfau, R., & Schermer, T. (Eds.) (2016). The Linguistics of Sign Languages: An Introduction. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Aarssen, A., Genis, R., & van der Veken, E. (Eds.) (2018). A Bibliography of Sign Languages, 2008-2017. Leiden: Brill.

 

Gesture Studies

Cienki, A. (Ed.) (2024). Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Morgenstern, A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (Eds.) (2022). Gesture in Language: Development Across the Lifespan. Berlin: De Gruyter, and Washington: American Psychological Association.

 

Quantitative analysis

Franke, M. (2023). An introduction to data analysis. [Website]  (A good starting point for students without prior knowledge)
 

Bayesian statistics

McElreath, R. (2020). Statistical rethinking: A Bayesian course with examples in R and Stan. New York: Chapman and Hall/CRC. [Youtube]
 

Frequentist statistics

Winter, B. (2019). Statistics for linguists: An introduction using R. New York, NY: Routledge.

 

Writing an academic article

Booth, W., Colomb, G.G., & Williams, J.M. (2009). The Craft of Research (3rd ed.).  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Linguistic publications and open-access resources

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics: https://oxfordre.com/linguistics

Annual Review of Linguistics: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/linguistics

Language Science Press: https://langsci-press.org/catalogSearch