Friday, August 2, 2013

SpecGram Essential Guide to Linguistics - A Book Review

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I recently had the excruciating pleasure of reading an advance copy of The Speculative Grammarian's Essential Guide to Linguistics. For the rare few who are unfamiliar with Speculative Grammarian, it is, and I quote, "the premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics." 

While I don't know that I would call the book "essential", I will tell you that it is essentially absurd and all-encompassing. At a brief 360 pages, it conquers such important topics as cartoon theories of linguistics, linguistic love poetry and mytholingual creatures, not to mention the standard fare of syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology and morphology. There are many impressive diagrams and illustrations that really shed light on the more difficult topics (they also add to the aesthetically pleasing nature of the book). I do believe that his book is an overwhelming indulgence that should not be avoided.

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