Introduction to Integrational Linguistics (Language & Communication Library)

Intergrationism has emerged in the past few years as posing a radical challenge to the orthodoxies of structuralism and generativism in modern linguistics. It proposes a new approach to the problems involved in defining the basic concepts of language.

Although various publications have appeared which discuss the integrational approach in detail, this is the first general introduction addressed specifically to students. It explains the fundamental issues on which integrationists contest the basic assumptions of twentieth-century linguistics.

Each chapter starts from questions likely to be already familiar to the majority of students in linguistics, and shows how an integrational approach tackles these questions from a novel perspective. The innovative terminology of integrational linguistics is fully explained at every step. An extensive bibliography is provided.

Hayley Davis, Goldsmiths College, London
There is certainly a need for a publication of books on integrational linguistics intended essentially for teaching purposes...I would recommend these books for all the courses that I teach.
Jürgen Jaspers
'Integrational linguistics' was first suggested as a term in Harris's The language myth (1981) and has since been taken up by various others as a starting point for a critical look at mainstream linguistics. The present volume is the first general introduction to the integrational approach and specifically addresses undergraduate students. In about 150 pages, it outlines the main tenets of the integrational approach in a challenging and therefore somewhat provocative fashion. A select bibliography of integrationist publications is added at the end.
Pragmatics
Michael Toolan, University of Birmingham, UK
...promises to be one of the most widely-read, most influential, and most 'adopted', of Harris's many books. And when one reflects on his productivity, and the breadth of important book-length contributions he has made to various branches of linguistic study [...] then that is a considerable achievement. ... will find a readership for the old best reasons: the quality of the thinking that underlies it, the quality of the writing by means of which the argument is carried, and the coherence of the picture of human communication that is set forth. ... This short but powerful book is distinguished by the steady accumulation of provocative insights that are the fruits of a long career of reflection on the foundations of linguistic activity coupled with the willingness and ability to refute or look behind received thought. Always Harris finds the exception that not only puts the rule to the test, but helps highlight interesting phenomena that are obscured by what that linguist-devised 'rule' is projecting as normal ... the entire book is distinguished by this sharpness of scrutiny and originality of perspective.
Language Awareness
Tony Bex, University of Kent
... integrationalism has emerged as a thriving school throwing up significant challenges to orthodox linguistics. The appearance of [this volume] is to be welcomed ... I was considerably impressed by Harris's arguments, and certainly feel that they have been presented in a way that will both appeal to, and be accessible to, readers coming to his arguments for the first time.
Language and Literature