LINGUISTICS: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION. P. H. Matthews. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xiii + 134. $9.95 paper.

This volume belongs to Oxford's series of Very Short Introductions to topics, events, texts, philosophies, individuals, and places. Unlike many contemporary linguistic texts written for introductory college courses, its chapters do not proceed from one area of structural analysis to another and then conclude with a few chapters on topics such as language acquisition and writing systems. Instead, this book focuses on some of the more philosophical questions associated with the field, which, no doubt, hold greater interest for the public at large. The exploration of structures is left to supporting examples and a chapter on sounds near the end of the book.