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.

Matthews begins by noting the advantages and disadvantages of our insider position as human beings when we attempt to take an objective, scientific approach to the study of language. He then discusses how language might have evolved within our species and considers Chomsky's emphasis on the role of genetic inheritance and others' focus on cultural processes. He examines how languages change over time and vary within their dialects, the role variation plays as an impetus for change, and the repercussions of a single change within a language. This discussion leads to a chapter on language families and how linguists reconstruct contemporary languages' ancestors as well as a chapter that looks at variation across modern languages. Matthews then presents and responds to the following questions: (a) What is language? (b) Does the language system exist in the community or in the individual? (c) How much of language is systematic? (d) Are the rules that constrain a language absolute? He notes that language can be studied at various levels of abstraction, which he illustrates in a chapter entitled “Sounds,” and that the study of language appeals to both those who revel in its less systematic aspects and those who are attracted to the search for patterns. The final chapter of the book examines the relationship between language and the brain and stresses that we do not yet know how what happens physically in our brains relates to, for example, our understanding of a sentence.

This small book covers much ground. Matthews presents differing perspectives with respect and fairness. The multiple viewpoints are stimulating and refreshing. The clear presence of the author's voice, his inclusion of the ideas and photos of a number of leaders in the field (pictured are Sweet, Jones, Saussure, and Chomsky), his examples from a wide variety of languages, and his quotes from literary texts all add interest. For many of us who have studied linguistics and have a special interest in SLA, this text offers an opportunity to step back and look once again at the broad philosophical questions that initially attracted us to this field of study and its applications.

Despite the quality of the ideas in this book, had I been Matthews' editor, I would have had several suggestions. First, the book is printed in what appears to be 9-point Times font, which is too small to be inviting. To keep the number of pages in the text within the “very short” limits of the series, a better solution would have been to cut or shorten parts of the book. The chapter on sounds, which serves to illustrate levels of abstraction in language analysis, could have been omitted and the same point made at the end of the chapter on systems with a brief example or two. Also, the morphological descriptions used to illustrate the types of distinction some languages make are more detailed than what would be needed or perhaps even welcomed by nonlinguists.

I would also suggest that a number of the ideas in the text be illustrated with examples from morphology or syntax rather than phonology. The phonological examples from English are limited in their effectiveness because English pronunciation differs so much from place to place. I suspect that the transcriptions of the British dialect used for the illustrations are of little help to readers with no background in linguistics, the targeted audience for this book. Finally, I would propose that the organization of the text, from the “‘arts’ end of the subject … to the latest in scientific research” (as stated on the inside flap of the front cover), be noted within the first chapter and highlighted briefly at the end of the book. This would give the reader a clearer sense of the path taken throughout the text and prevent the book from ending abruptly.