Observing the picture of modern linguistics, we can see that there are many different research directions and each direction, depending on the philosophical basis, has very different ways of imagining the nature of the object. It can be said that the history of linguistics is the history of schools and corresponding to them is a very diverse system of methods and techniques, besides some common techniques common to all sciences. This characteristic is not unique to linguistics. However, the theoretical negation in this field takes place at a very fast speed. And obviously, to have a general view of some relevant aspects such as philosophical basis, development, inheritance, advantages and limitations of linguistic research methods in general, is not simple, even for experienced researchers.
Professor, People's Teacher Nguyen Thien Giap
In that context, Methodology and methods of language research by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thien Giap was born to provide readers with a very convenient reference guide on methods. The positive effects and influences of this work far exceed, far exceed the three goals that the author modestly established: (i) Distinction between schools, (ii) Contributions, inheritance and development of each school and (iii) Some current research trends.
It can be said that, compared to the book Language Research Methods by the same author, Education Publishing House, 2009, the work under discussion in terms of thickness, timeliness, problematization, theory, applied illustrations... and maturity, all have a much larger scale.
With the title, Linguistic Methodology, the first part of the book presents the following contents: Dialectical materialist methodology in linguistics, methodology of the Geneva school, methodology of the Prague school, methodology of the Copenhagen school, methodology of the American structuralist school, methodology of the London school, methodology of generative linguistics, methodology of cognitive linguistics and methodology of anthropological linguistics.
It is easy to see that the most essential but sometimes not the easiest to grasp things, not only limited to the content of the methodology, have been presented in a coherent and surprisingly simple way in the book. Each school of linguistics is identified and considered under three bases: (i) General introduction, (ii) Basic theory and (iii) Philosophical foundation. In addition to presenting theoretical axioms of a general nature with convincing explanations, helping to shed more light on some aspects of the methodology, although the intensity is different, the book does not forget to mention the application and achievements of Vietnamese linguists related to each school. In addition to classical methodological knowledge, this part also comprehensively updates scientific issues of current significance, which have only been known in Vietnam in recent years, such as the methodological system of cognitive linguistics, the extended methodological issue of anthropological linguistics (see: Methods in cognitive linguistics, 2007 and Language, culture and society, An introduction to linguistic anthropology, 2007). This shows that, in order to have pages that at first glance seem simple, the author must work hard, must read a huge amount of documents and in that complex matrix of words, must be a seasoned person with scientific courage to extract the necessary and sufficient amount of knowledge in depicting each topic that the structure of the book requires.
Part two, presenting the methods of language research, after establishing some instrumental terms as a starting point, the book mentions: External explanation method; internal explanation method; logical, mathematical, psycholinguistic methods; comparative-historical method; historical-comparative method; contrastive method.
If in the previous part, the rather academic issues were presented in a relatively simple way, demonstrating the erudition in academia, the fluency in the depth of perception, the initiative in distributing knowledge, in leading the content of a sharp theorist, this part reflects a different perspective, through the analysis of illustrative examples, the presentation of the connotation and extension of some terms, the way of linking issues with some familiar formulas, the reader also realizes that, behind the pages of the dedicated textbook, is a treasure trove of experience of a pedagogist, who has been attached to linguistics all his life.
With this monograph, for the first time, issues of research methodology of a narrow discipline were published in Vietnam. It can be said that the work has provided an overview of some major milestones, with some relevant tools in the cognitive process of world linguistics, systematically introducing some essential knowledge that cannot be ignored when referring to linguistic research methods.
This is an essential book for researchers, graduate students, postgraduate students, students and those interested in linguistics. It will certainly contribute to improving the quality of research works, theses and dissertations in linguistics, because depending on the topic, depending on the field of interest, Methodology and Methods of Language Research will provide many practical and useful suggestions whether understanding the method as a general approach or as a means to discover partial truths.
