Observing the picture of modern linguistics, it can be seen 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 for 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, wanting 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 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 with the book Language Research Methods by the same author, Education Publishing House, 2009, the work under discussion in terms of thickness, timeliness, problem-solving, 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 in turn: Dialectical materialist methodology in linguistics, Geneva school methodology, Prague school methodology, Copenhagen school methodology, American structuralist school methodology, London school methodology, generative linguistics methodology, cognitive linguistics methodology and anthropological linguistics methodology.
It is easy to see that the most essential but sometimes not the easiest to grasp things, not only limited to the content of methodology, have been presented in the book in a coherent and surprisingly simple way. Each school of linguistics is identified and considered under three bases: (i) General introduction, (ii) Basic theory and (iii) Philosophical foundation. Besides presenting theoretical axioms of a general nature with convincing explanations, helping to shed more light on some aspects of 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 current scientific issues that have only been known in Vietnam in recent years, such as the methodological system of cognitive linguistics, the extended method 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 seem simple at first glance, 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 starting points of instrumental terms, the book mentions: External explanation method; Internal explanation method; methods of logic, mathematics, psycholinguistics; comparative-historical method; historical-comparative method; contrastive method.
If in the previous part, the rather academic issues were presented relatively simply, demonstrating the erudition in academia, the fluency in cognitive depth, 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 dedicated textbooks, is a treasure trove of experience of a pedagogue, who has been attached to linguistics all his life.
With this monograph, for the first time, the issues of research methods of a narrow field 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, and has systematically introduced 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 the method is understood as a general approach or as a means to discover partial truths.
