“Kornai’s contribution is refreshingly different in that he treats, in this relatively compact volume, practically all areas of linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language processing. … A single entry point to the central methods and concepts of linguistics that are made largely … to the mathematician, computer scientist, or engineer … . the most likely readership of this book consists of (computational) linguists and others who already know the linguistic issues … .”

(Richard Sproat and Roxana Gîrju, Computational Lingustics, Vol. 34 (4), 2008)

“This is a remarkable book on the mathematics used for linguistics. … it provides a coherent, well-written view of the math required to model the structure of langiage as used in the main branches of linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The intended audience is anyone with sufficient general mathematical maturity, such as advanced undergraduate math. … The math is presented well, and the material has a strong narrative flow.”

(Rohan Baxter, Computing Reviews, March, 2009)

“The book deals … with mathematics inspired by linguistics than with applications of mathematics in linguistics. A large part of the book deals with mathematical models of signal, speech, and handwriting recognition. The book consists of ten chapters. Every chapter contains interesting examples, elegant mathematics and many further reading hints. … The book contains many interesting mathematical models, stimulating examples and elegant proofs, and it is well written.”

(Jaroslav Král’, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1171, 2009)