&gt; Any recommendation for an intro book I could grab to read in my spare time?<p>Unfortunately I think the field suffers from a lack of such books.<p>1. You could try Steven Pinker&#x27;s &quot;The Language Instinct&quot;, although it&#x27;s a general-audience book that doesn&#x27;t really try to teach you linguistics proper<p>2. The first textbook I used was <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;linguistics.osu.edu&#x2F;research&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;lang-files" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;linguistics.osu.edu&#x2F;research&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;lang-files</a> and it&#x27;s pretty good. However, it&#x27;s quite hard to obtain.<p>Edit:<p>3. If you just want to look at syntax <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.mit.edu&#x2F;norvin&#x2F;www&#x2F;24.902&#x2F;24902.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.mit.edu&#x2F;norvin&#x2F;www&#x2F;24.902&#x2F;24902.html</a> is advanced but good