Reviewed by Thomas R. Wier, University of Chicago

In modern sociolinguistic models of how languages are distributed around the world and how they interact, it is usually implicit that both the data and analysis are drawn from case studies of contemporary societies. This new work by Ilya Yakubovich illustrates that this assumption is not a necessary one: with a sufficient number of textual attestations and attention to detail, the same principles can also be applied to the languages spoken in remote antiquity with no living speakers.

Y focuses his attention on the Luvian language, an Anatolian language closely related to Hittite once spoken in what is now southwest-central Turkey between the late third and early first millenniums B.C. Though less well-known than their Hittite relatives and their eponymous empire, the Luvians actually outlived them by a number of centuries and probably already by the time of the Hittite New Kingdom (fourteenth–early twelfth centuries B.C.) constituted the largest ethnolinguistic groups of Bronze Age Anatolia. After the empire’s fall, Hittite disappeared entirely from the written corpus of cuneiform texts, and it is the possible implications of this fact that Y explores in detail. Did the collapse of the empire, precipitating the disappearance of bureaucratic records written in Hittite, leave behind illiterate native speakers, or had the language already died out even before the elite culture that protected it?

Y begins his answer to this question in Ch. 1 with a close look at the paleographical record of Luvian, illustrating the differences between various Anatolian Indo-European languages, as well as dialectal variation within Luvian. These will form the foundation for his later argument that, towards the late Hittite New Kingdom, probably all speakers of Hittite were also speakers of Luvian, as evidenced by various forms of lexical and morphological borrowing as well as converging patterns of morphological syncretism. In Ch. 2, Y tries to sort out the social history behind these changes by looking at the complicated and poorly documented ethnographic literature of western Anatolia, including a fascinating excursus on the possible equation of Wilusa/Tarwisa in Hittite texts with Classical Ilium/Troy. Ch. 3 examines in detail prehistoric contact between the Hittite and Luvian languages, illustrating how the changing parallel patterns of syncretism of pronominal clitics in Luvian and Hittite only make sense in a context of persistent bilingualism of the two language communities. In Chs. 4 and 5, Y treats the historical sources of contact of Anatolian communities before and after the establishment of a unified Hittite Empire, respectively, through prosopographic analysis, lexical borrowing, structural interference, the direct assessment of historical information, and the analysis of acronymic values assigned to Anatolian hieroglyphic syllabograms.

Ultimately, what makes this book interesting is the light it sheds on a society separated from us by not one but two Dark Ages, through the lens of languages whose very names had been forgotten in the intervening three millennia. Thoroughly grounded in a detailed understanding of that world, Y’s prose allows us to hear those voices clearly and articulately from across that abyss of time.

Reviewed by Fan Zhen-qiang, Zhejiang Gongshang University

Based on case studies on Czech, German, and French languages, this book demonstrates how to use metaphor, which is one of the major approaches to conceptual organization in language, as an effective tool to analyze the worldviews of different cultures. The book is intended to ‘invite readers into the kind of intellectual adventure that translators set off upon when they enter into foreign worldviews; because translators must inhabit more than one “world”, if they are to be able to build bridges between worlds with their translations’ (12).

Besides the introduction and conclusion chapters, a glossary, bibliography, and index, the book contains nine chapters, which are divided into two parts. The first part (Chs. 1–6) critically evaluates the studies of metaphor by cognitive researchers. Ch. 1 introduces the notions of ‘worldview’, ‘patterning’, and the dialectical relationship between them. It also previews what will be covered in the following chapters. Ch. 2 stresses the crucial role of metaphor for the study of language and thought by explicating the ideas of the German thinker Ernst Cassirer, the French scholar Georges Matoré, and American researchers George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (L & J). The author argues that the ideas proposed by L &J are ‘not revolutionary’ (23) since similar ideas have already explored by Cassirer, Matoré, and others. Ch. 3 summarizes the main claims of L & J’s cognitive metaphor work into seven points.

In addition to these cognitive-oriented studies, Ch. 4 overviews approaches and perspectives to metaphor from a wide range of disciplines, such as philosophy, linguistics, poetics, and rhetoric. The purpose of the overview is to ‘prevent the contribution made to metaphor by cognitive linguists in recent decades from eclipsing the wide variety of other approaches’ (43). Ch. 5 discusses additional cognitive-oriented contributions to metaphor theory, pointing out that many cognitive linguists employ universalist approaches and more research is needed to be based on different languages. Ch. 6 provides representative comparative studies of metaphor with data from a variety of languages.

Part 2 begins with an introduction offering a bird’s-eye view of the case studies, which are presented in the three chapters of this part. Ch. 7 examines how the concepts of ‘history’, ‘people’, ‘Party’, and ‘State’ are metaphorically constructed and expressed in Czechoslovak communist discourse, attempting to ‘enter into its world in order to unveil its logic and its strategies in order to understand how people thought with and within the conceptual world of the communist mindset’ (110). It is discovered that communism concepts and arguments are logical and coherent. In contrast, in Ch. 8, an analysis of metaphors in Nazi discourse reveals that Nazi rhetoric is obscure, incoherent, and perverse. A third case study in Ch. 9 discusses the metaphorical construction of ‘language’, comparing and contrasting how French and English are conceptualized metaphorically. The final chapter summarizes the conclusions presented throughout the book.

Overall, this book is highly recommended for researchers in the fields of critical discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, translation studies, and linguistic typologies.

Reviewed by I. M. Laversuch Nick, University of Cologne

This book offers a superbly written exploration of ‘the ways in which ideas and beliefs about language permeate the social life of groups, communities and societies and how such ideas and beliefs are called upon to justify and legitimate actions that have consequences for people’s opportunities and for their relationships with each other’ (11). Sadly, however, as soon as the authors begin to apply their theory to reality, the excellence of this work dissipates.

While it is understood that this investigation is qualitative in nature, one, nevertheless, expects clear answers to basic questions (e.g. the precise number of participants, the exact context of interviews). Without such answers, it is virtually impossible to critically appraise or appreciate the conclusions drawn. Though disappointing, these oversights are negligible in comparison to the following methodological flaw.

As the authors describe, the historical focus is divided into five conjunctive periods: ‘the present-day situation, the communist era; the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the interwar period, and the late nineteenth century, and the years prior to the First World War’ (50). What is conspicuously absent here is the period during World War II. Given the unquestionable importance of this period for the border regions of the Czech Republic and Hungary and the people residing there, this omission is inexplicable, especially given the number of times their respondents make direct reference to this period. Without direct examination of National Socialism in these regions, much of the historical impetus for the emergence of anti-German ideology, discourse, and language policy after the war is lost. The aim here is neither to excuse nor condone the institutionalized discrimination which many ethnic Germans suffered after World War II. Instead, the point is to reiterate an essential observation that the authors themselves make in their theoretical discussion: ‘texts are produced under particular historical conditions from which they cannot be released’ (19).

The violation of this tenet is one weakness of the applied portion of this work, .in addition to its unclear organization and cumbersome rhetorical style. The chapters which report the study methodology and results were weakened by a repetitive presentation of the interview material, unsystematic analysis of documentary evidence, and many inadequately founded conclusions. It is unclear whether these problems are attributable to one of the book’s two authors; it is clear, however, that the disparate quality between the theoretical and applied sections is so extreme and systematic that two separate evaluations are needed. As a theoretical treatise on the discourse of language and language ideology, this reference is an unqualified triumph, but as an example of modern ethnolinguistic research, it is an unfortunate disappointment.

Reviewed by Peter Tunstall, Saginaw, MI

A ‘brief introduction to modern generative syntax in the Chomskyan tradition’ (2), this book aims to ‘introduce terms and concepts basic to the study of human language, and especially syntax’ and to ‘explore the operational details of particular hypotheses/theories of syntactic structure’ with an ‘emphasis on argumentation and hypothesis-testing’ (11). It succeeds admirably.

Ch. 1 sets the tone with a discussion of the scientific method and some remarks on language acquisition. The history of modern syntactic theory is very briefly summarized. In Ch. 2, traditional grammatical categories are subjected to empirical scrutiny and found wanting. Here we also find a discussion of how morphemes combine to form words. Chs. 3 and 4 introduce phrase structure grammar. Ch. 5 relates syntax to semantics with sections on grammatical function, theta roles, and argument structure. Ch. 6 begins the process of generalization from the category-specific rules described so far to a category-neutral system. Pronoun reference is dealt with in Ch. 7, which includes such important concepts as c-command and binding. Ch. 8 brings in transformational rules to explain complex verb forms. The relation between deep and surface structure is further explored in Chs. 9 and 10, where X-bar theory is at last unveiled. Ch. 11 extends the analysis to functional categories. Ch. 12 examines questions, relative clauses, and WH-movement, while Ch. 13 looks at NP movement. Ch. 14, ‘Things to come’, touches on a selection of remaining topics that are in need of more extensive study: unaccusative verbs, VP shells and verb raising, and the DP hypothesis. There are two appendices: an annotated list of some minor grammatical categories and a list of twenty-eight verbs together with their argument structure.

Each chapter ends with summary points and a problem set. One appealing feature of the book is that the author begins with a simple model of English syntax, which he elaborates and nuances in later chapters as new evidence is presented, thereby encouraging readers to play with the material themselves and to engage critically with it from the outset. (The book is as much about how linguists make deductions as it is about what they deduce.) The author is also successful in motivating theoretical innovations.

Examples are taken mostly from English, although occasionally other languages, especially German and Quechua, are deployed to illustrate linguistic possibilities, which may not be apparent from English alone. The exercises are graded, advanced problems being marked as such. Many exercises are a simple matter of applying the definitions. Some invite the reader to reproduce an argument or generalize ideas from the preceding chapter. Problem 6 in Ch. 12 is exceptional in introducing a new concept (cyclic rule application) not yet covered in the text (142).

In conclusion, this is a short, gentle, inspiring guide to the fundamentals of syntax as science. The author demands little by way of prerequisites—a passing acquaintance with traditional grammar terms (e.g. adverb, subject) should suffice, and offers much by way of key concepts, methodology, and pointers for future study.

Reviewed by I. M. Laversuch Nick, University of Cologne

According to the authors, this reference was conceived not only for researchers specializing in comparative typology but also for advanced university students. With this readership in mind, the authors have taken considerable care to introduce key concepts and principles of generative grammar, complete with diagrams. Furthermore, each step in the process is meticulously illustrated with not one but several sample sentences extracted from a wide typological range of languages and language families. From Albanian, Arabic, and Avar, to Wolof, Yareba, and Yidiny, the sentences analyzed in the book are taken from seventy-four different languages from around the globe.

This impressive linguistic breadth stands as a compelling testament to the power of generative grammar to successfully account for the remarkable surface diversity and underlying unity which simultaneously characterize the world’s store of languages. With almost 700 sample sentences, this reference offers a refreshingly well-written, entirely logic-driven presentation of the ways in which a limited set of generative principles can be used to explain the seeming limitlessness of human linguistic expression. To do this, the authors begin with a concise introduction to the fundamental principles underlying generative grammar in Ch. 1.  Each successive chapter is devoted to examining an individual level of grammar, beginning with the argument structure of the verb phrase in Ch. 2 and ending with illocutionary force and performative structure in Ch. 7.

All too aware that this surface structure might tempt some readers to skip ahead and dive headlong unprepared, the authors issue the following warning: the order of the chapters ‘reflects the unitary and gradual progression of [their] research’ (2), and reading the chapters out of turn may lead to unnecessary confusion. Part of the elegance of this work is that the hierarchical, recursive structure of the discussion which cleverly mirrors the perpetual inter-relatedness of the linguistic processes the authors trace from the deepest levels of lexical insertion up through to the highest levels of communicative intention. To help readers navigate their way through this intellectual travail, each chapter is further supplemented by an average of forty endnotes filled with alternative analyses, typological oddities, historical tidbits, and unresolved points of controversy. These comments will be greatly appreciated by dyed-in-the-wool generativists, and therein lies the crux of the book.

Given its degree of detail, this fast-moving book is entirely inappropriate for all but the most ardent follower of Noam Chomsky. Even those who are familiar with other generative frameworks may find this work somewhat disappointing, as comparatively little time or attention is given to exploring competing theoretical approaches. For Chomsky-enthusiasts with a keen interest in comparative typology, however, this volume will no doubt constitute a much welcomed, highly recommendable contribution to the field.