Reviewed by Iris F. Levitis, University of Rostock
This volume, edited by John Ole Askedal, Ian Roberts, Tomonori Matsushita, and Hiroshi Hasegawa, is a collection of articles emerging from the Senshu Open Research Project. This project seeks to address the questions: ‘“How are the Germanic languages related?”, “How is the process of language acquisition?”, “What does corpus linguistics have to offer to language analysis?”, and “How can language change by captured in linguistic theories?”’ (1). The volume tackles these questions from different subfields of linguistics. It is divided into three parts focusing on typology, generative grammar, and pragmatics/corpus linguistics.
The first part, ‘Old English and Germanic languages’, includes three articles. John Ole Askedal lays out a typological analysis of the Germanic language family, from which the evolutionary paths and interrelations between the various Germanic language are discussed and contrasted with the Romance family. Tadao Shimomiya approaches the Germanic language family through a detailed comparison of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon of each language. In contrast to these broader typological examinations, Yasuaki Fujiwara focuses on the syntax and poetic uses of the possessive and the genitive in Old English. He uses corpus linguistics methods to study the use of the possessive in Beowulf and Genesis A.
In the second part, ‘Generative grammar’, the focus of the articles switches to the more theoretical aspects of grammar. Hiroshi Hasegawa attempts to reconcile the binding of reflexives with the minimalist program, with a detailed exploration of previous attempts. A morphological analysis of the passive nominal and the need for and possible manner of movement is Junji Hamamatsu’s contribution. In the last article, Ryohei Mita explores the phrase structure of ‘tritransitive verbs’ (121). He contrasts tritransitive sentences with double object constructions and provides an analysis of their differing syntactic structures.
The final section, ‘Pragmatics and corpus linguistics’, addresses the use of corpora for linguistic analysis. The importance of ‘cognitive dependence phenomena’ (158) in English is explored by Shuichi Takeda. In another direction Hiromi Azuma explores the ‘accessibility’ (163) of a referent to an addressee. The usage of who/whom in four different discourse situations is explored by Yoko Iyeiri and Michiko Yaguchi. Hiroaki Sato explains how his program, FrameSQL, simplifies searches of the FrameNet database. FrameSQL makes it possible to search the database without learning the SQL language.
Due to the breadth of questions that this volume attempts to address, linguists in many subfields will find it valuable. Indexes of both names and subjects are included to help the reader navigate.