{"id":1441,"date":"2011-04-06T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1441"},"modified":"2011-03-30T12:16:27","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T10:16:27","slug":"annual-review-of-south-asian-languages-and-linguistics-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1441","title":{"rendered":"Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"
Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics 2008.<\/strong> Ed. by Rajendra Singh<\/strong>. (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs 209.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008. Pp. viii, 326. ISBN 9783110208290<\/a>. $140 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Anish Koshy<\/strong><\/a>, The English & Foreign Languages University, India<\/em><\/p>\n

Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics <\/em>(ARSALL) is an annual series that replaced The yearbook of South Asian languages and linguistics<\/em> in 2007. ARSALL2008, the second issue, has four papers as \u2018General contributions\u2019, two invited papers as \u2018Special contributions\u2019, four \u2018Reports\u2019, four \u2018Reviews and abstracts\u2019, and two \u2018Dialogues\u2019.<\/p>\n

Arguing that non-arbitrariness and transparency are distinct grammatical entities, Probal Dasgupta<\/strong> (3\u201319) discusses the significance of the fact that definite human nominals do not follow the same paradigm as inanimate definite nominals in Bengali. Annie Montaut<\/strong> (21\u201361), studying the semantics of reduplication, shows that total reduplication leaves the item being reduplicated with no stable value and that echo-formation or partial reduplication, through an extension, disqualification, or parody of the notional domain, leaves the notion decentered. Prashant Pardeshi<\/strong> (63\u201382) analyzes invisible agent constructions in four South Asian languages as naru<\/em> \u2018become\u2019 expressions, following the Japanese linguistic tradition, and demonstrates their semantic similarity to and morphosyntactic differences from canonical passives. Arguing that modality may be responsible for the overall organization of the Hindi tense-aspect system, Ghanshyam Sharma<\/strong> (83\u2013113) shows that the frequent use of the verb hona<\/em> \u2018to be\u2019 to signify necessary belief qualifies it as a presumptive modal rather than a tense-marked form.<\/p>\n

In \u2018Special contributions\u2019 Sanford B. Steever<\/strong> reexamines his earlier analysis of finiteness in Dravidian in the light of Hans Henrich Hock<\/strong>\u2019s formulation of Dravidian and Indo-Aryan finiteness in terms of a strict-OV restriction. Hock responds that many of Steever\u2019s formulations are based on middle and modern Tamil, extrapolated to the other Dravidian languages, and hence are not always applicable to them.<\/p>\n

In the \u2018Reports\u2019 section, Tej Bhatia<\/strong> and Rajend Mesthrie<\/strong> report on research on South Asian languages in North America and South Africa, respectively. Niladri Sekhar Dash<\/strong> and Joga Singh<\/strong> each report on various linguistic publications in Bengali and Punjabi from 2000-2008.<\/p>\n

In the \u2018Dialogue\u2019 section, a forum for discussion of previous papers published in ARSALL, Shishir Bhattacharja<\/strong> and Lionel Wee<\/strong> respond to two papers that appeared in ARSALL2007.<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s value lies in its conception as a forum where linguists working on South Asian languages can contribute to, debate, and discuss current issues in the study of these languages. The series is also useful for those interested in current trends and research orientations among South Asian linguists. That it invites responses to earlier publications and sponsors debate between two scholars makes the book a lively and engaging read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics 2008. Ed. by Rajendra Singh. (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs 209.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008. Pp. viii, 326. ISBN 9783110208290. $140 (Hb). Reviewed by Anish Koshy, The English & Foreign Languages University, India Annual review of South Asian languages and linguistics (ARSALL) is an annual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1442,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/1442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}