Reviewed by Peter Freeouf, Chiang Mai University

This detailed, densely packed reference grammar of contemporary standard Russian is appropriate for advanced students as well as for general readers and linguists looking for information about how Russian morphology and syntax are actually used. Numerous realistic example sentences that reflect contemporary life are provided to illustrate grammatical and syntactic points.

The introduction (xi–xii) is followed by a section on how to use the book (xiii–xiv) and a glossary of grammatical terms (xv–xx), which will be useful for those not familiar with basic linguistic terminology.

The grammar is divided into two parts: ‘Structures’ and ‘Functions.’ ‘Part A: Structures’ (3–255) has eleven chapters that cover the sounds and the writing system, word classes, inflectional morphology, and syntax. The spelling system and pronunciation as well as issues such as the standard transliteration used by the Library of Congress are presented in detail in Ch. 1, ‘Sounds and spelling’. Ch. 2, ‘Nouns’, discusses gender and provides reference lists and paradigm charts. Ch. 3 deals with nominal ‘Case’. Verb conjugations are the subject of Ch. 4, ‘Verbs’, and the topic of verb aspect is treated in detail in Ch. 5, ‘Aspects of the verb’. The following three chapters examine ‘Adjectives’ (Ch. 6), ‘Pronouns’ (Ch. 7), and ‘Numerals and other quantity words’ (Ch. 8). Ch. 9, ‘Uninflected parts of speech’, includes adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and sentence particles. ‘Word formation’ (Ch. 10) discusses the formation of nouns and adjectives as well as the usage and semantics of verb prefixes. The final chapter of the first part of the book, Ch. 11, examines agreement in the noun phrase as well as subject-verb agreement.

‘Part B: Functions’ (257–459) contains twelve chapters that deal with communicative functions and various syntactic topics of language usage. Ch. 12, ‘Establishing identity’, discusses the complex matter of Russian names, especially patronymics and surnames; ways of discussing a person’s age; asking and giving directions; postal addresses; official registration; nationality; occupation; and marital status. Ch. 13, ‘Establishing contact’, is on greetings, leave-taking, introductions, letter-writing, and talking on the telephone. The next two chapters, Chs. 14 and 15, cover expressions of ‘Being, becoming and possession’ and ‘Negation’. Ch. 16 provides a useful summary of the linguistic expression of attitude and opinion. Ch. 17 examines interrogative sentences of various types. Ch. 18 focuses on ‘Obligation, instructions, requests, advice and permission’. Ch. 19, ‘Using numbers; talking about times, dates and quantities’, is the functional counterpart to Ch. 8, ‘Numerals and other quantity words’. Ch. 20, ‘Focus and emphasis’, discusses word order, the use of active and passive verbs, and definiteness and indefiniteness. Ch. 21, ‘Establishing contexts and connections’, deals with expressing time and place at the phrase and clause level, conditions and concessions, and other adverbial clauses. Ch. 22 is on verbs of motion, a difficult and complex area of Russian grammar for English speakers. The final chapter, ‘Communication strategies’, deals with formal and informal language usage and discourse expressions. The book concludes with an index that lists topics in English (461–67) and a smaller number in Russian (467–69).

The division into structures and functions is an innovative approach that represents modern developments in second-language textbooks, hence the doubly appropriate use of the word modern in the title. This is a comprehensive reference grammar, which goes beyond traditional presentations of the complex morphology and syntax of Russian. It is excellent in every respect, up-to-date, and packed full of information in a very clear and reader-friendly format.

Reviewed by Sandra Becker, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

Although recent years have witnessed an exponential growth in the literature on second language teaching and learning, Vivian Cook’s investigations remain an important source of research on this field.

The organization of this book should be applauded. First, each chapter establishes questions that will be addressed. Each chapter is then divided into two equally important sections: discussion topics, in which new specific questions are proposed and theses are considered, and further reading in which websites, articles, and books on the topic are listed. Some chapters also contain sections such as answers to questions, glosses, grammatical terms, and keywords. Another remarkable feature is the extensive website linked to the ideas and contributions, which can help foster a relationship between the reader and the topics discussed.

This book contains thirteen chapters that offer well-prepared summaries of the field and related applications. The sections that deal with language learning are particularly illuminating, which makes the reading even more compelling. Ch. 1 focuses on the general background of language acquisition research and language teaching. Since this book is concerned with how people acquire second languages and, consequently, with second language acquisition research, applied linguistics is focused on. Beliefs and myths are briefly discussed, which provides an introduction for more in-depth issues.

Ch. 2 addresses distinct types of grammar. Controversial subjects are debated, shedding light to what should be taught and how effective different teaching approaches can be. Special attention is given to the role of explicit grammar in language teaching.

Semantics is the concern of Ch. 3. Learning new words consists of developing vocabulary strategies and organizing the words into groups in our minds. Memory systems, previous knowledge, and deductions are some of the aspects considered as the meaning of a word is acquired.

Phonology and phonetics are the focus of Ch. 4. According to the author, ‘Learning to pronounce a second language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias of the first language’ (70). The complexity of this process is illustrated by the stages learners go through. The role of transfer from one language to another in acquiring pronunciation and the controversies around teaching intonation are also discussed in Ch. 4.

Ch. 5 explores writing systems in a discussion of punctuation, spelling, and different learning techniques. Curious learning strategies are reported, such as those that involve distinct alphabets, scripts, or meaning and sound based writing systems. However, C does not discuss her perspective when it comes to writing as whole. It would be interesting to learn her opinion about writing essays, articles, text organization, and the second language learning research on this topic.

The spotlight turns to specific aspects of the learner and the learning processes in Ch. 6. When it comes to investigating learning strategies, one of the primary difficulties is methodological. Misinterpretations and subconscious language behavior may limit investigative methods. Learning about students’ minds is an ambitious endeavor, and Ch. 6 looks at cognition with a magnifying lens.

Effective reading relies on mastering certain abilities that can be explained by schema and script theories, which are discussed in Ch. 7. Here the roles of background knowledge, memory, and script in reading are explored in detail. When the focus turns to listening, bottom-up and top-down strategies are discussed. Because scripts and schemas are equally involved in listening, a brief debate on cognition also takes place here. Reflections on teaching reading and listening close this chapter.

Ch. 8 attempts to answer why some students learn almost effortlessly and others struggle to learn at all. The many facets and roles of motivation are also explored, as is aptitude, another controversial issue. Different abilities and the role of age and personality traces on second language learning are also described in this chapter.

Ch. 9 compares the classroom environment and the so-called real word. The language used in both contexts seems to have differences that may promote or compromise the learning process on some levels. C provides information on how teachers can profit from conversation analysis to encourage their students’ progress.

Ch. 10 covers the mythicizing of native speakers. Since multiple language varieties make it difficult to establish what a native speaker profile consists of, C focuses on the advantages of bilingual and multilingual modes. Another controversial belief is brought to light in this chapter: the use of first language in the classroom.

In Ch. 11 the reasons why people learn a second language are investigated. The impact that language has on our lives cannot be measured. However, C explores the nature of bilingualism and its controversies as well as the communities created when groups decide to learn a new language. If people learn a language while aiming for a distinct target, their teachers should have distinct goals as well. C provides a rich discussion on the goals of language teaching that cover social, cognitive, individual aspects of this venture.

Ch. 12 describes the Chomskyan approach to language learning and its recent developments. Other models and theories are also depicted in detail. While in Ch. 12 the analysis is directed from learning to teaching, this dynamic is reversed in Ch. 13. One of the most important sections of this volume, Ch. 13 covers six teaching styles. Each approach is extensively described along with its related techniques, keywords, and relevant questions for discussion.

Undoubtedly, the fourth edition of this volume will provide a useful set of tools for students, teachers, linguists, and literary scholars who concern themselves with the complexities of language learning.

Reviewed by Peter Freeouf, Chiang Mai University

Organized in the fashion of Paul Newman’s monumental grammar of another Afroasiatic language, Hausa (The Hausa language: An encyclopedic reference grammar, New Haven: Yale, 2000), with topics arranged in English alphabetic order, this reference grammar is much shorter, less extensive, and less detailed than Newman’s work. From the preface it appears that this grammar was originally conceived as the third of four volumes of a wider study of Egyptian Arabic and was designed to be an explanatory glossary of grammatical terminology for the language. As a reference grammar, this volume stands on it own quite well. In the forward it is claimed that this work is the only reference grammar of this variety of spoken Arabic that is described in English; the only other reference grammar of Egyptian Arabic written in a Western language is in German and has not been translated into English.

This type of format, an alphabetical arrangement according to grammatical topic, requires some getting used to. It is not organized in the traditional order of phonology/orthography, morphology, and syntax, as is the case for William Wright’s grammar of the classical language (A grammar of the Arabic language, Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1967) or other reference grammars of Arabic, written or spoken, such as Mark W. Cowell’s Reference grammar of Syrian Arabic (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1964). The first topic is active participles (3–15), and the final topic is a very short one, writing system (329–30). An index (331–35) follows the final grammar topic. This index is very helpful since it lists all the topics and subtopics and takes the place of a comprehensive table of contents, which is of course impossible in a grammar organized in this way. A very short bibliography (337) with only nine entries finishes the volume.

Some topics are cross-referenced; for example, under manner adverbs and Masdar (125) the reader is referred to adverbs of manner and verbal noun, respectively. The entries range from the simple, such as velum and velar (261), to those with much more detailed coverage, such as the various subcategories of verbs, which are listed alphabetically (261–98). The verbs are followed by verbal nouns, which are similarly categorized with various subtopics (299–314). This specific arrangement of verbs followed by verbal nouns matches more or less the traditional arrangement. However, these topics are followed by vocative particles (315), voicing (315–16), and vowels (316–27), each with several subtopics. The entry under passive (189–95) contains subtopics that vary from the morphological (e.g. verb formation; 194–95), to the syntactic (e.g. meaning; 189–90 and syntax; 193–94). This works out fairly well but requires some familiarity with the layout and organization.

Egyptian Arabic is geographically central in the Arabic-speaking world and has by far the largest number of speakers of any variety of spoken Arabic; therefore, it occupies a preeminent position culturally and politically. The Arabic examples, which are provided in a standard transcription, nicely illustrate each topic. This grammar provides a good summary of the main points of spoken Egyptian Arabic.

Reviewed by Carol Myers-Scotton, Michigan State University

This edited volume contains sixteen chapters that discuss how cultural differences can affect the management of social relations in conversation. Five chapters are authored or coauthored by the editor, Helen Spencer-Oatey. Most chapters deal with what she calls intercultural communication—that is, ‘data obtained when members of two different cultural groups interact with each other’ (6); however, some authors refer to cross-cultural data, or ‘data obtained independently from two different cultural groups’ (6). Five of the chapters provide different theoretical frameworks.

In Ch. 2, ‘Face, (im)politeness and rapport’ (11–47), Spencer-Oatey outlines her revision of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson 1987) to emphasize that rapport management should involve not only face sensitivities but also ‘fundamental social entitlements that a person claims […] in his/her interactions with others’ (13).

In Ch. 3, ‘Culture and communication’ (48–72), Vladimir Žegarac stresses the cognitive aspects of communication that figure into ‘the systematic dependence of meaning on context (where the context is the set of assumptions used in interpreting a communicative act)’ (56). Among other approaches, Žegarac discusses relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson 1986/1995) and ‘the orientation of human cognition and communication towards relevant information’ (48).

In Ch. 7, ‘Pragmatic transfer’ (141–63), Vladimir Žegarac and Martha Pennington present another cognitive-based framework relevant to intercultural communication. They suggest that misunderstandings may arise in intercultural communication because of pragmatic transfer; in other words, the tendency to apply to new situations an existing mental set that has been determined by culture-specific knowledge. The problem is that ‘if interactants from different cultural backgrounds are unaware of the differences in their respective mental sets, misunderstandings are likely to occur’ (142).

In Ch. 8, ‘Communication accommodation theory’ (164–86), Virpi Ylänne suggests that communication accommodation theory (Giles, Coupland, & Coupland 1991) might be modified to reflect such recent arguments as that ‘social realities are only fixed through discourse’ and that  ‘the old, structured certainties of class and ethnic self-definition have lapsed’ (179).

In Ch. 9, ‘Adaptation and identity’ (187–203), Martin Fougère explores the idea of place—that is, how living in a different culture can affect a person’s sense of identity.

This volume is designed as a textbook, concluding with two chapters on data gathering, and another chapter that contains ideas for projects. Each chapter (except for the introduction) contains lists of key points for study purposes, questions for discussion, and references for further reading. However, there is much that makes this volume more than just a textbook, notably the depth of discussion in the theoretical chapters. My only real complaint is that most of the authors of the seven more data-based chapters do not noticeably make use of the frameworks discussed. The range of communities considered is great, but most authors simply point out evidence of cultural differences in conversational style in the communities discussed.

REFERENCES

Brown, Penelope, and STEPHEN C. LEVINSON. 1987. Politeness: Some

universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Giles, Howard; justine coupland; and NIKOLAS COUPLAND. 1991. Contexts of accommodation: Developments in applied sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1986/1995. Relevance: Communication and cognition. 2nd edn. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Reviewed by Haitao Liu, Communication University of China

Although the literature on phrase structure is much larger than that on dependency relations, the discussion of dependency relations predates generative grammar. This book adds to the much needed literature on dependency relations. In the foreword, the editors define a dependency grammar as ‘A sentence […] associated with a formal object depicting its internal organization called the syntactic structure [which is] a set of lexical units of this sentence linked together by syntactic relations’ (xiii). It is on the basis of this definition that this volume investigates several important topics of contemporary syntactic research.

In the forward, Igor A. Mel’čuk and Alain Polguère introduce dependency syntax and present the four articles contained in this volume. They argue that the syntactic structure of a sentence has four defining properties: (i) connectedness of the syntactic structure, (ii) directedness of syntactic relations, (iii) strict hierarchical organization of the syntactic structure, and (iv) meaningfulness of syntactic relations. This preparatory knowledge is helpful to understand the other articles in this volume.

After introducing some basic concepts, Igor A. Mel’čuk sketches dependency theory with a demonstration of the existence of three types of dependency relations between two wordforms (xix): (i) semantic dependency; (ii) syntactic dependency, which controls the passive valence of the phrase as well as the mutual linear positioning of its wordforms; and (iii) morphological dependency, in which one wordform controls the inflectional values of the other. Focusing on the syntactic level, M proposes three criteria for establishing a syntactic dependency between two wordforms (word 1 and word 2) in a sentence: the first of these three criteria establishes the presence of a syntactic link between word 1 and word 2, based on determining their mutual linear arrangement and possible prosodic unity; the second establishes the direction of the syntactic link, based on the passive syntactic valence of the phrase word 1-word 2, its external morphological links, and its semantic content; and the third establishes the specific type of the surface-syntactic relation r that holds between two wordforms based on semantic contrast, syntactic substitutability of the dependent subtree, and repeatability of r. These criteria are necessary for a deeper characterization of syntactic dependency and for building a dependency syntax for a language. This article also proposes an illustrative list of surface-syntactic relations for English.

Bridging the gap between dependency and a phrase structure approach to syntax, Sylvain Kahane presents a formal dependency grammar compared with a head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG). K provides a lexicalist model of extraction, in which HPSG formalism is used to implement a pure dependency interpretation of this phenomenon. The author argues that the modeling of extraction belongs to the syntax-semantic interface, whereas phrases are only entities of syntax, and therefore, a lexical-based approach to extraction is more economical than a phrase-based approach. K’s study also demonstrates that HPSG formalism can support a dependency approach to syntax very well.

Lidija Iordanskaja and Igor A. Mel’čuk investigate how to establish an inventory of surface-syntactic relations (in general) and valence-controlled surface-syntactic dependents of the verb in French (in particular). The central idea of this article is to fit the techniques for establishing surface-syntactic relations (SSyntRels) in a language into the accepted theoretical and typological frame, which is used for establishing the inventories of other linguistic units. Based on the commonality of the syntactic properties of dependents and three tests, the authors list sixteen SSyntRels. For each SSyntRel described, the authors also supply: (i) the properties of the SSyntRel, (ii) formal types of its dependents, (iii) linguistic comments, and (iv) a justification in the form of a comparison with other SSyntRels.

Jasmina Milićević describes a well-known word order problem of Serbian syntax: the linear placement of clitics. After introducing this syntactic phenomenon, the author proposes a set of rules that allow for synthesizing Serbian sentences that contain clitics within the meaning-text model. Linear positioning of a clitic cluster is carried out by first establishing the linear order of all the constituents of the clause and then processing of all the constituents to determine which ones can or must host the cluster.

Reviewed by Teun A. van Dijk, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

The study of social cognition has been popular in social psychology since the early 1980s, especially (with this label) in the United States, whereas in Europe, the main interest has been in social identity theory (especially in the United Kingdom) and the theory of social representations (mainly in France). Some contemporary developments are attempting at least some integration of these different directions of research at the boundary of social and cognitive psychology. Unfortunately, with the exception of so-called discursive psychology in the United Kingdom and some of the social psychology of language (traditionally interested in language attitudes), social psychologists—unlike cognitive psychologists—have shown surprisingly little interest in the study of language use and discourse. Conversely, with the exception of current interest in discourse and identity, few linguists and discourse analysts have explored this fascinating interdisciplinary field or the issues typically studied in classical and modern social psychology, such as personality, aggression, attitudes, prejudice, attribution, group identity and relations, impression management, or influence—despite the fact that many of these areas involve language use, text, or talk. Indeed, if at all, linguists are interested in cognitive science or the cognitive psychology of discourse processing.

It was, therefore, an excellent idea for Hanna Pishwa to invite linguists to explore the field of social cognition, which she sketches in the introduction. The seventeen chapters in this book thus deal with such diverse topics as the historical origins of the social approach to language, embodiment, universalism versus relativism in language and culture, the lexical expression of privacy, collective cognition, conversational pragmatics, situated positioning, knowledge schemas in the workplace, corporate self-presentation, distributed cognition, irony, attribution categories, recurrent word combinations, emotion(al) talk, motion and emotion, and metaphor.

Although these are topics that may be dealt in a sociocognitive framework, unfortunately most of the authors ignore current ideas, theories, and debates in social psychology, in general, as well as the study of social cognition, in particular. Moreover, some of the chapters do not even attempt to say anything about social cognition. Thus, very little interdisciplinary work is actually accomplished, and I am afraid that most social psychologists will not be interested in many of these chapters.

It is no doubt very interesting to link language use, text, and talk to the ways various forms of social cognition (as social representations, knowledge, attitudes, ideologies, norms, values, etc.) are being acquired and reproduced by discourse and thus become distributed as shared common ground among the members of groups and communities, or how such shared representations are in turn fundamental conditions of appropriate discourse production and understanding. Detailed discourse analysis may be related to the details of socially situated mental processing and representations that are hard to study in the laboratory, which regrettably remain the main and very impoverished context of most experimental social psychological research until today. Although some of the papers deal with interesting aspects of this complex field (e.g. knowledge, metaphor, emotion, distributed cognition), most papers do not show how their linguistic topics can be significantly related to this interdisciplinary framework that relates discourse, cognition, and society. Social psychologists as well as linguists and discourse analysts still have a long way to go to provide integrated insight into the study of the socially situated discursive reproduction of socially shared representations.

Reviewed by Edward J. Vajda, Western Washington University

This dictionary is the first truly authoritative reference of Lakota and Dakota vocabulary. Underpinned by extensive new fieldwork with a range of the most proficient native speakers, it contains not only modern and innovative forms but also reports on the results of a thorough rechecking of textual and dictionary materials recorded during the past century. Written in a fully phonemic script and filled with examples that explicate the semantic nuances of each word, it largely supersedes the three most extensive lexicographic works previously available: A dictionary of the Teton Dakota Sioux language: Lakota-English, English-Lakota (Eugene Buechel, 1970, Pine Ridge, SD: Red Cloud Indian School); A Dakota-English dictionary (Steven R. Riggs, 1992, ed. by James Owen Dorsey, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society); and the unpublished Lakota dictionary (Ella Deloria, 1966, Chamberlain, SD: Dakota Indian Foundation).

One feature that immediately sets this book apart is its inclusive and accurate treatment of the various dialectal forms recorded across the full geographic spread of the closely related Lakota and Dakota languages. Each entry clearly identifies the dialect represented, and the extensive introductory section provides a superb overview of the interrelation between the dialects themselves (3–8). Other dictionaries tend to focus on only a single dialect or mixed vocabulary from more than one dialect without clearly indicating the source.

Also welcome is the unexpectedly detailed and lucid grammar section (689–778), which makes this dictionary easy to use, although it is not intended as a substitute for a genuine reference grammar. Another useful feature is the editor’s thoughtful account of the history of Lakota lexicography (8–20), which clarifies problems the dictionary was compiled to rectify. This discussion is invaluable to anyone wishing to consult the earlier sources because it identifies the strengths and weaknesses of these works.

The tremendous attention to accurate detail in this work shines through on every page. The densely packed information is arranged in a visually pleasing way, with easily followed abbreviations and other conventions, all of which are explicated inside the front and back covers. In the Lakota to English portion, entry headwords appear in blue, additional Lakota or Dakota forms in bold black print, and English translations in lighter black print, making it easy to scan the page for information. Verb entries include conjugated forms that would not be obvious from the citation form. The English-to-Lakota is likewise authoritative, with numerous cross-references to the Lakota-to-English section, where more information on semantics is provided.

This book is invaluable both as a means of learning modern Lakota and Dakota vocabulary and as an authoritative guide to the many obsolete terms recorded in earlier texts. Beginning students as well as the most serious scholars of the Lakota and Dakota languages will find it an essential reference.

Reviewed by Haitao Liu, Communication University of China

This book analyzes Chinese syntax within the framework of generative linguistics. Although not intended for learners of Chinese, it may serve as a reference book for those who formally research Mandarin Chinese syntax.

Ch. 1 (9–37) is about parts of speech, which the authors refer to as categories. In light of the study of other languages, the authors suggest that the syntactic behavior of a word determines its category, which can be construed through a cluster of positively- or negatively-valued features.

Ch. 2 (38–76) focuses on the nature of argument structure. For maximal explanatory power, a theory with the least stipulation is presented here for the lexico-semantic decomposition of verbs.

Among the wide range of topics touched upon in the discussion of canonical sentence structure in Ch. 3 (77–111), verb phrases and their components receive the most attention. The authors systematically distinguish between adjuncts and complements, search for the best syntactic representations of five different postverbal constituents and explore a realistic mechanism to handle semantic notions such as aspect and modality in the syntax of Chinese.

Ch. 4 (112–52) deals with the passive bei construction, which takes two forms depending on the presence or absence of an agent phrase. After demonstrating the pros and cons of a movement-based approach and an approach based on complementation, the authors argue that the Chinese passive involves both movement and complementation.

In Ch. 5 (153–96), the authors explore passives and ba constructions. Despite their similar argument structures, these constructions differ in the scope of acceptability—a disparity originating in the different subcategorization requirements of ba and bei, which is evident in their syntactic structures. Additionally, the authors propose an analysis of the complicated ba construction to secure a possible mechanism for an affected interpretation.

Ch. 6 (197–235) deals with topic and relative clause structures, in which a clause is used to modify a head noun phrase. The authors demonstrate that these two constructions are similar but not identical, arguing that variations within relative constructions suggest a cluster of empirical generalizations that can be traced to the absence or presence of a relative operator.

Ch. 7 (236–82) investigates the syntax of interrogative sentences, especially wh-questions and A-not-A questions (a special type of disjunctive questions) and suggests a modular approach to the latter.

Ch. 8 (283–328) takes up the syntactic structure of noun-headed phrases (i.e. nominal expressions). The authors maintain that Chinese noun phrases, like those in other languages, exhibit more complicated structures than perceived at first glance. They propose a full determiner phrase (i.e. a structure in which smaller phrases headed by a numeral expression, a classifier, and a noun can be embedded) and illustrate that such a framework permits deviations and affords explanations in terms of (in)definiteness, specificity, and compositional semantics.

Ch. 9 (329–71) discusses donkey anaphora, a linguistic phenomenon somewhere between definite coreference and variable binding. There are, according the authors, two types of donkey sentences each with their own distinctive properties. The insight into these two types of donkey sentences, the authors believe, may resolve an important controversy between two recently prominent theories for handling indefinite noun phrases and their referential properties.

This book will be helpful to both students hoping to know more about the formal treatment of Chinese syntax and to theoretical linguists interested in the universal principles of human languages.

Reviewed by Mark J. Elson, University of Virginia

This book is a study of the past tense system in nonstandard British English; specifically, the simple past and the past participle of so-called strong verbs (i.e. verbs characterized by ablaut; e.g. drink/drank/drunk) and weak verbs (i.e. verbs characterized by -ed in the past tense system; e.g. talk/talked/talked) that have become strong.

This book is comprised of seven chapters: an introduction (1–16), ‘Past tense theories’ (17–48), ‘Naturalness and the English past tense system’ (49–65), ‘Sellt and knowed: Non-standard weak verbs’ (66–97), ‘Drunk, seen, done and eat: Two-part paradigms instead of three-part paradigms’ (98–148), ‘Come and run: Non-standard strong verbs with a one-part paradigm’ (149–82), and the ‘Conclusion: Supralocalization and morphological theories’ (183–97). Additionally, there are two appendices (198–206), a bibliography (207–15), and an index (216–21). The database the author used is the Freiburg English dialect corpus (FRED). The exposition is clear and well organized, providing extensive data and an informative discussion of the competing models of morphology.

After introducing and defining relevant terminology (e.g. regular vs. irregular, strong vs. weak, standard vs. nonstandard), enumerating her sources, and establishing the classification of strong verbs in the first chapter, Lieselotte Anderwald  turns—in Ch. 2—to a brief survey of theoretical frameworks (e.g. lexical morphology, optimality theory, connectionist theory, network theory, natural morphology) in anticipation of the dialectal data.

In Ch. 3, still by way of background, A proceeds, on the basis of the concept of congruity in the theory of natural morphology, to outline the system-defining structural attributes of each class of strong verbs as they are attested in Standard British English. The following chapters then present dialectal deviations (e.g. Ch. 4 discusses formerly strong verbs that are now weak, such as sell and know).

By way of conclusion, A offers several generalizations, which include that: (i) nonstandard verbal systems are characterized by a high degree of nonstandardness (i.e. they do not conform with any frequency to standard forms), (ii) standard strong verbs have not frequently yielded to weakification (i.e. regularization), and (iii) the strong two-part pattern with past tense u (e.g. string/strung/strung) has expanded, even beyond verbs with i in the present; thus, cling/clung from cling/clang/clung; and come/come/come from come/came/come. A also considers the question of supralocalization (i.e. the emergence of a supraregional dialect), for which there seems to be little support, and returns finally to issues of theory.

With regard to theory and explanation, A takes a combinatory, or integrated, approach (47–49), which she labels cognitive, and about which she comments: ‘if we extend natural morphology with the psycholinguistically plausible network model, we can link a model employing sophisticated linguistic terminology with possible low-level neural mechanisms, resulting in a highly empirical framework that has been extensively tested and which makes interesting predictions for inflectional systems’ (48). However, A notes that the processes predicted by natural morphology have played a very small role (e.g. weakification has been relatively infrequent). She notes that strong verbs have been remarkably resilient and turns to network theory, which, in its assumption of the relevance of lexical relatedness in morphological change (as well as its refinement of the role of frequency due to natural morphology) permits her to justify the stability of strong verbs. Additionally, network theory accounts for the fact that, among a well-defined subgroup of strong verbs, u became prototypical for the past tense and on that basis was extended (183–84). A ends by noting the importance of dialectal information in its ability to enrich the discussion, not only of the data, but also of the positions taken by theoretical frameworks in their attempts to accommodate change (197).

Reviewed by Colette van Kerckvoorde, Bard College at Simon’s Rock

In 1998, the Federal Republic of Germany ratified the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages, thereby promising that it would facilitate and encourage the use of (i) five specific regional languages (i.e. Danish and North Frisian in Schleswig-Holstein, Saterland Frisian in Lower Saxony, Lower Sorbian in Brandenburg, and Upper Sorbian in Saxony), (ii) one regional language (i.e. Low German), and (iii) one nonterritorial language (i.e. Romani). This Charter does not include the languages of recent immigrants to Germany that are much more present in the consciousness of the general public.

This book contains a brief introduction and a collection of eight papers about these languages, which were originally delivered at a 2007 conference in Bremen. Most of the papers are by members of each linguistic community and aim to be expository introductions: Each paper generally consists of an overview of the treatment of the language by the linguistic community in the past, a description of the current socio-political situation, statistical information, and an account of current initiatives to promote the use of the language and to preserve the culture, with a focus on education, the language of administration and public services, the media, and cultural activities.

Not surprisingly, all contributions follow a similar theme. Frequently, historical evidence indicates that use of the language was strongly discouraged in the past, which resulted in declining numbers of native speakers who are now senior members of the community, and children generally do not acquire the language as their mother tongue. As a rule, current speakers are bilingual and typically limit use of the minority language to interactions with immediate family members or with close friends. Attempts to revitalize the languages, especially in schools, face difficulties, because it is difficult to find qualified teachers who are also fluent speakers. Additionally, the minority language programs have to compete with English language instruction. The situation of Saterland Frisian serves as an example: In 1945, half of the Saterland population spoke the language. Currently, only twenty percent of approximately 10,000 inhabitants speak the language. Demographic changes and economic factors account for this decline: The region has seen an influx of people of non-Frisian origin who have no particular interest in adopting the minority language. Furthermore, industrialization affected the use of the language in the region. While the region has benefited economically, preservation of its cultural heritage is severely threatened. Efforts to revitalize Saterland Frisian are in place, but the lack of textbooks and pedagogical material in this language is an obstacle and the availability of fluent speakers is scarce. Volunteer programs exist; however these are primarily staffed by senior citizens, and thus it is difficult to make long-term plans.

All of the articles in this book are written in German and offer good introductions to the situation of the minority languages in Germany while highlighting the challenges that such languages face worldwide. Each author stresses that the future of their language is endangered.