Book Notices

Angles on the English-speaking world, vol. 4: Writing and vocabulary in foreign language acquisition. Ed. by Dorte Albrechtsen, Kirtsen Haastrup, and Birgit Henriksen. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004. Pp. 151. ISBN 8772899328. $25.

Reviewed by Richard W. Hallett, Northeastern Illinois University

This volume, one of a series of annual publications by the Department of English at the University of Copenhagen, focuses on issues of writing and vocabulary acquisition. The first three articles concern the former and the remaining five the latter.

In the first article, ‘Activity systems for ESL writing improvement: Case studies of three Chinese and three Japanese adult learners of English’ (13–33), Luxin Yang, Kyoko Baba, and Alister Cumming use activity theory to explain how preuniversity English as a second language (ESL) students acquire written skills in academic English. They conclude that learning to write in a second language is both an ‘internal process’ and ‘the product of external factors’ (29).

Alister Cumming, Keanre Eouanzoui, Guillaume Gentil, and Luxin Yang, in ‘Scaling changes in learners’ goals for writing improvement over an ESL course’ (35–49), also focus their research on preuniversity ESL students. They show that ESL students’ long-term aspirations, goal objectives, and actions toward their goals in ESL writing are ‘fundamentally similar’ at the beginning and end of their ESL programs (45).

In ‘Attention to argumentation in learner text production: How do we capture learner ability in argumentation?’ (51–68), Dorte Albrechtsen, Kirsten Haastrup, and Birgit Henriksen present their analysis of five English as a foreign language (EFL) protocols. They conclude that restricted writing tasks might give insight into the development of argumentative writing.

Anna Cieślicka and David Singleton, in ‘Metaphorical competence and the L2 learner’ (69–84), define metaphorical competence in second language (L2) learning and review work in the area, and offer possible pedagogical implications.

‘V_links: Beyond vocabulary depth’ (85–96), by Paul Meara and Brent Wolter, argues against distinguishing between vocabulary depth and breadth. Instead, the article claims that a more productive distinction is between vocabulary size and organization.

In ‘Second language reading and incidental vocabulary learning’ (97–110), Rob Waring and Paul Nation review current research on L2 reading and incidental vocabulary acquisition and conclude with possible pedagogical implications.

Kirsten Haastrup, Dorte Albrechtsen, and Birgit Henriksen, in ‘Lexical inferencing processes in L1 and L2: Same or different? Focus on issues in design and method’ (111–28), report on their initial foray into the lexical inference processing of Danish learners of English in their native language and English. The authors conclude with additional matters to be taken into consideration in their full study.

In the final article, ‘The relationship between vocabulary size and reading comprehension in the L2’ (129–47), Birgit Henriksen, Dorte Albrechtsen, and Kirsten Haastrup also examine Danish learners’ acquisition of English vocabulary. They suggest ‘a probability zone’ (137) that considers vocabulary size as well as lexical inferencing skills and lexical organizational structures that determine reading ability.

This book is a nice addition to the current publications on L2 vocabulary acquisition and would provide good supplemental readings for courses on second language acquisition and seminars on vocabulary learning.

Language in use: Cognitive and discourse perspectives on language and language learning. Ed. by Andrea E. Tyler, Mari Takada, Yiyoung Kim, and Diana Marinova. (Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics.) Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2005. Pp. xiv, 223. ISBN 1589010442. $44.95.

Reviewed by Susanna Bartsch, Center for General Linguistics, Typology, and Universals Research

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 2003 Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT 2003), which had the main goal of bringing together research focusing on discourse-based and cognitive linguistics (CL) accounts of language. The papers are structured in four parts: language processing and L1 learning, L2 learning, discourse resources and meaning construction, and language and identity. In what follows, one paper from each of these parts is highlighted.

Adele Eva Goldberg and Giulia M. L. Bencini present their constructional approach to argument structure, in which the meaning of both verb and argument structure construction contribute to the overall meaning of a sentence. Evidence for this assumption is drawn from experimental research on sentence comprehension and production in adults. For instance, in production, a ‘constructional priming’ effect (11f.) is observed, in which not constituent structures, but constructions, as form-meaning pairings, are primed.

Susanne Niemeier explores the application of crucial tenets of CL to L2 teaching. She focuses on the handling of metaphorization of content and functional words in L2 teaching and how it might help learners to assess similar structuring principles underlying lexis and grammar. For instance, working with metaphor can enhance the learning of prepositions, if it is shown how basic (spatial) meanings and metaphorized (e.g. temporal and abstract) meanings of prepositions are related to each other.

Ann Wennerstrom is concerned with the use of CL models for studying the patterns of high-pitched contrast intonation and low-pitched given intonation and their interaction with cognitive processes (categorization and inference). In discourse, for instance, contrast intonation often aligns with ad hoc categorical oppositions, creating new mental spaces for them, whereas given intonation has a deictic function, indicating elements available in the mental space network. Interestingly, the (de)accentuated items do not require lexical opposites and antecedents.

Cynthia Gordon investigates the way adult members of the family of a three-year-old child use future-oriented narrative-like discourse to socialize the child into her future identity as ‘big sister’. Gordon identifies four narrative dimensions (action, interpersonal, imaginative, and evaluative) in adult-child conversations that do the most identity work. One shortcoming of this study is that it relies on a very small corpus (only nine instances of adult-child conversations).

The editors deserve praise for the organization of the volume in broad areas of inquiry relevant for the related discourse and CL paradigms, as well as for their selection of papers (sixteen from among the 120 papers presented at GURT 2003) dealing with topics of great interest in the mentioned research paradigms. Complementing this volume, another publication presents eighteen more papers from the GURT 2003 conference (Language in the context of use: Discourse and cognitive approaches to language, ed. by Andrea Tyler, Yiyoung Kim, and Mari Takada, Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008). GURT 2003 and both volumes constitute a most valuable contribution to the strengthening of linguistic research programs in which nonmodular and usage-based views of language and cognition are crucial.

The phonology of Mongolian. By Jan-Olof Svantesson, Anna Tsendina, Anastasia Karlsson, and Vivan Franzén. (The phonology of the world’s languages.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 334. ISBN 0199260176. $125 (Hb).

Reviewed by Jason Brown, University of British Columbia

This book, a comprehensive treatment of the phonology of Mongolian, is the culmination of many years of research on the topic by the authors. It provides an overview of the various aspects of the phonology of the language, and also gives both a synchronic and a diachronic treatment of Mongolian. Halh Mongolian (commonly known as Khalkha) is the primary language studied in the book; the authors, however, have given an extensive overview of the phonologies of all of the Mongolic languages, including their geographic locations, phonemic inventories, their major phonological processes (where divergent from Halh), and their historical development.

The initial chapters provide a description of the consonants and vowels of Mongolian, followed by an overview of the phonemic contrasts. Issues such as labialization, palatalization, and vowel reduction are discussed. Further chapters cover the major phonological aspects of Mongolian, including syllabification and epenthesis, prosody (including accent and prominence, intonation, and word stress), reduplication, and of course, the well-known case of vowel harmony. Also covered are the issues concerning syllable structure, the alternations between schwa and zero, and full and reduced vowels, as well as consonant cluster phonotactics and cooccurrence constraints. The discussion of vowel harmony includes an in-depth synchronic analysis, as well as a diachronic treatment, where the authors trace the variation in vowel harmony between the various Mongolic languages back to diachronic sound changes and the restructuring of vowel inventories. The same type of analysis is given for stop deaspiration, palatalization, and labialization. The book also provides a fairly detailed discussion of the various writing systems that have been used for Mongolian, including historical scripts, and those used today, most notably the Cyrillic and the modern Mongolian scripts.

There are many chapters dedicated to the historical aspects of Mongolian. The authors reconstruct the phonology of Proto-Mongolian, and illustrate the sound changes that have shaped the present-day phonologies of the various Mongolic languages. The treatment of Old Mongolian includes the various stages of that language and detailed phonological reconstructions. Each of the Mongolic languages, in turn, receives a synchronic phonological treatment. There is also an extended comparative vocabulary of the various languages, which allows the reader to identify phonological variations in cognate forms.

This book is comprehensive in its scope; not only is a synchronic treatment of Mongolian given, but also a diachronic treatment that includes the reconstruction of Old Mongolian and the pathways that each of the Mongolic languages followed in their sound changes and development. The book stands as a model; it is written in a fairly theory-neutral fashion, with more attention paid to the sound patterns than to theoretical approaches to those patterns. Such an in-depth analysis of a language, and family of languages, will be interesting to most phoneticians and phonologists who read it. It is accessible both to phonologists and to scholars of Mongolian.

Historical linguistics: An introduction. 2nd edn. By Lyle Campbell. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Pp. 448. ISBN 0262532670. $33.

Reviewed by Gert Guthenberg, University of Georgia

Among the plethora of introductory textbooks in historical linguistics on the market today Campbell’s book holds a prominent position. In smoothly flowing prose C presents the various types of language change at different levels of linguistic structure and the important schools, theories, and paradigms of historical linguistics. He does not shy away from complex issues and provides a wide range of examples from many languages and language families. This book is therefore easily accessible for any student with a basic prior introduction to linguistics. The abundant data and exercises make this textbook particularly useable within a classroom setting.

C does not hesitate to point out the shortcomings of those neogrammarian comparativists who underestimate the impact of variation and contact for language change. For him both the neogrammarian notion that sound laws have no exceptions and the diffusionist postulate that each word has its own history are equally true. Data collected with less rigid methods have often led diffusionists to reject the neogrammarian regularity principle. Since these methods have been insensitive to different styles and socially conditioned variation, they have failed to identify complex phonetic conditioning environments. Once these environments have been established, the apparent exceptions to the sound laws can, in accordance with the neogrammarian paradigm, be explained by analogy or dialect borrowing. While the family-tree perspective of the neogrammarians gives no provision for dealing directly with language contact and variation, the wave perspective of the diffusionists does not provide the means for identifying existing patterns over and above individual isoglosses and word etymologies. Therefore both are needed for a full understanding of language change.

Several areas thoroughly covered in this book are treated only superficially or not at all in most other introductory textbooks of historical linguistics. The reader will thus encounter topics such as areal linguistics, sociolinguistic contributions to language change, general theories about the nature of the mechanisms that cause languages to change, distant genetic relationships, and linguistic prehistory. The way C integrates these topics shows convincingly that each has direct implications for the more traditional fields and methods of historical linguistics. C’s treatment of the first two topics mentioned above may serve to illustrate this. The chapter on areal linguistics shows that comparativists have in some instances mistaken areal features for common innovations and thereby constructed subgroups on false grounds. Sociolinguistic researchers like William Labov have identified variation down to the individual level as the root of language change. C presents important findings from research in this area. Changes tend to originate in the intermediate social classes, where the innovators have the highest density of social interaction. Women are at the forefront of most linguistic changes. Different ethnic groups who newly enter a speech community participate in changes in progress only to the extent that they begin to gain access to or acceptance in the society. This is where the synchronic and diachronic perspectives of language study meet. The uniformitarian principle allows us to assume that the same mechanisms at work in ongoing change at one point in time should operate at another time period. No contemporary textbook of historical linguistics should omit this perspective.

Triggers. Ed. by Anne Breitbarth and Henk van Riemsdijk. (Studies in generative grammar.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004. Pp. vi, 496. ISBN 3110181398. $127 (Hb).

Reviewed by Michael Barrie, University of Toronto

This volume is a collection of papers that grew out of a workshop on triggers held at the University of Tilburg in October of 2002. Each paper deals with a different aspect of triggers, which the editors define as ‘requirements of some sort that cause syntactic effects, most notably displacement’ (1). Despite the common thread, that is, displacement, that unites all of the articles in this book, the authors tackle a wide variety of phenomena across an impressive range of languages and language families, taking up several current disparate theoretical issues. The result of these different backgrounds and approaches to triggers is a diverse collection of papers dealing with a different aspect of grammar in each case.

Enoch O. Aboh’s paper argues that generalized pied-piping is not free but is subject to general economy conditions. He shows that head movement cannot be relegated to PF as it has semantic effects in verb-focusing constructions in Gungbe. Aboh then addresses the longstanding question as to why the functional heads C, I, and D trigger head movement rather than XP movement, showing that XP movement is instantiated in many languages around the world and that this movement results in a ‘Snowballing’ effect in which the complement of an XP raises to the specifier of the same XP.

Gabriela Alboiu’s contribution tackles the tricky area of optionality and how to deal with it in a minimalist framework. Specifically, she looks at variable pronunciation sites of focused phrases in Romanian, which can be pronounced in situ or at the left periphery. She argues against an LF raising analysis of the in situ focused phrases and instead proposes that a focus feature is checked in situ and that the left-dislocation of the focus phrase takes place to satisfy an EPP/OCC feature. She then proposes that only an optionally present EPP/OCC feature can have semantic import. When EPP/OCC is obligatory (such as subject raising to SpecTP in English), no semantic import is entailed.

Arthur Bell’s paper on negation in Afrikaans proposes that, in some cases, the head of NegP has an uninterpretable feature when it is null and an interpretable feature when phonologically overt. The uninterpretable feature, [uNeg], triggers movement. Bell proposes a split NegP, the higher of which behaves as described above. The lower NegP attracts the vP to its specifier. Bell also discusses scope facts with negation and the lower NegP.

Chris Collins proposes an agreement parameter that determines whether overt movement takes place to check an uninterpretable feature. This parameter captures the difference between Bantu and English. English does not require overt displacement of an XP that checks an uninterpretable feature, which gives rise to there-constructions and locative inversion. Bantu, by contrast, does require overt displacement, which accounts for the lack of these constructions. Collins then examines the consequences of this parameter on internal DP structure and case theory, where he concludes that the Spec-Head configuration is not a checking relation. Checking takes place only under c-command.

Norbert Corver looks at a variety of constructions in various Dutch and Frisian dialects that appear with the morpheme /-e/ (schwa). He argues that this morpheme is the head of a small clause that triggers predicate fronting. As such, it is similar to Dutch een (‘one’) in similar constructions.

Roland Hinterhölzl examines scrambling and optional movement in German. He proposes that the optionality of movement is not a property of the syntax, but rather a property of PF (but see Alboiu’s contribution above). Scrambling movement, he argues, is obligatory; the optionality lies in which copy of the moved element PF chooses to pronounce. PF, then, consists of principles, such as ‘A scopal element is interpreted in its scope position’, that may or may not be active in a given dialect. He also suggests that all scopal movement is overt A-movement to check scopal features. Thus, a wide-scope element must c-command a narrow-scope element.

Ruriko Kawashima and Hisatsugu Kitahara discuss the visibility of phonological content to syntax. They propose that an XP can act as an intervener between a probe and a goal only if that XP has phonological content. They also propose that scrambling is Match-driven movement, while A-movement is Agree-driven movement. They discuss scrambling in Japanese and the inability of null arguments to undergo scrambling and sketch out an analysis on these two proposals. For them, scrambling is available in languages that have both Agree- and Match-driven movement.

Mariana Lambova’s contribution adds to the growing debate on the status of head movement by presenting evidence from Bulgarian. She dismisses earlier long head-movement approaches to the phenomenon and argues that local head movement and scattered deletion account for a wider range of facts in Bulgarian. Thus, for Lambova, word order arises by movement, triggered in the syntax, and PF interface considerations, which select which copies to pronounce.

In Anikó Lipták’s paper, new data on subordinated wh-scope marking is presented. Lipták argues that these constructions are interpreted as matrix wh-questions, but have the syntax of embedded clauses. The question addressed here, then, is what triggers movement of the wh-phrase to an intermediate position, rather than to the matrix CP. Lipták argues that these constructions are better understood as involving standard wh-movement.

Eric Mathieu considers hyperbaton in Classical Greek. He argues that such structures actually consist of two DPs in apposition in which one DP can raise while the other remains in situ. The author proposes that a feature such as [wh] or [focus] resides in the head of some functional projection in the left periphery and has an EPP feature, thus triggering raising of one or both DPs. Mathieu speculates that since movement of both DPs is obligatory in some situations, the syntax allows it to take place vacuously in case of a ‘worst case scenario’.

László Molnárfi also addresses this issue of scrambling in German, but takes a radically different approach, suggesting that the base word order is not the most discourse-neutral word order. To this end, Molnárfi argues for antifocus positions as an option in natural language, which act as a prosodic trigger, driving nonfocused elements to the left periphery. Presenting morphological evidence from Afrikaans, Molnárfi argues that the base position of arguments is reserved for focused elements.

Assuming dynamic antisymmetry, Andrea Moro discusses various consequences of the theory of displacement in which linear compression (symmetric c-command) serves as a trigger for movement. One such consequence that he discusses at length is the presence of mirror word orders in English and Italian, such as The picture on the wall was the cause of the riot versus The cause of the riot was the picture on the wall.

Fumikazu Niinuma and Myung-Kwan Park discuss subject-aux inversion in English comparatives, arguing that the head movement needed to derive such constructions is best analyzed as PF movement. Their evidence for placing head movement in these constructions is the interaction between inversion in comparatives and stress assignment and the fact that more than one auxiliary can move (in contrast to inversion in question formation, where only the highest auxiliary moves). The trigger for PF head raising in here is to allow the subject to receive unmarked sentence stress.

Milan Rezac investigates the EPP and how it is manifested in Breton. He proposes that the preverbal position in Breton checks an unvalued categorial feature in T⁰. Thus, the category of the element that appears in the specifier of TP corresponds to an overt morpheme that Rezac argues appears in T⁰. In arguing his case, Rezac develops an analysis of the clausal architecture of Breton and builds a case against more traditional explanations of EPP effects in Breton.

Yiddish: A linguistic introduction. By Neil G. Jacobs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. xix, 327. ISBN 052177215X. $96 (Hb).

Reviewed by Mark J. Elson, University of Virginia

The publisher’s description of this book as a broad yet comprehensive introduction that provides an authoritative overview of all aspects of Yiddish language and linguistics (i) is accurate. There are seven chapters: ‘Introduction’ (1–8), ‘History’ (9–56), ‘Dialectology’ (57–89), ‘Phonology’ (90–153), ‘Morphology’ (154–222), ‘Syntax’ (223–63), and ‘Sociolinguistics’ (264–306). The book concludes with a reference list (307–23) and an index (324–27). Jacobs describes his intended audience as general linguists, Germanic linguists, and scholars in Yiddish, Ashkenazic studies, and Jewish studies (1). He notes that there is a need for this book because none of its predecessors has treated the overall structure of Yiddish systematically, with general linguistic issues in mind.

Each chapter provides a detailed outline and discussion of its subject matter with full presentation of the relevant data culled from various sources, and includes, in addition, the author’s critical reaction to earlier treatments as well as his own analytic proposals. The chapter on morphology, organized by part of speech, treats derivation as well as inflection. The chapter on history deals primarily with phonology, but also includes commentary on script, orthography, and periodization. It should be noted that the presentations of synchronic structure are not entirely uniform in their theoretical orientation. J does not comment on matters of theory other than to mention that his discussion should be accessible regardless of the reader’s theoretical preference (1). In large part, the eclecticism in approach undoubtedly reflects J’s reliance on a number of existing discussions, which differ in approach, as his sources of data and points of departure. He is correct that, generally, there will be no difficulty for the reader with the concepts of phoneme, morpheme, and constituent, defined in the traditional sense that is adequate throughout most of the discussion. In the presentation of syllabic structure, stress, and intonation (121–53), however, he turns to metrical phonology, and also assumes familiarity with cyclic and lexical phonology. The exposition of syntax relies on an older, pre-government-and-binding generative framework in which transformations play a part.

This book is an introduction only in the sense that it does not focus on any single aspect of its subject matter, but offers discussion of all aspects, including dialectological and sociological. It is not an introduction in the sense of a simplified overview. It is a scholarly and detailed survey that will be of use to researchers and advanced students. J’s knowledge of his subject matter is comprehensive and the discussion is thorough. The book therefore offers a large amount of essential information, making it ideal as a point of entry for anyone wishing familiarity with the facts of Yiddish or previous treatments of them. Of particular use to morphologists are the several reference lists relevant to the discussion of derivational morphology (e.g. the list of verb stem-types, 207–12). Equally useful in this area is the discussion of nominal and adjectival compounds. For those whose interest goes beyond the structure of Yiddish to other Germanic and Slavic languages as they relate to, and have been involved in, the history of Yiddish, this book will be an invaluable source. It is certain to take its place as a reference of the first order in Yiddish studies.

Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal: Manange and Sherpa. Ed. by Carol Genetti. (Pacific linguistics 557.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2004. Pp. xiv, 324. ISBN 0858835355. $92.39.

Reviewed by Picus S. Ding, Macao Polytechnic Institute

This volume is composed of two descriptive grammars of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal: Manange by Kristine Hildebrandt (1–189), and Sherpa by Barbara Kelly (191–324). The preface by Carol Genetti provides a nice introduction to the sociolinguistic background of the minority languages (most of which are Tibeto-Burman) of Nepal.

Hildebrandt’s description of Manange is organized into five chapters. Ch. 1 mainly presents a general background on the language, the people, and the data (9–12). Ch. 2 deals with Manange phonetics and phonology (consonants, vowels, and tone), and some morphology such as reduplication strategies (13–41). Ch. 3 studies the Manange noun phrase, addressing nouns, pronominal paradigms, number, numerals and classifiers, adjectives, case marking, (in)definiteness, and word order in the NP (42–81). Ch. 4, ‘Morphology of the Manange verb complex and the clause’, covers the suffix -pʌ, stem classes, the copula, finite verb morphology (evidentials and aspect), modality, negation, valency adjustment, and word order of the clause (82–111). Ch. 5 examines clause-combining strategies in Manange, discussing complementation, relativization, adverbial modification, serialization, and the clause-chaining suffix -tse (112–30). There are two appendices: one provides a story text in Manange (131–40), and the other is a Manange glossary with an English guide (141–86).

Kelly’s description of Sherpa is also presented in five chapters. Ch. 1 is an introduction to the language, the people, and the data (199–202). Ch. 2 concerns Sherpa phonology (consonants, vowels, tone, phonotactics, and stress), with a comparison of different sounds in Solu and Khumu Sherpa (203–21). Ch. 3 centers on the morphology of the noun phrase, covering the structure of NP, types of lexical nouns, pronouns, number marking, case marking, articles, numerals and measurements, adjectives, and discourse particles (222–36). Ch. 4 focuses on the morphology of the verb phrase, describing copulas, simple and compound verbs, stem classes, finite verb inflection (tense, aspect, evidentials, and the conjunct/disjunct system), mood, causatives, and negation (237–60). Ch. 5 deals with the structure of clauses and sentences, discussing clause structure, word order, adverbial clauses, nominalization, complementation, relativization, and clause chaining (261–74). There are two appendices: one contains a narrative text in Sherpa (275–82), and the other is a Sherpa glossary (283–321).

The inclusion of an English guide, serving as an index to the Manange glossary, is very useful and necessary. It is a pity that this is lacking in the Sherpa glossary, especially given that the two descriptions follow a similar organizational framework. There are a number of spelling typos and inconsistencies, for example, ‘unaspirated’ before /pʰ/ (13); the Manange word for ‘ear’ is given as [ŋı̌mâ] on p. 37 but as [ŋjʌ`mʌ̂ŋ] on p. 38; the rendition of [f] as a phoneme of Sherpa (210) after pointing out that it is a free variant of /ph/ (204), and the retention of [q] as a phoneme in the consonant table (210).

Le français en Amérique du Nord: État présent. Ed. by Albert Valdman, Julie Auger, and Deborah Piston-Hatlen. (Collection Langue française en Amérique du Nord.) Saint-Nicolas: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2005. Pp. 583. ISBN 2763782426. $45 (Hb).

Reviewed by Jan Holeš, Palacký University

The French language in North America has had a long history, lasting for four hundred years. It has always coexisted there with a number of Indo-European and indigenous Indian languages. This makes North America a fascinating linguistic laboratory, which can cast light on many questions about the history of French, the formation of creole languages, and some general problems related to the evolution of language. This collection of papers overall provides insight into these areas.

The book is divided into four main sections, containing twenty-six contributions written by renowned experts. The first part presents practically all French-speaking communities in North America, with the exception of the archipelago of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon where there is a variety of French that is quite similar to European French. The first group of papers gathered in this part describe the demographically most important communities (Quebec, Acadia, Ontario, New England, and Louisiana); the second group deals with lesser-known and peripheral communities, often ensconced in an English-speaking environment (Newfoundland, the Canadian West, isolated French-speaking communities in the US, and Saint-Barthélemy, a French island located in the Caribbean).

The second part contains six articles analyzing the phenomena of language contact and decline. Three articles focus on Louisiana French and deal with the history and the present state of Cajun French, its variation, and the problem of the demarcation of Louisiana language varieties. Two articles describe mixed languages used in Canada, namely the Chiac language (a vernacular French mixed with English used near Moncton in Acadia) and the Michif language (a French-Cree creole characterized especially by French nouns and Cree verbs). Another article is concerned with the role of linguistic and extralinguistic factors in the devernacularization of the language in minority French-speaking communities in Canada.

The third part examines the efforts toward the maintenance of French varieties outside Quebec, often menaced by extinction. The articles deal with the elaboration of language norms in Quebec, Acadia, and Louisiana; the revitalization of Louisiana Cajun French and French in the Canadian Maritime Provinces; and the roles of Creole and French in the cultural identity of the Haitian diaspora.

The last part turns to comparative and historical studies, investigating structural affinities and divergences of Acadian French in Canada and Louisiana, the origin and structures of French creoles in America, the hypothesis of a common origin of North-American French, correspondences and differences between the French used in Missouri and Canadian French, and the necessity of examining textual sources dating from the colonial period.

This book will become a precious resource for researchers in the fields of Francophony, creolistics, and demolinguistics. It will be useful for those who want to understand the present sociolinguistic situation in various parts of North America. Several articles present recent results of research carried out on the spot. It will become a basis for further descriptions of French on this continent.

English syntax: An introduction. By Andrew Radford. London: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xi, 384. ISBN 0521542758. $31.99.

Reviewed by William Davies, University of Iowa

A slew of new syntax textbooks has appeared over the past three or four years. The majority target advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students, and a sizable proportion of these attempts to acquaint students with some incarnation of a minimalist framework. Radford’s English syntax: An introduction falls into the category addressing both groups of students. An abridged version of Minimalist syntax: Exploring the structure of English, this text takes students from the theoretical underpinnings of Chomskyan syntax to edge phenomena and the notion of phases.

Ch. 1, ‘Grammar’, presents the key motivations, assumptions, and constructs of Chomskyan theory and the minimalist program, for example, innateness, competence and performance, universal grammar, parameters, and more. Ch. 2, ‘Words’, sets out the necessary lexical categories and provides diagnostics for category membership. The distinction between lexical and functional categories is introduced, as are grammatical, selectional, and categorial features. Ch. 3, ‘Structures’, develops a framework for phrase structure faithful to current practice, as well as discussing the extended projection principle (EPP) and key phrase-structure relations such as c-command and sister.

Ch. 4, ‘Null constituents’, deals with PRO and pro, and with null functional categories in both finite and nonfinite clauses. Case is also brought into consideration in this chapter. Ch. 5, ‘Head movement’, develops the construct of movement with the copy-and-deletion theory of movement through T to C, V to T, Aux raising, and others. There is also a substantial subsection on do-support. In Ch. 6, ‘Wh-movement’, R further amplifies the copy-and-delete mechanism through wh-questions and relative clause formation, discussing the motivation for and various constraints on wh-movement. He also introduces the notions of minimality and pied-piping.

Ch. 7, ‘A-movement’, tackles the expected types of movement structures and includes diagnostics for distinguishing raising and control. The chapter also brings into the framework the concepts of argument structure and thematic roles, and, naturally, various constraints on A-movement. Case and φ features and their role in determining pleonastic and expletive subjects and movement are the topic of Ch. 8, ‘Agreement, case and movement’. Null case and the EPP in nonfinite clauses are also discussed at some length. In Ch. 9, ‘Split projections’, split CP and VP shells are motivated. Included is extensive discussion of the application of the VP shell to unaccusative, passive, and raising verbs. Finally, Ch. 10, ‘Phases’, develops the notion of phases and brings to bear evidence for successive cyclic movement and movement through both CP and vP.

Two components of the book deserve mention. Each chapter includes a ‘workbook section’ that consists of two extended problems. For each problem, R provides a model answer for one of the data points for students to use as a guide. Further, most problems also include a ‘helpful hints’ section that provides students additional guidance in strategies to answer the question. Some of these sections are quite extensive and almost constitute mini-lessons of their own. Also included is a forty-five-page glossary of terms and abbreviations used in the book—a feature that will undoubtedly be appreciated by students as well as instructors.

Some part of the explanation for the large number of syntactic textbooks published in the recent past undoubtedly is the dissatisfaction most instructors feel with some aspect or another of the text they were using in class. Most who select this book will likely have quibbles here and there, but will find that the coverage is good and many of the formulations quite faithful to the original research on which they are based.

Innamincka talk: A grammar of the Innamincka dialect of Yandruwandha with notes on other dialects. By Gavan Breen. (Pacific linguistics 558.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2004. Pp. xvii, 245. ISBN 0858835479. $60.28.

Innamincka words: Yandruwandha dictionary and stories. By Gavan Breen. (Pacific linguistics 559.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2004. Pp. x, 218. ISBN 0858835487. $55.17.

Reviewed by Harald Hammarström, Chalmers University

The distinguished Australian salvage linguist Gavan Breen has completed a fine two-volume set on the Innamincka dialect of Yandruwandha: one grammar volume for the typologist/Australian linguist and one ‘less technical’ dictionary (with texts) intended to be of interest also for the descendant community.

Most of the metadata on the language and its study is in the grammar volume. Yandruwandha was spoken in the north-east corner of South Australia. The data for the description was collected from 1967–1976, mainly from the last two good speakers. Innamincka has been dead since 1976, meaning that there is at present nobody left with a reasonable command of the language. It is a Pama-Nyungan language, with a typical P-N typological profile, classified in the (less than secure) Karna subgroup whose most well-known language is Diyari.

As in most grammars, the descriptive data starts off with the phoneme inventory. The phonology section as a whole is surprisingly detailed, containing information such as (morpho)phonological rules, sentence intonation, and a phoneme frequency chart. Understandably, given the circumstances of data availability, there are a number of uncertainties on minor matters. However, and this is something I especially like about this grammar, B always shows on what basis something is affirmed, doubted, or cannot be known.

The next chapter, somewhat misplaced, discusses word order and phrase order. In this language it is grammatical to permute the order of phrases and words quite freely, and also to split phrases. But, at least from the corpus of recorded sentences, there are some clear statistical tendencies, such as not to split phrases, SOV/AOV word order, and initial question-word placement.

The following chapter discusses how the phonological word and grammatical word may be defined in Innamincka Yandruwandha. Most grammars, including modern ones, fail to treat this question, as famously lamented by R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald in their editors’ introduction to Word: A cross-linguistic typology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 1–41).

Information on word classes, pronoun inflection, simple sentences, noun inflection, and noun-stem formation follow with few surprises. The verb has a lot of suffixal inflection, which is the topic of another chapter. There is no indication that the description is incomplete (again, given the limits of data availability), except for an occasional suffix of unknown function. The verb can be further modified with bound markers indicating aspect, direction of motion, emphasis, and more, inserted between the root and inflection. In fact, verb stems can incorporate adverb and noun roots, another verb, and even an inflected noun, and then take the bound marker and an inflectional suffix. Further chapters cover complex clauses, particles, conjunctions, interjections, and clitics.

The grammar is entirely functional, described in plain English with no trees, acronyms, or formulae whatsoever.

There is not as much to say about the companion dictionary volume. The dictionary is Innamincka to English (beginning at D since no word begins with A, B, or C) with an English finder list. It contains separate sections on place names, naming of new concepts, and kinship terms. Also, there is a very useful alphabetical list of suffixes. There is not much text material, but all of it is diligently annotated with interlinear translation.

We are thankful to B for filling this gap in documentation. As it is much more complete than a sketch grammar or other salvage studies, it will certainly be valuable to Australianists and typologists alike (and hopefully of interest to the descendant community).