LINGUIST List 5.649

Mon 06 Jun 1994

Books: General ling, Ling theory, Semantics

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GENERAL LING
Fox, Barbara & Paul J. Hopper (eds.) VOICE: FORM AND FUNCTION
John Benjamins 1994 xiii, 377 pp. GENERAL LING
 Cloth US: 1 55619 418 8/EUR: 90 272 2915 5 US$95.00/Hfl. 175,--
 Paper US: 1 55619 419 6/EUR: 90 272 2916 3 US$32.95/Hfl. 65,--
This volume's central concern is grammatical voice, traditionally known as
diathesis, and its classical manifestations as Active, Middle, and Passive.
Various perspectives are represented: the typological-universal view, voice and
language acquisition, the relationship between voice and ergativity, diachronic
perspectives, and the interaction of morphology and discourse.
Contributions by: M. Arce-Arenales; M. Axelrod and B. A. Fox; E. Bakker;
A. Cooreman; W. Croft; T. Givsn and L. Yang; M. Haspelmath; S. Kemmer; C. N. Li
and S. A. Thompson; M. Mithun; M. Noonan; D. Payne; D. I. Slobin.
Bereczki, G. et al VARIA EURASIATICA. FESTSCHRIFT F\R PROFESSOR ANDRAS
RSNA-TAS Szeged 270 pp. GENERAL LING
 Paper: ISBN: 963 481 875 7 US$69.00/Hfl. 125,--
This volume contains 24 articles reflecting the wide-range of interests of the
festschriftee. Topics included are: Altaic, Mongolic and Uralic studies,
Eurasian history, Turkology, Tibetology, and Hungarian history.
Contributions by: G. Bereczki, I. Boba, I.G. Dobrodomov, G. Doerfer, I. Ecsedy,
P.B. Golden, J. Gulya, P. Hajdz, L. Johanson, S. Kakuk, Gy. Kara, Kljastornyj,
Gy. Krists, R.A. Miller, N. Poppe, K. Ridei, U. Schamiloglu, D. Sinor, S.
Szadeczky-Kardoss, E. Taube, G. Uray, K. Uray-Kuhalmi, I. Vasary, P. Zieme.
LING THEORY
Svorou, Soteria THE GRAMMAR OF SPACE
 John Benjamins 1994 xiv, 290 pp. +index LING THEORY
 Cloth:US: 1 55619 414 5/EUR: 90 272 2911 2 US$85.00/Hfl. 150,--
 Paper US: 1 55619 415 3/EUR: 90 272 2912 0 US$29.95/Hfl. 60,--
This volume examines the way human beings experience space and the way it is
encoded grammatically in language. Basing her observations on 26 unrelated
languages, the author centers the research on the encoding and expression of
spatial relations around the emergence and evolution of spatial "grams," and
the semantic and morphosyntactic characteristics of two types of spatial grams,
which are shown to be similar for all languages, not only for the expression of
spatial relations, but also for temporal and other non-spatial relations.
Motivation for these similarities may lie in the way we, as human beings,
experience the world, which is constrained by our physical configuration and
neurophysiological apparatus, as well as our individual cultures.
SEMANTICS
Tenny, Carol L.; University of Pittsburgh; ASPECTUAL ROLES AND THE
SYNTAX-SEMANTICS INTERFACE
 HB 0-7923-2863-9; PB 0-7923-2907-4; ca. 246 pp.
 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Email vander Lindenwkap.nl;
This boo presents a theory which proposes a modular relationship between
aspectual role information, and conceptual or thematic representations of
lexical semantic information. Language-specific generalizations about linking
are argued to be expressed in thematic or conceptual representations, while
universal linking generalizations are expressed in aspectual
representations. Consequently, this theory has implications for language
acquisition. A number of recent works have treated aspect or lexical
semantics or argument structure in their own right, but none have focused
on aspect as central in the relation between lexical semantics and
syntactic argument structure.