LINGUIST List 7.818

Mon Jun 3 1996

Books: Pidgins & Creoles, Grammars, Ling Theory

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Paul Peranteau, New Books: Pidgins & Creoles, Grammars, Ling Theory

PIDGINS & CREOLES

The Early Stages of Creolization.
JACQUES ARENDS (ed.) (University of Amsterdam)

This volume brings together a number of studies on the early stages of
creolization which are entirely based on historical data. The recent
(re)discovery of early documents written in creole languages such as
Negerhollands, Bajan, and Sranan, allows for a detailed and
empirically founded reconstruction of creolization as an
historical-linguistic process. In addition, demographic and
socio-historical evidence on some of the relevant former colonies,
such as Surinam, Haiti, and Martinique, sheds new light on some
crucial sociolinguistic aspects of creolization, such as the rate of
nativization of the creole-speaking population. Both types of evidence
relate to essential questions in the theory of creolization, such as:
Is creolization a matter of first or second language acquisition? What
are the respective roles of substrate, superstrate, and universal
grammar in creole genesis? And, what, if any, are the differences
between creole development and normal language change?The subjects
discussed in this volume include: a comparative study of the
historical development of seven pidgins and creoles (Baker);
reflexives in 18th-century Negerhollands (Van der Voort & Muysken);
the emergence of taki as a complementizer in Sranan (Plag); the
historical development of relativization in Sranan (Bruyn); the
cultural and demographic background of creolization in Haiti and
Martinique (Singler); the creole nature of early Bajan (Field); a
linguistic analysis of the so-called 'slave letters' in Negerhollands
(Stein); and demographic factors in the formation of Sranan (Arends).

Creole Language Library, No. 13 xvi, 290 pp.
US & Canada: Hb 1 556191677 $75.00
Rest of world: 90 272 5234 3 Hfl130,00


The Genesis of a Language.
The formation and development of Korlai Portuguese.
J. CLANCY CLEMENTS (Indiana University)

Korlai Portuguese (KP), a Portuguese-based creole only recently
discovered by linguists, originated around 1520 on the west coast of
India. Initially isolated from its Hindu and Muslim neighbors by
social and religious barriers, the small Korlai community lost
virtually all Portuguese contact as well after 1740. This volume is
the first-ever comprehensive treatment of the formation, linguistic
components, and rapidly changing situation of this exotic creole.The
product of ten years of research, Korlai Creole Portuguese provides an
in-depth diachronic look at a language that is now showing the strain
of intense cultural pressure from the surrounding Marathi-speaking
population. Framed in Thomason and Kaufman's 1988 model of
contact-induced language change, the author's analysis is enriched by
numerous comparisons with sister creoles, apart from medieval
Portuguese and Marathi.This book contrastively examines the following
areas: phonemic inventories, phonological processes, stress
assignment, syllable structure, paradigm restructuring, paradigm use,
lexicon, word formation, semantic borrowing, loan translations,
grammatical relation marking, pre- and postnominal modification,
negation, subject and object deletion, embedding, and word
order.

Creole Language Library, No. 16 xviii, 282 pp.
US & Canada: Hb:1 55619 171 5 $79.00
Rest of world: 90 272 5238 6 Hfl.140,00

Paul Peranteau (paulbenjamins.com)
John Benjamins searchable ONLINE catalogue:
*via WWW -- gopher://Benjamins.titlenet.com:6400
*via gopher -- gopher Benjamins.titlenet.com 6400




 GRAMMARS

 Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, READING IMAGES
 The Grammar of Visual Design
 Reading Images provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the
 grammar of visual design. Drawing on an enormous range of
 examples--children's drawings, textbook illustrations,
 photojournalism, advertising images and fine art, as well as
 three-dimensional forms--the authors demonstrate the differences and
 the similarities between the grammar of language and that of visual
 culture. As we move from a culture dominated by language to one in
 which visual literacy becomes increasingly important, this book
 provides an invaluable ``tool-kit'' for reading images. Routledge:
 1996: 312 pp
 HB: 0 415 10599 4: #C0632: $74.95:$L49.99
 PB: 0 415 10600 1: #C0633: $22.95: $L14.99

 Bhadumod, Bussmann, ROUTLEDGE DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
 A team of over 30 linguists come together for the Routledge Dictionary
 of Language and Linguistics, forming the most comprehensive and
 up-to-date work of its kind in the English language. In over 2,500
 entries, the dictionary provides an exhaustive survey of the key
 terminology and languages of more than 30 subdisciplines of
 linguistics. Clear and concise definitions of key terminology,
 concepts and themes are complemented by extensive cross-references to
 synonyms and related terms, salient English-language examples and
 detailed bibliographies. For ease of use, the book also contains maps
 indicating the distribution of languages and a cumulative bibliography
 containing hundreds of references.
 Routledge: 1996: 560 pp
 HB: 0 415 02225 8: #B4344: $99.00: $L65.00

 LINGUISTIC THEORY

 Winfred P. Lehmann, THEORETICAL BASES OF INDO-EUROPEAN LINGUISTICS
 This volume presents a critical survey of the theory and methodology
 of Indo-European linguistics, from its origins through the present.
 The author applies recent linguistic findings in his analysis of the
 speakers of Indo-European and their background. An account of the
 phonology, morphology and syntax of Pre- and Proto-Indo European is
 also included.
 Routledge: 1996: 336pp
 PB: 0 415 13850 7: #D1249: $24.95: $L17.99


 Bhadumod, Bussmann, ROUTLEDGE DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
 A team of over 30 linguists come together for the Routledge Dictionary
 of Language and Linguistics, forming the most comprehensive and
 up-to-date work of its kind in the English language. In over 2,500
 entries, the dictionary provides an exhaustive survey of the key
 terminology and languages of more than 30 subdisciplines of
 linguistics. Clear and concise definitions of key terminology,
 concepts and themes are complemented by extensive cross-references to
 synonyms and related terms, salient English-language examples and
 detailed bibliographies. For ease of use, the book also contains maps
 indicating the distribution of languages and a cumulative bibliography
 containing hundreds of references.
 Routledge: 1996: 560 pp
 HB: 0 415 02225 8: #B4344: $99.00: $L65.00


 For more information on these and other titles from:
 ROUTLEDGE London * New York
 http://www.routledge.com/routledge.html
 info.linguisticsroutledge.com