LINGUIST List 8.1394

Tue Sep 30 1997

Books: Functional & Systemic

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Tony Schiavo, New Books: Functional Linguistics

John Benjamins Publishing would like to call your attention to the
following new titles in the field of Functional Linguisics:


CONTENT, EXPRESSION AND STRUCTURE
STUDIES IN DANISH FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen et al. (eds.)
1996 xvi, 510 pp. Studies in Language Companion Series, 29
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 381 5 Price: $97.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3032 3 Price: Hfl. 170,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

This collection of papers offers an alternative to mainstream
functional linguistics on two points. Especially in American
linguistics, function and structure are often viewed almost as polar
opposites; in addition, structure is often understood as being only a
matter of linguistic form - or expression - as opposed to content. The
book tries to illustrate why function and structure must be understood
as mutually dependent in relation to language - and why the most
interesting aspect of language structure is the way it structures the
content side of language. In this, the book represents a reaffirmation
of traditional concerns in structural linguistics, especially with
respect to the structural integrity of individual languages - but with
a reversal of traditional priority: structure is not autonomous, but
must be understood on the basis of function. Without being hostile to
typological and universal generalizations, the articles suggest that
similarities between languages can only be responsibly discussed on
the basis of an understanding that includes a respect for language
differences. The book contains discussions of a number of different
languages including Nahuatl, Danish Sign Language, French, and
Tlapanec, and focuses on the way meaning is organized in the grammar
of Danish. A final section sums up theoretical perspectives.


PRAGUE LINGUISTIC CIRCLE PAPERS
TRAVAUX DU CERCLE LINGUISTIQUE DE PRAGUE
VOLUME 2
Eva Hajicova, Oldrich Leska, Petr Sgall, Zdena Skoumalova (eds.)
1996 viii, 346 pp.
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 673 3 Price: $79.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 5442 7 Price: Hfl. 140,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

Volume 2 of Prague Linguistic Circle Papers constitutes a single whole
together with Vol. 1 of the series, reviving the classical series of
Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Prague which was of a great
importance for the development of European structural linguistics in
the 1930s. In the present volume, nine Czech linguists and eight
authors from abroad present new ideas in various domains from basic
properties of the system of language to discourse types and to history
of linguistics in the 20th century. Fundamental issues of structural
linguistics are discussed by C.H. van Schooneveld and F. Cermak,
those of quantitative linguistics by M. Tesitelova, of sentence
structure by H.-H. Lieb, Y. Tobin, J. Panevova, T. Gross and
J. Sabrsula, discourse patterns are dealt with by J. Hoffmannova,
S. Cmejrkova and F. Sticha, phonology and graphemics by
E. Battistella, A. Svoboda and P.A. Luelsdorff with S.V. Chesnokov,
and the lexicon by L. Waugh and V. Strakova.

For further information please e-mail
Bernadette Keck: servicebenjamins.com

The following contributing LINGUIST publishers have made their backlists available on the World Wide Web:

• Blackwells
• Cascadilla Press
• Cornell University Linguistics Dept.
• CSLI Publications
• Garland Publishing
• Holland Academic Graphics
• Irvine Linguistics Students Association
• John Benjamins
• Kluwer Academic Publishers
• MIT Working papers in Linguistics
• Mouton de Gruyter
• U. of Massachusetts Graduate Linguistics Association
• Pacific Linguistics Publications
• Routledge
• Summer Institute of Linguistics