LINGUIST List 8.596

Fri Apr 25 1997

Books: Language Acquisition, Discourse

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <ljubalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Tony Schiavo, Language Acquisition, Discourse

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION


ASPECTS OF ARGUMENT STRUCTURE ACQUISITION IN INUKTITUT
Shanley E.M. Allen

This book discusses the first language acquisition of three
morphosyntactic mechanisms of transitivity alternation (passive,
causative and noun incorporation) in arctic Quebec Inuktitut.
The findings are considered in light of current debates
concerning continuity versus maturation of grammatical
structure, and concerning the functional categories available to
the child at early stages of acquisition. The findings argue
against late maturation, and suggest that all functional
categories may be accessed by the Inuktitut-speaking child early
in the acquisition process. 1996 xvi, 244 pp. Language
Acquisition and Language Disorders, 13 US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619
776 4 Price: US$79.00 Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 2479 X
Price: Hfl. 150,--


SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LINGUISTIC VARIATION
Robert Bayley & Dennis R. Preston (eds.)

In Second Language Acquisition (SLA) there is clearly a need for
detailed representations of the developing interlanguage
competencies of learners. This volume is a 'festival' of
techniques. The authors are familiar with up-to-date
characterizations of the linguistic levels they study, with
innovative methods of eliciting learner representations, and
with the appropriate mathematical techniques required for
handling such data (including, but not limited to, the VARBUL
program of variationists. A bonus in this volume is a
comprehensive VARBUL 'how to' for both DOS and Macintosh users.)
These studies bolster the idea that a full account of SLA
development (and hence, a 'theory of SLA') must be built on not
only detailed accounts of interlanguage data but also on a wide
appeal to factors which govern psycholinguistic bases of SLA.
1996 xix, 317 pp. Studies in Bilingualism, 10 US/Canada: Cloth:
1 55619 544 3 Price: US$79.00 Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272
4116 3 Price: Hfl. 140,--


LEARNABILITY AND THE LEXICON. THEORIES AND SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION RESEARCH

Alan Juffs

This volume provides a critical review of recent theories of
semantics-syntax correspondences and makes new proposals for
constraints on semantic structure relevant to syntax. Data from
several languages are presented which suggest that semantic
structure in root morphemes is subject to parametric variation
which has effects across a variety of verb classes, including
locatives, unaccusatives, and psych verbs. The implications for
first and second language acquisition are discussed. In
particular, it is suggested that different parametric settings
may lead to a learnability problem if adult learners do not
retain access to sensitivity to underlying semantic organization
and morphological differences between languages provided by
Universal Grammar. 1996 xi, 277 pp. Language Acquisition and
Language Disorders, 12 US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 775 6 Price:
US$79.00 Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 2478 1 Price:
Hfl. 140,--


GENERATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION. EMPIRICAL
FINDINGS, THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND CROSSLINGUISTIC
COMPARISONS

Harald Clahsen (ed.)

This book provides insights from the generative point of view on
the acquisition of language. Some of the topics covered in this
coordinated series of papers are the optional infinitive stage
in child English, early underspecification of functional
categories, lexical learning, parameter setting, agreement,
truncated structures, clitics, a minimalist perspective on
acquisition and attrition, and merger theory. 1996 xxviii, 499
pp. Language Acquisitions and Language Disorders, 14 US/Canada:
Cloth: 1 55619 777 2 Price: US$115.00 Rest of the world: Cloth:
90 272 2480 3 Price: Hfl. 200,--

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BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW


DISCOURSE


REPORTED SPEECH. FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE VERB
Janssen, Theo A.J.M. & Wim van der Wurff (eds.)

In sentences containing reported speech, thought, or perception,
it is possible to distinguish different voices or views,
associated with different discourse roles. They originate in two
different clauses: one clause signals a reporting situation, and
the other a reported situation. This volume examines the
methods used for combining these two types of clauses in a range
of languages. In each of the contributions, the focus is on the
forms and functions of verbs; topics dealt with include the
meaning of tense, mood, and aspect (and their interaction) in
the various types of reported speech, the speech act status of
reported utterances, correlations between reporting verbs and
verbs in reported clauses (and the conjunctions introducing
them), and possible intra-systemic and cross-linguistic
correlations of these properties. 1996 x, 312 pp. Pragmatics &
Beyond New Series, 43 US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 805 1 Price:
US$79.00 Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 5056 1 Price:
Hfl. 135,--


NUMERAL CLASSIFIER SYSTEMS. THE CASE OF JAPANESE
Pamela Downing (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)

Numeral Classifier Systems considers the functional significance
of the Japanese numeral system, with conclusions based on a
corpus of 500 uses of classifier constructions drawn from oral
and written Japanese texts. Interestingly, although the
Japanese system appears to conform at least superficially to
universalistic predictions about its semantic structure, this
study reports that in actual usage, the semantic role of
classifiers is slight -- only very rarely do they carry any
lexical information unavailable from the context or the noun
with which the classifier occurs. It does appear, however, that
the system has an important role to play in providing
pronoun-like anaphoric elements and in marking pragmatic
distinctions such as the individuatedness of referents and the
newness of numerical information. For these reasons, the
classifier system is deeply involved in a number of subsystems
of Japanese grammar, and the demise of the system (sometimes
rumored to be impending) would have substantial implications for
the structure of the language as a whole. 1996 xx, 336 pp.
Studies in Discourse and Grammar, 4 US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619
370 X Price: US$79.00 Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 2614 8
Price: Hfl. 140,-- 

Email: servicebenjamins.com 
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW