LINGUIST List 8.598

Fri Apr 25 1997

Books: Functional Linguistics

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

Directory

1. Tony Schiavo, Functional Linguistics

FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS


TOWARDS A CALCULUS OF MEANING. STUDIES IN MARKEDNESS, DISTINCTIVE
FEATURES AND DEIXIS

Edna Andrews & Yishai Tobin (eds.)

This volume contains papers presented at a symposium in honor of
Cornelis H. van Schooneveld and invited papers on the topics of
invariance, markedness, distinctive feature theory and deixis. It is
not a Festschrift in the usual sense of the word, but more of a
collection of articles which represent a very specific way of defining
and viewing language and linguistics. The specific approach presented
in this volume has its origins and inspirations in the theoretical and
methodological paradigm of European Structuralism in general, and the
sign-oriented legacy of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders
Peirce and the functional and communication-oriented approach of the
Prague School in particular.=20 The book is divided in three sections:
Theoretical and Methodological Overview: Cornelis H. van Schooneveld;
Anatoly Liberman; Petr Sgall; Alla Bemova and Eva Hajicova; Robert
Kirsner. Studies in Russian and Slavic Languages: Edna Andrews;
Lawrence E. Feinberg; Annie Joly Sperling; Ronald E. Feldstein; Irina
Dologova and Elena Maksimova&&; Stefan M. Pugh. Applications to Other
Languages, Language Families, and Aphasia: Ellen Contini-Morava;
Barbara A. Fennell; Victor A. Friedman; Robert Fradkin; Yishai Tobin;
Mark Leikin.=20 1996 xxviii, 432 pp. Studies in Functional &
Structural Linguistics, 43 US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 268 1 Price:
US$99.00 Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 1552 9 Price: Hfl. 175,--


STUDIES IN ANAPHORA
Barbara Fox (ed.)

The last 15 years has seen an explosion of research on the topic of
anaphora. Studies of anaphora have been important to our understanding
of cognitive processes, the relationships between social interaction
and grammar, and of directionality in diachronic change. The
contributions to this volume represent the "next generation" of
studies in anaphora - defined broadly here as those morpho-syntactic
forms available to speakers for formulating reference - taking as
their starting point the foundation of research done in the
1980s. These studies examine in detail, and with a richness of methods
and theories, what patterns of anaphoric usage can reveal to us about
cognition, social interaction, and language change.

1996 xii, 518 pp. Typological Studies in Language, 33
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 641 5 Price: US$115.00
Paper: 1 55619 642 3 Price: $34.95
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 2927 9 Price: Hfl. 200,--
Paper: 90 272 2928 7 Price: Hfl. 70,--


FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTIONS. THEORY IN PRACTICE
Ruqaiya Hasan, Carmel Cloran & David G. Butt (eds.)

This volume focuses on the relation between theory and description by
examining aspects of transitivity in different languages. Transitivity
-- or case grammar, to use the popular term -- has always occupied a
center-stage position in linguistics, not least because of its
supposedly privileged relation to states of affairs in the real
world. Using a systemic functional perspective, the ten papers in this
volume make a contribution to this scholarship by focusing on the
transitivity patterns in language as the expression of the
experiential metafunction. The contributors provide functional
descriptions of the various categories of process, their participants
and circumstances, including phenomena such as di-transitivity,
causativity, the get-passive, etc. The chapters point to the nature of
the linguistic fact which is linked ineluctably on the one hand to the
nature of the theory and on the other to the speakers' experience of
the world in which they live. The majority of papers included in the
volume derive from the 19th International Systemic Functional Congress
at Macquarie University. 1996 xxxvi, 381 pp. Current Issues in
Linguistic Theory, 121 US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 575 3 Price: $85.00
Rest of the world: 90 272 3624 0 Price: Hfl. 150,--


THE GRAMMAR OF POSSESSION. INALIENABILITY, INCORPORATION AND
POSSESSOR ASCENSION IN GUARANI

Maura Velazquez-Castillo

This volume is an exhaustive study of linguistic structures in
Paraguayan Guaran=ED which are directly or indirectly associated
with the semantic domain of inalienability. Constructions
analyzed in the book include adnominal and predicative
possessive constructions, noun incorporation, and possessor
ascension. Examples are drawn from a rich data base that
incorporate native speaker intuitions and resources in the
construction of illustrative linguistic forms as well as the
analysis of the communicative use of the forms under study. The
book provides a complete picture of inalienability as a coherent
integrated system of grammatical and semantic oppositions in a
language that has received little attention in the theoretical
linguistic literature.

The analysis moves from general principles to specific details
of the language while applying principles of Cognitive Grammar
and Functional Linguistics. There is an explicit aim to uncover
the particularities of form-meaning connections, as well as the
communicative and discourse functions of the structures
examined. Other approaches are also considered when appropriate,
resulting in a theoretically informed study that contains a rich
variety of considerations.

1996 xvi, 274 pp. Studies in Language Companion Series, 33
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 844 2 Price: US$99.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3036 6 Price: Hfl. 175,--



- ------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony P. Schiavo Jr Tel: (215) 836-1200
Publicity/Marketing Fax: (215) 836-1204
John Benjamins North America e-mail: tonynavpoint.com
PO Box 27519 =20
Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 =20

Check out the John Benjamins web site at
http://www.benjamins.nl