LINGUIST List 8.727

Thu May 15 1997

Books: Linguistic Theory

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <annlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Tony Schiavo, Linguistic Theory

New Books from JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING


Linguistic Theory


LINGUISTICS IN THE NETHERLANDS 1996
Crit Cremers & Marcel den Dikken (eds.)
1996 x, 268 pp. AVT Publications, 13
US/Canada: Paper: 1 55619 220 7 Price: US$48.00
Rest of the world: Paper: 90 272 3156 7 Price: Hfl. 80,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com 

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the
twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of the
Netherlands, held in Utrecht on January, 20, 1996. The aim of the
annual meeting is to provide members of the society with an
opportunity to report on their work in progress. The 20 papers in
this volume present an overview of research in different fields of
linguistics in the Netherlands. It contains articles on phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and language=
 acquisition.


CLASSIFICATION SYNTAXIQUE DES CONSTRUCTIONS ADJECTIVALES EN COREEN
Jee-Sun Nam
1996 vi, 176 pp. Lingvisticae Investigationes Supplementa, 21
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 751 9 Price: US$99.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3130 3 Price: Hfl. 175,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

The purpose of this study is the systematic description of a set of
data called 'adjectives' in Korean, which reduces to a minimum
theoretical preoccupations and abstract formalizations with no
practical applications. The framework of the research is the
'Lexicon-grammar', whose fundamental idea is that the minimal
meaningful unit is the simple sentence and not an isolated word. This
work is constituted as follows: given that the corpus extracted from
current dictionaries is insufficient for the purpose, a complete
corpus will be reconstituted: first, with a formal definition, and
then according to some other principles discussed in the first
section. With this more complete corpus (5300 items), general
syntactic properties of adjectival constructions will be examined in
the second section. The third section is devoted to the description of
15 classes of adjectival structures. These syntactic classes will be
represented in the form of tables in the annex. The results obtained
in this work are indispensable at least for the following activities:
first, the elaboration or verification of a linguistic theory demands
a priori examination and systematic description of empirical data;
furthermore, a syntactic description of lexical data, which is as
exhaustive as possible, has a particular interest in the perspective
of the elaboration of a lexicon suitable for computer processing of
natural language.=20


THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS AND GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION
Robin Sackman (ed.)
1996 x, 375 pp. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 138
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 593 1 Price: US$79.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3642 9 Price: Hfl. 140,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

This volume presents a collection of 23 papers by renowned linguists
on current research in the field of theoretical linguistics. The book
focusses on linguistic theory and metatheory, and on fundamental
concepts and assumptions of modern linguistics. The following
articles are included in the volume: A Formal Approach to a General
Theory of Language; Understanding Understanding; Non-reducible
Grammatical Relations without Semantic Content; Are Linguistic Objects
Internal, External, or Both?; Some Thoughts on Being Minimal; Case
Morphology and Case System in L1 Acquisition; Explorations in
'Idiolects'; Phonological Word Structures; Idiolect and Convention:
Incompatible Concepts?; Communion or Communication?; Topic-Focus
Articulation - A Matter of Langue or Parole?; Phraseologie und
Metonymik; Language Universals and Evolutionary Bottlenecks; speech
Intentions, Speech Planning, and the Use of Syntactic Constructions;
English Verbal Idioms of Aural Perception; Semantics and Grammar: A
Relationship of Mutual Foundations?; The Problem of 'Adjectives' in
Mandarin Chinese; Beyond New Structuralism; Wann hat eine Sprache
begonnen?; Zur universalen Dimension der Identifikation; Series of
Explicata for the Notion of Meaning; Iconicity and Syncretism; Remarks
on Language Theory in the "Decade of the Brain".


TRUBETZKOY'S ORPHAN. PROCEEDINGS OF THE MONTREAL ROUNDTABLE ON
"MORPHONOLOGY: CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES" (MONTREAL, OCTOBER 1994). WITH THE
COLLABORATOIN OF RICHARD DESROCHERS.
Rajendra Singh (ed.)
1996 xiv, 363 pp. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 144
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 599 0 Price: US$86.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3648 8 Price: Hfl. 145,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

In putting 'morphonology' up for adoption as a chapitre particulier in
1929, Trubetzkoy started a debate regarding the boundary between
phonology and morphology that has not ended yet. Essentially a record
of a roundtable devoted to that boundary (Montr=E9al, October 1994),
Trubetzkoy's Orphan is = a full and fascinating picture of some very
important contemporary attempts to define it. In addition to papers
that focus on it, the volume also contains important papers on the
closely related topics of 'morphoprosody' and the 'lexicon', views
from 'the floor' and 'the outside', and edited transcripts of the
discussions that took place at the Montr=E9al Roundtable. Intended
both for practicising and future phonologists and morphologists,
Trubetzkoy's Orphan is a valuable record of a very important debate
regarding one of the most central questions in phonology and
morphology. Contents: De l'autonomie de la morphophonologie:
=C9. Tiffou; (I) Allomorphy or Morphophonology?: P. Kiparsky; Comments
on Kiparsky: K.P. Mohanan; Comments on Kiparksy: D.C. Walker; Reply to
Mohanan and Walker: P. Kiparsky; Discussion; (II) A Functionalist
Semiotic Model of Morphonology: W.U. Dressler; Comments on Dressler:
R. Janda; Comments on Dressler: D.C. Walker; Reply to Janda and
Walker: W.U. Dressler; Discussion; (III) Quelques avantages d'une
linguistique d=E9barrass=E9e de la morpho(pho)nolog= ie: A. Ford &
R. Singh; Comments on Ford & Singh: K.P. Mohanan; Comments on Ford &
Singh: R. Janda; Reply to Mohanan and Janda: A. Ford & R. Singh; (IV)
Morphoprosody: Some reflections on accent and morphology: B. Hurch;
Comments on Hurch: G. Piggott; Reply to Piggott: B. Hurch; Discussion;
(V) Productivity, Regularity and Fusion: How language use affects the
lexicon: J. Bybee; Comments on Bybee: H. Goad; Reply to Goad:
J. Bybee; Discussion; (VI) Issues in Morphophonology: A view from the
floor: R. Desrochers; On Morphophonology: A view from the outside:
P. Dasgupta.


FROM GRAMMAR TO SCIENCE. NEW FOUNDATIONS FOR GENERAL LINGUISTICS
Victor H. Yngve
1996 xii, 350 pp.
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 515 X Price: US$89.00
Rest of the world: 90 272 2161 8 Price: Hfl. 150,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

Although efforts have been under way for the past two centuries to
treat language scientifically, current linguistic theory lacks an
adequate scientific foundation and difficulties are caused by
long-standing confusions between the logical domain of signs and
grammar and the physical domain of sound waves and the people who
speak and understand.=20 This book pushes aside the ancient
semiotic-grammatical foundations of linguistics and moves it
completely into the physical domain where theories and hypotheses can
be tested against observations of the physical reality. Here new
foundations are laid that are fully consonant with modern science as
practiced in physics, chemistry and biology.=20 On these foundations
the author builds a structure of testable specific dynamic causal laws
of communicative behavior that provides support for treating
previously recalcitrant context-dependent semantic, pragmatic,
interactive, rhetorical, and literary phenomena. The central role of
context in the foundations of the theory provides the insights of
scientific lawfulness while still honoring the uniqueness of the
individual and the particularity of situations celebrated in the
humanities

Email: servicebenjamins.com
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW