LINGUIST List 9.420

Thu Mar 19 1998

Books: Theoretical & Descriptive Ling

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

Directory

1. Kristen Mitchell, New books in THEORETICAL & DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

DIALOGUE AND CRITICAL DISCOURSE: Language, Culture, Critical Theory
Michael Macovski, Fordham University

This interdisciplinary volume of collected, mostly unpublished essays
demonstrates how Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogic meaning--and its
subsequent elaborations--have influenced a wide range of critical
discourses. With essays by Michael Holquist, Jerome J. McGann, John
Searle, Deborah Tannen, Gary Saul Morson, Caryl Emerson, Shirley Brice
Heath, Don H. Bialostosky, Paul Friedrich, Timothy Austin, John
Farrell, Rachel May, and Michael Macovski, the collection explores
dialogue not only as an exchange among intratextual voices, but as an
extratextual interplay of historical influences, oral forms, and
cultural heuristics as well. Such approaches extend the implications
of dialogue beyond the boundaries of literary theory, to anthropology,
philosophy, linguistics, and cultural studies. The essays address such
issues as the establishment and exercise of political power, the
relation between conversational and literary discourse, the historical
development of the essay, and the idea of literature as social
action. Taken together, the essays argue for a redefinition of
literary meaning--one that is communal, interactive, and vocatively
created. They demonstrate that literary meaning is not rendered by a
single narrator, nor even by a solitary author--but is incrementally
exchanged and constructed.

August 1997 288 pp.; 1 linecuts
0-19-507063-1 $55.00
Oxford University Press
 


PROJECTIONS AND INTERFACE CONDITIONS: Essays on Modularity
Edited by Anna-Maria Di Sciullo, University of Quebec at Montreal

This collection of previously unpublished papers explores the
implications of Chomsky's "Minimalist" framework for the modularity of
grammar, which simplifies the "modular" approach he took in his
Government and Binding theory of grammar. According to this theory
autonomous grammatical components (phonological, syntactic,
morphological, and semantic) coexist and interact like building
blocks, using a given set of principles at given levels of
representation. Chomsky's assertions have sparked a great deal of
theoretical debate, especially with regard to the nature and
interaction of each of the building blocks. The contributors to this
volume join the debate in a series of case studies that compare
modularity in English, French, and Italian, among other languages. In
the process they address such issues as the autonomy and applications
of modules and their distribution in theory, as well as the role of
functional projects in their derivations. Projections and Interface
Conditions will interest researchers in any of the above mentioned
languages, as well as the large number of linguists working in the
Chomskyan tradition.

June 1997 272 pp.; 84 linecuts
0-19-510414-5 $60.00
Oxford University Press
 


SEMIOTIC GRAMMAR
William B. McGregor, University of Melbourne

McGregor proposes and develops a new theory of grammar based on the
notion of the linguistic sign. In interpreting language and its
structure as a semiotic system consisting of signs, he provides a
range of new analyses of well established syntactic and morphological
relations, categories, and roles. This book constitutes an important
and valuable contribution to linguistic theory, drawing on the
author's extensive knowledge of Australian Aboriginal languages, as
well as discussing data from more familiar languages, such as English.

December 1997 448 pp.; 5 b/w figures
0-19-823688-3 $100.00
Oxford University Press
 



INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
Martin Haspelmath, Free University of Berlin

(Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory) Oxford Studies in
Typology and Linguistic Theory offers a forum for promoting research
and analysis that is both typologically and theoretically
informed. Each book in the series will focus on a particular topic,
providing an overview of the available cross-linguistic data and, at
the same time, engaging such key theoretical issues as the boundaries
or limitations of different approaches in dealing with typological
data.

This book is the first comprehensive and encyclopaedic investigation
of indefinite pronouns (expressions like someone, anything, nowhere)
in the languages of the world. It shows that the range of variation in
the functional and formal properties of indefinite pronouns is subject
to a set of universal implicational constraints, and proposes
explanations for these universals.

February 1997 384 pp.; 25 b/w figures, 1 map
0-19-823560-7 $72.00
Oxford University Press

 
INTRANSITIVE PREDICATION
Leon Stassen, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

(Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory)

Stassen makes a major contribution to the study of language typology
with Intransitive Predication. Basing his analysis on a sample of 410
languages, he presents a universally applicable model for defining the
domain of intransitive predication in natural languages. Intransitive
predicates are defined in terms of four domains: events (Sarah is
walking), classes (Sarah is a secretary), properties (Sarah is tall),
and locations (Sarah is in the garden).

December 1997 800 pp.
0-19-823693-X $145.00
Oxford University Press
 

 
For more information about Linguistics titles from Oxford University
Press: e-mail: linguisticsoup-usa.org or Visit the Oxford University
Press USA web site: http://www.oup-usa.org Oxford University Press USA

 

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

1998 Contributors