LINGUIST List 9.957

Fri Jun 26 1998

Books: Typology

Editor for this issue: Anita Huang <anitalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Bernadette Martinez-Keck, Typology

We would like to bring to your attention recent publications from John
Benjamins Publishing in the field of TYPOLOGY.


THE TYPOLOGY AND DIALECTOLOGY OF ROMANI

Edited by: Yaron Matras, Peter Bakker and Hristo Kyuchukov

University of Manchester / Aarhus Universitet / University of Shumen,
Bulgaria

1997 xxxii, 224 pp. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 156

US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 872 8 Price: US$65.00

Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3661 5 Price: NLG 130

John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com

For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com


Contributions to this collection focus on the unity and diversity of
the language of the Roma (Gypsies), the only Indic language spoken
exclusively in Europe. Properties discussed include the distinct
inflectional and derivational patterns applied to Asian and European
lexical layers, the distribution of inflectional, agglutinative, and
analytic formation among syntactic categories,regularities in the
ongoing shift from inflectional to analytic case formation,
suppletion, aspects of syntactic convergence, and patterns of
morphological transitivization and de-transitivization (causatives and
passives). These phenomena are considered in the light of contemporary
discussions on language universals, with reference to a variety of
different approaches including Prague School Typology, Functional
Sentence Perspective, Functional Grammar, functional-pragmatic
typology, and general grammaticalization theory.

Chapters partly adopt a comparative approach covering all major
dialects of the language, and are partly devoted to single-dialect
corpuses. Special attention is given to the Czech/Slovak and
Hungarian varieties, to previously undescribed dialects from Bulgaria
and Turkey, to codified varieties in Macedonia, and to the variety of
dialects discussed in the popular works of the Victorian author George
Borrow. An extensive Introduction outlines the principal
morphosyntactic features of the language and provides a classification
of Romani dialects, including an overview of those mentioned in the
volume.

Contributions by: Peter Bakker; Norbert Boretzky; Vit Bubenik; Petra
Cech; Viktor Elsik; Victor A. Friedman; Ian F. Hancock; Mozes F.
Heinschink; Milena Hubschmannova; Birgit Igla; Yaron Matras.



CODING THE HYPOTHETICAL

A comparative typology of Russian and Macedonian conditionals.

Jane F. Hacking

The University of Kansas

1997, vi, 156 pp. Studies in Language Companion Series, 38

US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 849 3 Price: US$63.00

Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3041 2 Price: NLG 125

John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com

For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com


Conditionals encode speculation. They convey how events could have been
different in the past or present, or might be different in the future if
particular conditions had been or will be met. While all languages
afford the means to speculate or hypothesize about possible events, the
ways in which they do so vary. This work explores some of this variation
through an analysis of the structure and semantics of complex conditional
sentences in Russian and Macedonian. It addresses typological questions
about the general properties of natural language conditionals and
examines the role of the grammatical categories tense, aspect, mood and
status in the coding of conditional meaning. The book also discusses the
relationship between the use of these categories and the shape of a
language's conditional system. For example, the use of tense in
counterfactual contexts in Macedonian correlates with the
grammaticalization of more shades of conditional meaning than are
grammaticalized in Russian, which does not employ tense forms in this
way. The book addresses issues of concern to Slavists and raises
questions for those interested in conditionals and the coding of
hypothetical meaning.


CASE, TYPOLOGY AND GRAMMAR.

In honor of Barry J. Blake

Edited by Anna Siewierska and Jae Jung Song 

Lancaster University / University of Otago

1998 395 pp. Typological Studies in Language, 38

US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 651 2 Price: US$85.00

Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 2937 6 Price: NLG 170

John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com

For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com

This collection of fifteen original articles includes descriptive,
typological and/or theoretical studies of a number of morphosyntactic
phenomena, such as case, transitivity, grammaticalization, valency
alternations, etc., in a variety of languages or language groups, and
discussions concerning theoretical issues in specific grammatical
frameworks. The collection, written in honor of the Australian linguist,
Barry J. Blake on his 60th birthday, thematically reflects the field that
Professor Blake has worked in over the past three decades. The volume
will be of special interest to researchers in morphosyntax and linguistic
typology.

- ------------------------------------------------------------

Bernadette Martinez-Keck Tel: (215) 836-1200

Publicity/Marketing Fax: (215) 836-1204

John Benjamins North America e-mail:berniebenjamins.com

PO Box 27519 

Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 

Check out the John Benjamins web site:

http://www.benjamins.com

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1998 Contributors