Publications Received/Ouvrages Reçus/Eingegangene Schriften

. 2003 . Conversations with Lotman: Cultural semiotics in language, literature, and cognition . (= Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Communication, [unnumbered] .) Toronto-Buffalo-London : University of Toronto Press , xvi, 204 pp. ISBN 0-802-036864 . $65, £32 . [The title of this book is utterly misleading: it contains no ‘conversations’ whatever with Jurij Mixajlovič Lotman (1922–1993), co-founder of the Tartu School of Semiotics, but is a very fine introduction to the form of textual and cultural analysis he developed in the 1960s and 1970s, with the help of insights from structuralist linguistics. In Andrews’ assessment, “Lotman’s legacy in the fields of semiotics, Russian literature, and Russian cultural studies is perhaps the richest of his generation. His intellectual contribution is all the more powerful when one considers the degree of censorship he faced for almost all his academic career” (p. 10). The book opens with a good summary of Lotman’s life and career, then leads the reader calmly, cleary and intelligently through the key points of his theory, taking care always to place them in the context of other contemporary developments. There is a geneal index. – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

. 2004 . Gaston Paris et la Philologie Romane . Avec une réimpression de la Bibliographie des travaux de Gaston Paris publié par Joseph Bédier et Mario Roques ( 1904 ). (= Publications romanes et françaises, 234 .) Genève : Librairie Droz , 873 pp. ; 2 portraits . ISBN 2-600-00868-3 ; FrS 120 ,– ( PB ). [This massive volume is the first biography ever of the great French Romanist Gaston(-Bruno-Paulin) Paris (1839–1903), of whose broad scholarship we obtain an idea when we peruse the classified and indexed bibliography which his former students Joseph Bédier (1864–1938) and Mario Roques (1875–1961) published in 1904 as a separate 201-page book (Paris: Société amicale Gaston Paris), which counts altogether close to 1,200 entries. (It is here reproduced, two pages on 1, pp. 705–809, with a list of errata (p.811) and 14 additional items (813–814).) This is a thorough piece of research, a work of love of a fairly complex subject. It has the following main parts: I, “Essai de biographie” (25/27–201), in which the author first addresses mythological issues (27–31), before she provides us with a most thorough vita based on all sources (much of which unpublished) she could lay her hands on; II, “La cité des sciences” (203/205–372), in which the author first sketches intellectual scene in Paris of the 1870s and 1880s, in which the luminaries in different disciplines like Littré, Ernest Renan, Louis Pasteur, and a growing opposition to Comtean positivism played important roles, before addressing Gaston Paris’ take on it (214–230). Before the author looks more closely at Paris’ “conception de vie” (236–244) she prefaces it with a discussion of the value of life and its relationship to scientific work (inspired by the philosophical work of Jürgen Mittelstrass); indeed she shows how much Paris’ research is tied up with religious and nationalistic metaphors (244–245). His scientific credo turns out to be much closer to the naturalistic views of August Schleicher than one would make out (cf. p.343, n.247); the biographer discusses the relationship “sciences naturelles – sciences historiques” in much detail (246–275). Much of this part, however, is taken up with the critical scholarship of the mid-19th century, involving Friedrich Diez, his critic Henri Bordier and Gaston Paris as Diez’ defender (the issue was one of the right method, which brings the author [325–327] to an extended discussion of Thomas Kuhn’s ‘paradigm’ ideas, and takes he to the work of others, like Hugo Schuchardt [333–338]). When the debate does not deal with philological-linguistic issues, it deals with literary matters, like the proper interpretation and treatment of medieval texts, notably La Chanson de Roland and the Nibelungen – which is the subject of Part IV, “Le moyen âge et sa littérature” (457/457–648). In between the author sandwiched a Part III, “La problématique nationale (essai de systématisation)” (373/375–456), which treats French nationalist issues both preceding and following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which impacted on scholarship, in particular French versus German work in the field of Romance philology, in which Paris essentially upholds German leadership. In contrast to the major parts of the volume, the “Conclusion” (649–662) is rather brief. It constitutes a kind of summary of the work, and a justification of why Gaston Paris should still be of interest to us today. Although the author deals with Paris’ engagement in the Dreyfus Affair first (already mentioned is several parts earlier in her book [176– 180, 225–229, and elsewhere]), she highlights especially his scholarly ethos and positive work, without ignoring his ‘blind spots’. The back matter includes, inter alia, a list of the archival sources the author consulted, two brief curricula vitae (one by Paris himself), various biographical documents, notably letters to and by several personages, but also a few ‘poèmes de jeunesse’ (686–691), prospectuses for two journals co-founded by Gaston Paris, “Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature” (1865) and “Romania” (1871), a detailed bib. (813–849), and an index of biographical names (851–867), where one would have liked to see their life-dates added since such information is rarely given in this otherwise extremely thorough study.]

. 2004 . Le moyen de parler . Lagrasse : Éditions Verdier , 238 pp. ISBN 2-86432-412-1 EUR 18.00 ( PB ). [In recent years the author (b. 1954) has devoted much of his scentific attention to questions of ‘troubles de la parole’, to wit aphasic phenomena; cf. his editorship of Langue Française No. 132 (2001) devoted to “La parole intérieure”. The present monograph goes much beyond this subject, including aspects of philosphy, psychology and psychoanalysis, and in true French tradition, it is not without literary ambitions as becomes obvious right at the outset: “La preuve par la littérature” (7–11). The main chapter headings read: “L’endophasie [i.e., ‘discours intérieur’], comment dire?”; “Qu’est-ce qu’entendre?”; “Qu’est-ce que s’entendre?”; “De la langue intérieure au discours”; “La quote [a term not found in my Petit Larousse; it has to do with the difference between ‘parole explicite’ and ‘discours intérieur’ or, rather, what underlies both]”; “Qu’est-ce que comprendre?”; “La voix”, and “Connais-toi toimême”. The author’s ‘last word’ (217–228) ends with an affirmation and a promise: “La plurilinéarité de discours est l’une des propriétés constitutives de l’exercice de la langue. La démonstration est en cours.” Bib. (229–236); table of contents (237–238), but no index. – Cf. the review by Celestina Milani in Aevum 77:3.882–884 (Sept.–Dec. 2003).]

Bibliographie Linguistique de l’année 1999 et compléments des années précédentes / Linguistic Bibliography for the Year 1999 and supplements for previous years . Published by the Permanent International Committee of Linguists under the auspices of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies Edited by Mark Janse, Hella Olbertz & Sijmen Tol with the assistance of Kuniko Forrer , Vincent Hendricks & Theo Horstman [ and a number of international contributors – see pp. v–vii , for their listing ]. Dordrecht-Boston-London : Kluwer Academic Publishers , 2003 , c , 1,386 pp. ISBN 1402017162 ; EUR 446; US$491; £308 ( HB ). [Although there is now an electronic access since March 2003, researchers might still like to check the hard copy on library shelves for a particular year. Still, unlike the “paltry” 19,116 entries of the present BL volume, using the internet BLonline available at <ww.blonline.nl> some 150,000 items can be consulted. The electronic version will make up to a considerable extent longstanding complaint that the “traditional” BL appears many years late. (It appears that my complaint over many years – most recently in HL 30:3.459–460 [2003] has been heard.) For some time now, the 50+-page “Index of names” (1233–1386) also includes references to book reviews (the page references to these are given in italics); it also recognizes the important service to the profession that reviewers often perform, and so one cannot but hope that chairs and deans recognize this work as part of regular scholarship. Given the breadth of the subjects, areas, and periods covered by historiographers, users of the BL interested in linguistic historiography will continue to appreciate that the History of Linguistics (HoL) is subdivided into a variety of subsections from “Western traditions” more generally via “Antiquity”, “Middle Ages”, etc. down to “Non-Western traditions”, “Indian tradition” as well as “Arab tradition”, an area in which scholarship has continued to be sizable. The day that the History of Linguistics in China will require an extra subsection rather than be listed under “Non-Western traditions” may not be too far off. However, the presence of a History of Linguistics (HoL) section should not prevent historians of linguistics from consulting other sections in BL, such as the one inscribed “Festschriften/Mélanges in honorem” and those listing congress reports as well as the general subsections in sections devoted to specific language fields or preceding (though sometimes also dispersed within) those devoted to general linguistic theory and the philosophy of language. The “Biographical data” section (pp. 100–115) is hardly less important; it counts 369 entries altogether, carrying accounts of the life and work of scholars in the language sciences, bibliographies, obituaries, testimonials, Grußadressen, and the like. Another more recent – and welcome – feature maintained in the HoL section is the regular addition of life-dates of authors in entries on individual authors wherever available. We must remain grateful for the existence of such a valuable reference tool, especially those who are editors like myself and prefer to take a volume from the shelf in order to check a bibliographical detail instead of starting the personal computer and surf the internet.]

2004 . Minor Vocabularies of Huron . Collected and introduced by Claudio R. Salvucci . (= American Language Reprints, 32 .) Bristol, Pa. : Evolution Publishing , 33 pp. in–16º . ISBN 1-889758-40-X . US$24.00 ( HD ). [This booklet reproduces extracts from the Jesuit missionary Jean (de) Brébeuf ’s (1593–1649) reports on the Huron (modern English term: Wyundat) language as published in English translation in Reuben Gold Thwaites’ edition of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610–1791. The original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes, 73 vols. (Cleveland, Ohio: Burrows Brothers, 1896–1901), which Salvucci had previously made available in his American Languages in New France: Extracts from the Jesuit Relations (Bristol, Pa.: Evolution Publishing, 2002). To this he has added Huron word lists from the same source compiled by other Jesuit missionaries in New France: François Joseph Le Mercier (1604–1690), Jerome Lalemant (1593–1673), and Paul Rageneau (1608?–1680). Finally, there are excerpts (53–63) from Louis-Armand, baron de Lom d’Arce de Lahontan’s (1666–1715) famous travel reports, on which the reader may be referred to H. Christoph Wolfart’s 1989 paper “Lahontan’s Bestseller (1703)”, Historiographia Linguistica 16:1/2.1–28 for details, and a few bits of information on an Algonquian language called ‘Neutral’ by Lalement and Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot, S. J. (1611–1693) in 1641 and 1640, respectively.]

Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure: Revue suisse de linguistique générale 56/2003 . Genève : Librairie Droz , 2004 , 380 pp. ISBN 2-600-00953-1 ; SFr 61.40 (SFr 41.00 for individual subscribers). [Readers of HL may be surprised to find so many contributions in this volume devoted to the history of linguistics; naturally a periodical by this name and dedicated to the memory of Rudolf Engler (1930–2003), who arguably has done more than anyone for the proper interpretation of Saussure’s authentic linguistic thinking, will have a considerable number of contributions on Saussure and his impact on modern linguistics and semiotics. Appropriately, the volume begins with a 15-page appraisal of Engler’s legacy (by René Amacker). It is followed by a series of articles deriving from scholarly meetings that took place in Switzerland, one in April 1999 at the University of Geneva (on the concept of ‘article’ and related subjects), the other in June 2001 outside of Geneva under the auspices of “Journées Saussure” organized by Simon Bouquet, but readied for publication by Patrick Sériot of the University of Lausanne (on the impact – or lack of it – of the Cours around the world). From the many contributions, the following may be of particular interest: “Le saussurisme en Corée au XXe siècle” (by Yong-Ho Choi & Hyun-Kwon Kim); “Le saussurisme en Amérique latine au XXe siècle” (by Cláudia De Lemos, Maria Francesca Lier-De Vitto, Lourde Andrade & Eliane Mara Silveira) on, essentially, Saussurean studies in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil (largely through the impact of Eugenio Coseriu and Joaqim Mattoso Câmara Jr. during the 1960s); “Le saussurisme au Japon au XXe siècle” (by Akatane Suenaga), which began through the translation of the Cours by Hideo Kobayashi in 1928. Other articles, not derived from these two meetings, include: Francesco Aqueci, “La sémiologie de Piaget entre Peirce et Saussure” (193–212), followed by a detailed comment by Jean-Paul Bronckart (213–224); Elena Simonato-Kokochina, “Une phonologie à base psychologique? Les conceptions de Baudouin de Courtenay et de Ščerba” (241–255); Dan Savatovsky, “Comment faire école? (Saussure à Paris, II)” (311–329), following up on a 1964 paper by Émile Benveniste; Maria Pia Marchese, “Une source retrouvée du Cours de linguistique générale de F. de Saussure” (333–339), especially on the Saussure papers deposited in the Houghton Library of Harvard University.]

. 2003 . Antike Rhetorik im Zeitalter des Humanismus . (= Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 182 .) München & Leipzig : K. G. Saur , 374 pp. ISBN (HB) 3-598-77734-5 ; € 96.00 . [Carl Joachim Classen, Emeritus Professor of Classics at Göttingen University, is well-known, among other things, for his work on ancient rhetoric and its reception. In this book on ancient rhetoric in Humanism he has assembled eleven articles (three in English and eight in German, including even a review) that were published in the period from 1968 to 2002. The length of the articles, ranging from 9 to more than 70 pages, varies as much as their character does. Classen deals with the following topics: “Cicerostudien in der Romania im fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhundert” (pp. 1–71); “Das Studium der Reden Ciceros in Spanien im fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhundert” (72–136); “The Rhetorical Works of George of Trebizond and Their Debt to Cicero” (137–152); “Quintilian and the Revival of Learning in Italy” (153–175); “Cicero und Seneca in der Rhetorik der Renaissance” (176–188); “Cicero inter Germanos redivivus I” (189–224); “Cicero inter Germanos redivivus II” (225–244); “Heinrich Bebel” (245–253); “Neue Elemente in einer alten Disziplin: Zu Melanchthons De Rhetorica libri tres” (254–309); “Die Bedeutung Ciceros für Johannes Sturms pädagogische Theorie und Praxis” (310–331); “Lodovico Guicciardini’s Descrittione and the Tradition of the Laudes and Descriptiones urbium” (332–355). Every article has been partly revised or extended, but Classen admits in his preface that certain instances of overlap and repetition have remained. As can be seen from the list, the reception of Cicero as a rhetorician in the 15th and 16th centuries lies in the centre of Classen’s interests in this volume. The Humanists’ approaches to ancient rhetoric are understood not only as part of the history of rhetoric, but also as an important element of the history of philology, as the editing and commenting of ancient rhetorical treatises and speeches belonged to the primary tasks of the scholars of the 15th and 16th centuries. They studied Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian and others from different angles and for various reasons. On this basis, they developed their own theory of rhetoric and adjusted it to their practical needs – in politics, justice and education as well as in their assessment of language and its functions. The translation of the ancient rhetorical texts also contributed to the elaboration of the vernacular languages. Of great significance is the question as to the imitation and independence of the Humanist rhetoricians from their ancient models: while some ancient authors were frequently emulated, others tended to be neglected. This leads to the issue of the different forms or types of rhetoric that were preferred by the Humanists. As in antiquity, there was a contrast between proponents of an elaborate style and defenders of the ‘plain style’ who rejected embellishment, preferring res to verba. It would have been useful to have an introductory chapter or at least some concluding remarks that would have given Classen the opportunity to draw a more general outline of the rather complex picture of Humanist ‘Geistesgeschichte’ that the volume puts forward. This way, the less initiated reader would have been presented with a better idea of the social, political, religious and literary traditions in which the Humanists found themselves and also of the cultural differences that existed in the regions of Europe during these times. But there can be no doubt that Classen has brought together some very intriguing and valuable studies of his own which will stimulate further research on the lingering influence of ancient rhetoric. There is an index of names (356–373), but unfortunately no comprehensive bibliography; except in the overview article on Bebel, which has been reproduced from a kind of encyclopedia on important figures of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, secondary literature is given in footnotes, a fact that is responsible for their unnecessary and sometimes excessive length (pp. 91, 184 and 354 have only three lines of running text, while the rest of the page is taken up by footnotes). A more extensive – and rather positive – review of Classen’s book, written by Christopher B. Krebs from Harvard University, can be found in the internet review journal Bryn Mawr Classical Review ([URL]). – Thorsten Fögen (Humboldt-Universität Berlin).]

ed. 2003 . Entre Russie et Europe: Itinéraires croisés des linguistes et des idées linguistiques . (= Slavica Occitania, 17 .) Toulouse : Centre de Recherches ‘Interculturalité et monde slave’; Département de Slavistique de l’Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail , 344 pp. ISSN 245–2491 ; 18 (inside France: 16) eur (PB); for orders, write to: Slavica Occitania, 256 av. de Grande-Bretagne, F-31300 Toulouse. [For some 10 years now, Slavica Occitania publishes studies and collections of articles devoted to the field of Slavic studies which deserve to be more widely known as they appear to be. The present volume would be of particular interest to readers of HL, as the follolwing list of articles would suggst: Antonia Bernard, “Les correspondants russes de Jernej Kopitar (1780–1844)”; Aleksandr Duličenko, “Jan Baudouin de Courtenay et la naissance de la géographie linguistique”; Jean-Marie Fournier: “La théorie des temps dans les Vrais principes de la langue française (1747) de l’Abbé Girard, grammairien et ‘secrétaire-interprète’ du roi pour la langue russe”; Valérie Geronimi, “Les grammaires russes de Juraj Križanić (1617–1693 [not: 1683?]) entre Smotrickij et Lomonosov: D’une théorie xénophobe à une pratique nationale”; Irina Ivanova, “Les contacts franco-russes en phonétique expérimentale: L’abbé Rousselot et ses stagiaires russes”; Patrick Sériot, “L’affaire du petit drame: Filiation franco-russe ou communauté de pensée? (Tesnière et Dmitrievskij [1856–1929])”; Ekaterina Velmezova, “Lucien Lévy-Bruhl lu par Nikolaj Marr: Deux théories des langues dites primitives”, and Serhij Wakulenko, “Les ‘théories dépassées’ dans le domaine de l’étude du langage selon Alexandre Potebnia”. The rich volume carries a section on “Bakhtiniana et alia”, from which may be singled out a review article by Delphine Huser Khomiakov, “‘Discours’, ‘Énonciation’, ‘Sujet parlant’: La question de la légitimité des termes choisis dans la traduction de Marxisme et philosophie du langage de Vološinov/Baxtin par Marina Yaguello” (157–186), although one may be surprised to notice that among Russian scholars the myth that Baxtin, and not Valentin Nikolaevič Vološinov (1895–1936), who perished during the Stalinist Purge, is still credited with the authorship of this 1929 book. There are of course other weaknesses in scholarship to be detected as in most such papers deriving from conferences. To choose a random example: in Duličenko’s article, Baudouin de Courtenay is celebrated as a pioneer in the areas of dialetology and fieldwork. His teacher Schleicher is pushed aside with a dismissive remark, although it was he who wrote a book on his home dialect of Sonneberg in 1858, when Baudouin was 13 years old; he did fieldwork on Lithuanian in 1852 and published a 2-volume Handbuch der litauischen Sprache (Prague, 1856–1857). Jules Gilliéron (1854–1926) is identified as a Frenchman, although he was a Swiss by birth, which is significant since dialectological work was done in Switzerland in many places, decades earlier than any of Gilliéron’s own work.]

ed. 2003 . Folchini de Borfonibus , Opera omnia, Pars I: Cremonina: Grammatica, orthographia et prosodia . (= Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis, 201 .) Turnhout : Brepols , 179, 338 pp. ISBN 2-503-05019-0 . [Folchino dei Borfoni (c.1350-after 1401) lived and taught in Cremona in the late 14th century, and his grammar is significant as one of the few of this period in Italy. It is referred to frequently in the collection of studies by Percival (see below). The first 179 pp. contains an account of what is known of the life, a review of the manuscripts, and an analysis of the Cremonina itself, an annotated, critical edition of which makes up the remainder of the volume. It concludes with an “Index Locorum Sacrae Scripturae” and an “Index Auctorum”. – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

. 2004 . “Ik ben voor hoera! Om de uitspraak”. De lexicografische correspondentie tussen Matthias de Vries en J. H. van Dale . Amsterdam : Stichting Neerlandistiek VU ; Münster : Nodus , 136 pp; ISBN : 3-89323-527-2 (Nodus), 90-72365-78-X (Stichting Neerlandistiek VU) , 18,– EUR ( PB ). [This slim ‘cahier’ is a sequel and a supplement to the author’s voluminous study on the most legendary 19th-century Dutch lexicographer – cf. Lo van Driel, Een leven in woorden: J. H. van Dale: Schoolmeester-archivaris-taalkundige (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2003), 448 pages. Jan van Dale (1828–1872) was a teacher at a primary school in Sluis, a small town in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, near the Belgian border. His archives were destroyed during World War II, but thanks to his painstaking research and a stroke of good luck Van Driel was able to dig up at least part of Van Dale’s lexicographical correspondence with the Leiden professor of Dutch language, Matthias de Vries (1820–1892), the founder and editor-in-chief of the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, which was only completed in 1998. (Van Dale’s own Nieuw woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal had appeared in The Hague with the imprint of Nijhoff in the year of his death, and successive editions are still today referred to as “de dikke Van Dale”, now counting three fat volumes.) This modest self-taught schoolmaster from Sluis, who was definitely not trained in historical linguistics, felt obliged to consult regularly the learned Leiden professor when working on his own dictionary. Only eight letters (1869–1870) have survived, which are commented upon extensively in the present monograph. Biographical details on a host of contemporary scholars are also presented and some long-standing questions concerning the relationship between Van Dale and De Vries, and the reasons why Van Dale did not become a co-editor of the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal have now been definitely solved. – Jan Noordegraaf (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).]

. 2002[1788] . Observations on the Mahican Language . Reissued and prefaced by Claudio R. Salvucci . (= American Language Reprints, 25 .) Bristol, Pa. : Evolution Publishing , 43 pp. in–16º. ISBN 1-889758-23-X . US$28.00 ( HD ). [This booklet reprints the text (not the original title page, however) of Edwards’ (1745–1801) celebrated pamphlet Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneew Indians; in which the extent of that language in North-America is shown; its genius is grammatically traced; …, a lecture by the “pastor of a church in New Haven”, given at a meeting of the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences on 23 October 1787, which Ives Goddard in 1996 called “perhaps the most significant grammar of a North American language published in the eighteenth century”. It had first been published in New Haven: Printed by Josiah Meigs, 1788, and was re-ed., with notes by John Pickering, (1777–1846) in 1823 (Boston: Phelps & Farnham). In the present editor’s “Preface” (1–8), one misses a reference to H. Christoph Wolfart’s 1967 article, “Notes on the Early History of American Indian Linguistics”, Folia Linguistica 1.153–171. Wolfart was possibly the first modern-day Algonquianist to point to Edwards’ importance for language comparison and genetic study in American Indian linguistics.]

. 2004 . Edward Sapir en la lingüistica actual: Líneas de continuidad en la historia de la Lingüística . (= Verba: Anuario galego de filoloxía, Anexo 54 .) Santiago de Compostela : Universidade de Santiago de Compostela , 317 pp. ISBN 84-9750-026-1 ; EUR 21.00 ( PB ). [This book, which is devoted to Edward Sapir’s (1884–1939) legacy, has its origin in a doctoral thesis submitted in May 2003 at the University of Santiago in Galicia, Spain. Milagros Fernández Pérez acted as supervisor, and altogether five scholars served as examiners: Maria Luisa Calero, Teresa Fanego Lema, Hans-J. Niederehe, Pierre Swiggers, and Jesús Tusón. It analyzes Sapir’s writings, paying attention both to his linguistic contributions and his work in anthropology as well as his poetry. The volume starts with an introduction to linguistic historiography, aimed at establishing the methodological basis of the investigation at hand. In the second chapter, the book contextualizes Sapir within the ‘intellectosphere’ (Bursill-Hall) of his period, giving particular attention to both great linguistics trends at that time: Franz Boas’ ‘anthropological approach’ and Leonard Bloomfield’s ‘physicalist perspective’. In the third chapter special attention is given to Sapir’s study of Amerindian languages. In a more specific way, it deals with the different forms established by him in his linguistic analyses in response to then current, post-Humboldtian linguistic typology. The fourth chapter focuses on the mentalist perspective in Sapir’s writings, with two major goals: on the one hand, making clear what is to be understood by the concept of mentalism in Sapir, and, on the other hand, tracing its presence in modern linguistics. The fifth chapter deals with cultural, social and contextual dimension of languages, in order to study how Sapir understands the way languages work in actual use. Finally, in the “Conclusiones finales” (275–277) the author tries to put together and organize the different facets of Sapir’s work, linguistic, anthropological, and poetic, in an attempt to demonstrate that every piece holds together according to an inner logic, which is constant and thoroughgoing. The back matter consists of a bib. of primary – with a long list of Sapir’s writings (300–309) – and secondary sources (279–314) and a detailed table of contents (315–317), but there is no index.]

. 2004 . Vocabulary of Nanticoke . Reissued and prefaced by Claudio R. Salvucci . (= American Language Reprints, 31 .) Bristol, Pa. : Evolution Publishing , 67 pp. in–16º. ISBN 1-889758-30-2 . US$28.00 ( HD ). [This booklet in the series is essentially based on the materials collected by the British-born Moravian missionary John Gottlieb Ern(e)st(us) Heckewelder (1743–1823) in 1819 and published posthumously in his History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States (Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1876). As in the other numbers of the series, the editor provides historical and biographical information as well as a “Bibliography and Recommended Reading” list (10–12) preceding the excerpt. Naticoke was an East Algonquian language spoken along the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay; the editor has provided (p.33) a classification of the Eastern Algonquian subbranch based on Ives Goddard’s (1996) findings.]

. 2004 . « Les origines de la Russie » de Gottlieb Bayer (1741) . Texte latin, traduction française, introduction et notes . (= Numéro hors série de Slavica Occitania; Specimina slavica tolosana, 9 .) Toulouse : Centre de Recherches ‘Interculturalité et monde slave’; Département de Slavistique de l’Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail , 153 pp. ISBN 2-9520339-1-6 ; 16 eur including shipping (PB); an order can be placed with Slavica Occitania, 256 av. de Grande-Bretagne, F-31300 Toulouse. [The book begins with a brief introduction by the second editor (11–26), which supplies biographical information of Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer, born in Königsberg in 1694, educated at the University there (with stints in Berlin and Frankfurt/Oder) in theology, philosophy as well as in classical and oriental languages, until he eventually received, in 1725, an invitation to the Academy of St Petersburg, where was offered the choice of chair in any of these areas of his interests, including history. In December that year, he was made a member of the Russian Academy and a professor of Classical Antiquities and Oriental Languages; he remained there for the next twelve years. He returned to Königsberg, where he died shortly thereafter in January 1738. The present monograph, however, is devoted to Bayer’s brief historical study of “Origines Russicae”, which appeared posthumously, in Latin, on pages 388–436 in volume 8 of the Commentarii, published by the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, in 1741. The reprint, with French translation on facing pages (31–127), is preceded by a “Plan des Origines Russicae” by the first editor (25–29). Michel Mervaud provided a altogether 399 explanatory notes (129–153), replete with valuable historical and biographical information. There is no index, however.]

2004 . Johan Storm: dhi grétest pràktikal liNgwist in dhi werld . (= Publications of the Philological Society, 38 .) Oxford & Malden, Mass. : Blackwell , xi, 339 pp. ISBN 1-4051-2152-1 . £22.99, $39.95 ( PB ). [The Norwegian philologist, phonetician, dialectologist and language pedagogue Johan Fredrik Breda Storm (1836–1920) may indeed have been universally admired in the late 19th century as ‘probably the greatest practical linguist, as also the greatest phonetician, in the world’, as Paul Passy (1859–1940) wrote (phonetically) in 1886, or at least one of a handful of contenders for the title. But given his relative obscurity today, it is still close to miraculous to behold such a full biography and thorough, careful assessment of his work in its many facets. An opening section on the life is followed by three further sections taking up his work as it related to English, the Romance languages and Norwegian respectively. Just a tiny blot: bizarrely, what should be the first six entries in the bibliography and the first five in the general index appear instead at the end of those sections, in reverse alphabetical order – useful to know when chasing up the citations of Ivar Andreas Aasen (1813–1896). There is a general index. – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

ed. 2002 . Ferdinand de Saussure , Théorie des Sonantes. Il manoscritto di Ginevra BPU Ms. fr. 3955/1 . (= Quaderni del Dipartimento di Linguistica, Università di Firenze, Studi 5 .) Padova : Unipress , xxxvi 132 pp; 4 tables. ISBN 88-8098-1641 . [Having previously brought out Saussure’s five unpublished note books on phonetic subjects in 1995 (with the same publisher), Phonétique: Il manoscritto di Harvard Houghton Library bMS Fr 266 (8) – on the story how these and other Saussure papers ended up in the United States, see Herman Parret, “Les manuscrits saussuriens de Harvard”, Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 47.179–234(1994[1993]) – the author now presents us with a complimentary package of Saussurean notes dealing with phonological issues, notably those concerning the theory of sonants in Indo-European, which Karl Brugmann was the first to publish in 1876 (although Saussure had held this idea much earlier, and therefore felt he did not owe anything to Brugmann on this subject), and which played an important role in Saussure’s Mémoire of 1878. While the phonetic papers go back to the years 1881–1884, i.e., the first few years of Saussure’s teachings as Maître de Conférences at the École Pratique de Hautes Études in Paris, the present volume dates from his professorship in Geneva, when Saussure’s notes were prompted by Johannes Schmidt’s (1843–1901) broadside attack on this idea, Kritik der Sonantentheorie: Eine sprachwissenschaftliche Untersuchung (Weimar: Böhlau, 1895). It also led to a review of the book in Indogermanische Forschungen Anzeiger 7.216–219 (1897), which has been reproduced in the present volume (xxxi-xxxiv). In addition to front matter (consisting of a preface, a select bib., and an introduction, in which the editor also explains her editorial criteria), there is also a back matter with a name index (which also lists bib. references which she has been able to identify in Saussure’s notes) and an index of subjects and terms. The ‘tables’ actually reproduce certain manuscript pages which illustrate the difficult task the editor has had to face in producing this book.]

. 2003 . L’Ars lectoria Ecclesie de Jean de Garlande: Une grammaire versifiée du XIIIe siècle et ses gloses . (= Studia Artistarum: Études sur la Faculté des arts dans les Universités médiévales, Subsidia 2 .) [Turnhout] : Brepols , 358 pp. ISBN 2-503-51355-7 . [A revised version of the author’s thesis for the École des Chartes. A brief introductory survey of the life and work of John of Garland (Johannes de Garlandia, c.1195–1258?) is followed by an account of the manuscripts, and then a long analysis of the text, the critical edition of which, with facing translation and glosses from the mss., is found at pp. 203–300. This volume concludes with an “Index grammatical”, an “Index prosodique”, an “Index orthographique”, an “Index étymologique et lexicographique”, an “Index des faux homonymes”, an “Index des termes en langue vulgaire contenus dans les gloses”, and an “Index des auteurs cités dans le texte”. Who could ask for more? – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

. 2004 . Antropologičen pogled kăm ezika [ An anthropological view of language ]. Sofia : “Paradigma” , 203 pp. ISBN 954-9536-93-9 . [The book offers a fairly accessible account of the recent research on the following subjects: the relationship between anthropology and linguistics; animal communication; the neurobiological basis of language; the origin of language; language evolution; language universals, and linguistic relativity. It also includes portraits (133–182) of Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), Franz Boas (1858–1942), Edward Sapir (1884–1939), Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897– 1941). There is a separate bibliography after each chapter, but no index. – Jivco Boyadjiev (University of Sofia).]

eds. 2003 . Slavistikata v načaloto na XXI vek: Tradicii i očakvanija [ Slavic studies at the beginning of the 21st century: Traditions and expectations ]. Sofia : Sema RŠ , 400 pp. ISBN 954-8021-13-7 . [The collection contains papers presented at the Sixth National Slavic Readings meeting held on 26–27 April 2002 at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. The texts represent the main trends in the development of Slavic linguistic and literary studies in recent years. The linguistic section includes papers on general Slavic topics, a number of contrastive studies as well as papers devoted to one or another specific Slavic language. Three articles are of particular interest to the historiography of linguistics: Dina Staniševa, “Ideite na N. Kruszewski v priloženie kăm leksikalnoto prostranstvo: Glagoli za položenie v slavjanskite ezici [M. Kruszewski’s ideas applied to lexical space: Verbs of position in the Slavic languages]” (7–12); Penka Filkova, “Naučni tradicii i novi naučni napravlenija v slavjanskoto ezikoznanie v načaloto na XXI v. [Scientific traditions and new research trends in Slavic linguistics at the beginning of the 21st century]” (13–18), and Ivan Kucarov, “Slavjanskata filologija – periodi na podem i upadăk i faktorite, koito gi obuslavjat [Slavic philology – periods of upsurge and decline (during its almost 200-year-long history) and the factors determining them]” (19–27). A bibliography has been appended to most articles. – Jivco Boyadjiev (University of Sofia).]

. 2004 . Studies in Renaissance Grammar . (= Variorum Collected Studies Series, CS774 .) Aldershot, Hampshire & Burlington, Vt. : Ashgate , xii, 342 pp. ISBN 0-86078-928-4 . £57.50 . [This volume brings together 17 previously published studies by Percival (b.1930), some from readily available sources but a number from rather obscure ones, including five articles from Res Publica Litterarum, a journal which began life at the University of Kansas, where Percival taught from 1969 until his retirement in 1995. Four studies are devoted to Antonio de Nebrija, three to Niccolò Perotti (1429– 1480), two to Guarino of Verona (1374–1460), and one each to Bartolomeo Sulmonese, Gasparino Barzizza (1360–1430) and Lorenzo Valla (1405–1457). In addition there are four articles on ‘general topics’, including three surveys of Renaissance grammar and rhetoric, and one enquiring into whether Renaissance grammar represents a rebellion or an evolution from the medieval tradition. The studies have been reprinted in their original format and with their original pagination, but a unified Index of Manuscripts and a General Index have been added. – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

. 2004 . La Parole efficace: Signe, rituel, sacré . (= Collection “Des Travaux”, [unnumbered] .) Avant-propos of Alain de Libera . Paris : Éditions du Seuil , 789 pp. ISBN 2-02-62805-8 ; 40.00 EUR ( PB ). [In his foreword Alain de Libera relates the purpose of the book to the recent debate over religious signs in France. According to him, the problem is that no one as ever investigated what a religious sign actually is, and he argues that the present book does precisely this in the frame of Foucault’s ‘archéologie’ by investigating the medieval period with its Augustinian background. The sacraments are defined as “signs, which perfom what they signify” or “represent” (sacramentum quod efficit quod significat/ figurat), and two related aspects of this definition of the sacrament are treated as analysed by the theologians of the later Middle Ages: first, the notion of sacrament as an ‘efficacious sign’ (signum efficax); second, the consequences of this definition on the linguistic side of the sacrament, i.e., the formula, which ends with a careful analysis of the sacramental formulas as “operative” (operativa, factiva), or, in modern words, performative. Chap. 1 inquires into the notion of a sacramental sign following Augustine’s definition in De doctrina Christiana. Its relational nature plays an important role in all the discussions on signs, as early as in the argument of Bérenger of Tours (c.1000–c.1088), when he introduces it as an argument in the eucharistic controversy he has with Lanfranc du Bec (c.1005–1089): the bread remains after the transformation what it is, he claims, but what was once a pure res before the sacrament, becomes, with the transformation a sign of Christ. For this purpose he redefines the sacraments as a sign (whereas it was previously defined as a mystery). The debate over the sacramental signs investigate many interesting aspects of a theory of signs, with, for instance, the question of knowing if a sign is necessarily of a sensible nature and what is signified of an intelligible nature – notice that it is in this context that we find for the first time the opposition significans / significatum. – It is obvious from the above discussion that the book is a contribution to the history of linguistics only in the sense that it demonstrates the importance of theological discussion and linguistic matters or, rather, their interconnections during the Middle Ages. Chap. 2 discusses the difficult problem of the causality, physical or magical, of the sacrament. Chap. 3 deals with the formulas themselves: just as the sign has to manifest its efficiency, the linguistic ‘form’ of the sign has to show it as well. In this way, the theologians offer a careful logico-linguistic analysis of the formulas, to try to show how they can act as performative utterances. Chap. 4 is devoted to the problem of the relation between the formula and the intention of the priest, but also of the recipient of the sacrament is studied. The concluding chapter is devoted to the analysis of the eucharistic formulas, especially to the logico-linguistic analysis of hoc est corpus meum (“this is my body”). Here we can see how well trained in grammar and logic the medieval theologians were, and how sophisticated the arguments elaborated by those two disciplines were. Among the participants in these discussions we find, in addition to those already mentioned, apart from well-known figures such as Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, Bonaventura (alias John of Fidanza) and Guillaume d’Auxerre (1140/1150–1231), Étienne Langton (c.1150–1228), Pierre de Poitiers (1130–1205), Pierre le Mangeur (d. in 1178 [according to p.100], and in 1087 [according to p. 385]), Pierre le Chantre (1120/1130–1197), Richard de Mediavilla (1249–c.1302), Gilles de Rome (1243–1316), Simon de Tournai (1130–1201), or Guy d’Orchelles (1206–1229 [according to p. 101]). – It would have been nice to have the life-dates added to the “Index des noms propres” (763–767). Long extracts of translated passages, often from unedited texts, are inserted in the running text; all the quotations are translated, with the Latin original to be found in the endnotes (493–715), of which there are altogether 1752 (sauf erreur). Bib. of primary (717–724) and secondary sources (724–753), followed by various indexes. A massive study for the patient reader.] .

2002 . Minor Vocabularies of Tutelo and Saponi . Reissued and prefaced by Claudio R. Salvucci . (= American Language Reprints, 26 .) Bristol, Pa. : Evolution Publishing , 61 pp. in–16º . ISBN 1-889758-24-8 . US$28.00 ( HD ). [This booklet brings together ‘salvage vocabularies’ and other incidental information from printed sources, including excerpts from a letter by a certain Abraham Wood to a certain John Richards dated 22 August 1674, first published in 1912. The main parts constitute Tutelo/English and English/Tutelo vocabularies collected by Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and Leo Frachtenberg (1883–1930) from a native Cayuga by the name of Andrew Sprague who had been adopted by Tutelos and had acquired a good deal of the language; they were published in the new series of American Anthropologist 15:2.295–297 and 15:3477–479 (1913), respectively. The other vocabulary derives from a list of Saponi terms and phrases taken down by John Fontaine in 1716 in his journal entry “The Indians of Fort Christanna” first published in 1971. These data are from long extinct languages of Virginia Siouan tribes. The editor has added a “Bibliography and Recommended Reading” list (10–12) preceding the selections, and a “Classification of the Siouan languages” table based on writings by Michael K. Foster, an Iroquianist, and Ives Goddard, an Algonquianist, concluding the booklet (p.61).]

. 2004 . Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition: A history . (= Routledge Studies in the History of Linguistics, 7 .) London & New York : Routledge , viii, 262 pp. ISBN 0-415-31037-7 . £65, US$105 . [Readers of this journal will certainly share Thomas’s concern about the shallow awareness that various sub-areas of linguistics have maintained of their own historical tradition. She has aimed this book not so much at historians of linguistics but at people working in Second Language Acquisition, and secondarily at language teachers and teacher educators. If, as one hopes, the book does indeed gain an audience in such quarters, it will expose them to quite a vast range of writings related to language learning and ‘general grammar’ from ancient times to the late 20th century. The perspective is, of course, determined by Thomas’ goal in undertaking her survey and therefore not representative of the development of theories of language as a whole, but readers will gain an overall sense of that development even so. The book has been promoted by the publisher in the following terms: “From the ancient Mediterranean world to the present day, our conceptions of what is universal in language have interacted with our experiences of language learning. This book tells two stories: the story of how scholars in the west have conceived of the fact that human languages share important properties despite their obvious differences, and the story of how westerners have understood the nature of second or foreign language learning. In narrating these two stories, the author argues that modern second language acquisition theory needs to reassess what counts as its own past. The book addresses Greek contributions to the prehistory of universal grammar, Roman bilingualism, the emergence of the first foreign language grammars in the early Middle Ages, and the Medieval speculative grammarians efforts to define the essentials of human language. Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition is a remarkable contribution to the history of linguistics and will be essential reading for students and scholars of linguistics, specialists in second language acquisition and language teacher-educators.” Endnotes by chapter (193–213). Detailed bib. (214–248); general index (249–262). – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

. 2004 . Our Knowledge of the Past: A philosophy of historiography . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , viii, 291 pp. ISBN 0-521-83415-5 . £45, $70 . [In addition to being a well-informed and accessible guide to the main modern approaches to the key questions that underlie the writing of history, this book takes a particular interest in linguistics, for instance in sections on comparative linguistics in the early 19th (pp. 63– 68) and later 19th (pp. 87–90) century. Following the “Introduction: The Philosophy of History”, the study has the following chaps.: 1, “Consensus and Historiographic Knowledge”; 2, “The History of Knowledge of History”; 3, “The Theory of Scientific Historiography”; 4, “Historiographic Opinion”; 5, “Historiographic Explanation; and 6, “The Limits of Historiographic Knowledge”, and “Conclusion: Historiography and History”. From the dust jacket: “How do historians, comparative linguists, biblical and textual critics, and evolutionary biologists establish beliefs about the past? How do they know the past? This book presents a philosophical analysis of the disciplines that offer scientific knowledge of the past. Using the analytic tools of contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science, the book covers such topics as evidence, theory, methodology, explanation, determination and underdetermination, coincidence, contingency, and counterfactuals in historiography. Aviezer Tucker’s central claim is that historiography as a scientific discipline should be thought of as an effort to explain the evidence of past events. He also emphasizes the similarity between historiographic methodology and Darwinian evolutionary biology.” There is a general index. – John E. Joseph (University of Edinburgh).]

. 2003 . Kleine Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft . Tübingen : Gunter Narr , 112 pp. ISBN 3-8233-6033-7 ( HB ); € 16.90 . [A new concise introduction to the history of linguistic ideas, written in German, would certainly not be unwelcome, as it would provide a useful tool for undergraduate classes in linguistics and related subjects as well as for more advanced students from neighbouring disciplines. There is no up-to-date account for use in universities of the German-speaking countries which covers the time span from antiquity to the 20th century. A student without a proper knowledge of English still has to rely upon works such as Arens (Sprachwissenschaft, 21969) and Coseriu (Die Geschichte der Sprachphilosophie von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 21975, which in fact ends with Rousseau, not with “Gegenwart”; it was published in 2003 in one volume, completely revised by Jörn Albrecht), and the translations into German of Ivić (Wege der Sprachwissenschaft, 1971), Beresin et al. (Geschichte der sprachwissenschaftlichen Theorien, 1980), or Robins (Ideenund Problemgeschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, 1973), the last being perhaps still the best choice. Weber’s Kleine Geschichte attempts to fill this gap, but utterly fails to succeed. In her introduction (pp. 9–17), which irritates by its disproportionate length (8 out of 112 pages), she explains the genesis of her book, which is based upon twenty-five years of lecturing on the topic. One feels tempted to say “Poor students!”, as the book contains innumerable mistakes and is presented in a very bad style, marred by countless platitudes. In the first chapter (19–48), she deals with Graeco-Roman antiquity (19–38), the Middle Ages (38–41), and the Renaissance (41–44), and concludes with some very brief remarks on Port-Royal and Leibniz. The reader cannot avoid getting the feeling that Weber has never actually studied in depth the texts which she discusses here, as there is no other explanation for the great number of errors, e.g., the stupefying fact that she claims for the Alexandrian philologists of the third and second century B.C. to have restored the texts of the Homeric epics because they were so fond of their pure Attic (29–30); one may doubt that Weber has ever heard of “Homerische Kunstsprache”. The second chapter concerning the 18th and 19th century (49–64) and the third on linguistics in the 20th century (65–103), dealing with Saussure (66–74) and various branches of structuralist thought (75–98), are unfortunately organised in a similar fashion. To give just one further example, the reader will be disconcerted by Weber’s statement that Saussure was the first to have recognized the social function of language (p. 73). The bibliography (105–109) is rather poorly conceived: authors’ first names and page numbers of articles are often left out, and, what is worse, names such as Coseriu, Gardt, Hovdhaugen, Ivić, Law, Mounin, Schmitter or Szemerényi are absent from the list, while other studies that have a marginal significance for the history of linguistics are mentioned. There is no index whatsoever. By her reductionist approach and her numerous inappropriate generalisations, Weber creates an oversimplified picture of extremely complex issues which is of no use to anyone, not even to the very beginner in the field of the history of linguistics. One would have expected the publisher, who enjoys a by no means small reputation, to have cast a much more careful eye on the author’s manuscript. It is most obvious that it has neither received any sort of thorough editing nor has it been sent out to external referees for evaluation. The reviewer regrets to say that this book belongs to the worst scholarly publications which he has read in recent years. The amount of 16.90 Euro, the retail price for just 112 pages, would be much better spent on a decent lunch. – Thorsten Fögen (Humboldt-Universität Berlin).]