Volume 40, Issue 3-4

This paper examines final obstruent devoicing in Slovene within the framework of Government Phonology and argues that devoicing is loss of melodic material in unlicensed positions, typically at the end of words belonging to major categories (i.e. nouns, verbs or adjectives) which represent phonological domains on their own. Also discussed is voice assimilation in Slovene, whose effects can sometimes obscure the effects of obstruent devoicing.

While the notion value of a language is not established in linguistic theory, evaluation of languages has occurred both inside the discipline and in practical contexts. It is the aim of this article to provide a theoretical foundation for this notion. To this end, the relevant components of the notion of value are examined and then applied to the evaluation of languages. The discussion considers arguments and evidence that have been adduced in the literature and tries to systematize them. The conclusion is that a rational discussion of the value of a language in different respects is possible, although given the intrinsic value of every language as such, linguistics cannot be used to justify a declaration of the superfluity of a language.

This paper investigates the degree of parallelism between the distribution of parts-of-speech classes in a language, and the distribution of dependent clause types in that language. It is hypothesized that languages with parts-of-speech classes that are specialized for a certain syntactic function have dependent clause types that are also confined to a single function. Conversely, in languages with a class of lexical items that is not specialized for a single function, but can rather be used in two or more functions, the same functional flexibility is expected in the domain of dependent clauses. These predictions are tested on a pilot sample of 12 languages, each with a different parts-of-speech system. For languages with functionally specialized parts-of-speech classes the results are as expected: their dependent clauses are also specialized. The languages with flexible parts-of-speech systems partly support the hypothesis: as expected, they have dependent clause types that can be used in more than one function. However, the distribution of these flexible constructions is not exactly the same as the distribution of the flexible parts-of-speech classes. Furthermore, in addition to flexible dependent clause types, languages with flexible parts-of-speech systems have functionally specialized dependent clause types. The results are interpreted as indicative of the interdependency between lexical and morphosyntactic typology.

Many scholars working in the field of language evolution interpret the B aldwin E ffect (i.e. the hypothesis that learned behaviors may become inherited, thus affecting the direction of evolutionary change) as a powerful evolutionary mechanism. Baldwin's proposal, however, is highly controversial, in that the empirical support for it is far from conclusive. The aim of this article is to critically examine one of the main sources of evidence adduced in support of the Baldwin Effect, namely its alleged parity, as repeatedly assumed in Briscoe's (2000, 2002, 2003, 2005) approach to language phylogeny, with W addington's genetic assimilation . It is argued here, however, that Baldwin's and Waddington's mechanisms are fundamentally different, and that this has important consequences for Briscoe's evolutionary model.

In this article I analyze English binominal NPs of the form the N of a(n) N and describe them as instances of esphoric NPs, i.e. NPs involving a forward phoric relation. Halliday & Hasan (1976) and Martin (1992) have put these NPs on a par with definite NPs containing restrictive modifiers (e.g. the party in power, the longest stretch ); I argue instead that NPs of the type the N of a(n) N are fundamentally different from the other types examined by Halliday & Hasan and Martin in that they designate two discourse referents rather than only one. I substantiate this claim with evidence retrieved from the COBUILD Bank of English corpus. My proposal is that esphoric NPs represent the cataphoric variant of a phoric relation which had traditionally been defined only in anaphoric terms, namely bridging . I thus analyze esphoric NPs as realizing forward bridging and discuss the types of conceptual relations they code. Finally, I describe these esphoric NPs as a special type of reference-point construction (Langacker 1993) in which the normal dynamics between reference point and target are reversed: it is the first NP which is target and the second NP which is reference point.

Walter Bisang, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Björn Wiemer, eds . 2004. What makes grammaticalization? A look from its fringes and its components (Trends in Linguistics – Studies and Monographs 158). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. vi + 354. ISBN 3-11-018152-5 (hb). (T orsten L euschner ) Laurel J. Brinton & Elizabeth Closs Traugott . 2005. Lexicalization and language change (Research Surveys in Linguistics.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xii + 207. ISBN 0-521-83310-8 (hb); ISBN 0-521-54063-1 (pb). (I lse W ischer ) Cristofaro, Sonia . 2003. Subordination (Oxford Studies in Linguistic Typology and Linguistic Theory.) Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Pp xvi + 355. ISBN 0-19-925279-3 (hb); ISBN 0-19-928200-5 (pb; 2005). (F rancisco G onzálvez -G arcía ) Adele E. Goldberg . 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language . Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. viii + 280. ISBN 0-19-9-268517 (hb); ISBN 0-19-9-268525 (pb). (J. C arlos A cuña -F ariña ) Anna Siewierska . 2004. Person (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics.) Cambridge, New York, Port Melbourne, Madrid & Cape Town: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xx + 327. ISBN 0-521-77214-1 (hb); ISBN 0-521-77669-4 (pb). (J. L achlan M ackenzie )

The 38th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE) took place in Valencia, Spain, from 7 to 10 September 2005. The meeting, whose central theme was “Formal, functional and typological perspectives on discourse and grammar”, was organized by Salvador Pons and the Department of Spanish Philology at the University of Valencia. It attracted quite a number of participants from a variety of European and non-European countries, who presented a total of over 200 papers during the three and a half conference days.