Volume 37, Issue 3

Norwegian has a distinction between simple and complex reflexives. The traditional view is that complex reflexives are used in local binding, while simple reflexives are used in nonlocal binding (for example Hellan 1988). A well-known problem is that there are many cases of simple reflexives that seem to be locally bound. The traditional view is that these cases involve reanalysis. This view will be criticized, and it will be shown that inalienables with external possessors have a distribution that is strikingly similar to the distribution of the simple reflexive. It will be proposed that the distribution of inalienables and simple reflexives should be described directly by the same theory, and that this theory should be the theory of inalienables. This gives a view of the simple reflexive that is very different from the traditional view.

The basic semantic function of locational elements with the syntactic status of c lause modifier is typically assumed to be the establishing of a (spatial, temporal, or other) setting, within which entities interact and processesunfold. Less attention has been paid to structures where several settingsare connected to the same predicate, and to the mutual semantic relationof the settings in these structures. In this article evidence is produced for the argument that these constructions (called multiple locational specifications ) reveal a scope relation between the settings such that a semantically higher domain dominates a lower one. For instance, in the sentence On Monday nights, Ollie played chess with Arthur in London , time dominates space by confining the spatial relation between Ollie and London to Monday nights only. The opposite scope relation can be achieved by creating a special interpretation of the lower domain. For instance, space can dominate time only if it acquires a temporal sense itself. Such a reading foregrounds the duration of the presence of an entity in the space. Syntactically, this effect is created by word order; e.g. In London, Ollie played chess with Arthur on Monday nights evokes a temporal reading for in London (‘when in London’), enabling it to include on Monday nights within its scope. It is argued in this paper that temporal and other special interpretations are quite productive and possible for many different kinds of domain.

This paper analyzes the argument structure of Yucatec Mayan. In line with traditional assumptions but in contrast to more recent proposals, we show that Yucatec has ergative morphology but not a split-ergative system. For intransitive verbs there is a strict correlation between aspect and the type of linker: they take ergative clitics in the imperfect, but nominative suffixes in the perfect. Moreover, each intransitive verb is either inherently perfective or inherently imperfective, and only the opposite aspect is marked. We account for these data by two basic assumptions: (i) verbal (sub)predicates may characterize the beginning or the end of the situation, and (ii) imperfect selects an initial phase but perfect the end. In addition, Yucatec has an overt system of transitivity alternations: intransitive verbs may add a subject or an object, and transitive verbs may demote the subject or the object. We show that all these alternations fully conform to our basic assumptions. Finally, we show how three-place verbal concepts are expressed in a language with only two structural arguments by the interaction of detransitivization and transitivization.

Maithili features one of the most complex agreement systems of any Indo-Aryan language. Not only nominative and non-nominative subjects, but also objects, other core arguments, and even nonarguments are cross-referenced, allowing for a maximum of three participants encoded by the verb desinences. The categories reflected in the morphology are person, honorific degree, and, in the case of third persons, gender, spatial distance, and focus. However, not all combinations of category choices are equally represented, and there are many cases of neutralization. We demonstrate that the paradigm structure of Maithili verb agreement is not arbitrary but can be predicted by two general principles of interaction in Maithil society: a principle of social hierarchy underlying the evaluation of people's “face” (Brown and Levinson 1987[1978]), and a principle of social solidarity defining degrees of “empathy” (Kuno 1987) to which people identify with others. Maithili verb agreement not only reflects a specific style of social cognition but also constitutes a prime means of maintaining this style by requiring constant attention to its defining parameters. In line with this, we find that the system is partly reduced by uneducated, so-called lower-caste speakers, who are least interested in maintaining this style, especially its emphasis on hierarchy.

In this study it is argued that typological generalizations based on the way languages code the relationships between two semantically connected clauses may shed light on the development of clause combining in the untutored acquisition of a second language by adult learners. An implicational hierarchy where semantic integration between states of affairs is correlated with the use of verb forms explicitly marked as dependent has been adopted and predictions on the developmental paths of learner languages have been formulated. The data description — based on four learners of Italian at different competence levels — shows an ordering in the emergence of different types of clause linkage that follows the predictions of the hierarchy: in the coding of complement clauses the relations situated at the left end of the hierarchy make use of “deranked” verb forms, those situated at the right end of “balanced” verb forms. Adverbial clauses allow for descriptions based on the same parameters used for complement clauses, while relative clauses are described according to different parameters. The findings of this study provide independent evidence for the validity of principles governing the distribution of particular morphosyntactic strategies in the coding of subordinate relations. This paper also intends to show how second-language-acquisition studies can offer interesting insights to people working in the field of typological and general linguistics.

Bernd Heine: Cognitive Foundations of Grammar . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Cloth: ISBN 0-19-510251-7, $45.00; Paper: ISBN 0-19-510252-5, $19.95 (Chris Sinha) Henning Andersen: Reconstructing Prehistorical Dialects: Initial Vowels in Slavic and Baltic . Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 91. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996. xvii+238 pp. DM 198.00. (Bernard Comrie) David Solnit: Eastern Kayah Li: Grammar, Texts, Glossary. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. xxix+385 pp. US$34.00. (Bernard Comrie) Vytautas Ambrazas, editor: Lithuanian Grammar . Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 1997. 802 pp. (Bernard Comrie) Volker Heeschen: An Ethnographic Grammar of the Eipo Language, Spoken in the Central Mountains of IrianJaya (West New Guinea), Indonesia . Berlin: Reimer, 1998. (Ger P. Reesink) Pekka Sammallahti: The Saami Languages: An Introduction . Kárášjohka (Karasjok): Davvi Girji, 1998. 268 pp. (Bernard Comrie) Werner Besch, Anne Betten, Oskar Reichmann, and Stefan Sonderegger, editors: Sprachgeschichte. Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung , vol. 1, 2nd ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1998. i+1013 pp. DM 698.00 (hardcover). (Manfred Görlach) Louis-Jean Calvet: Language Wars and Linguistic Politics , Michel Petheram (trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. xvi+212 pp. Cloth: ISBN 0-19-823598-4, £75; paperback: ISBN 0-19-870021-0, £28. (Geoffrey Sampson)

September 7-10, 1999, Mainz, Germany: 34th Colloquium of Linguistics. The Colloquium will take place at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies Germershiem, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. The motto of this year's conference will be “Linguistics on the Way to the New Millennium.” In a break with tradition, this year's conference program will be supplemented by a number of three-hour tutorials, intended to give a concise introduction to a specific field for an audience with a different focus of research. For further information and registration: 34th Colloquium of Linguistics, c/o Dr. Reinhard Rapp, Universitaät Mainz, FASK, D-76711 Germersheim, Germany. Phone: +49 7274 508-457. Fax: +49 7274 508-429. E-mail: rapp@usun2.fask.uni-mainz.de.