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Dimensioni della linguistica
590
Book reviews
Maria-Elisabeth Conte, Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo Ramat, eds., Dimensioni della linguistica. Milano: Angeli, 1990. 239 pp. Lire 28.000. Reviewed by Wolfgang Schweickard* The present volume is the first of the new series ‘Materiali linguistic? published by the Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne (Sezione Scienze de1 Linguaggio) of the University of Pavia. The eight contributions in the present volume were written exclusively by linguists from the University of Pavia and concern the topics (i) Linguistica storica, (ii) Linguistica tipologica, (iii) Linguistica testuale (cf. in this connection also the ‘Presentazione’, pp. 7f.). By means of the example of the ‘pronomi personali obliqui’, Anna Giacalone Ramat (‘Clitici latini e romanzi’, pp. 1l-30) gives an outline of typologically relevant changes in the use of clitics from Latin to Romance. Another aspect of clitics is the topic of Silvia Luraghi’s contribution, ‘Osservazioni sulla legge di Wackernagel e la posizione de1 verbo nelle lingue indoeuropee’ (pp. 31-60). The author describes the modalities of how Wackernagel’s law is put into effect, and identifies tendencies in the development of the chosen object languages Greek, Hittite, and ancient Indic that to some extent qualify this law. In both Giacalone Ramat’s and in Luraghi’s contributions, besides the grammatical aspects of the use of clitics, special attention is given to the pragmatic preconditions (i.e. information structure, discourse organization). In his well-documented study Gianguido Manzelli discusses the question whether or not the plurals in -k in Armenian and Hungarian are genetically related (‘11 plurale cappatico in armeno e ungherese’, pp. 61-116). M. starts by giving a critical view of the state of the discussion on this topic, which has been controversial ever since the origins of Indo-European linguistics. Within the framework of a differentiated analysis, new apprqaches to explanations are developed from a comparative historical perspective (cf. especially chapter 4), which lead to the conclusion that the thesis of a genetic connection cannot be maintained. The book’s second section, dealing with typological linguistics, starts with Giuliano Bernini, ‘Per una tipologia delle repliche brevi’ (pp. 119-149). Considering Indo-European and non Indo-European languages, B. develops a typology of propositional replies of the type it. si, no, etc. The typology is not based on any grammatical casuistry, but on fundamental pragmatical conditions of concrete communicative interaction. Paolo Ramat’s contribution (‘Nessuno, Ulisse e Polifemo’, pp. 15 l-l 66) is about language-specific appearances and communicative conditions of negative sentences and can be regarded as complementary to
* Correspondence tik, Leutragraben
ro: W. Schweickard, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitlt 1, D-O 6900 Jena, Germany.
Jena, Institut
fiir Romanis-
Book reviews
591
Bernini’s contribution. Both are related to a large research project financed by the CNR (Centro Nazionale delie Ricerche). In section III, text linguistics, Claudia Caffi (‘Modulazione, mitigazione, litote’, pp. 169-199) examines various possibilities of moderating as well as intensifying propositions. Much attention is paid to the special case of litotes (e.g.: La questione non P priva di inferesse), starting from definitional problems and leading to a systematization of the phenomena in a pragmatical context. This contribution combines in a very appropriate way theoretical descriptions and practical exemplification of both older and more recent descriptive approaches (cf. e.g. Bally’s ‘mode vecu’ and ‘mode pur’, as well as the further development by Hiibler 1987). Maria-Elisabeth Conte (‘Pronomi anaforici non-coreferenziali’, pp. 20 l-2 15) devotes herself to the examination of anaphoric text components, thus continuing earlier studies in this field. In the specific case of non-coreferential anaphoric pronouns, three variants are distinguished: (a) ‘I pronomi anaforici con antecedente referenziale, ma non-coreferenziale’, (b) ‘Pronomi anaforici con antecedente non-referenziale’, (c) ‘Pronomi anaforici senza antecedenti’. The single types are further distinguished according to formal and functional criteria. Thus, for example, in the first group more or less strongly pronounced formal or semantic divergences in the relations between antecedents and anaphoric pronouns can be found: “The man who gave his paycheck to his wife was wiser than the man who gave it to his mistress” (no formal divergence), “Sono figlio di un ferroviere, ma ho dovuto precettarli” (divergence in number), “There’s a car going up the road and he comes to a crossroads” (divergence in gender). The contributions to this volume are all on the same high level and ensure inspirational and diversified reading. Admittedly, the thematic relations are relatively loose; however, the typological and text-linguistical approaches, which are dominant from a methodological angle, provide appropriate links between the topics. Further assets are the distinct structure of the contributions, the always clear argumentation, and the well-founded bibliographical information reflecting the state of the art on the international level. l Once more, this volume gives evidence of the remarkable scientific capacity of the University of Pavia in the fields of language typology and text linguistics. After this successful and promising start, a further productive development of the new series seems highly desirable.
1 It should not remain unmentioned that the large number of titles in foreign languages are almost always quoted correctly. Also other errata are extremely rare (p. 15 in n. 3: Scholl 1876 and Geisler 1982 are missing in the bibliography; p. 29: the alphabetical order of the bibliography remains to be corrected; p. 59: pronoun; p. 148: Gunther Drosdowski).
Book reviews
Maria-Elisabeth Conte, Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo Ramat, eds., Dimensioni della linguistica. Milano: Angeli, 1990. 239 pp. Lire 28.000. Reviewed by Wolfgang Schweickard* The present volume is the first of the new series ‘Materiali linguistic? published by the Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne (Sezione Scienze de1 Linguaggio) of the University of Pavia. The eight contributions in the present volume were written exclusively by linguists from the University of Pavia and concern the topics (i) Linguistica storica, (ii) Linguistica tipologica, (iii) Linguistica testuale (cf. in this connection also the ‘Presentazione’, pp. 7f.). By means of the example of the ‘pronomi personali obliqui’, Anna Giacalone Ramat (‘Clitici latini e romanzi’, pp. 1l-30) gives an outline of typologically relevant changes in the use of clitics from Latin to Romance. Another aspect of clitics is the topic of Silvia Luraghi’s contribution, ‘Osservazioni sulla legge di Wackernagel e la posizione de1 verbo nelle lingue indoeuropee’ (pp. 31-60). The author describes the modalities of how Wackernagel’s law is put into effect, and identifies tendencies in the development of the chosen object languages Greek, Hittite, and ancient Indic that to some extent qualify this law. In both Giacalone Ramat’s and in Luraghi’s contributions, besides the grammatical aspects of the use of clitics, special attention is given to the pragmatic preconditions (i.e. information structure, discourse organization). In his well-documented study Gianguido Manzelli discusses the question whether or not the plurals in -k in Armenian and Hungarian are genetically related (‘11 plurale cappatico in armeno e ungherese’, pp. 61-116). M. starts by giving a critical view of the state of the discussion on this topic, which has been controversial ever since the origins of Indo-European linguistics. Within the framework of a differentiated analysis, new apprqaches to explanations are developed from a comparative historical perspective (cf. especially chapter 4), which lead to the conclusion that the thesis of a genetic connection cannot be maintained. The book’s second section, dealing with typological linguistics, starts with Giuliano Bernini, ‘Per una tipologia delle repliche brevi’ (pp. 119-149). Considering Indo-European and non Indo-European languages, B. develops a typology of propositional replies of the type it. si, no, etc. The typology is not based on any grammatical casuistry, but on fundamental pragmatical conditions of concrete communicative interaction. Paolo Ramat’s contribution (‘Nessuno, Ulisse e Polifemo’, pp. 15 l-l 66) is about language-specific appearances and communicative conditions of negative sentences and can be regarded as complementary to
* Correspondence tik, Leutragraben
ro: W. Schweickard, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitlt 1, D-O 6900 Jena, Germany.
Jena, Institut
fiir Romanis-
Book reviews
591
Bernini’s contribution. Both are related to a large research project financed by the CNR (Centro Nazionale delie Ricerche). In section III, text linguistics, Claudia Caffi (‘Modulazione, mitigazione, litote’, pp. 169-199) examines various possibilities of moderating as well as intensifying propositions. Much attention is paid to the special case of litotes (e.g.: La questione non P priva di inferesse), starting from definitional problems and leading to a systematization of the phenomena in a pragmatical context. This contribution combines in a very appropriate way theoretical descriptions and practical exemplification of both older and more recent descriptive approaches (cf. e.g. Bally’s ‘mode vecu’ and ‘mode pur’, as well as the further development by Hiibler 1987). Maria-Elisabeth Conte (‘Pronomi anaforici non-coreferenziali’, pp. 20 l-2 15) devotes herself to the examination of anaphoric text components, thus continuing earlier studies in this field. In the specific case of non-coreferential anaphoric pronouns, three variants are distinguished: (a) ‘I pronomi anaforici con antecedente referenziale, ma non-coreferenziale’, (b) ‘Pronomi anaforici con antecedente non-referenziale’, (c) ‘Pronomi anaforici senza antecedenti’. The single types are further distinguished according to formal and functional criteria. Thus, for example, in the first group more or less strongly pronounced formal or semantic divergences in the relations between antecedents and anaphoric pronouns can be found: “The man who gave his paycheck to his wife was wiser than the man who gave it to his mistress” (no formal divergence), “Sono figlio di un ferroviere, ma ho dovuto precettarli” (divergence in number), “There’s a car going up the road and he comes to a crossroads” (divergence in gender). The contributions to this volume are all on the same high level and ensure inspirational and diversified reading. Admittedly, the thematic relations are relatively loose; however, the typological and text-linguistical approaches, which are dominant from a methodological angle, provide appropriate links between the topics. Further assets are the distinct structure of the contributions, the always clear argumentation, and the well-founded bibliographical information reflecting the state of the art on the international level. l Once more, this volume gives evidence of the remarkable scientific capacity of the University of Pavia in the fields of language typology and text linguistics. After this successful and promising start, a further productive development of the new series seems highly desirable.
1 It should not remain unmentioned that the large number of titles in foreign languages are almost always quoted correctly. Also other errata are extremely rare (p. 15 in n. 3: Scholl 1876 and Geisler 1982 are missing in the bibliography; p. 29: the alphabetical order of the bibliography remains to be corrected; p. 59: pronoun; p. 148: Gunther Drosdowski).