Newly Published Functional Work

Tue Apr 29 20:28:56 UTC 1997

Books from JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING related to Functional Linguistics that
have been recently published.
(We thought you'd like to know.)

TOWARDS A CALCULUS OF MEANING. STUDIES IN MARKEDNESS, DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
AND DEIXIS
Edna Andrews & Yishai Tobin (eds.)
1996 xxviii, 432 pp. Studies in Functional & Structural Linguistics, 43
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 268 1  Price: US$99.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 1552 9  Price: Hfl. 175,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
Further information e-mail: service at benjamins.com or 800-562-5666 (US &
Canada)

This volume contains papers presented at a symposium in honor of Cornelis
H. van Schooneveld and invited papers on the topics of invariance,
markedness, distinctive feature theory and deixis. It is not a Festschrift
in the usual sense of the word, but more of a collection of articles which
represent a very specific way of defining and viewing language and
linguistics. The specific approach presented in this volume has its origins
and inspirations in the theoretical and methodological paradigm of European
Structuralism in general, and the sign-oriented legacy of Ferdinand de
Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce and the functional and
communication-oriented approach of the Prague School in particular.
The book is divided in three sections: Theoretical and Methodological
Overview: Cornelis H. van Schooneveld; Anatoly Liberman; Petr Sgall; Alla
Bemova and Eva Hajicova; Robert Kirsner. Studies in Russian and Slavic
Languages: Edna Andrews; Lawrence E. Feinberg; Annie Joly Sperling; Ronald
E. Feldstein; Irina Dologova and Elena Maksimova; Stefan M. Pugh.
Applications to Other Languages, Language Families, and Aphasia: Ellen
Contini-Morava; Barbara A. Fennell; Victor A. Friedman; Robert Fradkin;
Yishai Tobin; Mark Leikin.

STUDIES IN ANAPHORA
Barbara Fox (ed.)
1996  xii, 518 pp.  Typological Studies in Language, 33
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 641 5  Price: US$115.00
Paper: 1 55619 642 3  Price: $34.95
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 2927 9  Price: Hfl. 200,--
Paper: 90 272 2928 7  Price: Hfl. 70,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
Further information e-mail: service at benjamins.com or 800-562-5666 (US &
Canada)

The last 15 years has seen an explosion of research on the topic of
anaphora. Studies of anaphora have been important to our understanding of
cognitive processes, the relationships between social interaction and
grammar, and of directionality in diachronic change. The contributions to
this volume represent the "next generation" of studies in anaphora -
defined broadly here as those morpho-syntactic forms available to speakers
for formulating reference - taking as their starting point the foundation
of research done in the 1980s. These studies examine in detail, and with a
richness of methods and theories, what patterns of anaphoric usage can
reveal to us about cognition, social interaction, and language change.

FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTIONS. THEORY IN PRACTICE
Ruqaiya Hasan, Carmel Cloran & David G. Butt (eds.)
1996  xxxvi, 381 pp.  Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 121
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 575 3  Price: $85.00
Rest of the world: 90 272 3624 0  Price: Hfl. 150,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
Further information e-mail: service at benjamins.com or 800-562-5666 (US &
Canada)

This volume focuses on the relation between theory and description by
examining aspects of transitivity in different languages. Transitivity --
or case grammar, to use the popular term -- has always occupied a
center-stage position in linguistics, not least because of its supposedly
privileged relation to states of affairs in the real world. Using a
systemic functional perspective, the ten papers in this volume make a
contribution to this scholarship by focusing on the transitivity patterns
in language as the expression of the experiential metafunction. The
contributors provide functional descriptions of the various categories of
process, their participants and circumstances, including phenomena such as
di-transitivity, causativity, the get-passive, etc. The chapters point to
the nature of the linguistic fact which is linked ineluctably on the one
hand to the nature of the theory and on the other to the speakers'
experience of the world in which they live.
The majority of papers included in the volume derive from the 19th
International Systemic Functional Congress at Macquarie University.

THE GRAMMAR OF POSSESSION. INALIENABILITY, INCORPORATION AND POSSESSOR
ASCENSION IN GUARANI
Maura Velazquez-Castillo
1996  xvi, 274 pp.  Studies in Language Companion Series, 33
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 844 2  Price: US$99.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 3036 6  Price: Hfl. 175,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
Further information e-mail: service at benjamins.com or 800-562-5666 (US &
Canada)

This volume is an exhaustive study of linguistic structures in Paraguayan
Guaraní which are directly or indirectly associated with the semantic
domain of inalienability. Constructions analyzed in the book include
adnominal and predicative possessive constructions, noun incorporation, and
possessor ascension. Examples are drawn from a rich data base that
incorporate native speaker intuitions and resources in the construction of
illustrative linguistic forms as well as the analysis of the communicative
use of the forms under study. The book provides a complete picture of
inalienability as a coherent integrated system of grammatical and semantic
oppositions in a language that has received little attention in the
theoretical linguistic literature.
The analysis moves from general principles to specific details of the
language while applying principles of Cognitive Grammar and Functional
Linguistics. There is an explicit aim to uncover the particularities of
form-meaning connections, as well as the communicative and discourse
functions of the structures examined. Other approaches are also considered
when appropriate, resulting in a theoretically informed study that contains
a rich variety of considerations.

Paul Peranteau (paul at benjamins.com)
P O Box 27519                   Ph: 215 836-1200
Philadelphia PA 19118-0519      Fax: 215 836-1204
John Benjamins Publishing Co. website: http://www.benjamins.com