32.1390, Review: Germanic; General Linguistics: Putnam, Page (2020)
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Subject: 32.1390, Review: Germanic; General Linguistics: Putnam, Page (2020)
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Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:58:35
From: Pierre-Yves Modicom [pymodicom.ling at yahoo.fr]
Subject: The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-1763.html
EDITOR: Michael T Putnam
EDITOR: B. Richard Page
TITLE: The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics
SERIES TITLE: Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2020
REVIEWER: Pierre-Yves Modicom, Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3
SUMMARY
After a general introduction, the book, made up of 35 chapters, is divided
into five great parts.
The first part is devoted to phonology. It is divided into eight chapters. The
first one deals with “Phonological Processes in Germanic languages” (Tracy
Allan Hall, p. 11-32). The following four form a consistent whole, concerned
respectively with syllable structure (Marc van Oostendorp, p. 33-48), foot
structure (Laura Catharine Smith, p. 49-72), word stress (Birgit Alber, p.
73-96) and quantity (B. Richard Page, p. 97-118), which are tightly
intertwined throughout the family. Joseph Salmons’s contribution on “Germanic
Laryngeal Phonetics and Phonology” (ch. 6, p. 119-142) addresses consonant
voicing and devoicing, an issue that has long been associated with the
notional pair lenis-fortis in the tradition of Germanic countries. Finally,
the last two chapters deal with suprasegmental matters (ch. 7, “Tone Accent in
North and West Germanic”, by Björn Köhnlein, p. 143-166 ; ch. 8, “Intonation
in Germanic”, by Mary Grantham O’Brien, p. 167-190).
Part II, made up of six papers, is concerned with “Morphology and agreement
systems”. The first chapters deal with the inflectional morphology of verbs
and nouns, respectively (ch. 9, “Verbal Inflectional Morphology in Germanic »,
by David Fertig, p. 193-213 and ch. 10, “Inflectional morphology : nouns”, by
Damaris Nübling, p. 214-237). Chapter 11, by Geert Booij, is a general
overview of the “Principles of Word Formation” throughout the family
(p.238-258). The following two contributions turn back to the morphology of
the nominal phrase and address “Grammatical gender in modern Germanic
languages” (ch. 12, by Sebastian Kürschner, p. 259-281) and “Case in Germanic”
(ch. 13, by Thomas Mc Fadden, p. 259-281). The second part closes with a paper
by Marjo van Koppen on “Complementizer agreement” (ch. 14, p. 313-336).
Part III is made up of nine contributions on syntax, all of which consistently
adopt a broadly generative point of view. This part is opened by a general
paper of Hubert Haider on “VO/OV-Base Ordering” (ch. 15, p. 339-364). After
this, Sten Vikner discusses “The Placement of Finite Verbs » (ch. 16, p.
365-388) ; neighboring issues are addressed by Hans Broekhuis in Chapter 18
(“The unification of Object Shif and Object Scrambling”, p. 413-435). Thus,
Chapters 15, 16 and 18 form a coherent series addressing the great questions
of word order, which traditionally play a very prominent role in the grammar
of Germanic languages, only interrupted by Chapter 17, on “Germanic
Infinitives” (Susi Wurmbrand and Christos Christopoulos, p. 389-412). Issues
of dependency and control, which play a pivotal role in Chapter 17, are also
prominent in Chapter 19, on “Unbounded Dependency Constructions in Germanic »
(Martin Salzmann, p. 436-460). The last four papers in this part address a
more various range of issues. In Chapter 20, Artemis Alexiadou and Florian
Schäfer are concerned with “The Voice Domain in Germanic” (p. 461-492) ;
Chapter 21 is centered on pronominal syntax and binding (“Binding : The
Morphology, Syntax and Semantics of Reflexive and Nonreflexive Pronouns”, by
Vera Lee-Schoenfeld, p. 493-515). Particle verbs, a well-known feature of
Germanic languages, are dealt with in Chapter 22, together with neighboring
phenomena (“Verbal Particles, Results, and Directed Motion”, by Ida Toivonen,
p. 516-536). Dorian Roehrs’s final contribution is devoted to the domain of
nominal phrases, with a paper on “The structure of Noun (NP) and Determiner
Phrases (DP)” (ch. 23, p. 537-563).
Part IV regroups papers on semantics and pragmatics. It begins with two
chapters by Kristin Melum Eide, the first one (ch. 24, p. 567-590) being
devoted to “Modality in Germanic”, and the second (ch. 25, p. 591-614), to
“Tense and Aspect in Germanic Languages”. We then leave the TAME domain and
turn to the expression of spatial relations, with a contribution by Joost
Zwarts on “Prepositions and Particles : Place and Path in English, German, and
Dutch” (ch. 26, p. 615-638). The paper is both centered on West Germanic and
written from a specifically Langackerian perspective. Chapter 27, on the other
hand, is representative of the formal semantic tradition of research on
polarity-sensitivity (“Negative and Positive Polarity Items”, by Doris Penka,
p. 639-660). Finally, issues of information structure that had already been
briefly mentioned in Parts I and III are taken up and systematically addressed
in Caroline Féry’s contribution on “Grammatical Reflexes of Information
Structure in Germanic Languages” (ch. 28, p. 661-685).
The fifth and final part brings together six papers on “Language Contact and
Nonstandard Varieties”. Chapter 29, by Carrie Jackson, presents issues in
“Second Language Acquisition of Germanic Languages” (p. 689-713). Chapter 30
(by Pia Quist and Benta A. Svendsen, p.714-735) is concerned with “Urban
Speech Styles of Germanic Languages” (also known as urban multiethnolects in
parts of the literature). Chapters 31 and 32 are more representative of
traditional dialectology, dealing respectively with “The West Germanic Dialect
Continuum” (ch. 31, by William D. Keel, p. 736-760) and “The North Germanic
Germanic Dialect Continuum” (ch. 32, by Charlotte Gooskens, p. 761-782).
Dialectology and language contact are brought together in the final three
contributions. The first is devoted to “Heritage Germanic Languages in North
America” (ch. 33, by Janne Bondi Johannessen and Michael T. Putnam, p.
783-806) ; in the final one (ch. 35, p. 833-864), Paul T. Roberge presents the
history and the situation of “Germanic Contact Languages”. In-between, Mark L.
Louden delivers a systematic typology of “Minority Germanic Languages” (ch.
34, p. 807-832), including various American and European Germanic heritage
languages as well as Afrikaans, which also shows up in Roberge’s final
chapter.
EVALUATION
This companion volume will be useful to scholars working on Germanic
linguistics in two ways.
First, if they read it from the beginning to the end, linguists will acquire
or regain a broad overview on phonological, grammatical, semantic and
sociological phenomena of general interest throughout the whole family. This
way of reading the handbook will prove insightful for anyone working in the
field of Germanic languages from a comparative or contrastive point of view,
both in terms of cross-linguistic comparison and from a more typological
perspective. Crucially, linguists specialized in a subfield of Germanic
linguistics (say, voice) will have the opportunity to get a satisfying view of
the state of the art in very different fields (say, syllable theory). This is
a very valuable experience in times when the ever-growing specialization of
the discipline often prevents scholars from keeping in touch with research in
domains that do not directly pertain at their own work. This attrition of
up-to-date general linguistic knowledge, at least at the level of the Germanic
family, raises important problems for cross-Germanic research in the long
term, and for research located at the interfaces of different subfields.
A further collateral impediment of the ever-growing specialization is linked
to the fact that the transmission of up-to-date research at graduate and
undergraduate level is often dependent on little faculty staff : apart maybe
from English departments and institutes, departments of Germanic studies often
have to rely on less and less (tenured) faculty members and can hardly
maintain the presence of all subfields of linguistics among teachers and
readers. In this context, high-level companions like this book provide crucial
help for trained scholars needing or willing to guarantee the transmission of
scientific knowledge in fields lying outside of their own speciality. This
book will also prove precious for graduate and postgraduate students beginning
with Germanic linguistics in an area where they might have no specialized
interlocutor, even among their supervisors. Surely, these are all external
reasons for appreciating this work, and they have more to do with the current
business of science than with the core content of the handbook. But the
crystallization and canonization of up-to-date research is the raison d’être
of such companions, and we should be grateful to the editors for doing exactly
what is expected in this case: even though some theoretical preferences can be
distinguished (Part Two, on morphology, is broadly constructional ; Part
Three, on syntax, is written from a generativist viewpoint), almost all
chapters are accessible to anyone with the minimal common background of
linguists, and problems are generally exposed in a way that makes them
interesting to all, so that every Germanic language scholar will benefit from
them. Of course, not all chapters are equally overtly relevant notwithstanding
the theoretical background of the reader. For instance, at first sight,
Broekhuis’s chapter on “The Unification of Object Shift and Object Scrambling”
(p. 414-435) might seem to deal with a strictly theory-internal issue within
generative syntax; non-generativists will have to take some distance to see
that it actually discusses the very important question whether the relatively
free order of complements and adverbials can be described in the same terms in
VO languages such as in the Scandinavian area (Object Shift) or in OV
languages such as German and Dutch (Object Scrambling). Generally speaking,
there is no doubt that this handbook will find its way to the bookshelves of
many institutes of Germanic languages throughout the world, and assure the
sharing and consolidation of collective scientific achievements within the
field.
However, most readers will probably use it in a second way, as a reference
book into which they will have a glimpse when working on a certain issue, in
order to see how such or such phenomenon is manifested in other Germanic
languages. In this respect, too, most chapters will be very rewarding. One can
only regret that non-standard varieties are mostly studied in the fifth and
last part. The focus of the book lies on traditional standard languages : High
German, Dutch, English [British and American], Danish, Swedish, Norwegian
[Bokmal and Nynorsk], Icelandic, Faroese ; Yiddish and Afrikaans are
considered to some extent, but Frisian or Flemish are only scarcely mentioned
and Low German, High German dialects or non-standard Scandinavian varieties
are hardly considered ; urban varieties, minority languages and contact
languages are dealt with almost only in sociolinguistic terms. The most
noticeable exception here is the chapter on “Complementizer Agreement”
(chapter 14, by Marjo van Koppen), a phenomenon that is much more salient in
minor varieties than in the great standard languages of the family. Certainly,
taking varieties and minor languages into account would have made this book
too long and would have doomed it to a more superficial treatment of matters.
However, one might still regret the (not unexpected) focus on High German and
English in some chapters, and to a lesser extent on Dutch, which still
represents a strong bias towards West Germanic. For instance, Standard German
and Standard English account for 36 of the 46 examples in Salzmann’s paper on
“Unbounded Dependency Constructions” (p. 436-460), where only five examples
come from a Scandinavian language (four from Swedish, one from Faroese). In
Roehr’s chapter on the structure of noun phrases and determiner phrases
(Chapter 23), we count 51 examples, 36 of which are devoted to German ; two
come from other West Germanic languages ; seven compare West and North
Germanic ; and only 6 come from Scandinavian languages. Zwart’s paper on
preposition and particles (ch. 26) deals only with West Germanic, but does it
openly ; in Penka’s chapter on polarity-sensitive items (ch. 27), however,
there is no such overt restriction, yet we cannot find any single example from
North Germanic and among 44 examples, 38 come from English. There might be
good reasons for some of these biases, such as the field being understudied in
some of these languages, or even the phenomenon being absent; but in that
case, biases should be made explicit and justified. As a consequence, for
Germanic linguists curious of looking at how a given phenomenon is realized
(or not) in various languages of the family, this companion, while still being
very valuable, will have to be completed, for instance by the classical volume
of König & van der Auwera (1993), which is organized by language and not by
phenomenon.
All in all, these minor reservations do not alter significantly the relevance
and usefulness of this handbook, which represents an impressive achievement.
This volume collects and crystallizes up-to-date scientific knowledge
throughout the field of Germanic linguistics, and makes it available to the
whole community. As such, it is a major contribution to the consolidation of a
common linguistic culture shared by scholars working on Germanic languages,
and accessible to any linguist interested in gaining access to newer research
on the family.
REFERENCES
König, Ekkehard & Johan van der Auwera (eds). 1993. The Germanic Languages.
London: Routledge.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pierre-Yves Modicom holds a PhD in German linguistics from Paris-Sorbonne
University (2016). He currently teaches German and Germanic linguistics in
Bordeaux (Université Bordeaux-Montaigne). His research focus lies on
Information Structure in West Germanic languages, from a comparative point of
view.
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