17.1098, Books: Applied Ling/Typology: El?ik, Matras

Tue Apr 11 19:39:36 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1098. Tue Apr 11 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1098, Books: Applied Ling/Typology: El?ik, Matras

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Maria Moreno-Rollins <maria at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers
are available at the end of this issue. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 10-Apr-2006
From: Julia Ulrich < julia.ulrich at degruyter.com >
Subject: Markedness and Language Change: El?ik, Matras 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:32:43
From: Julia Ulrich < julia.ulrich at degruyter.com >
Subject: Markedness and Language Change: El?ik, Matras 

Editor's note: This issue contains non-ISO-8859-1 characters.
To view the correct characters, go to http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-1098.html.

Title: Markedness and Language Change 
Subtitle: The Romani Sample 
Series Title: Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 32  

Publication Year: 2006 
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
	   http://www.mouton-publishers.com

Book URL: http://www.degruyter.de/rs/bookSingle.cfm?id=IS-3110184524-1&l=E 

Author: Viktor El?ik,   
Author: Yaron Matras, University of Manchester

Hardback: ISBN: 3110184525 Pages: 475 Price: Europe EURO 98.00 Comment: for USA,
Canada, Mexico US$ 132.30

Abstract:

'Markedness' is a central notion in linguistic theory. This book is the
first to provide a comprehensive survey of markedness relations across
various grammatical categories, in a sample of closely-related speech
varieties. It is based on a sample of over 100 dialects of Romani,
collected and processed via the Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS) Database - a
comparative grammatical outline in electronic form, constructed by the
authors between 2000-2004. Romani dialects provide an exciting sample of
language change phenomena: they are oral languages, which have been
separated and dispersed from some six centuries, and are strongly shaped by
the influence of diverse contact languages. 

The book takes a typological approach to markedness, viewing it as a
hierarchy among values that is conditioned by conceptual and cognitive
universals. But it introduces a functional-pragmatic notion of markedness,
as a grammaticalised strategy employed in order to priositise information.
In what is referred to as 'dynamic', such prioritisation is influenced by
an interplay of factors: the values within a category and the conceptual
notions that they represent, the grammatical structure onto which the
category values are mapped, and the kind of strategy that is applied in
order to prioritise certain value. Consequently, the book contains a
thorough survey of some 20 categories (e.g Person, Number, Gender, and so
on) and their formal representation in various grammatical structures
across the sample. The various accepted criteria for markedness (e.g.
Complexity, Differentiation, Erosion, and so on) are examined
systematically in relation to the values of each and every category, for
each relevant structure. The outcome is a novel picture of how different
markedness criteria may cluster for certain categories, giving a concrete
reality to the hitherto rather vague notion of markedness. Borrowing and
its relation to markedness is also examined, offering new insights into the
motivations behind contact-induced change. 

Linguistic Field(s): 
                     Typology
                     Applied Linguistics
                     Language Change

Subject Language(s): None ()

Language Family(ies): Romani

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=19015

MAJOR SUPPORTERS

	Blackwell Publishing          
		http://www.blackwellpublishing.com	

	Cambridge University Press          
		http://us.cambridge.org	

	Cascadilla Press          
		http://www.cascadilla.com/	

	Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd          
		http://www.continuumbooks.com	

	Edinburgh University Press          
		http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/	

	European Language Resources Association          
		http://www.elda.org/sommaire.php	

	Georgetown University Press          
		http://www.press.georgetown.edu	

	Hodder Arnold          
		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk	

	John Benjamins          
		http://www.benjamins.com/	

	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates          
		http://www.erlbaum.com/	

	Lincom GmbH          
		http://www.lincom.at	

	MIT Press          
		http://mitpress.mit.edu/	

	Mouton de Gruyter          
		http://www.mouton-publishers.com	

	Multilingual Matters          
		http://www.multilingual-matters.com/	

	Oxford University Press          
		http://www.oup.com/us	

	Palgrave Macmillan          
		http://www.palgrave.com	

	Rodopi          
		http://www.rodopi.nl/	

	Routledge (Taylor and Francis)          
		http://www.routledge.com/	

	Springer          
		http://www.springeronline.com	

OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

	Anthropological Linguistics
		http://www.indiana.edu/~anthling/ 

	CSLI Publications
		http://cslipublications.stanford.edu/ 

	Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc.   Umass
		http://glsa.hypermart.net/ 

	International Pragmatics Assoc.
		http://ipra-www.uia.ac.be/ipra/ 

	Kingston Press Ltd
		http://www.kingstonpress.com/ 

	Linguistic Assoc. of Finland
		http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/ 

	MIT Working Papers in Linguistics
		http://web.mit.edu/mitwpl/ 

	Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke
		http://www.lotpublications.nl/ 

	Pacific Linguistics
		http://pacling.anu.edu.au/ 

	SIL International
		http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp 

	St. Jerome Publishing Ltd.
		http://www.stjerome.co.uk 

	Utrecht institute of Linguistics
		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/ 

-----------------------------------------------------------

This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $52,932. This money will go to help keep the 
List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming year.

See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out our Fund Drive 2006 
LINGUIST List Cruise for some Fund Drive fun!

http://linguistlist.org/cruise.html 

There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST!

You can donate right now using our secure credit card form.

Alternatively you can also pledge right now and pay later.

For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to donate by 
check, money order, or wire transfer, please visit:

http://linguistlist.org/donate.html

The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as such can 
receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 501(c) Non Profit 
organization. Our Federal Tax number is 38-6005986. These donations can be offset against 
your federal and sometimes your state tax return (U.S. tax payers only). For more 
information visit the IRS Web-Site, or contact your financial advisor.

Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match any gift 
you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your contacting your human 
resources department and sending us a form that the EMU Foundation fills in and returns 
to your employer. This is generally a simple administrative procedure that doubles the 
value of your gift to LINGUIST, without costing you an extra penny. Please take a moment 
to check if your company operates such a program.

Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1098	