Subject: books on functional linguistics

john benjamins publishing would like to call your attention to the four following titles in the field of functional linguistics : reconnecting language : morphology and syntax in functional perspectives a . . - m . simon - vandenbergen , k . davidse and d . niel ( eds ) ( univ . of gent / univ . of leuven / univ . of gent ) 1997 . xii , 212 pp . current issues in linguistic theory , 154 us / canada : hb : 1 55619 870 1 price : usd 79 . 00 rest of the world : hb 90 272 3659 3 price : nlg 158 , - - although the contributors to this book do not belong to one particular 's chool ' of linguistic theory , they all share an interest in the external functions of language in society and in the relationship between these functions and internal linguistic phenomena . in this sense , they all take a functional approach to grammatical issues . apart from this common starting-point , the contributions share the aim of demonstrating the non-autonomous nature of morphology and syntax , and the inadequacy of linguistic models which deal with syntax , morphology and lexicon in separate , independent components . the recurrent theme throughout the book is the inseparability of lexis and morphosyntax , of structure and function , of grammar and society . the third and more specific common thread is case , which in some contributions is adduced to illustrate the more general point of the link between word form on the one hand and clausal and textual relations on the other hand , while in other papers it is at the centre of the discussion . the interest of the proposed volume consists in the fact that it brings together the views of leading scholars in functional linguistics of various 'd enominations ' on the place of morphosyntax in linguistic theory . the book provides convincing argumentation against a modular theory with autonomous levels ( the dominant framework in mainstream 20th century linguistics ) and is a plea for further research into the connections between the lexicogrammar and the linguistic and extra-linguistic context . contributions by : m . a . k . halliday ; c . hagege ; robert de beaugrande ; pew sgall ; stanley starosta ; william mcgregor ; anna siewierska ; marja - liisa helasvuo ; karen e . robblee ; alice caffarel ; motoko hori . the linguistics of giving john newman ( ed . ) ( massey university , new zealand ) 1997 . xv , 373 pp . typological studies in language , 36 us / canada : hb : 1 55619 647 4 price : usd 98 . 00 pb : 1 55619 648 2 price : usd 34 . 95 rest of the world : hb : 90 272 2933 3 price : nlg 196 , - - pb : 90 272 2934 1 price : nlg 70 , - - in this collection of papers , twelve linguists explore a range of interesting properties of ' give ' verbs . the volume offers an in-depth look at many morphological , syntactic , and semantic properties of ' give ' verbs , including both literal and figurative senses , across languages . topics include : an apparent zero-morpheme realization of ' give ' in a papuan language ; noun plus causative-like suffix expressing the ' give ' concept in nahuatl ; ' give ' and other ditransitive constructions in zulu ; the complex verbal morphologies associated with ' give ' verbs in chipewyan , cora , and sochiapan chinantec ; the elaborate classificatory system found with ' give ' verbs in chipewyan and cora ; ' give ' , ' have ' and ' take ' constructions in slavic languages ; the expression of ' give ' in american sign language ; the origin of the german es gibt construction ; the extension of ' give ' to an adverbial marker in thai , khmer , and vietnamese ; the syntax and semantics of dutch ' give ' ; first language acquisition of possession terms . contributions by : john robert , david tuggy , john taylor , sally rice , eugene casad , phyllis perrin wilcox , david foris , laura janda , theo janssen , john newman , jae jung song , and michael tomasello . information status and noncanonical word order in english . betty birner & gregory ward 1998 xiv 314 pp . studies in language companion series 40 us / canada : hb : 1 55619 926 0 price : 69 . 00 rest of the world : hb : 90 272 3043 9 price : nlg 138 , - - this work provides a comprehensive discourse-functional account of three classes of noncanonical constituent placement in english - preposing , postposing , and argument reversal - and shows how their interaction is accounted for in a principled and predictive way . in doing so , it details the variety of ways in which information can be ' given ' or new ' and shows how an understanding of this variety allows us to account for the distribution of these constructions in discourse . moreover , the authors show that there exist broad and empirically verifiable functional correspondences within classes of syntactically similar constructions . relying heavily on corpus data , the authors identify three interacting dimensions along which individual constructions may vary with respect to the pragmatic constraints to which they are sensitive : old vs . new information , relative vs . absolute familiarity , and discourse - vs . hearer-familiarity . they show that preposed position is reserved for information that is linked to the prior discourse by means of a contextually licensed partially-ordered set relationship ; postposed position is reserved for information that is ' new ' in one of a small number of distinct senses ; and argument-reversing constructions require that the information represented by the preverbal constituent be at least as familiar within the discourse as that represented by the postverbal constituent . within each of the three classes of constructions , individual constructions vary with respect to whether they are sensitive to familiarity within the discourse or ( assumed ) familiarity within the hearer 's knowledge store . thus , although the individual constructions in question are subject to distinct constraints , this work provides empirical evidence for the existence of strong correlations between sentence position and information status . the final chapter presents crosslinguistic data showing that these correlations are not limited to english . the structure of the lexicon in functional grammar hella olbertz , kees hengeveld & jesus sanchez garcia ( eds . ) ( university of amsterdam ) 1998 . xii , 312 pp . studies in language companion series , 43 us / canada : hb : 1 55619 929 5 price : usd 69 . 00 rest of the world : hb : 90 272 3046 3 price : nlg 138 , - - the papers collected in this volume concern five different aspects of the role of the lexicon in the theory of functional grammar as developed by simon c . dik and his co-workers . the volume starts off with a practical introduction to the functional - lexematic model and model applications to english , german and spanish are presented . the second part of the volume deals with the derivation of action-nouns , pseudo-reflexive verbs and causative constructions , thus offering new perspectives on predicate formation within functional grammar . this is followed by a section that centers around an important problem related to valency : the question of how to account for the collocational properties of predicates . the fourth part of the book discusses ( non-prototypical ) transitive verbs and their relation to the typology of states of affairs . the final section focuses on the relationship between the lexicon and the underlying structure of the clause . check out the john benjamins web site : http : / / www . benjamins . com /
