The English languages By Tom McArthur (review)

Michael Aceto

Language, Volume 76, Number 1, March 2000, pp. 204-205 (Review)

Published by Linguistic Society of America

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2000.0067

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/451501/summary

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204 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 1 (2000)
phonology, morphophonology, morphology, and
syntax. Each of these major sections is subdivided
into more specialized topics, some of which, such
as the discussion of onomatopoetic words (440-48),
have never before been covered in English. Of spe-
cial interest is the discussion of supersegmental pho-
nology (53-59), which characterizes Lithuanian
prosody as a typological mix involving both tonal
and nontonal dynamic accent on the level of the pho-
nological word. A word stress that falls on a geminate
vowel, diphthong, or vowel + sonorant combination
may be long rising or long falling (an opposition that
forms frequent minimal pairs); the word stress that
falls on any other type of syllable nucleus, however,
is nontonal. Accent marks, though not part of the
official writing system, are provided throughout, and
much space is devoted to explaining morphopho-
nemic alternations involving stress (77-84). Also of
particular value is the extensive discussion of Lithua-
nian syntax, particularly the complex topic of the-
matic case marking on the level of the simple phrase
(497-598) and complex sentence construction
(717-81). Finally, comparativists in particular will
appreciate the exhaustive nominal and verbal para-
digms that illustrate the language's synthetic mor-
phology, which preserves many grammatical forms
lost in other modern Indo-European languages. Al-
though the description focuses on standard contem-
porary Lithuanian (based primarily on West High
Lithuanian), much information is included on all of
the regional dialects as well as on various diachronic
aspects of the language. An extensive bibliography
is also provided (783-76).
This in-depth, well organized, and attractive refer-
ence work will prove to be of great value to both the
serious student and the professional linguist; yet it
is also extremely user friendly and assumes no prior
education in general linguistics or in Lithuanian stud-
ies. Every technical term is provided in parallel Lith-
uanian and English and receives a clear and concise
explanation. All of these features render the book
accessible and interesting to the beginner as well as
to the trained linguist. Lithuanian grammar will take
its place alongside such important contributions as
Introduction to modern Lithuanian (Leonardas Dam-
briunas et al. Darbininkas, New York, 1966) as a
milestone in the expanding English-language tradi-
tion of Lithuanian philology. [Edward J. Vajda,
Western Washington University.]
The English languages. By Tom
McArthur. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998. Pp. 247, xxi.
This handy resource on the development of what
are often called world Englishes (or varieties of En-
glish around the world) and the relatively recent
emergence of English as an international lingua
franca is divided into nine chapters:, 'Organized
babel' (1-29); ? universal resource' (30-55);
'Cracks in the academic monolith' (56-77); 'Models
of English' (78-101); 'Standardness' (102-37);
'Scots and Southron' (138-59); 'Substrates and
superstrates' (160-79); "The Latin analogy'
(180-96); and "The shapes of English' (197-234).
Within and particularly at the end of each chapter is a
series of what the author labels 'panels' —diagrams,
quotations, or references regarding specific points or
works referred to in the text. For example, Panel 1 . 1
presents a selection of expressions in Tok Pisin (23);
Panel 2. 1 lists the international distribution of En-
glish, French, Spanish, and Portuguese usage
(47-48); and Panels 4.8-4.10 (97, 100-1) reveal
various circular models conceptualizing the distribu-
tion of Englishes around the world. These panels are
a novel strategy for presenting information within
the form of a published academic work, and, in effect,
they are similar to the function of 'poster sessions'
at professional conferences.
McArthur poses the question of whether the com-
plex of varieties he calls 'the English languages' may
be considered similar to the Romance language fam-
ily. (The author also presents a very illuminating dis-
cussion about the uses and limitations of historical
models and the metaphors employed to explicate
them [one of the most popular is certainly the geneti-
cally-based 'family tree' metaphor], 78-101.) How-
ever, as might be expected, this rather large histoncal
question is not really answered in any definitive way.
Nonetheless, he does a good job of laying out the
relevant facts and asking the right questions (see Chs.
1,4, and 8), especially when comparing the spread
of English to that of Vulgar Latin during the Roman
Empire. The question of whether English-derived
creóles such as Tok Pisin or Krio (often considered
part of the phenomenon of world Englishes) are the
result of traditional historical 'mother/daughter birth'
scenarios or the result of so-called 'broken transmis-
sion' is difficult to tease apart as well. A precise
principled definition which distinguishes dialects
from creóles while illuminating each' s relationship
to the lexifier is still largely unsettled within creóle
studies.
This book is a concise source of historical and
sociolinguistic information as well. For example, it
presents a chronological list of attitudes (both pre-
scriptive and descriptive) towards a variety of En-
glishes (Panel 5.1, 119-35) while detailing the
emergence of regional standard varieties such as
Scots and general British (33-34, Chs. 5 and 6). The
author also traces the social history of the idea that
a language should somehow be a fixed, monolithic
entity or 'product' within a number of European lan-
guages and literatures (Ch. 5). Sometimes M reports
controversial claims as if they were generally ac-
 BOOK NOTICES
cepted within the field (e.g. decreolization and the
purported creóle past of Black English in the U.S.,
166-67), but, on the whole, this compendious book
is a welcome addition to the shelves of any linguist
interested in the history and future of English in its
many forms. [Michael Aceto, Old Dominion Uni-
versity.]
Intransitive predication. By Leon Stas-
sen. (Oxford studies in typology and
linguistic theory.) Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1997. Pp. xvi, 771.
In this rather large work, Stassen creates and dis-
cusses a typology of intransitive predications (limit-
ing himself to declarative, indicative, nonembedded
one-place predicates with a definite subject NP). The
discussion and conclusions are based on a sample of
410 languages which are listed in the appendices in
alphabetical order, in terms of genetic and areal affili-
ation, and according to the types of intransitive predi-
cate they use.
Part 1 (1-151) begins with an introduction to the
theme and a general discussion of the aims and prac-
tices of linguistic typology. S then introduces the nec-
essary semantic and grammatical categorizations of
intransitive predication. In semantic terms, he con-
siders that there are four predicate types: event predi-
cates, property predicates, class membership
predicates, and locational predicates (there is some
discussion of identity predicates, but these are not
examined in detail). He establishes three formal
strategies which languages use to encode these predi-
cates: a verbal strategy, a nominal strategy, and a
locational strategy. Part 1 ends with a chapter giving
the various patterns which S has found in the lan-
guages of his sample.
In Part 2 (153-340), S discusses cases of 'pattern-
switching', where a language may use more than one
formal strategy to encode sentences of one particular
predicate type. This can either occur with free varia-
tion or only under certain conditions (different predi-
cates within one predicate type may use different
strategies, or the strategy used may depend on other
grammatical features such as tense). These cases of
'pattern-switching' are shown to have a principled
basis.
Part 3 (341-574) introduces and justifies the 'tens-
edness hypothesis'. From the previous parts it is clear
that some languages are more 'nouny' in their encod-
ing of property predicates (for example, treating ad-
jectives similar to nouns), while others are more
'verby' (treating adjectival-like words in the same
way as verbs). While this is a continuum, S's data
suggest that there is a correlation between this and
what he calls the 'tensedness parameter'—very
roughly, if a language is 'tensed' (has a grammatical
category of tense, shown by bound morphology on
205
verbs, and has at least a distinction between past and
nonpast), it is likely to have 'nouny' adjectives; if a
language is 'nontensed' (all other cases), it is likely
to have 'verby' adjectives.
The relatively short Part 4 (575-610) attempts to
integrate the descriptive results of the previous parts
into a more general model, giving the sorts of univer-
sal principles which may be operating to produce the
observable distribution of languages in terms of the
various parameters.
The conclusion (61 1-66) gives a very useful sum-
mary, including the principles, parameters, tenden-
cies, hierarchies and universals which S has
developed throughout the book. Two indices, of sub-
jects and of languages, follow the notes, appendices,
and references.
A random check of the data for languages that I
know suggests that S's example sentences have quite
a few orthographic errors although this probably has
no impact on the use made of the data. Overall, while
there are points at which one can disagree with S's
analysis or conclusions, he has accompanied these
with copious examples from a very wide array of
languages, and it is always clear how he has formed
and is justifying his arguments. This book is a very
important contribution, not just to the area of intransi-
tive predication but to linguistic typology in general.
[Timothy Jowan Curnow, Australian National Uni-
versity.]
First person singular III: Autobiogra-
phies by North American scholars in the
language sciences. Ed. by E. F. K.
Koerner. (Studies in the history of the
language sciences 88.) Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1998.
Pp. x, 267. $75.00.
Two former LSA presidents, Charles A. Fergu-
son and Kenneth L. Pike, are included among the
linguists represented in this, the second volume of
autobiographical sketches produced under Koerner' s
editorship and the third in this series. Other contribu-
tors here are John C. Catford, W. Nelson Francis,
Henry Hiz, Henry Kucera, Sydney M. Lamb,
James W. Ney, Ernst Pulgram, William J. Sa-
marin, Robert P. Stockwell, and Karl V. Teeter.
In the editor's foreword K names seven additional
men whose essays he 'tried hard to obtain' (vii), but
neither in the previous two volumes nor in this are
there contributions from any women linguists. K ex-
plains that 'there were not many candidates for inclu-
sion' and that he 'resisted] the temptation of
presenting' Mary R. Haas as 'one woman scholar
together with a group of men as a kind of alibi or
fig leaf (viii). He further suggests that if women