Modern Greek (review)

Reviews 153 down", twice of Χάϕος in Βαϕδιάνος στα σπόϕκα (pp. 219 & 243 of the Kollarou edition). I suspect that Papadiamantis connected it mentally with the ancient θήϕ meaning "wild beast." "A Dream among the Waters" might better have been "A vision" or "An apparition;" while "Civilization in the Village" should be called "Village Ways" or "A Village Christmas", or even "A Snowy Christmas on Skiathos." This story is one of the best, and the title, while no doubt ironic, fails to catch the spirit of the tale. The introduction is clear, helpful, sympathetic, just what an introduction should be. I miss only reference to the erotic element in some of the stories, particularly "Love the Harvester" and "Dream among the Waters," and to a lesser extent also in "The Homesick Wife." I confess that I had not expected this element in Papadiamantis and it therefore struck me particularly. Such erotic attention does not square well with the more or less traditional picture of Papadiamantis as the conservative, pious upholder of orthodox belief. The notes which conclude the volume are spare and helpful. I would have liked some reference to monetary equivalence which would have aided me in knowing how much money was involved in the various transactions. But this cavil is minor, as are all my others, and I conclude with praise for the translator and the hope that she, or others, will provide the English-speaking reader with more of Papadiamantis. William F. Wyatt, Jr. Brown University Brian D. Joseph and Irene Philippáki-Warburton, Modern Greek. [Croom Helm Descriptive Grammars Series.] London: Croom Helm. 1987. Pp. xvi + 281. £35.00. The purpose of this series is to provide descriptions of a wide range of languages according to a standard format, originally set out in a questionnaire, which provides a comprehensive, explicit, and flexible framework for such descriptions. The series is aimed at theoretical linguists rather than at learners, teachers, and users of the language. Modern Greek follows the format of the previous volumes in the series by providing concise and precise information about a huge variety of linguistic phenomena (also specifying which categories are not applicable to Modern Greek) and exemplifying this by means 154 Reviews of a wealth of examples, each of which is given in broad phonetic transcription and accompanied by an English translation and a grammatical analysis. The authors claim in their preface that they have "tried to be as theoretically neutral as possible" and have "aimed more at description than analysis." The book is divided into five chapters: Syntax; Morphology; Phonology; Ideophones, Interjections, and other expressive forms; and Lexicon. The first thing that strikes the reader on looking at the table of contents—and a most salutary innovation it is in the description of Modern Greek— is that the chapter on syntax is placed first and takes up almost half of the book. What is more, much of the material in the chapter on Morphology (110 pages) is related to syntax; there is only a brief account of nominal and verbal inflexion, details of which are readily available in existing grammars of the language. Even if one approaches this book from the point of view of a teacher of Modern Greek rather than as a theoretical linguist, one finds a large store of useful material. The information on relativization (pp. 23—29), for example, is comprehensive, as are the details of topicalization and focalization of elements within the clause (pp. 96—117), which deal extensively with the indication of emphasis by means other than stress and intonation. There are snappy formulations of certain principles: for instance, "The perfective aspect views the situation in its totality without distinguishing beginning, middle, or end", while "The imperfective aspect presents the situation with respect to its internal constituency" (p. 176). One significant advantage of the theoretical approach adopted in the book is that nothing is taken for granted. Often the authors state things which are obvious to us teachers of Modern Greek, but which we do not perhaps always make explicit enough to our students. On a single page (p. 62) we read that in coordinated phrases in Modern Greek, unlike in English, the verbal particle na and the definite article cannot be...