Principles of Japanese discourse: A handbook By Senko K. Maynard (review)

208 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 1 (2000) states that the psycholinguistic account fares better than the formal-linguistic one and that the latter should be abandoned in favor of the former, even suggesting that there is no competence grammar apart from a performance one, as the reality of the latter is obvious while that of the former is not (304). The book concludes with references (314-31) and an index (333-36), which integrates terms, concepts, and languages, but unfortunately no names. Given that B often refers to constraints, variable strength, and the notion of optimality, it is rather surprising, given the publication date of this study, that he makes no reference to optimality theory (Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky. 1993. Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar. (RuCCS Technical Report 2.) New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University, and much subsequent work), as researchers working in this framework have addressed some of the issues for which B criticizes previous traditional generativism. In fact, Martin Haspelmath (Rutgers Optimality Archive 302-0399) takes a very similar approach to B's explanation of the formulation and motivation for linguistic constraints , arguing that they are the way they are because they are the most apt for the processor and that they are selected via diachronic adaptations, in the sense of evolutionary biology. In sum, B's explanation of linguistic structure and change as intimately tied to the structure and limitations of the language processor is cogently argued and deserves to serve as a program ofcontinued study by others. [D. Eric Holt, University ofSouth Carolina .] Principles of Japanese discourse: A handbook. By Senko K. Maynard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 309. Maynard has written the first book that can assist nonnative learners of Japanese to achieve mastery reading literary texts and other text types. As a linguistic monograph that explores rhetorical strategies, this is an impressive work. The 309 pages are organized into two lengthy chapters of thirteen and eighteen sections each (1-168), followed by a chapter of readings with helpful glosses and translations (169-257), and appendices (261-309) containing the texts as they originally appeared in print, an explanation of 'Japanese graphological marks', printer 's customary symbols (300), which is very helpful, 85 references, and a somewhat perfunctory index. The 'Readings' section gives students the opportunity to apply the principles to Japanese texts of various genres—literary text, poetry, fables, an opinion column from a newspaper, an ad for tennis shoes, comics, a Tensei Jingo newspaper essay, and a literary essay—all with prereading and postreading tasks and useful notes regarding the discourse, organization , grammar, and vocabulary. The stated goal of this text is to 'provide students of Japanese a useful introduction to the principles of Japanese discourse' (vii). To achieve this, M meticulously explains paradigms that students in years past had to learn from much seat-of-the-pants experience by reading Japanese and discussing it with teachers and otherreaders. This text pulls together much hardto -find information from articles on Japanese discourse analysis, which M elaborates and greatly expands upon to good effect. This textbook is intended for college students at the 'intermediate-high level' (1) and beyond; however , these students will need a good measure of selfmotivation to profit from this text. The readings are well-chosen and very appropriate in terms of interest level, with carefully selectedtexts by famous authors, including Nobel Prize winners. Although well wntten , the text is marked by a dry, pedantic tone more the rule for alinguistics text than for a typical foreign language textbook. The exercises at the ends ofchapters are well done and challenging but somewhat limited in scope. Some teachers will not like the use of romaji (the alphabet) for the written Japanese in the text; however, this makes the text more accessible to more students. An experienced instructor who selects this text must fully understand the numerous terms related to discourse. The section 'Rhetorical strategies' (99-168) has much information that will be helpful for advanced students, with voluminous notes on stylistics, organization , vocabulary, and grammar. Two printing problems are noticeable; the text abruptly shifts (75) from an explanation of an excerpt from a 1995 mystery novel to a...