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BOOK NOTICES Language and linguistics: An introduction . By John Lyons. Cambridge: University Press, 1981. Pp. xi, 356. Cloth $24.95, paper $8.95. At a time when many introductory linguistics texts are on the market, it's a bit surprising for yet another to be published; but this one stands apart from the rest. It differs from Lyons' earlier Introduction to theoretical linguistics in that it is 'broader in coverage, and less demanding in its central chapters' (p. ix). It differs from the typical crop of texts published in America in that it does not deal with issues peripheral to linguistics, such as animal communication or kinesics, but concentrates on topics which are clearly central. In Chaps. 1, 'Language', and 2, 'Linguistics', Lyons attempts a more serious inquiry into what language is and how linguists study it than do most elementary texts. Chap. 3, 'The sounds of language', covers phonetics quite well, but is disappointing in its treatment of phonology. Of all our subdisciplines, phonology has the longest continuous history and is probably the most highly developed; a more thorough examination of phonological processes would have been a good way of showing students how linguists work. Chap. 4, 'Grammar ' , is the best in the book: it not only presents a clear and precise summary ofgrammatical theory , but also provides exercises in syntax and morphology. The rest of the book comprises chapters on semantics; language change; modern schools of linguistics; and the relationship of language to mind, society, and culture. All these chapters are very good; and those on semantics and on schools of linguistics offer especially penetrating views. My only serious criticism of the book is that it doesn't provide enough exercises to give students an opportunity to learn how to do linguistic analysis. At the end of each chapter, Lyons presents 'Questions and exercises'; but these sections contain very few exercises. Not all the topics covered in the text lend themselves to exercises or problems; but phonology, semantics , and language change certainly do. The questions following the chapters range from definitional types to broad theoretical questions for which there are no clear-cut, correct answers. This latter kind of question will be good for promoting classroom discussion. 478 Lyons' text is a good one for students who are already interested in language and/or linguistics . It could be used successfully, I believe, in an honors section ofafreshman or sophomore course—or in an upper-level course oriented toward linguistics majors, so long as supplementary exercises and problems were provided. It would also be good for more advanced students to use as a review of their general education in linguistics. The book would not be so effective in the more common kind of introductory course, because it would not provoke the interest of indifferent students. Lyons' new book can best be characterized as a serious student 's introduction to linguistics. [Patricia A. Lee, University ofHawaii.] Fundamental frequency in sentence production. By William Cooper and John M. Sorensen. New York & Berlin: Springer, 1981. Pp. x, 213. $24.90. The purpose of this book, amply fulfilled in some regards, is to show that syntactic structure (largely surface structure) directly influences fundamental frequency (F0) in speech. The book's central Chap. 2 develops a 'topline rule' which provides a quantitative method for predicting the curve of F0 as it declines during the production of a sentence. The clausal domain of this rule is established, along with refinements needed to describe altered speaking rates and to account for the high value of the initial stressed word (the only value that does not lie along a straight line, in this elegant model). In Chap. 3, C&S have some success in demonstrating their thesis that local rise-fall patterns imposed on the F0 declination curve are most precipitous at strong syntactic boundaries. But this chapter suffers from a lack offamiliarity with the linguistic literature on the form and domain ofintonation contours; e.g., C&S would not have been surprised at the Fo contours of vocatives if they had read Janet Bing's University of Massachusetts dissertation on Class 0 expressions. They also seem unaware of the literature on the preferential assignment of intonation peaks to NP's...

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