A bibliography of writings on varieties of English, 1965-1983Compiled by Wolfgang Viereck, Edgar W. Schneider, and Manfred Görlach (review)

BOOK NOTICES 213 given to dialect differences within OE (but see p. 35 for one difference between West Saxon and AngUan) or ME. The modern subjunctive were in if I/he were ... is not mentioned, although space is found for the indicative be of fossilized phrases such as the powers that be (81). Regional variants for the ME present participle are not mentioned, although regional variants for present indicative plurals and 3rd person singulars are, which gives a false sense ofuniformity (76-7). B's short and choppy style sometimes becomes annoying, and serves as a frequent reminder that the book is probably more suitable for reference than for normal reading. B assumes that his audience is familiar with OE and its texts; thus glosses are not always included. More puzzling are B's assumptions as to his audience's knowledge of the terminology of historical Unguistics. His explanations of 'aorist' and 'injunctive' (54) would be confusing to anyone who doesn't already know what they mean. 'Gnomic' (75) and 'predesinential' (66) are used without explanation , although Verner's Law is stated (61). 'Syncretism ' (14) is not defined; but 'phoneme', 'minimal pair', and 'free' vs. 'bound' morphemes (9) are aU explained. 'Bahuvrihi compound ' is used with insufficient clarification (50). This problem could have been avoided either by expanding the text to include explanations of aU potentially unfamüiar terms, or by adding a glossary at the end of the book. With these anomalies, it is not clear to whom this book could be recommended. Those able to deal with its style and terminology probably already know most of the content. Its main use would probably be as a reference sketch, which does indeed fill the gap which B had in mind. From this point of view, the 9-page briefly annotated bibliography is particularly useful. The large proportion of titles available only in German should also serve as a gentle reminder of why serious students ofhistorical Unguistics wiU find a reading knowledge of German indispensable . [Sheila M. Embleton, York University, Toronto.] A bibliography of writings on varieties of English, 1965-1983. Compiled by Wolfgang Viereck, Edgar W. Schneider, and Manfred Görlach . (Varieties of English around the world, G3.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia : Benjamins, 1984. Pp. 319. This is reaUy three bibliographies in one volume : Viereck has compUed the section on 'EngUsh in Great Britain and Ireland'; Schneider, that on 'American and Canadian EngUsh'; and Görlach, that on 'English as a world language'. Each section includes an index. It is a pity that a single alphabetized Ust with a single index was not made, since it is somewhat arbitrary where certain entries wiU appear. Thus E. C. Traugott, 'Pidgins, creóles, and the origins of vernacular Black EngUsh', is Usted under 'English as a world language'; but the volume in which it appears , Black English, ed. by D. S. Harrison & T. Trabasso, appears under 'American and Canadian English'. Primarily theoretical entries (e.g. D. Bickerton's) are usually under 'EngUsh as a world language'; but C-J. N. BaUey's "The patterning of language variation' is under 'American and Canadian EngUsh'. Thus time can be wasted in searching for some items. Nevertheless, this thorough and timely bibUography will long remain indispensable for researchers in varieties of English. [John T. Jensen, University of Ottawa.] Questions and responses in English conversation. By Anna-Brita StenSTROm . (Lund studies in English, 68.) Malmö: Liber Förlag, 1984. Pp. 296. S has provided a comprehensive description and analysis ofthe ways people ask and answer questions in a wide range of English conversational types, including telephone conversations , multi-party face-to-face interactions, a radio interview, and a courtroom examination —aU taken from the London-Lund Corpus of Spoken English. S's analytical framework is a rather extensively modified version of the model for classroom interaction introduced by J. M. Sinclair & M. Coulthard, Towards an analysis ofdiscourse (Oxford: University Press, 1975); but her analysis has also been influenced by the work of E. Goffman, W. Labov & D. Fanshel, H. Sacks, and E. Schegloff. It is hierarchical, with a unit at one level being realized and describable in terms of units at the next lower level. Thus the minimal sequence ofdiscourse...