Fundamentos de lingüística hispánica By Francesco D'Introno, Jorge Guitart, and Juan Zamora (review)

BOOK NOTICES 187 'Denotation and reference', 'Meaning, truth and illocutionary force'. 'Addresses', and 'Discourse'. This final chapter is at once the most fascinating and frustrating part of Clarke's small monograph. The notions of complex human discourse as part of an unbroken continuum of modes of signification within the context of living beings, and of the importance of 'information transfer from predicates to subjects' (131) within complex discourse, are stimulating. The frustration lies in the brevity and allusiveness of Clarke's argument. As a colleague once said about the reading of Icelandic sagas: 'There aren't enough words." [Bruce A. Beatie, Cleveland State University.] Fundamentos de lingüística hispánica. By Francesco D'Introno, Jorge Guitart, and Juan Zamora. Madrid : Editorial Playor, 1988. Pp. 302. Spanish data figure prominently in modern theoretical linguistics, and most graduate programs in Spanish, even those emphasizing literary studies, include courses in linguistics. Linguistic research in Spanish-speaking countries often diverges sharply from paradigms current in North America; as a result, textbooks and surveys of linguistics written in Spanish frequently fail to address the needs of students and teachers in this country. On the other hand, materials deliberately written in Spanish for students in the United States may appear contrived . The book under review, by three prominent Latin American linguists who teach in the United States and whose collective research spans much of modern linguistics, fits neatly into the gap just described. Although the authors are well known for their theoretical contributions , this is an introductory text. In scope, depth, and style, the book is similar to many of the textbooks used to introduce the study of linguistics in the United States. To its credit, Fundamentos contains none of the popularizing, Sunday-supplement sort of paralinguistic topics which are as tenaciously present in bridge-club conversations as they are irrelevant to serious inquiry. The book is divided into eleven chapters, covering all core areas of Hispanic linguistics; at the end of each chapter is a set of discussion topics, followed by a brief multiple-choice 'self quiz'. No answers to the study questions or quizzes are provided. The bibliography at the end of the book is divided into sections corresponding to each chapter, for which major references are given. The references are followed by a brief commentary on selected entries. A majority ofthe references represent book-length studies, and Spanish translations are cited when available; there is no comprehensive bibliography to complement the chapter references. Ch. 1, dealing with human language, covers competence and performance, the dual articulation , animal communication, the communication channel, creativity and the infinite aspects of human language, oral and written language, and other related topics. The presentation is necessarily briefand schematic, but the review questions provide an adequate outline of the major points. Ch. 2 is devoted to the history of linguistics, portrayed as largely an outgrowth of philology. The chapter begins with the early Greeks and Romans and contains a rich discussion of medieval and Renaissance views of language, as well as another section on 18th- and 19th-century linguistic thought. 20th-century linguistics is covered in a mere two and half pages, a section that consists essentially of a list of major (and some minor) figures and the names of the theories associated with each. It is impossible from this list to grasp the significance of contemporary linguistic theories, but some of the ideas are more fully developed in succeeding chapters. Ch. 3, on syntax, is one of the two main components of the book. The approach is largely that of the Extended Standard Theory, with brief mention of more recent views on modularity and parameterization. A number of examples specific to Spanish are used for illustration. Ch. 4, covering phonetics and phonology, is the other core section and, of all the chapters, leads the reader closest to current research issues . Discussed are articulatory phonetics, distinctive feature theory, phonological rules, the structure of the Spanish syllable, and modular rule application, including aspects of lexical phonology. The chapter is punctuated with examples of Spanish phonological processes. Ch. 5, on morphology, is very short, and is limited to basic definitions and examples from the Spanish lexicon. Ch. 6, on semantics, is...