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BOOK NOTICES 199 of a following stress. The duration of the noun, however, seems more independent of what follows. The effects of syntax on the timing relations within a sentence are examined in Ch. 4. Following a more theoretical discussion than is found in earlier chapters, M concludes that there is indeed a close relation between syntactic and temporal structures. As with prosodie structure in general, however, these two types of structure are not necessarily isomorphic. Réitérant speech was used in a number of the experiments, and in Ch. 5 M discusses the validity of this technique. While for word-sized strings the results with réitérant speech were essentially the same as those with actual language , consistent discrepancies were observed in larger strings in both Italian and Swedish. M points out the advantages of using réitérant speech data, but she also cautions us in regard to their use and interpretation. In the concluding remarks (Ch. 6), the major findings ofthe various experiments and analyses are summarized. Finally, on the basis ofher own study as well as more theoretical considerations , M supports the view that the rhythmic component of language involves not only lowlevel processing but also interactions with higher levels of linguistic programming. While the experimental phonetic aspect of Modelli e misure ritmiche is more impressive than some of the theoretical discussions, the book is a valuable addition to the literature on timing phenomena. Furthermore, it provides a significant contribution to the data base on timing in Italian. The series of 33 tables and 8 figures presenting the details of the experiments and their results at the end of the book is particularly useful for anyone who wants to replicate any of the experiments or attempt a different analysis of the data. [Irene Vogel, University ofDelaware.] Advanced principles of historical linguistics . By Stanley McCray. (American university studies series 13, Linguistics, vol. 6.) New York: Peter Lang, 1988. Pp. xii, 262. Cloth $46.00. This book is mistitled. It is not a handbook of principles; rather, it is an essay toward an overall research program and toward some specific techniques for doing historical linguistics. Unfortunately, the overall program is 'general systems theory', which has turned out to be singularly unproductive in areas where we do not know how to quantify: language change is another such area. It is easy to draw parallels between language change and the derivative of a function and between cumulative change and the integral of a function, and to bring in the idea of a partial derivative where multivalued functions are concerned, but the author has not convinced me that it is illuminating. Moreover, the presentation is not accurate. The diagram on p. 28 which purportedly shows a tangent to a curve does not. Other infelicities include the repeated implications that functions and relations are complementary (rather than that functions are a special case of relations), inconsistent if not incoherent equations (22), the dubious parallel between aspect and tense as inverse functions (27), and the statement that language change would be represented by a continuous function (29). The book seems to have been rushed to print, and the resulting typographical errors are far too numerous. For instance, a page and a half of text are repeated (242-4), words are left out, and the last sections were typed on a defective typewriter which repeats letters. There are five typos each on pp. 218 and 226, four each on 220, 221, and 224, three each on 223 and 237, and so on. The typos occur in French and German examples as well as in the English text (1 did not try to check examples from Greek, Sanskrit, and other languages). Even more serious is the omission from the References of works referred to in the text: Collinge, Gonda, Jones, and Lockwood are all missing. In addition, the Christie reference is out of alphabetical order and incompletely cited, and Bailey is given without a date (presumably 1982). Can anything be salvaged from this book? It seems to me that the intentions were good. Numerous statements make it clear that the author objects to a current style of linguistic work which, he maintains, is...

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