Jacob Grimm und die deutschen Mundarten By Walter Haas (review)

BOOK NOTICES 401 the end of the volume is M. Gervers' 'Cotton and cotton weaving in medieval Ethiopia' (21224 ): in a manner with which linguists are very familiar, Gervers uses linguistic evidence to argue for the introduction of cotton from the east. [Peter Unseth, Addis Ababa University.] Japanese phrase structure grammar: A unification-based approach. By Takao Gunji. Dordrecht & Boston: Reidel, 1987. Pp. ix, 239. Cloth DfI 135.00. This book presents a version of a phrasestructure grammar for Japanese, i.e. Japanese Phrase Structure Grammar (JPSG). loosely based on Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). JPSG is nontransformational and provides more adequate phrase structures with more explicit semantics (based on Montague Grammar) than transformational grammars . Constructed under the influence of the project for the so-called Fifth-Generation Computer in Japan, JPSG also aims at an 'executable ' grammar compatible with an efficient model for parsing. As in HPSG, all phrase-structure rules are reduced to one in JPSG; the rule states that 'a mother dominates a head and another daughter to the left of the head. The nonhead daughter may be either a complement, an adjunct, or another head' (viii). Since only binary tree branching is assumed, the existence of VP is also assumed. The basic concept of JPSG is 'unification'; when 'the values of corresponding features of two categories are identical ', the two categories are said to 'unify' (1213 ). This basic concept is closely related to that of GPSG and the 'unification-based' grammars of Stuart M. Shieber and others. After a brief 'Introduction' (Ch. 1: 1-4), Ch. 2, 'Preliminaries' (5-28), presents an explanation of the basic concepts and principles of JPSG and provides a good introduction to the framework. Ch. 3, 'Fundamental constructions' (29-96), includes an analysis of complementation structures, particularly causatives and passives , assuming that a VP or a TVP (transitive VP) is embedded in these constructions and disallowing an empty subject like pro. Control phenomena in the case of the interpretation of anaphors in complementation structures, particularly the reflexive zibun and the so-called zero pronouns (gaps), are dealt with in Ch. 4, 'Control in Japanese' (97-160); here G makes use of the concept of a foot feature developed in GPSG/HPSG. Ch. 5, 'Unbounded dependencies ' (161-205), discusses adjunction structures involving gaps, such as topicalization (wa), relativization, and exhaustivization (ga). Exhaustive listing as a function of ga is not a new idea, but the treatment of ga- phrases in this book (191-200) is worth noting. The final chapter, Ch. 6. 'Word-order variation' (206-21), gives an analysis of scrambling and emphatic fronting which uses the subcat feature as well as the slash feature. This volume may not be an easy read for those who are not already familiar with the GPSG framework. It is not necessary for the reader to know Japanese well, though some knowledge of the language is helpful. Although many issues are left for further research, the book is a good source of information about some of the important issues in Japanese syntax and semantics , and how they can be treated in a nontransformational phrase-structure grammar. [Satoshi Stanley Koike. C(Vy University of New York, Graduate Center.] Jacob Grimm und die deutschen Mundarten . By Walter Haas. (Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik, Beiheft 65.) Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990. Pp. [xii], 95. DM 40.00. The 'Brothers Grimm Year' 1985 (Jacob b. 1785, Wilhelm the following year) continues to provide a wealth of scholarly material in its aftermath. Conferences and symposia in Stockholm . Wurzburg, Berlin, and Marburg (and Kassel) have led to publications of presentations , lectures, papers, etc., covering a wide spectrum of the Grimms' manifold activities. This study, by Walter Haas, grew out of preparations for lectures at the Gesamt-Universitat Marburg and at the Gesamthochschule Kassel. Its subject matter, Jacob Grimm and the German dialects, might appear to be somewhat narrow . H has a wider audience in mind, however, and has written an engaging, well documented, and richly illustrated book. His aim is to dem- 402 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 67. NUMBER 2 (1991) onstrate that the common view regarding Jacob Grimm and the dialects of German, namely that...