Dictionary of Puget Salish By Thom Hess (review)

502 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 53, NUMBER 2 (1977) of most interest, although they are quite modest in scope. A brief summary of each paper follows. Hanni Woodbury, 'Noun incorporation and Onondaga "relative" constructions', shows that an Iroquois noun may, under certain conditions, be incorporated into the verb complex of which it is an argument. If a noun is modified by a relative clause, it may be incorporated into the verb of the relative clause, into the main verb, into both verbs, or into neither. This paper addresses itself to the problem of the conditions which determine this choice. The parameters examined are the transitivity of the main and subordinate verbs, the contrastiveness of the noun in question, and the focusing (new information) of the NP containing the noun. The following principles seem to emerge: (i) if the noun is contrastive, it may escape incorporation altogether; (ii) if the NP containing the relative clause is in focus, the noun is preferentially incorporated into the verb of the relative clause—otherwise, incorporation into the main verb is preferred; but (iii) an intransitive verb in a relative clause prefers to incorporate when the main verb is also transitive. The situation is further complicated by the fact that some verbs incorporate obligatorily. A complete resolution of the problem is not achieved, in part, perhaps, because of the absence of sufficient data, and in part because of a lack of a clear sortingout of the data at hand. Still, the paper provides a first step toward clarifying a fairly complex problem. Nancy Bonvillain, 'Noun incorporation in Mohawk', presents examples ofthree kinds of object-noun incorporation in simple transitive sentences of Akwesasne (St. Regis) Mohawk. These are: (i) optional incorporation of an object noun; (ii) optional redundant incorporation of a noun stem denoting a general class to which the independently appearing object NP belongs; and (iii) idiomatic constructions involving obligatory incorporation. Marianne Mithun Williams, 'Word order in Tuscarora', examines the word-order possibilities in simple Tuscarora sentences. She concludes that the basic order is SVO, but that an element can be fronted if it is in focus (say, as the answer to a question). Thus, fronting V or O yields the orders VSO and OSV, which actually occur. The orders VOS, OVS, and SOV cannot be generated by fronting if one starts from basic SVO order, and these orders are claimed to be in fact ungrammatical for Tuscarora. Günther Michelson, 'Up-streaming Bruyas' presents fifty-two entries from the dictionary of Mohawk compiled in 1675 by Bruyas, each with retranscription and analysis in terms of known Mohawk morphemes. The entries were selected on the basis of their relevance to Iroquois institutions and customs, in an attempt to throw more light on these as they existed at the time of the first contact with Europeans. A brief account of Bruyas' activity, along with some comments on specific entries, precedes the list. Roy A. Wright, 'The People of the Panther—a long Erie tale (an ethnohistory of the Southwestern Iroquoians)', is an ethnohistorical search for the identity of the Erie nation. Village names, tribal names, and words denoting certain wildcats are culled from primary sources; their etymologies are explored, and relationships between them discussed. An extensive list of sources is appended, which should be an invaluable aid to Eriologists. [Leonard M. Faltz, UCLA.] Dictionary of Puget Salish. By Thom Hess. Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1976. Pp. xvi, 771. $17.50. Hess' work here is obviously a labor of love, and cannot but inspire admiration. Reflecting about twelve years of fieldwork, it presents a remarkable amount of information on the lexical (including morphological) and semantic resources of the Salishan language spoken in the vicinity of Seattle. Known as dxwhs~ucid to those who speak it, this language is frequently referred to in the literature by the names of various of its sub-dialects : of these, the northern dialects of Snohomish and Upper and Lower Skagit are the basis of most of H's material, but information on others is also included. A brief introduction establishes the position of the language in geographic and linguistic terms, and lists the consultants who have contributed their knowledge to the work. The...