Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar by J. Randolph Valentine (review)

humanities 341 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 Heath shows that he has weakened Habermas=s theory at several points, and cites three (heavily edited here for brevity). First, >I have argued that the accountability of social action cannot be explained as the consequence of the fact that it is linguistically coordinated, because speech acts do not generate the type of extradiscursive commitments that Habermas claims. Because the compositional component of the speech act provides it with essentially descriptive content, the only inferential consequences of the speech act that the speaker and the hearer must know are those that would be needed to demonstrate that the relevant state of affairs obtains.= Second, >I also argued that there is no such thing as a specifically Apractical@ form of discourse governed by its own distinct rules. ... Practical discourse should be determined simply by its topic not its structure.= Third, >I argued that there is no reason to think that moral argumentation must exhibit convergence Ain principle.@= These criticisms seem to strip more than the façade from Habermas=s argument, since they may allow for alternative interpretations of the >speech act= in communication and thus may implicitly allow interaction as well as action, rationale as well as >practical rationality= in Habermas=s terms. Heath=s critique also implicitly allows an opening for the reinterpretation of Mead among followers of Habermas in relation to a more interactive general theory of action. (FRANK M. STARK) J. Randolph Valentine. Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar University of Toronto Press. xxxviii, 1100. $125.00, $40.00 Nishnaabemwin is an Algonquian language spoken in southern Ontario along the shores of Lake Huron east to the Ottawa River. The term Nishnaabemwin is used by speakers of the language to identify their language; this language is part of what is called >Ojibwa= by English speakers. The book under review (hereafter NRG) is a reference grammar of Nishnaabemwin, designed for researchers and Nishnaabemwin teachers and language learners. In NRG, Valentine introduces the language and its dialects; examines sound patterns and the writing system; provides indepth coverage of the morphology of nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronominals, numbers, and particles; explores the semantics of verbal arguments and of location, manner, time, circumstance, quantity, and degree; studies syntactic structure; and surveys communicative functions such as asking questions and making commands. NRG provides a depth and breadth of detailed information unequalled, to my knowledge, within Algonquian linguistics. NRG is an unusual reference grammar. The typical reference grammar requires considerable knowledge of what grammar is. While the table of contents of NRG is similar to those of other grammars, the presentation is different because of Valentine=s audience. The book combines two dis- 342 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 similar, but compatible, goals. First, it is a reference grammar. But further, it is an introduction to linguistics. For example, the first chapter defines language and dialect; a typical reference grammar would name and discuss language and dialect but without background on how these differ. Likewise , in a traditional grammar, no setting would be provided in discussion of the sound system; the system would be presented under the assumption that readers know the basic parameters of articulatory phonetics. In NRG, on the other hand, discussion of the Nishnaabemwin sound system is placed in a larger setting detailing how sounds are made, what the vocal tract looks like, etc. My sense is that embedding the grammar within a general introduction to linguistics does not detract from the grammar, and that linguists will find the book useful even though it provides background that they have. The audience of teachers engaged in the promotion and preservation of Nishnaabemwin will be greatly aided by the presentation. NRG differs from standard reference grammars in another, less dramatic, way. Example sentences come from texts, and often background is given to help the user understand the subtlety of use of a construction. One of the many highlights of NRG is the wealth of examples, with each grammatical claim being amply illustrated. NRG, clearly a work of tremendous love, represents many years of work, and is a major contribution to Algonquian linguistics. In...