Phraséologie et profils combinatoires: lexique, syntaxe et sémantique. Hommage á Peter Blumenthal by Salah Mejri and Gaston Gross (review)

Apart from a general presentation, the usual list of the recipient's publications, and a less usual—but very useful—index, this festschrift dedicated to Peter Blumenthal contains eighteen articles spread over three unequal parts that closely reflect the volume's subtitle. The first part, 'Dimension lexicale', incorporates not only lexical but also phraseological work. Anke Grutschus and Ludwig Fesenmeier analyse the lexicographical treatment of French 'bilan' and its Italian, Spanish, and German counterparts; these are words that often surface towards the end of Blumenthal's writings. Using the recipient's widely known concept of 'lexical (or combinatory) profile', Maria Iliescu studies collocations and context to pinpoint the distinctive features of French 'peur' and 'crainte', and matching words in Romanian. Other lexical profile studies include Iva Novakova's chapter on jealousy-related words in five European languages and, in a different part of the book, Magdalena Augustyn and Francis Grossmann's study on French words for anger. Georges Kleiber's contribution signals the start of the phraseological component of the first part; it deals with the discourse marker 'comme on dit' and its use in combination with proverbs and other similar forms of language. Jean-René Klein and Béatrice Lamiroy, meanwhile, call for greater awareness of variation and change within varieties of French, with special reference to idiomatic phrases. Charlotte Schapira probes the idiomatic phrase 'tournure d'esprit', whereas Bernd Spillner looks at scientific phraseology, vulgarization, and journalistic style in written press articles with a focus on economics. The second part of the volume, 'Dimension syntaxique', opens with Sascha Diwersy and Jacques François's study of causative constructions involving thirty different verbs, with special reference to 'engager', 'entraîner', 'exposer', and 'forcer'. Danielle Leeman then announces a solution to the problem of the use of prepositions introducing names of countries, but regrettably fails to deliver. Contrastive and diachronic linguistics are represented as well: while Sandra Lhafi studies the impact of auxiliary choice on Spanish translations of the pluperfect, Yuji Kawaguchi comments on the progression of the grammaticalization of French negation. In the third part, 'Dimension sémantique', Gaston Gross undertakes a holistic description of the multiple ways in which consequence is expressed in French. Joël Éline continues Oswald Ducrot's reflections on the role played in discourse by the argumentative markers 'donc' and 'pourtant'. Variatio delectat, the main title of Christian Schmitt's article on French and German child language that concludes the festschrift, could have been the title of the entire volume. Instead, the editors have chosen one that closely reflects the scholarly interests of the recipient, knowing full well that the wide-ranging contents of the various chapters somewhat betray the thematic cohesion it alludes to (which is not at all unexpected in the case of a festschrift). All in all, though, this mostly very handsomely presented publication is a fitting celebration of Blumenthal's lasting impact on the discipline of Romance linguistics.