The new comparative syntax Ed. by Liliane Haegeman (review)

224 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 1 (2000) veloping an analytic framework based on the sample analysis of fifteen scientific articles. P sets the background for his study in Ch. 2, reviewing in considerable detail the various approaches to the study of genre in fields as diverse as folklore studies, linguistic anthropology, the ethnography of speaking, conversation analysis, rhetoric, literary theory, the sociology of language, and applied linguistics . He provides a useful overview ofgenre definitions ; the role of the textual structure in the identification and description of a particular genre; and of how genre is related to context, culture, social structures, cognition, the audience, and linguistic structures. Ch. 3 continues with a discussion of the particular theoretical framework subsequently used for the text analysis. Drawing on Charles Fillmore's model of frame semantics as well as related work in discourse analysis, pragmatics, rhetonc, language and cognition , natural language processing, artificial intelligence , and critical theory, P develops his framework, integrating interactional and conceptual frames and pragmatic, linguistic, and perceptual contexts, all operating together in the formation of a prototype. In Ch. 4, P applies this framework to identify 'core characteristics' of the introductory sections of twelve scientific articles in environmental studies and three biochemistry articles on DNA. Following the systemic functional perspective developed by Ruqaiya Hasan, M. A. K. Halliday, and James R. Martin. P first examines the essential (and optional) structural characteristics as well as the lexicogrammatical patterns of these texts. Because this first stage of his analysis reveals too much variation in both structural and lexicogrammatical patterns for an unambiguous assignment of genre, P decides to exclude them from his framework. He then describes the interactional frames of the texts, following J. L. Austin's felicity conditions and other nonlinguistic conditions for the communication event 'reporting on a scientific experiment' . Finally, P examines the cognitive or conceptual frames associated with the texts. He shows how their main underlying concept of 'experimental research paradigm' is evident in their overall macrostructure (cf. Teun van Dijk) as well as in four co-occurring aspects of discourse structure: the discourse elements and the relations among them, e.g. 'problem-solution' or 'solution-evaluation'; components of discourse elements , such as 'previous research' , which correspond to Hasan's 'structural elements'; and finally, the (semantic ) relationships between propositions in the texts, e.g. 'reason-result' or 'condition-consequence '. Unfortunately, by the time P reaches his conclusion—that the core characteristics of the texts occur at the semantico-pragmatic level of language use rather than that of lexico-grammatical patterning —the reader is almost at the end of the book, and only a brief, albeit interesting, sample analysis is presented (eight pages). However, his refined framework for genre assignment and genre definition , both of which are presented at the end of his book, should make a good starting point for others interested in genre and the analysis of scientific texts. [Ingrid U. Pufahl, Bethesda, MD.] The new comparative syntax. Ed. by Liliane Haegeman. London & New York: Longman, 1997. Pp. 294. The new comparative syntax (a recent addition to the Longman linguistics library series) is meant to be a comprehensive introduction to comparative syntax within the principles and parameters framework. The book consists of eleven chapters. Liliane Haegeman provides a short introductory chapter. Anna CardiNALETTi discusses subjects and clause structure and argues for the postulation of multiple preverbal subject positions. Michel DeGraff discusses the relationship between strength of inflection and verb movement and, using evidence from creóles (Haitian and Louisiana) and English diachronic syntax, argues in favor of the dictum 'morphology drives syntax'. Giuliana Giusti overviews what are generally termed determiners in the generative literature—that is, articles, demonstratives, and quantifiers—and argues that they do not constitute a homogenous category . Maria Teresa Guasti discusses the nature of causatives in Romance languages, which are intermediate between periphrastic and morphological causatives, and deals with the ideas that have arisen to explain them. Genoveva Puskas looks at focus and wh- questions in Hungarian. Tal Siloni explores the issue of argument structure vs. functional structure in NP syntax, concentrating on Hebrew. Sten Vikner deals with verb movement and its relationship with inflection in SVO languages. Raffaella Zanuttini deals with verb movement as...