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432LANGUAGE, VOLUME 58, NUMBER 2 (1982) the presentation of a problem 'in order to demonstrate as clearly as possible the practical analytic merits of the [Saussurean] theory' (p. 1). Since he chose the problem at least partly for its compatibility with the theory, it is no surprise that the linguistic data come into sharp focus and yield good results. Some readers, depending on their own persuasion, may sense a certain arbitrariness in K's own manipulation of multiple assumptions about communication—but not after they take a close look at his unswerving commitment to accountability. Kirsner sets a major theory to work on a deceptively simple problem, and produces a smoothly, at times brilliantly, argued synthesis. The interlocking of theory and problem here can fairly be termed 'elegant' . REFERENCES Bech, Gunnar. 1952. Über das niederländische Adverbialpronomen er. (Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague, 8.) Copenhagen: Nordisk Sprog- og Kulturforlag. Kraak, A. 1966. Negatieve zinnen: Een methodologische en grammatische analyse. Hilversum: W. de Haan. [Received 3 August 1981.] Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. By Nancy C. Dorian. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. Pp. xviii, 206. Cloth $22.00, paper $9.95. Reviewed by Wolfgang U. Dressler, Universität Wien This well-organized and carefully presented study deals with language extinction : the 'disappearance of a language, either by the extinction of its speakers or by a gradual shift to a different language'. After a long period of neglect or marginal and/or dispersed studies (largely documented in the abundant bibliography ), Dorian's excellent and very readable book represents the first major monograph on the subject; the only forerunners are perhaps the little-known description of the imminent disappearance of Istro-Rumanian, by Coteanu 1957, and a collection of articles edited by Dressier & Wodak-Leodolter (1977). In an epoch when English is about to replace and destroy numerous languages throughout the world, such a thoroughly documented book as D's (the culmination of 16 years' research) is a very welcome model for similar investigations . Moreover, its rich and typologically-oriented contents should be useful not only to linguists, but also to sociolinguists, anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, and Celtologists. A special attraction for the linguist may be the structure of the East Sutherland Gaelic (ESG) dialect under study, which is so different from English that the pattern of its decay and break-down can hardly be caused by English influence—even where a possible English model exists. Thus D notes (152-3) that the Gaelic vocative is better preserved than the genitive, although English has a genitive but no vocative. In Chap. I, 'The sociohistorical setting of a cultural rivalry', D describes how Gaelic came to be a (receding and disappearing) minority language in Scotland, and justifies the description of the Scottish Highlands as an internal colony of Great Britain (here she should have mentioned and discussed French REVIEWS433 literature, e.g. Calvet 1974). Chap. II deals with the ethnogenesis and stigmatization of the ESG fishing communities in northeastern Scotland. Chap. HI is devoted to a sociolinguistic view of the long maintenance and decline of the ESG dialects in particular. The importance of categories such as domain, interlocutor, and function, and the relative unimportance of the category of topic, are amply discussed and vividly illustrated by verbatim excerpts from oral interviews. Throughout this chapter (e.g. when dealing with code-switching, interference, and language loyalties), the advantages of D's preferred field-work techniques, viz. participant observation and in-depth interviews , become readily apparent. Chap. IV, 'Language change in dying ESG: Fluent speakers' Gaelic and semi-speakers' Gaelic', summarizes and further develops D's earlier studies on the increasing reduction and elimination of morphonology, gender, case, nominal and verbal number, tense, voice, and lexicon through the apparent-time proficiency continuum of older and younger fluent speakers—even though 'younger fluent speakers' may be as old as the more conservative and proficient 'older fluent speakers'. The appendix displays D's extended questionnaire surveys, and gives a pointed account of the hazards to which such techniques are exposed. It would take too long to describe all the praiseworthy aspects of this book; thus I will use the limited space available...

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