Sociolingvistikkens (u)mulighed: Videnskabshistoriske studier i Ferdinand de Saussures og Louis Hjelmslevs strukturaliske sprogteorier [The (im)possibility of sociolinguistics: Historical studies in the structuralist linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and Louis Hjelmslev] By Frans Gregersen (review)

BOOK NOTICES 603 have insisted that only spoken language is language proper, and that written language is nothing but a representation of spoken language. But, paradoxically, when looking at the kind of language that has actually been studied in modern linguistics, one often finds that it is exactly the kind of language that is typical of written style. In counterreaction to that, the pragmatic turn of the seventies brought about a plethora of studies of spoken language in context, now neglecting the specific problems and features of written language. It is only in recent years that the position is gaining ground that written language is a subject of linguistics in its own right and should be studied separately from and in contrast to spoken language. The present volume is one of a regular flood of readers, special issues, and conference proceedings on problems of written language which have appeared over the last decade or so. It is certainly one of the most original, innovative, and thought-provoking of them. Presenting papers from the 17th Milwaukee Linguistics Symposium , held in April 1988, it shows how much theoretical and empirical linguistics has missed by ignoring this fundamental distinction. The papers are very heterogeneous in topic, approach, and theoretical pretensions. The editors have organized them in four different parts. The section 'Written language and spoken language compared' emphasizes differences between spoken and written language as well as parallels between spoken language and poetry. Orthographic systems' contains, inter alia, papers on the history ofthe alphabetic writing system . A further subject area is The psychology of orthography'. Despite the long delay in publishing the papers, most of them have not yet been overtaken by discussions in their respective fields. They actually present some theoretical nuts to crack for mainstream linguistics, in particular concerning the concepts of sentence (Wallace Chafe, 17-29), phoneme (Mark Aronoff , 71-82; Alice Faber, 1 1 1-34), and word (Ronald P. Schaeeer, 153-68), and the psychological reality of morphophonemic analyses and autonomy of segmental phonology (Bruce L. Derwing, 193-2 10; John J. Ohala, 21 1-37). All these linguistic constructs can be shown to be dependent on the existence ofwriting in some way or other, which is of course a devastating discovery for a linguistic theory based on these constructs which claims universal applicability. The consequences of literacy' is the section heading and topic of the concluding article, by Walter J. Ong (293-319), entitled 'Writing is a technology that restructures thought'. Ong's basic thesis is that the development of literacy so far has known three major leaps: the development of alphabetic writing, the invention of the printing-press, and the rise ofcomputer technology . I cannot agree with every assumption Ong makes in ascribing all major intellectual and cultural achievements during the last few millennia to this development, but I certainly found his article to be inspiring and challenging reading, like most others in this collection. [Paul Georg Meyer, Freie Universität Berlin.] Sociolingvistikkens(u)mulighed: Videnskabshistoriske studier i Ferdinand de Saussures og Louis Hjelmslevs strukturaliske sprogteorier [The (im)possibility of sociolinguistics : Historical studies in the structuralist linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and Louis Hjelmslev], By Frans Gregersen. (Tidende Skifter.) Viborg: SpecialTrykkeriet , 1991 . 2 vols. Pp. iv, 364; 316. This 680-page work, its enormous size a consequence of the fact that it was composed as a doctoral dissertation for the University of Copenhagen , is an attempt to come to terms with the theoretical heritage of Louis Hjelmslev as it relates to sociolinguistics. The book comprises three parts and an introduction, and is bound in two volumes with separate pagination. The contents are as follows: Preface, i-iii; Survey of archives consulted, 1-5; Introduction, 7-20; Part I: Ferdinand de Saussure, reluctant structuralist , 23-141; Intermezzo, 145-68; Part 11: The work of Louis Hjelmslev, 171-60; Part III: Hjelmslev and his circle, 63-228; Part IV: The (im)possibility of sociolinguistics, 231-72; References , 273-312; English summary, 313-316. There is no index of topics or persons mentioned . Comprehension is made unnecessarily difficult by the constant use ofacronyms for persons and organizations mentioned and for some of Hjelmslev's publications and for many...