Beiträge zur Methodengeschichte der neueren Philologien: Zum 125 jährigen Bestehen des Max Niemeyer Verlages Ed. by Robert Harsch- Niemeyer, and: Max Niemeyer Verlag: Gesamtverzeichnis 1950-1995 (review)

BOOK NOTICES 419 prefixed verbs with des-, es- and prefixed and nonprefixed verbs with a-, en-, and re-. The data come from sources that cover standard Catalan and its dialects from a synchronic perspective as well as recent additions to the language. The volume contains four chapters. Ch. 1 , 'Preliminary considerations' (3-27), deals with the theoretical tenets of the book, namely that (prefixed) verbs with des-, es-, a-, en-, and re- in series such as (1) cosir, descosir, recosir 'to sew', 'to unsew', 'to resew'; (2) sal, salar, dessalar 'salt', 'to salt', 'to unsalt'; (3) terra, enterrar, desenterrar 'soil', 'to bury' 'to unbury' , and (4) junt, ajimtar(-se), desajuntar (-se), rejuntar 'united', 'to join', 'to disjoin', 'to rejoin' share a semantic relationship even though the morphology is different. The shared semantic properties are described in terms of the following features static and dynamic, change of state, directional oppositions, relative and absolute states, resultative and nonresultative states, and remgressive and reegressive verbs. Most of these features have in common their ingressive aspect, that is. they refer to a transition between state A and state B or vice versa (egressive aspect). Ch. 2. 'Morphological structure' (29-58), presents all the morphological patterns of the verbs under discussion . Specifically, it presents 69 patterns with the prefixes des-, es-, re-, a-, and en- and the suffixes -ej(ar), -itz(ar). and -ific(ar). For each prefix and suffix, G provides examples and discusses their productivity and morphological characteristics. Ch. 3, 'Semantic structure' (59-109), is divided into three main sections dealing with verbs with desand es- derived from denominal verbs (e.g. arrel 'root', arrelar 'to root', desarrelar 'to unroot'), deadjectival verbs (e.g. fluix 'loose', afluixar 'to loosen'), and verbs with des- derived from verbs (e.g. aparhxer 'to appear', desaparèixer 'to disappear'). G discusses each class by providing the semantic features and a gloss. The main purpose of this chapter is to argue that the meaning of all the verbs in question can be reduced to the general hypothesis stated in Ch. 1. Ch. 4, 'Conclusion', summarizes the goals and results of the volume and stresses that prefixed verbs with des- and es- can be interpreted as describing the idea of transition from an origin-state to a goal-state. The volume ends with a bibliography and a useful index of all the lexemes used as examples. The strength of this work is the detailed description of the morphological and semantic patterns of Catalan prefixed verbs. It presents a balance between what is common to these verbs and what the different nuances in meaning and morphology are. It is appropriate reading for researchers in morphology, semantics , and lexicology of Catalan and other Romance languages. [Llorenç Comajoan, Indiana University .] Beiträge zur Methodengeschichte der neueren Philologien: Zum 125 jährigen Bestehen des Max Niemeyer Verlages . Ed. by Robert HarschNiemeyer . Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1995. Pp. xii, 266. Max Niemeyer Verlag: Gesamtverzeichnis 1950-1995. Tübingen: Niemeyer , 1995. Pp. 212. From its beginnings in 1869, the publisher Max Niemeyer has been intimately associated with German philology. Before long, publications on Germanic , Romance, English, and Celtic were added to a program of 'newer' or modern language studies that has continued to grow. This collection of thirteen essays (all in German) celebrates the company's 125th birthday. Smce 1950 the publisher has been in Tübingen, Max Niemeyer's son and successor, Hermann , having left Halle. An East German publishing enterprise under the name Volkseigener Betrieb Max Niemeyer Verlag lasted until 1974. While it might sound pretentious for one publisher to attempt to account for the 'methodological history' of a given discipline as reflected in its own publications , the essays offered here trace various paradigmatic shifts as they are reflected in Niemeyer's productions The stories retrace the past 125 years from various disciplinary perspectives; thus the final contribution in this handsome book, 'Chronicle of Max Niemeyer publisher' (235-51, by Robert Harsch-Niemeyer, owner of the publishing house, editor of this volume, and grandson ofthe publisher's founder), is actually a good place to start, as it provides a helpful overview of the publishing firm's most noteworthy publications and related events. For readers...