The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics by José Ignacio Hualde, Antxon Olarrea, and Erin O’Rourke (review)

The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics is a compilation of forty essays in English which treat a wide range of topics in Spanish linguistics. This collection is a continued editorial collaboration between Hualde and Olarrea, the two primary authors of a previous introductory textbook on Spanish linguistics, titled Introducción a la linguistica hispánica, which was first released in 2002, and subsequently in 2010. The appearance of the Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics is timely and serves as a complement to the prior textbook. Also, both the sheer volume of its forty papers as well as its wide range of its topics more than suggest that the field of Spanish linguistics has progressed significantly in its own right.

In terms of content, as expected of any comprehensive manual or desk reference, the Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics (hereafter referred to as the Handbook) is impressive in its coverage of the wide range of fields in linguistics, including some areas which are treated to a lesser extent in the research. For example, in addition to material on each of the four structural components of language (phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax) that one would expect from such a large volume, the editors also include individual chapters dedicated to more specialized yet relevant topics, such as the first language acquisition of sounds and prosody, Spanish as a heritage language, as well as the psycholinguistics of reading Spanish words and phrases. The only area that appears to be missing from the volume, but which has also made significant progress in the profession, is that of Spanish corpus linguistics.

From an organizational perspective, the book, which approaches 900 pages of text, could benefit from a more formalized division of related material into sections. As it currently stands, the Handbook does appear to at least initially follow a loose order according to topic, beginning with the first fifteen chapters which deal with sociolinguistic issues, continuing thereafter with separate papers dedicated to the structural components of language. However, it is after these unmarked, topic-driven sections that it is difficult to determine the rationale for the order of chapters throughout the remainder of the book. This lack of book sections, particularly within a book of this size and depth, make it extremely difficult to navigate the material.

Also in terms of both the organization and management of the vast range of material that the Handbook covers, a major criticism is that it does not have the customary introductory chapter typically penned by the editors which, in addition to organizing the material within a book of this size, would also provide a necessary explanation for the rationale for inclusion and interconnectedness of each chapter. In its place is a half-page “Editors’s Note” which serves primarily as acknowledgment to both contributors and reviewers. In short, readers are left to the three-page table of contents and an eleven-page topical index as search aids. Both the lack of adequate organization of its forty contributions and a missing introductory chapter seriously hinder the accessibility of the material. For illustration of how an introductory chapter can effectively tie the contents of a handbook together, the editors are referred to another recent handbook, the Handbook of Spanish Second Language Acquisition (Geeslin, 2013), released by the same publisher.

Overall, despite the organizational limitations cited above, the Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics offers value to all researchers in the field, whether inside or outside the classroom, and whatever the methodological framework to which they subscribe. In some respects, the volume’s detail would make it ideal required reading for a graduate course in Spanish linguistics. On the other hand, with the guidance of an instructor, the volume could also be appropriate as additional assigned reading of selected chapters for students of similar courses at the undergraduate level. Finally, the book may also serve as introductory reading for students undertaking special projects across a wide range of topical areas...