Ici et maintenant ed. by Marcel Vuillaume (review)

VUILLAUME, MARCEL, ed. Ici et maintenant. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. ISBN 978-90420 -2439-7. Pp. 219. $43.70. It is fair to say that terms such as here and now are used every day—indeed, probably every hour of every day—with scarcely a thought to the complexity of their true meanings. In this edited volume, however, Vuillaume and the contributors ask readers to do just that, by examining maintenant, ici, là, and là-bas, notably , as indexicals and scrutinizing their referential value in various contexts. Although it is tempting to accept a simple analysis of maintenant-now as referring to the moment of enunciation and ici-here as the speaker’s location at the time of enunciation, the contributors provide convincing evidence from a number of different contexts (literary texts, travel texts, encyclopedic and other nonfiction works, posted signs, etc.) that such an analysis is far too simplistic. If these deictics referred merely to current location or time, how could the use of maintenant with an imperfect or future verb form, for example, be explained? How could differences in signification be understood between signs that say push here, where here refers to a very clearly delineated zone, and Spanish spoken here, where the zone is a much larger and possibly moving target? Vuillaume and the contributors answer these questions and more in this highly instructive, if complex, volume. Starting with articles on the topic of maintenant (which is a bit curious, given the title, but perhaps explained by the fact that maintenant is only temporal, whereas ici has both locative and temporal uses), the contributors establish this adverb as a token-reflexive—that is, one that derives its meaning from the context in which it is used. These contexts are then examined in detail, demonstrating that maintenant, although it is certainly used to refer to the present, can also be used in combination with other tenses. In such cases, it may signal a cognitive shift on the part of the author (of letters or travel texts) or narrator (in literature). Likewise, in their examination of ici and là, the contributors note that these terms may have temporal uses (jusqu’ici or d’ici là) that belie a simple analysis of these terms as referring to the here of the speaker or author. This combines with the moving target problem posed by such indexicals —when a secretary says that Mme Dubois n’est pas là cette semaine, this could mean that she is not in the office, not in town, or not in the country—and their analysis becomes all the more difficult. Overall, this is an excellent volume that answers a number of interesting questions. It is not, however, for the non-initiated. It assumes a knowledge of linguistics in general, and of semantics more specifically, that will dissuade many nonspecialists. This is not a criticism; it is difficult to discuss issues as complex as those raised in this volume in nontheoretical terms. For readers of the French Review without prior knowledge in semantics, however, some basic background reading is suggested before attempting these articles. This volume will be well worth the time and effort. If there is a weakness to point out in this work, it is perhaps the inclusion of one chapter that traces the historical evolution of ici and là from their corresponding Latin terms. Although interesting, this chapter does not deal with the deictic issues that were the focus of the other contributions to the collection and thus appears to be out of place here. With this sole exception, however, there is scarcely a criticism to be made of these contributions. Each takes on a different aspect of the analysis of these indexicals, problematizing the question of the reference of these terms in a different way, and thus contributing Reviews 633 to the astounding variety of the volume. French semanticists will find this wellresearched collection very informative. University of Florida Theresa A. Antes Methods and Materials edited by Sarah Jourdain CAHORN, JUDI OLGA. The Incredible Walk: The True Story of My Parents’ Escape from Nazi-Occupied France. Southeastern, PA: Beach Lloyd, 2008. ISBN 978-0979277887. Pp. 132. $19.95. Judi Olga Cahorn, née en...