Book Reviews
Linguistic Anthropology
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Lan-
page. David Crystal. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1988.479 pp. $39.50 (cloth).
RICHAKI)
A. DEMEKS
Uniuersip of Arizona
The Cambridqe Encyclopedia is an excellent
book that students of language will find in-
structive and in many places entertaining.
The EncycroPedia contains scholarly treatments
of numerous topics related to language, and
the author has achieved just the right balance
in combining technical sophistication, com-
prehensiveness, and overall readability. Two
challenges the author faced in preparing this
book were (1) the book’s scope and the selec-
tion of topics that were to be included and (2)
the organization of these topics. Both of these
challenges have been dealt with in an excellent
manner.
The scope problem is a difficult one because
there is an enormous number ofdisparate top-
ics that are related to language: bee dancing
(the study of the general properties of com-
munication), strokes (the study of aphasia),
acoustics, artificial intelligence, and many
others. The author has obviously carefully rr-
searched the field of language and has wisely
chosen the topics that belong in a book of this
sort.
The organizational issur has also been dealt
with in an extremely clever way. Crystal has
selected 65 topics, which he calls thematic sec-
lions. These sections are not organized alpha-
betically, which might be expected in an en-
cyclopedia; rather, the author has provided an
original organization in which these 65 sec-
tions are placed into 1 1 parts (more or less
chapters). All of the sections in each part are
related in some way, so that the content of
each part is unified. This useful organization
permits interested readers to read about re-
lated topics on the adjacent pages within each
part.
At first glance it does not appear that the 65
topics would fall naturally into the I 1 parts;
but one also does not feel that the topics were
squeezed procrustean fashion into these parts.
Part I , entitled “Popular Ideas on Language”
1184
covers prescriptive grammar, language supe-
riority, the magic of language (taboo words,
etc.), the functions of language, and language
and thought. The second part, “Language
and Identity,” unites the topics of voiceprints,
language and intelligence, geographical dia-
lects, language and national identity, social
dialects, word games, and stylistics. I t may
appear that the unification of these topics is
artificial, but the way in which each section is
written makes their unification quite natural.
Part 3, “The Structure of Language,” is a
rich section that includes not only grammar
(syntax, morphology, and so forth) but also
topics such as pragmatics, typology and uni-
versals, and dictionaries, along with several
others. The topic of phonetics/phonology is
not found here. Although phonology is nor-
mally considered part of the “structure of lan-
guage,” the author only includes in part 3
those dimensions common to all forms of hu-
man language, including sign language.
Phonetics and phonology are treated in the
fourth p a r t , “ T h e Medium of Language:
Speaking and Listening.” This is a very tech-
nical part, encompassing the physiology of
speech, acoustics, phonetics and phonology,
among others. T h e section on acoustics is
more advanced than other parts of the book,
but in order to have this topic reflect in any
way the state ofart ofthe field it must br tech-
nical. The author has made the right decision
to aim upward.
The remaining seven parts are also worthy
of further review, but space limitations pro-
hibit a discussion of their contents. The fol-
lowing titles will, however, give the reader a
sense of the scope ofthe Encyclopediu: (5) “The
Medium of Language: Writing and Reading,”
(6) “The Medium of Language: Signing and
Seeing,” (7) “Child Language Acquisition,”
(8) “Language, Brain, and Handicap,” (9)
‘ T h e Languages of the World,” (10) “Lan-
guage in the World,” and ( 11) “Language and
Communication.”
There is little to criticize. One deficiency,
nevertheless, is that the distinctive features
discussed are the acoustic-based ones. Fea-
tures such as grave and dzffuse will make no
sense at all to people who have not studied
 LINWISTIC
ANTHROPOLOGY
acoustic phonetics. Moreover, the articulato-
rily based features, which have been around
for more than 20 years, are accessible to the
intelligent layperson. T h e discussion of the
sound spectrographs is also dated. The Kaye
Sonograph people would no doubt have gladly
furnished photographs and materials for an
updated discussion. In a few places the print
is too small (p. 54, for example), but such
cases are rare.
T h e intended audience for this book is
doubtless the educated layperson who has an
interest in language. The quality of discussion
is so high and the scope ofthe book is so broad,
however, that the practicing linguist will be
able to consult this book frequently. For ex-
ample, the book can serve as a subject matter
source for introductory courses on language
and linguistics. The titles of the parts, in fact,
are similar to the headings that one finds on
the syllabi for introductory courses on lan-
guage and linguistics. All readers of the Ency-
clopedia will appreciate the large numbers of il-
lustrations, figures, tables, and photographs,
all of which serve to enhance the value of the
book. In sum, the challenge of writing a one-
volume encyclopedia of language has been
masterfully met.
Chinese. Jerv Norman. Cambridge Language
Surveys. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1988. 304 pp. $54.50 (cloth), $17.95
(paper).
MARIE-CLAIJDE PARIS
Universiti Pans
When opening Jerry Norman’s book like an
old Chinese book, that is starting from the end
(the references), the reader is struck by the
large variety of sources mentioned by the au-
thor. All aspects of research done on the evo-
lution of the Chinese language through time
a n d space, whether they a r e written in
Chinese, Japanese, French, Russian, or En-
glish are found in Chinese. This remark may
appear out of place, but it is not, because con-
temporary research o n Chinese is some-
times-and unfortunately-being conducted
by linguists who read neither Chinese nor any
major European languages (apart from En-
glish). Norman’s book stands in very sharp
contrast to such scholarship. His outstanding
competence in sinology is reflectrd in Chinese.
The book is composed of ten chapters and a
detailed index. T h e first a n d last chapters
open and close the book with general charac-
teristics of the Chinese language. In chapter 1
the author places Chinese in a typological and
985
diachronic perspective. In the last chapter he
analyzes the strengthening of the national lan-
guage (guoyu in Taiwan and putonghua in the
Mainland) in a multilingual and multidialec-
tal situation. Chapters 2-5 study the evolution
of Chinese through time. Chapters 6 and 7
deal with the phonology and syntax of today’s
language, while chapters 8 and 9 present the
geographical diversity of the dialects (or lan-
guages) of China.
I n the following I will present chapters 2 to
9 in a little more detail.
Chapter 2 concentrates on the phonology of
three periods: Old and Middle Chinese as well
as O l d M a n d a r i n . T h e evolution of t h e
Chinese script from the late Shang dynasty
until today is described in chapter 3. Chapter
4 sketches the syntactic structure of Classical
Chinese (this label covers a period extending
from the Spring/Autumn period to the Han
dynasty), while chapter 5 describes the syn-
tactic change until early vernacular Chinese
(Tang dynasty).
The initials, finals, tones, and morphopho-
nemics of the modern standard language are
described in chapter 6. In chapter 7 a struc-
tural approach of the syntax and lexicon is of-
fered.
Chapter 8 gives ten diagnostic features-
phonological, grammatical, and lexical-to
classify Chinese dialects and describes the
northern and central dialects. Chapter 9 con-
centrates on the southern dialects. The Puch-
eng example shows how uneasy is any attempt
at a clear-cut classification.
As the author acknowledges in his preface
(p. ix), some areas have been treated in more
detail than others. The reader familiar with
topics recently dealt with in the syntax and se-
mantics of the modern standard language, in
particular, may regret that they have been
somewhat neglected.
In sum, Jerry Norman’s book is an excellent
tool both for the specialist and for the non-si-
nologist.
Intercrammar: Toward an Integrative
Model of Verbal, Prosodic and Kinesic
Choices in Speech. Horst Arndt and Richard
WayneJanney. Studies in Anthropological Lin-
guistics, 2. New York: Mouton de Gruyter,
1987. 474 pp. DM 185 (cloth).
NIKOBESNIER
Yale Universig
Recognizing that contemporary “autono-
mous” linguistics has little to offer to a n un-
derstanding of the workings of day-to-day in-