Review

Reviewed Work(s): A Theory of Word Order with Special Reference to Spanish by Heles
Contreras
Review by: Frank H. Nuessel, Jr.
Source: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 61, No. 7 (Nov., 1977), p. 391
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers
Associations
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/324581
Accessed: 22-07-2022 04:53 UTC

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 REVIEWS 391

compagnement
compagnement musical
musical
ait jamais
ait ete
jamais
pr6vu." and It
eteItpr6vu."
is word
word
is order
order in
in an
an organized
organizedfashion.
fashion.He
Heretains
retains
indeed
indeed perfectly
perfectly
true true
that many
that poems
manyofpoems
this kind the Prague
of this Prague
kind school
school notions
notions ofof theme
theme(given
(giveninforma-
informa-
may
maynever
never
havehave
had ahad
musical
a musical
setting; setting;
yet a briefyet tion) and
and rheme
a brief rheme (new
(new information)
information)in inhis
hishybrid
hybrid
consultation of two standard modern reference works theory.
theory. His
His hypothesis
hypothesis employs
employsaaso-called
so-calledRheme
Rheme
Selection
Selection Hierarchy
shows settings or possible settings for five of these Hierarchy with
with aa semantic
semanticbasis
basisasasa ameans
means
of determining
twenty-six, and further research would most probably determining word
word order
order in
inaasentence.
sentence.The
Themethod
method
find more. In these circumstances, the question of of delimiting the semantic structure of a sentence is
music cannot be ignored. Here are the references Fillmore's
for Case Grammar (Charles J. Fillmore, "The
Case for Case," 1968) approach which combines se-
the musical settings or possible settings of these five
poems: mantics and grammatical relations.
Numbers VI and XV, "Entre vous gentilhommes": The author devotes eight chapters to the develop-
a setting by Certon beginning with these words is ment and expansion of his initial proposals. His
listed in H. Daschner's Die gedruckten mehrstim- thesis becomes convincing from the copious use of
nigen Chansons von 1500-1600 (Bonn, 1962), p. 50. documentation obtained from independent sources
Number IX, "Je seuffre passion": a setting by Gen- such as novels and plays as well as personal exempli-
tiam was published in Attaingnant's Vingtneufiesme fication (frequently laced with Chilean political barbs).
livre contenant xxix Chansons (Paris, 1549); see Furthermore, he does not ignore difficult, complex
Daniel Heartz, Pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of or troublesome counterexamples to his general gram-
Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), p. 358. matical rules but rather, he deals with them in a
Daschner (op. cit., p. 75) lists this setting and also systematic fashion. The most important aspect of his
another by Goudimel, and mentions that a poem be- theory is the Rheme Selection Hierarchy which is a
ginning thus is in the Deploration de Venus (Lyon, method of assigning rhematic status (as opposed to
1548). thematic status) to a constituent according to its
Number XVI, "Adieu, mon esperance": Daschner functional role within a case grammar framework.
(op. cit., p. 7) lists settings by Clemens and Rogier Thus, the proper linear ordering and primary stress
beginning with these words, and mentions that a poem assignment may be obtained. Contreras' system in-
beginning in the same way is in the Recueil des Chan-
cludes the direct generation of semantic structures
sons, Tant Musicales que rurales (Paris, 1557). with transformational permutations and substitutions.
Number XIX, "D'ou vient l'amour soubdaine": He manages, however, to avoid the standard polemic
Daschner (op. cit., p. 42) lists a setting by Le Jeune.
of the role of semantics in a formal grammar by ad-
Investigation would show whether the settingsheringare to his primary goal of creating a functional
in fact settings of the identical poems; but whether
theory of word order.
they are or not, the matter should be discussed. The final two chapters deal with the two contro-
BRIAN JEFFERY versial issues of grammatical relations and non-paradig-
London
matic se's in Spanish by showing how his proposals
explain many of the difficulties encountered in earlier
studies of these problems.
Contreras, Heles. A Theory of Word Order
Contreras deserves credit for plunging into a dif-
with Special Reference to Spanish. Amster-
ficult area of Spanish linguistics which had been in-
dam: North-Holland Publishing Company, adequately treated in the past because at least one
1976. Pp. xii + 152. Dfl. 45,00. of the following factors had been ignored: stress,
Written by one of this country's authoritieslinear on ordering and variant arrangement of constitu-
Hispanic and theoretical linguistics, the present mono-
ents and meaning. Although he has shed much light
graph is a significant contribution to a theory of word
on this problem, he may expect the various propo-
order in that it incorporates the best features of nents
im- of divergent linguistic paradigms to take issue
portant previous research into a novel theoretical with
per- his conclusions, in part because he disregards
spective. In addition, it lays the foundation for certain
the major polemics in favor of producing a
application of these findings to further research on
workable system. The reader should have a reasonable
natural languages as well as the utilization of this
familiarity with the basic linguistic theory which the
work in foreign language pedagogy. author presupposes for a full appreciation of his in-
Contreras' basic thesis holds that a treatment of sights. Aside from the obvious theoretical importance
word order is fundamentally systematic and formaliz-and the reaction that it is certain to stimulate, this
able-attributes lacking in structural accounts because study has major pedagogical implications which, hope-
they failed to consider prosody and meaning. Likewise, fully, will be developed in the near future since he
the more recent transformational model has been ignores the application of his research to the language
totally inadequate to this task. Contreras notes that learning task. This book definitely belongs in the li-
only the Prague school linguists have considered the brary of every professional Spanish linguist because
prosodic features and contextual aspects of word order, it provides new insights into old problems.
albeit inexplicitly. He provides an original hypothesis FRANK H. NUESSEL, JR.
by accounting for primary stress assignment, meaning University of Louisville

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