THE ACQUISITION OF SPANISH MORPHOSYNTAX: THE L1/L2 CONNECTION. Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux and Juana Muñoz Liceras (Eds.). Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002. Pp. xxiii + 247. $110.00 cloth, $50.00 paper.

Since the middle 1980s, the study of the acquisition of Spanish has blossomed, becoming a diverse field in which new avenues for original research are still quite abundant. More specifically, this volume addresses examples of morphosyntactic optionality observed in the interlanguage grammars of Spanish language learners, both first language (L1) and second language (L2). Furthermore, it describes how morphology can trigger the acquisition of new syntactic knowledge. A major strength of the collection lies in the numerous and varied original contributions it makes to our knowledge of the acquisition of Spanish morphosyntax.

This book is part of a fresh and lively series on bilingual education and bilingualism. It deals with immersion in general but adds its own evidence and contributes substantially to knowledge in the field. Its originality lies in its emphasis: Whereas most of the literature on immersion deals with outcomes, de Courcy focuses on the process, particularly from the perspective of the learner. The research methods are tailored to the research aims. Rather than providing quantitative data, the author emphasizes various types of qualitative data, such as taped interviews, videotapes, student journals, and the researchers' log books. Introspective accounts are central to the discussion, and the importance of an ethnographic approach is also stressed: Observation alone is not enough, and the learners are seen as informants. Another interesting aspect of the book is that, whereas much of the literature on immersion studies is on English and French, here we have much-needed evidence from another language group, Chinese. The research is carried out in Australia with late immersion learners.

EFFECTS OF THE SECOND LANGUAGE ON THE FIRST. Vivian Cook (Ed.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2003. Pp. viii + 268. $89.95 cloth, $35.95 paper.

This volume represents the first attempt to assemble studies of the effects of the second language (L2) on the first (L1). Underlying the design of the book is Cook's (1991) notion of multicompetence, which refers to knowledge of two or more languages in one mind. From various perspectives and to varying depths, the authors bring evidence to bear on the conceptualization that the L1 of an L2 user is not encapsulated but susceptible to the L2 influence.

THE SOCIAL TURN IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION. David Block. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2003. Pp. viii + 162. $26.95 paper.

This book is devoted to what Block calls the Input-Interaction-Output (IIO) model of SLA. By this model, he means SLA research conducted over the last few decades by Gass, Long, Pica, Swain, and others, generally known as the “interaction hypothesis” and the “output hypothesis.” Block's chief aim is “to critically examine some of the basic notions and assumptions that underpin this model and to suggest a more interdisciplinary and socially informed approach to SLA research” (p. vii). He takes pains to point out that his criticisms are intended to be constructive, noting that his intent is to encourage IIO researchers to look beyond what he views as a psycholinguistic bias in mainstream SLA.

Publications received.

Publications received.

THE JAPANESE COPULA: FORMS AND FUNCTIONS. Tomiko Narahara. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Pp. x + 210. $55.00 cloth.

This book examines the Japanese copula, da and datta, which occurs with predicative nominals and adjectival nominals. Narahara's primary contribution is to challenge the common assumption that the Japanese copula is a tense feature carrier (p. 12). She points out in chapter 4 that copula-less sentences such as Kwoo-wa nitiyoobi “Today is Sunday” and Kita-wa kotti? “Is north in this direction?” can still be interpreted with the present time reference. She proposes that, although the morpheme ta in datta encodes the past reference, the copula form da does not encode the present tense. In chapter 10, she shows that the copula form da is systematically excluded when the speaker lacks knowledge of the truth of the sentence. For example, the copula form never appears in yes/no questions such as Kwoo-wa doyoobi *da/Ø? “Is today Saturday?” and sentences with epistemic modals such as Yuuta-wa genki *da/Ø rasii “Yuta seems to be well,” whereas it is perfectly acceptable for the copula form da to occur in normal declarative sentences such as Kwoo-wa doyoobi da “Today is Saturday.” She suggests that the copula da is a modal expressing what she calls the anti-ignorative affirmative mode, and it is the anti-ignorative mode that makes the copula incompatible with yes/no questions and sentences with epistemic modals. Finally, in chapter 11, she discusses cases where the copula form da in normal declarative sentences alternates with the zero-copula. She concludes that the zero-copula is a device to tone down utterances and is used when the speaker attempts to make the expression less assertive and authoritative. This explains why women or children tend to use the zero-copula even in normal declarative sentences.

CONSTRUCTING A LANGUAGE: A USAGE-BASED THEORY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION. Michael Tomasello. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. Pp. viii + 388. $45.00 cloth.

Michael Tomasello has an impressive opus of publications in both child language development and primate research. This book represents a synthesis of that work as well as the exposition of an account of language development, which provides a thought-provoking challenge to the generative enterprise. As such, it is an important contribution to the literature of first language acquisition, and by extrapolation, of SLA, because it offers an account of how learners can extract language from the input without reference to linguistic-specific predispositions. It succeeds in many respects and fails in others, as this review will try to explain.

RESPONSE TO STUDENT WRITING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SECOND LANGUAGE STUDENTS. Dana Ferris. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2003. Pp. xvi + 194. $45.00 cloth, $22.50 paper.

This volume by Ferris will attract the attention of second language (L2) teachers, particularly those who teach writing classes. The book is divided into two sections. Part 1 reviews research into response given to L2 writers, and part 2 examines the practical issues of responding to student writing. Although the title of the book refers to “second language students,” the focus is on students learning English as a second language (ESL). In fact, most of the research into response has been conducted with the ESL student population at the college level. That being said, this volume would certainly be an excellent supplemental text to assign for a teaching of ESL class in teaching writing or for in-service training. It is also a useful guide for L2 teachers who must decide how to respond to student writing.

APPRAISING RESEARCH IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH. Graeme Keith Porte. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2002. Pp. xx + 268. $78.00 cloth, $29.95 paper.

The author states in the preface that this book is intended “to guide student and novice researchers through their critical reading of a research paper in the field of second language learning” (p. ix). It does an admirable job of this and, in fact, should be required reading for every language researcher. Porte emphasizes that the role of the book is not to guide readers toward critical judgments of research articles but rather to constructive reading as consumers of research—which may, in turn, lead to well-designed and presented research studies of their own. To meet these goals, Porte divides the book into two parts: the first portion of the text, the textbook (pp. 3–149), guides readers through analyses of the various components of research studies, and the second portion, the workbook (pp. 153–246), leads readers through a detailed analysis of two sample studies.

LANGUAGE, COGNITION, AND THE BRAIN: INSIGHTS FROM SIGN LANGUAGE RESEARCH. Karen Emmorey. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. Pp. xvii + 383. $99.95 cloth, $49.95 paper.

In the preface, Emmorey states her goal for this book: to illustrate what can be learned about human language, cognition, and the brain by studying signed languages and the deaf people who use them. She clearly achieves that goal in this excellent volume. Her scholarship is impeccable, something we have come to expect from this author. First of all, the organization of the book is impressive. Each chapter explicitly presents specific goals and then proceeds through those goals in an organized and clear style. The conclusion of each chapter includes suggested readings with a brief explanation of how these suggestions support the chapter. Second, this volume includes research on a variety of signed languages—Nicaraguan, Australian, Danish, and Irish, to name a few—and provides a truly comprehensive approach to the topic.

PHONOLOGY AND LANGUAGE USE. Joan Bybee. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xviii + 237. $80.00 cloth, $32.00 paper.

Bybee is concerned with providing an understanding of a vast amount of evidence from language use that remains unaccounted for in the usual models of generative phonology, including its currently popular descendant, Optimality Theory.

THE COGNITIVE SCIENCES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH. Carolyn P. Sobel. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2001. Pp. xx + 327. $101.00 cloth.

As suggested by its subtitle, this volume looks at issues in cognitive science from varying perspectives, given in the five parts to the book: psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy. Each part contains two chapters, the first of which reviews the development of the field as well as basic issues, and the second of which introduces some specific topics of current interest. The more specific topics include, among others: in psychology, propositional networks, mental imagery, problem solving, and memory; in neuroscience, functional and structural brain-mapping techniques; in linguistics, first and second language acquisition (covered in a total of 7–8 pages), aphasia, machine translation, and natural language processing by computer; in artificial intelligence, expert systems, connectionism, and robotics; and, in philosophy, the mind-body problem, free will, and consciousness.

QUESTIONNAIRES IN SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH: CONSTRUCTION, ADMINISTRATION, AND PROCESSING. Zoltán Dörnyei. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2003. Pp. viii + 156. $37.50 cloth, $22.50 paper.

In the introduction to this volume, Dörnyei suggests that, although questionnaires are frequently employed by second language researchers, “there does not seem to be sufficient awareness in the profession about the theory of questionnaire design and processing” (p. 1). Looking to the various branches of research in the social sciences, such as psychometrics, social psychology, and sociology, Dörnyei notes that many of the questionnaires in second language research fail to meet the standards for reliability and validity because the researchers are apparently unfamiliar with the principles of questionnaire construction, administration, and processing. This book is intended to be a practical, easily understood guide for researchers to use when working with self-administered pencil-and-paper questionnaires. It achieves this aim.

RUSSIAN: A LINGUISTIC INTRODUCTION. Paul Cubberley. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi + 380. $70.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

The author intended this book to be an “overall linguistic view of the [Russian] language” that would “provide the understanding of its structure which is essential for potential teachers and specialist users” (p. 9). His attempt to write a work that would appeal to students and teachers of Russian as well as to linguists was successful. The latter will appreciate Cubberley's thorough description of the language; in addition to the standard chapters on phonology, morphology, and word formation, there are detailed sections on the history of Russian (from Indo-European to the present), syntax (often included as part of morphology in descriptions of Russian), Russian dialects, and sociolinguistics (including current trends and predictions for future developments). For those who do not know Russian, all examples are transliterated and glossed. This book will interest any specialist looking for a solid one-volume introduction to Russian.

WORLD LEXICON OF GRAMMATICALIZATION. Bernd Heine and Tonia Kuteva. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 387. $75.00 cloth, $28.00 paper.

The aim of this work is to provide the reader with access to the great variety of data that has emerged in the area of grammaticalization over the past 30 years. It presents data from diverse language families, providing examples of 400 processes from 500 languages. In their introduction, the authors lay out a classical definition of grammaticalization and discuss inherent problems and conventions chosen to best present the data. The second section provides a list of grammatical terms adopted with definitions and clarifies differences of usage.

TURN-TAKING, FINGERSPELLING, AND CONTACT IN SIGNED LANGUAGES. Ceil Lucas (Ed.). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002. Pp. ix + 163. $55.00 cloth.

The Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series published by Gallaudet University Press is, first and foremost, the leading collection of published work dealing explicitly with sociolinguistic issues in Deaf communities around the world. It is also more than this, however. Arguably, the series constitutes the foundation of one of the most exciting and promising areas of contemporary sociolinguistic research writ large. There can be little question that much of the very best work in sociolinguistics in the United States today is being done on issues related to sign language and the Deaf, and this series has provided us with a remarkable number of significant contributions to the general sociolinguistic literature. This volume edited by Ceil Lucas is the most recent publication in this series, and it carries on the impressive tradition of the earlier works in the series.

ETHICAL ISSUES FOR ESL FACULTY: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN PRACTICE. Johnnie J. Hafernik, Dorothy S. Messerschmitt, and S. Vandrick. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. Pp. xv + 166. $45.00 cloth, $21.50 paper.

This volume brings together an inventory of problematic situations faced by English as a second language (ESL) faculty in postsecondary institutions, each problem loosely categorized in terms of whether it occurs as teachers fulfill their responsibilities in the classroom, outside the classroom within the institution, or in broader areas beyond the classroom and the institution. The ethical issue presented by each case is described, and general principles and pedagogical strategies that may be followed in responding to it are outlined.

L'ACQUISITION DES CATÉGORIES FONCTIONNELLES: ÉTUDE COMPARATIVE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT DU DP FRANÇAIS CHEZ DES ENFANTS ET DES APPRENANTS ADULTES [THE ACQUISITION OF FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRENCH DP IN CHILDREN AND ADULT LEARNERS]. Jonas Granfeldt. Lund: Institute d'Études Romanes de Lund, Université de Lund, 2003. Pp. 268.

This doctoral dissertation constitutes an excellent example of how linguistic theory can contribute to the formulation of testable hypotheses about the nature of language acquisition. Taking as a point of departure Chomsky's Principles and Parameters model and the Minimalist Program, the author carries out a careful and detailed analysis of the status and development of the Determiner Phrase (DP) in two different sets of data: (a) bilingual (French-Swedish) first language (L1) developmental data produced by three children, and (b) second language (L2) French developmental data produced by eight Swedish adult speakers.

CHINESE CHILDREN'S READING ACQUISITION: THEORETICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ISSUES. Wenling Li, Janet S. Gaffney, and Jerome L. Packard (Eds.). Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002. Pp. xi + 266. $135.00 cloth.

This collaborative exploration by researchers in China and the United States spans theoretical, experimental, pedagogical, and ethnographic perspectives. The book thus offers learning opportunities to a range of audiences—reading researchers who want a better understanding of the structure of Chinese writing and the cognitive processes it appears to shape, students who wish to study how one-fifth of the world population reads, educators interested in comparative education, and all those with interdisciplinary curiosity about this nonalphabetic script, evolved from ancient times.