Reviews

Reviews Links & Letters 1, 1994 137 the terms of the descriptive theory em- On the whole, this book deserves the ployed, hnctionalists often appeal to psycareful attention of al1 those whose interests cholinguistic mechanisms and processes include morphology and mind. It offers as an important source of constraints on an interesting and contentful psycholinlanguage structure i.e., explanation is exguistic program for addressing morphoternal to the linguistic theory logical problems. Al1 in all, in his endeavour to adopt a unified position, Hall retains the descriptive dimension of the formal approach References but claims that psycholinguistic principles of lexical access and organization ul- HAWKINS, J. A. and G. GILLIGAN (1988). timately explain the preponderance of "Left-right asymmetries in morpholosuffues over prefixes in the languages of gical universals". Hawkins, J. A. and H. the world. Holmback (eds.) Papers in Universal The author examines several models Grammar, special issue Lingua. oflan uage processing and de cides on the so-cal f ed Cohort Model, which claims, Benilde Grafia López among other things, that the recognition of a lexical item by the hearer occurs Universidad de Oviedo before the whole word is heard and the point of recognition depends on the extent to which the phonological form of the word is shared by other entries. For R. BOTHA, Chdlbnging Chomsky. example, on hearing the word trespass, a oxford: ~~~il ~l~~k~~ll. 1990. pool of competing candidates which share initial acoustic properties (i.e., a + 268 pages. "cohort") becomes activated. Thus, on reception of the first S, the cohort made The tide of this book will undoubtedly up of the words trespass, trestle and tress, arouse the interest of m-0 tyPes of readers: may be generated, and when the p is th0s.e who ~ractising -0r simply admireceived, the last two will drop out so that ring- Chomsban linguistics would be a unique item is isolated in he cohon- and eager to see what sort of challenge there recognition takes place. might be, wil-ling to confront it as if it ~h~ crucial point is that, as were directly aimed at them; and those complex words, prefKation entails more who being involved in different linguistic complexity than suffixation both for refiame-works would be delighted to presentation and recognition, in the case find in a book something they have at of prefixed words two different processes some time or 0th~ reflected upon. Ob- of generation of possible candidates and viously the first group will anticipate the subsequent selection are involved, one for evident superiority of the Master? theories the refix and one for the stem, whereas (to use Bothas own term) and the others in t R e case of suffixation a single process will be willing to applaud the critics' CO~- for the stem is enough, since, according ments as clearly more convincing. The to Hall, the sufix does not provoke the two groups will get their part, it must be generation of a new cohort because the said, because this book achieves an admirforms res~onding would be reduced to able balance in ~resentin~ the strongest the suffix itself, and a single member and the weakest aspects of Chomskfs cohort makes no sense. In short, the comviewpoint. Moreover, the style which Bobination prefix + stem involves a greater tha has chosen -presenting a confrontacost to the lexical processor and this is tion in the context of a game being played why it decides on sufixes rather than in different fieldsmakes his work both prefixes. amusing and appealing, without hiding 138 Links & Letters 1, 1994 Reviews the intrincate and far reaching. character U of some of the argurnents at stake. The book is organized in five chapters, each referring to one of the aspects on which Chomsky's theories can be challenged (notice the alliteration): The lie of the Oland, locating ~hornsvs grarnmar within the field of linguistics; The maze of mentalism, on the nature, ori ins and use of language; The terrain of the throry, about the rnain theoretical aspects which frame Chomsky's ideas on laAguage; The marshes of method, exploring the philosophical principles behind Chomsky's theories and the rnethodological practices used to attain his goals; and finally The locus in the landccdpe of learning, which locates Chomskyan linguistics in the general scientific scene. No foreword is found or, to be more precise. the classical foreword has been I converted into a forewarning where the author offers to take the reader on a guided tour of the maze of lanes and paths so cleverly laid out in dense New England intellectual crowths. The stvle in which O this forewarning is written, witty and irnageprovoking, is the best possible introduction to the book. One cannot help but smiling on recognizing some of the types which are currently found in the academic world embodied in the Fiery Fighter (those approaching the garne with a self confident and daring. attitude which fre- V quently only youth and inexperience give), the Fickle Friends (former admirers turned into fierce foes) or the Flock of Frenzied Fans (any need to say who they are?), among others. This presentation also advances what may be considered one of the greatest successes of this book; the fact that the confrontations are always based on co- ~ious auotes frorn both Chornskv and his adversaries. In this way the reader is faced with first-hand arguments masterly organized and dramatized by Botha. It must be noted that taking passages out of context may give rise not only to oversirnplification but also to the. rnisunderstanding of important issues; for this reason Botha quite frequently includes the complete quotation in a fooulote or clarifies the context in which those ideas were initially devised. The first chapter, The lie of the land, is devoted to providing the setting for Chomskv's Erammar within the field of J U linguistics. The following oppositions are used for this task: generative grammar vs u u non-generative grammar, Chomskyan vs non-Chomskyan generative grarnmar, Chomskyan linguistics vs Chomsky's linguistics, Chomsky's linguistics vs radical Chomsky-like linguistics, and generative grammar vs transformational grammar. If you have ever thought of any of these pairs as expressing equivalent notions, you definitely have to read this book. This organization in terms of distinctions (conceptual forks, in Botha's words) which serve to clarify Chomsky's proposals on different issues, is common to al1 the five chapters. The second of these, The maze of mentalism, dealing with the crucid question of how language is to be understood, has a much more detailed treatment, one which to some extent is reflected in the labyrinth the author uses to represent this point. Up to fifty three conceptual distinctions are made, organized around the three fundamental uestions about knowledge of language t I at a linguist must pose: its origin, its nature and its use. Chomsky's ideas about the nature of mind in general (the mentalistic character of the theory, the modularity of the mind, the autonorny of the gramrnar.. .) are also reviewed, confrontation-like, at the end of the cha ter. Frorn the quotes presenteBin this book against Chomsky's viewpoint we are able to draw a general picture of the dialectical confrontation between Chomsky and his critics, and if we do so we get the impression that we could clearly form two groups of arguments: those which are due to simple misunderstanding of the points at play (sornething which was quite frequent at least during the first years in the developrnent of generative gramrnar), and those which represent a genuine opposition by people with a different intellectual background: Reviews Links & Letters 1, 1994 139 linguists, philosophers, psychologists.. . In this chapter the first type is reflected in the common debate about the role played by thepoveq ofstimulus (Plato's problem) when this concept was being mistaken for degrahtion of the stimulus; or in the criticism which followed Chomsky's notion of the idealspeaker hearer, a methodological tool which has sometimes been taken for an actual claim. On the other hand, more well-founded criticism can be found on the side of Piaget, Putman, Skinner.. . (constructivists and empiricists) against Chomsky's proposal of an initial state of a Language Facdty with genetically encoded linguistic principles; or Katz's claims that language should be characterized as an abstract entity in the Platonic sense, and not as a mental object. As regards the use of language, Chomsky himself has often confronted his own ideas (this use being rule following) with the Cartesian philosophicai tradition and also with Wittgensteinian ideas about the issue. Curiously enough in the third chapter, where the organization of ChomskyS theory is discussed, we mainly find the testimony of critics who, not having thoroughly understood Chomsky's ideas on language, have also clearly mis-interpre- ted his model(s) of grammar. Nevertheless, these misconceptions serve the purpose of making the reader o deeper into distinctions such as t k, eory of grammar vs theory of language, linguistic universals vs universal grammar, weak generation vs strong generation etc., which are basic to the understanding of the organization of the different models throughout the history of generative grammar. This chapter also presents a ood, but not detailed, description of t B, e latest stage in Chomsky's theory: the Principies and Parameters approach. We dearly see that Botha is much more interested in discussing the ideas and presuppositions behind Chomsky's theories than the theoretical proposals themselves. Having gone through a labyrinth and then rested a while in a nonetheless unsteady terrain, in chapter four we penetrate the marshes ofmethod, where the Master is at his barelv beatable best. Botha is also at his best Lere since the topic of the philosophical principles and the methodologicai practices which conform generative grammar is not outside his interests U as a researcher, and a simple look at the bibliographic references at the end shows that he himself has frequently fought against Chomsky in this field. The issues handled in this chapter are so rich conceptually, and the controversies they raise so broad in scope, that it is really difficult to sum them UD in a few lines. Suffice it to say that the'ontologid status of the theory (moderate sophisticated realism), and the philosophical perspective behind (rationalism) are discussed in detail here, together with the methodological consequences which follow from the options taken in those respects. Finally, the last chapter explores the connections, present and past, between Chomskyan linguistics and other scientsc disci~lines such as mathematics. brain sciences or natural sciences. The strongest relation ofall is, of course. that established with psychology, to the extent of considering -as Chomsky has explicitly statedthat linguistics is a part of psychology, that is, a psycholo ical science. In sum, t F is is an excellent book for those who wish to approach Chomskyan generative grammar, for those who want to contrast their own ideas or frameworks to the ones defended by Chomsky and his followers. and for those who work in anv of the present forms of generative grammar and have some time to spare on a critical but amusing review oftheir postdates. It is a book, then, suitable for al1 those who are interested in linguistics, and although it is not dificult to see which side Botha is taking, it must be em~hasized. to his credit. that Chomskv is neither attacked nor praised gratuitously here, the reader herlhimself havine; the Íast word on the failure or success of the challenge. Ana 1. Ojea Universidad de Oviedo