Ost und West, Vol. 2: Aufsätze zur Slavischen und Baltischen Philologie und allgemeinenSprachwissenschaft by A. Rammelmeyer; G. GiesemannReview by: H. LeemingThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 412-414Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4207862 .

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4I2 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

The major sections of the volume, Part Two on linguistics proper and Part Three on semiotics in relation to art (particularly literature), reflect the two main aspects of the PLK's work. In the linguistic section the more notable papers are Morris Halle's clear review of Jakobson's work on speech sounds, Edward Stankiewicz's largely critical account of Trubetskoy's morphophonemics, a stimulating article by Yokohama and Klenin on non-syntactic aspects of the use of svoj in Russian, and a paper by Richard Brecht illustrating the systematic nature of language change by means of a synchronic/diachronic study of Russian gerund usage. Mention must also be made of Kucera and Cowper's enquiry into the acceptability of sentences containing multiple embeddings and Susumu Kuno's long (72 pp.), clearly argued paper on non-syntactic factors in pronominalization, gapping, and reflexivization; both combine a trans- formational approach with the Praguian concept of Functional Sentence Perspective and provide good examples of the continuing relevance of Prague insights into the organization of discourse.

Part Three, half of the volume, deals almost exclusively with the semiotics of literature; the exception is Jirl Veltrusky's fifty-page paper on the semiotics of (theatre) acting, richly supplied with examples from many different theatrical traditions. Three, rather turgid, overlapping contribu- tions by Wolf Schmid (in German), Peter Steiner, and Herta Schmid (in German), review a number of concepts related to Prague Structuralism, and, in particular, the ideas of Jan Mukarovsky, who dominates this half of the volume. Thomas Winner's study: 'Jan Mukariovsky: The Beginnings of Structural and Semiotic Aesthetics', is a helpful introduction to Mukarovsky's thought, with a three and a half page bibliography. Other papers worthy of mention are F. W. Galan's consideration of another important PLK structuralist, Felix Vodicka, Stephen Rudy's admiring account of Jakobson's contributions to the study of versification, and Herbert Eagle's study of the role of intonation in verse, which is well exemplified from the work of both Czech and Russian poets.

Apart from the variable quality of the contributions there are minor blemishes such as frequent misprints, missing diacritics, and traces of non-native English; the page numbers have been omitted from cross- references on pp. 483 and 49I. However, the papers and the useful preface by the editor, taken altogether, constitute a worthwhile tribute to the enduring significance of the PraEskj Linguistickj Krouek. London NICHOLAS J. BROWN

Rammelmeyer, A. and Giesemann, G. (eds). Ost und West, vol. 2: Aufsdtze zur Slavischen und Baltischen Philologie und allgerneinen Sprachwissenschaft. Frankfurter Abhandlungen zur Slavistik, vol. 24. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, I977. x + 286 pp. DM 76.

THIS volume is dedicated on the occasion of his eightieth birthday to Professor Erich Hofmann of Kiel University, whose services to learning, the preface tells us, include particularly valuable contributions to Lithu- anian studies, intervention during the Second World War on behalf of

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REVIEWS 413

Max Vasmer and the rescue on two occasions from a threatened ban on publication of the Zeitschriftfur Slavische Philologie. The worthy recipient should be well pleased with this collection of competent and scholarly papers on various aspects of language and literature. The title of the volume provokes the reflection that our names for the continents of Asia and Europe go back according to the etymologists beyond Greek to the Assyrian words for 'sunrise' and 'sunset' and therefore share the original connotation of German Ost and West, so that derivationally speaking the phrase 'Western Europe' is tautological and 'Eastern Europe' contra- dictory. The academic horizon here extends in the East to the Czech lands, Lithuania and Russia, and in the West to England.

There are one or two topics which cover both East and West: the use of the future tense for past narration in German and Baltic and its equivalents or models in Slavonic (W. Thomas); references to Slavonic and neighbour- ing lands in a late seventeenth-century Russian manuscript cosmography of the Bavarian State Library (O. Horbatsch); some Latin sources of Old Czech religious poetry (W. Schamschula); reminiscences of Homer in Gogol"s Dead Souls (G. Giesemann); references to Turgenev, including an unpublished letter by the writer, in the correspondence of a German acquaintance, Professor L. H. Friedlander (H.-B. Harder); the violated host as a common theme of Turgenev's Story of Father Aleksey and Theodor Storm's Renate (A. Rammelmeyer). There are three papers on topics from Baltic philology: the etymology of two Lithuanian words, kiinas 'body' and tiltas 'bridge' (A. Bemmesberger); trends in the development of the Lithuanian noun system (F. Scholz); interjections in the Baltic languages (E. Hauzenberga-Sturma). Russian topics are: abbreviations of the Soviet period in the field of education and culture (M. Woltner); literary allusions in Ehrenburg's novel The Thaw (R. Lauer); the narrative technique of Andreyev's Krasnyy smekh (M. Capellmann). Other Slavonic topics are: notes on the vowel system of Czech (H. W. Wodarz); the language of a Czech grammar of 1533 (G. Freidhof); rhyme in sixteenth and seventeenth-century East Slavonic syllabic verse (H. Rothe). Ernst Leisi raises the interesting question whether Hamlet's embarrassing interview with his mother took place in the queen's bedroom; after considering Shakespeare's use elsewhere of the word closet he comes to the conclusion, interesting for lexicologists but dispiriting for theatrical producers, that Gertrude received her problem boy in an office or study. One imagines that in spite of this revelation a bed or couch will continue to dominate the stage furnishings.

The opening article is a reprint of a paper read on Anglistentag, 30 Sept- ember I 974, in Salzburg by Herbert Pilch, in which he considers the present position of the philologist, in recent years adrift and defenceless against the claims of general linguistics, sociology, psychology and didactics. Are these in fact scientific disciplines, asks Pilch, or ideologies in scientific guise? He comments with distaste on the fondness of the rationalist school for sterile debate, giving such examples as the questions whether 'two attacks ago' is more or less grammatical than 'two marriages ago'; whether in deep structure economy ends in /j/ or /i/; whether all negation stems from a

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4I4 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

single node in the deep structure; whether semantics precedes syntax or vice versa. To these he is tempted to add some questions of his own, such as 'Couldn't we actually listen to the spoken word?'

Pilch contends that die Spraclie an sich is not a concept that arises from the typological or genetic comparison of languages. He agrees with Richard Aaron that it is doubtful 'whether by examining the basic syntactical structure of any language it is in truth possible to arrive at principles that must be basic to all languages'. There are no universal categories in grammar; the search for universal models is a modern version of the quest for the philosopher's stone: 'ein altehrwiurdiger, aber weltfremder Traum'. Pilch proposes, instead of the current distinction between general linguis- tics and philology, another, more comprehensible and nearer to the truth, between 'theoretical' and 'empirical' linguistics.

Sociologists proceed from observed social strata to the discovery of corresponding categories of language, such as 'black English'. Pilch disputes this correlation of language with colour or social group, pointing out that the London working class has many Eliza Doolittles (presumably this means Eliza rediviva, not Eliza recidiva) and many British cabinet ministers have had trouble with their aitches. Without disputing the point at issue I would suggest that there is a slight exaggeration here. It is true that Ernie Bevin was a past master of both the superfluous and the suppressed aspirate, which on - or off - his lips assumed for Labour's supporters an aggressively plebeian homoeophatic power. I also believe that in deference to his speech habits a certain pre-war minister was always referred to in the Dublin Opinion as 'MrJ. (H.) Thomas'; but most of the ministers one has heard on radio or television were firmly in control of their aitches, if occasionally of little else.

Is Pilch's article a straw in the wind? A clarion call? The first shot in a hot war? A mere puff for his book on 'Empirical Linguistics'? Only time will show but the next few years could be interesting. London H. LEEMING

Wexler, Paul. A Historical Phonology of the Belorussian Language. Historical Phonology of the Slavic Languages, iII. Carl Winter Universitits- verlag, Heidelberg, 1977. 192 pp. Indexes. DM I85; paperback DM i6o.

IN the preface to his A Prehistory of Slavic (New York, I965), Professor Shevelov writes: 'The only logical sequels [to this book] would be histories of the historically attested Slavic languages in their sound changes' (p. xi). Wexler's study of the historical phonology of Byelorussian is without doubt just such a 'logical sequel'. The author presents fifty-one sound changes from the late Common Slavonic period to the present. In identifying the specifically Byelorussian linguistic territory, Wexler follows Shevelov in dividing East Slavonic into two dialect areas: Polack-Ryazan' and Kiev- Palegsie, thereby avoiding the need to posit a united 'drevnerusskiy yazyk' for the purpose of historical phonology as V. V. Ivanov does in his

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