Catching language: the standing challenge of grammar writing (original) (raw)

The book Catching language: The standing challenge of grammar writing fills a significant gap in the literature on all aspects of grammar writing. As Mosel's contribution points out, grammar writing is not a formal discipline; there are no courses taught on how to write a grammar and, at the time of publication, I am not aware of any textbooks on the topic, although a special issue of Studies in Language (Payne and Weber 2006) makes a useful companion to this volume. This book represents an enormous amount of expertise on all areas of grammar writing, and provides a substantial foray into grammar writing as a topic of enquiry. The book is roughly divided into two parts. The first treats theoretical aspects of grammar writing, including discussion of whether, how, and to what extent theoretical concerns drive and shape grammar writing, treating the philosophy of grammar writing, i.e., the underlying frameworks for thinking about how grammars can and ought to be structured. The second part largely contains exemplification of various themes, mainly using grammatical description to highlight various theoretically motivated topics. The authors in this volume are an all-star cast of those engaged in writing grammars, those engaged in using grammars, and those interested in all aspects concerning grammars and how they are or should be written. The first half of the book is concerned with setting the agenda, and many of the papers provide desiderata of what should be included in a grammar (Ameka, Enfield, Cristofaro, Dryer, Rice), and how the information should be presented (Mosel, Zaefferer, Mel'čuk, Cristofaro). Mosel's chapter, "Grammaticography: The art and craft of grammar writing," discusses the tradition of grammar writing as it is practiced. The bulk of the chapter discusses the important distinction between semasiological and onomasiological approaches, a distinction that is taken up in many of the later chapters of this book. A semasiological approach takes form as its starting point, discussing the meanings expressed by certain forms. An onomasiological approach takes function as central, and describes the ways in which particular meanings are expressed. Many grammars are organized along semasiological principles, taking forms from the language to be described and discussing their meanings. However a strict application of the semasiological approach means certain functional domains, e.g., negation, or orientation in space and time, to name just two of Mosel's examples, can end up scattered all over the grammar rather than in one functionally-motivated discussion. Typically grammar writers use a mixture of both approaches. Many of the difficult issues in grammar writing that Mosel discusses emerge from the fact that in a book, information must be presented in a linear order. However, while linear order is important for the writer of a grammar, it is much less important for the reader. As Mosel mentions, most users of a grammar do not read a whole single-book grammar from