Fuzzy Grammar: A Reader (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Fuzzy grammar: A reader ed. by Bas Aarts, David Denison, Evelien Keizer, and Gergana Popova Kleanthes K. Grohmann Fuzzy grammar: A reader. Ed. by Bas Aarts, David Denison, Evelien Keizer, and Gergana Popova. (Oxford linguistics.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. ix, 526. ISBN 0199262578. $50. The stated aim of the editors of this ‘carefully selected [collection of] key texts’ is ‘to bring together a number of classical and recent writings from philosophy and linguistics in the areas of vagueness and fuzziness’ (1). In my opinion, this aim has been achieved wonderfully. The volume contains five parts, presented below in the order of their arrangement with a brief indication of the source for each contribution. The editors’ ‘Introduction: The nature of grammatical categories and their representation’ (1–28) lays out the motivation behind the collection and the different parts, and they summarize the main points of interest and/or contention and briefly sketch more recent approaches, offering their thoughts on future prospects as well. Part 1 offers some classical writings forming the ‘philosophical background’ of this collection. It contains excerpts from Aristotle’s ‘Categories’ (31–32; the original paragraphs 4b20, 4b22, 1006b28, 1008b31 of Metaphysics, 350 BC/1963 and 1971), Gottlob Frege’s ‘Concepts’ (33; an English translation of §56 from Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, vol. 2, 1903/1970), and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘Family resemblances’ (41–44; remarks 66–78 from Philosophical investigations, 1953/1968), as well as Bertrand Russell’s article ‘Vagueness’ (35–40; Australasian Journal of Philosophy and Psychology 1, 1923) and Rosanna Keefe’s chapter ‘The phenomena of vagueness’ (45–64; from her Theory of vagueness, 2000). Part 2, ‘Categories in cognition’, begins with William Labov’s article ‘The boundaries of words and their meanings’ (67–89; from the volume New ways of analyzing variation in English, 1973), followed by Eleanor Rosch’s ‘Principles of categorization’ (91–108; from the volume Cognition and categorization, 1978) and Ray Jackendoff’s ‘Categorization, fuzziness, and family resemblances’ (109–29; ch. 5 of his Semantics and cognition, 1983). The section ‘Discreteness’ (131–37; from his Foundations of cognitive grammar, vol. 1, 1987) by Ronald W. Langacker and George Lakoff’s ‘The importance of categorization’ (139–77; ch. 1 of his Women, fire and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind, 1987) round off this part. The broad topic categories in grammar makes up Part 3. Here we find Otto Jespersen’s ‘Parts of speech’ (181–90; ch. 4 of The philosophy of grammar, 1924) and David Crystal’s ‘English word classes’ (191–211; Lingua 17, 1967). John Lyons’s chapter offers ‘A notional approach to the parts of speech’ (213–23; §7.6 from his Introduction to theoretical linguistics, 1968), while John M. Anderson addresses ‘Syntactic categories and notional features’ (225–37; §2.1 from A notional theory of syntactic categories, 1997). The second half of this part contains Langacker’s ‘Bounded regions’ (239–45; §5.2 of the above-mentioned book), Paul J. Hopper and Sandra A. Thompson’s ‘The discourse basis for lexical categories in universal grammar’ (247–91; Language 60, 1984), and John Taylor’s ‘Grammatical categories’ (292–308; ch. 10 of his Linguistic categorization: Prototypes in linguistic theory, 1995). Part 4, ‘Gradience in grammar’, starts off with Dwight Bolinger’s chapter ‘Gradience’ (311–19; from his Generality, gradience, and the all-or-none, 1961) and Noam Chomsky’s ‘Degrees of grammaticalness’ (321–25; a section from his article in Word 17, 1961). These are followed by ‘Descriptive statement and serial relationship’ (327–39; Language 41, 1965) by Randolph Quirk, ‘On the analysis of linguistic vagueness’ (341–49; Travaux linguistique de Prague 2, 1966) by Jiří V. Neustupný, and ‘Nouniness’ (351–422; from the volume Three dimensions of linguistic research, 1973) by John Robert Ross. This part is complemented by ‘The coordination-subordination gradient’ (423–30; §§13.6–13.19 of Randolph Q...