202ReviewsLa corónica 31.1, 2002 Rini,Joel. Exploring the Role of Morphology in the Evolution of Spanish . Amsterdam/Philadelphia:John Benjamins, 1999. Pp. xvi + 187. ISBN 1-55619-956-2 (US), ISBN 90-272-3685-2 (Europe). In his second book on Spanish historical linguistics, Rini takes on the ambitious task of proposing new solutions to old problems, something which has generally characterized his work. Here, his efforts are directed at finding new solutions to nine "unsolved mysteries of Spanish historical grammar " (xii), which are presented in Chapters 2-5 of this book. Chapter 2 deals with morphological change in (1) the retention of initial /o/ in dormir, morir, podrir vs. subir, cumplir, cubrir, (2) the tonic vowel in verbs such as Old Spanish ove to Modern Spanish hube, and (3) the intertonic vowel in verbs such as Old Spanish aperçebir to Modern Spanish apercibir. Chapter 3 presents three changes traditionally thought to be phonological, (4) /ee/ > /e/ in Old Spanish veer, (5) /ée/ > /éi/, as in Latin bovem > Old Spanish huee > Modern Spanish buey, and (6) the presence or absence of the final IAI in the vosotros and voseo imperatives, while Chapter 4 deals with a single topic also thought to be phonological, (7) the loss of the intervocalic /d/ in the vosotros endings. Finally, Chapter 5 deals with changes traditionally thought to be syntactic, (8) the -y of Spanish hay and (9) the origin of Spanish eres. Rini carefully states that only two of the essays on these nine topics (corresponding to numbers 5 and 8) have been published previously as Rini 1998a and Rini 1998b. Even though topic 7, specifically examples (1), (9) and (12) on pages 123, 127 and 129, is based on some material from Rini 1996, the precise topic of the loss of /d/ is dealt with here for the first time. In the same way, topic 4, which at first glance would appear to be similar to Rini 1991, in fact treats an entirely different aspect of /ee/. The book's greatest strengths are Rini's carefully argued and imaginative solutions to these problems based on morphological connections. He leaves almost no stone unturned in his critical evaluation of the possible explanations for these "problematic developments" (xi), including those of his own invention. Chapter 1 begins with a summary of previous works on Spanish morphology (1-9), which will appeal to one of Rini's targeted audiences, "students and specialists of Spanish historical grammar" (xiii). His other targeted audience, "students and specialists of general historical linguistics", must wait until the second part of the chapter to find mention of some of the excellent treatments of morphology in general historical linguistics, especially Hans Hock 1991. In this second section (9-28), Rini departs from La corónica 31.1 (Fall, 2002): 202-206 Reviews203 previous definitions by using "morphological change" rather than "analogy " to refer to "any change in the phonetic structure of any part of a word ... that cannot be accounted for in purely diachronic phonetic terms ... [by which] words that are semantical!}', syntactically, or already structurally ... similar become more similar to each other in form" (10). He then restricts the term "analogy" to one type of morphological change, i.e., "proportional analogy" or "four-part analogy", as in dog/dogs : cow/X = cows (12). I wonder, however, why four-part analogy should receive a special term at all, since it is simply a formulation of a model by which another form changes, and such a model is the basis for all morphological change. The example above, rather than being represented as a proportion, could simply be written as "add -s to the stem". All the other subtypes of morphological change Rini identifies could be represented in this way as well. Rini himself points out that backformation is a type of four-part analogy in which a new base form is created as in "operation/operate : orientation/X = orientate (replacing 'orient')" (25). Even though Rini rejects the possibility that leveling within a verb paradigm can be represented through four-part analogy (14), he clearly accepts that extra-paradigmatic leveling can be shown in this way (136). I propose that extra-paradigmatic...
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Jun 23, 2021
Dmitry V Alekseev 
Open Access
