Transitivity-Based Foregrounding in the Acts of the Apostles: A Functional-Grammatical Approach to the Lukan Perspective, by Gustavo Martin-Asensio. JSNTSup 202. Studies in New Testament Greek 8. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000, Pp. 198. $59.00. This study, the published form of a doctoral thesis written under the direction of Stanley Porter at the University of Surrey Roehampton, should be of particular interest to practitioners of narrative analysis, rhetorical criticism, and Greek language and linguistic methods. This study is not, however, method looking for an opportunity. It should also be of great interest to students of Acts, because the method used is in service to the question of the major themes) of Acts and of the agenda of its author. The approach to this central question is to examine foregrounding in the text of Acts. MartinAsensio states in his conclusion that his intention at the outset was to examine a cluster of foregrounding devices, but his analysis revealed that transitivity-based foregrounding-foregrounding based on choices reflected in the narrative regarding processes and participants-have a particularly powerful effect on one's perception of the author's purposes. In the introduction, he develops the notion of transitivity in relation to Vladimir Propp's insights regarding actants and their functions in narrative and states his intention to develop these insights using the tools of M. A. K. Halliday's systemic functional grammar, making a case for a theoretical approach to linguistic description. In ch. 1, Martin-Asensio makes the case for using Halliday's theoretical approach to linguistic description. He does this by demonstrating that Halliday's approach is successful at goals that rhetorical criticism has set but not achieved. If rhetoric is the practice of using language effectively to accomplish one's purposes, then an approach that studies how texts function in social context is a fitting heir to rhetorical criticism. MartinAsensio provides an overview of features of Halliday's theory that make it particularly attractive for his purposes, namely, its focus on structure as the realization of purposeful choices, its focus on texts as the basic unit of language, its aim to expose and exploit links between text and context, and its functional view of the clause. Halliday's functional grammar is used to analyze the text of Acts for the marking of degrees of saliency of participants by which the narrator aims to effect the desired responses) in the reader. Chapter 2 defines the textual feature of foregrounding within the context of Halliday's theory and applies textual analysis with this focus in a case study of the shipwreck narrative of Acts 27. Foregrounding is defined as linguistic prominence in a text that is consistent and motivated. Martin-Asensio argues that foregrounded transitivity patterns are more revealing in this text than foregrounded events based on patterns of aspect usage or foregrounding based on the ordering of clause constituents. He uses an analysis of ergativity to provide an objective test of theories as to the literary purpose of this text. Contrary to the expectation that major characters in a narrative are agents of actions that succeed, Paul's escort and the ship's crew are agents of actions that fail, whereas Paul and his companions are predominantly recipients of actions rather than agents. MartinAsensio concludes that the story is artfully shaped to communicate the providence of God succeeding against opposition. Chapters 3 through 5 extend the case study of ch. 2 to other key episodes in Acts with an aim of giving a linguistic account of the compositional and rhetorical aims of the author. Chapter 3 is an examination of the Stephen episode in Acts 6-7. Chapter 4 analyzes the mission speech in Acts 13:16-25, comparing how this second survey of Israel's history in Acts compares to the first in Acts 7:2-53. Chapter 5 interprets the episode of Paul's arrest and defense in Acts 21-22. …