Grammatical Usage Research Articles

ORIGINS OF FUNCTIONAL TRANSPOSITION WITHIN THE CATEGORY OF TIME AND SPACE PREPOSITIONS: LEXICALIZATION AND GRAMMATICALIZATION

This paper is an attempt to reanalyze the established order within the category of parts of speech, in particular prepositions and adverbs, as the units from these categories are characterized by the highest level of functional transposition in the language. We argue that overlapping of the categories was caused by the inclination of the Old English grammarians to take over main grammatical rules and exceptions, class division, definitions etc. from the Latin language. At the same time, grammatical phenomena existing in Old English were ignored or fitted to the already adopted Latin definitions and rules. That led to confusions, misunderstandings and overlapping in the grammatical system of Old English. The paper addresses the processes of lexicalization and grammaticalization which, according to our hypothesis, are observed within the category of prepositions in Old English and predetermined subsequent functional transposition. The analysis explains the phenomenon of functional transposition of the units which are simultaneously ascribed to several categories, e.g. prepositions, adverbs, particles etc. The class of space and time prepositions has undergone lexical and grammatical transformations which were consequently institutionalized in the language and the units became subjects to functional-semantic and functional-grammatical transposition the results of which are observed in present-day English. The former process resulted in transposition of the meaning, sometimes metaphorical, and further functioning of these units as adverbs, particles etc.; whereas the latter led to purely grammatical usage of the units, for instance substitution of the category of cases in English, uprise of new grammatical prefixes, loss of rigidness in word order.

ZAINTERESOWANIA JĘZYKOZNAWCZE ZYGMUNTA KRASIŃSKIEGO

Zygmunt Krasiński devoted much if his attention to the “philosophical” essence of the language and the origins of various tongues. His conjectures, based on speculative and mystic philosophy, are of no scientific importance; rather, they reflect the author’s strong attachment to religion. While not original, his views on the role of a mother tongue in preserving national identity are correct. The writer was interested in spelling and correct grammatical usage of the Polish language. He also focused on assessing the style of texts written in Polish and French. His views were hardly innovative, offering some value in comparison with the 19th century theory of style. Other language-related mentions: the sophistication of Juliusz Słowacki’s language and proposals of baby names based on “inspired” etymological ideas, are inconsequential.

Семантическое поле падения в трех родственных новоиндийских языках: хинди-урду, панджаби и гуджарати

The paper defi nes cognitively relevant aspects of falling situations that obtain their specifi c lexical coding in three Western Indo-Aryan languages: Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi and Gujarati. The study employs the methodology proposed by the Moscow Lexical Typology Group implying description and comparison of lexical items through their combinability properties. This method demands resorting to a number of sources and tools: dictionaries, fi ction, on-line resources and specially designed questionnaires used in fi eldwork. The paper reveals the main parameters and frames that govern the lexical choice in the domain of falling in Western NIA. The dominant lexemes of the domain — h.-u. girnā, p. ḍignā, g. paṛvuⁿ — cover the largest share of all relevant frames. Meanwhile certain situations of falling can lie within the scope of both the dominant lexeme and a lexeme with more specifi c semantics, e.g. homophonic cognates: h.-u. ṭapaknā, p. ṭapakṇā, g. ṭapakvuⁿ ‘to drip, to knock’ describing falling of rape fruits. There are also contexts where the usage of the dominant lexeme is prohibited; in these cases, using a specialized word is the only way to lexicalize the situation (e.g. falling of precipitations in Punjabi). Special attention is paid to metaphorical shifts — both shared by Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi and Gujarati and attested only in one or two languages. It is shown that the cognates h.-u. paṛṇā, p. paiṇā, g. paṛvuⁿ develop the most extensive sets of fi gurative meanings. Besides metaphorical shifts, the verbs h.-u. paṛṇā, p. paiṇā,g. paṛvuⁿ undergo grammaticalization processes and acquire inceptive, resultative and some other grammatical usages. Presumably, the verbs paṛṇā and paiṇā occupied diachronically the dominant position in the fi eld of falling, in Hindi-Urdu a

التوظیف النحویُّ و الدلالیُّ للَّام (الجارّة) و معانیها فی صحیح البخاریّ دراسة و تحلیل

ملخص التوظيف النحوي و الدلالي للام (الجارة) و معانيها في صحيح البخاري دراسة و تحليل إن أحاديث الرسول - صلى الله عليه وسلم– مصدر مهم للدراسات النحوية ينبغي أن توضع في مکانها المناسب من حيث الاستشهاد بها في القضايا النحوية بعد کلام الله عز وجل، وقد أعد هذا البحث لتناول اللام الجارة من حيث البعد النحوي والبعد الدلالي؛ لأن اللفظ لا ينفک عن المعنى، وأتبع فيه المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، واحتوى على توضيح معاني اللام الجارة ودلالاتها المتمثلة في: (الاستحقاق, الاختصاص, التعليل, الملک, التمليک, شبه التمليک, لام الجحود, التبليغ, والتعجب، والقسم, والتوکيد, والتعدية, ومن أجل, والفارقة. کما بين تأدية اللام معنى حرف من حروف الجر, التي هي: ( إلى ), ( عن) , (عند) , (بعد), (من), (مع), (الباء), (على), (کي) وأثبت أن لاما (کي) و(الجحود) من عوامل الأسماء ومن أقسام اللام الجارة, واستند البحث على شواهد من الحديث النبوي الشريف إثراء له. الکلمات المفتاحية: الاستعمال النحوي – البعد الدلالي – اللام الجارة – صحيح البخاري. دکتورة حامدة أحمد عثمان أستاذ النحو والصرف المساعد ـ قسم اللغة العربية کلية العلوم والآداب بمحايل عسير ـ جامعة الملک خالد Email : haaothman@kku.edu.sa Abstract Grammar and Semantic Employment of Mother (Neighbor) And its meanings in Sahih Bukhari The hadith of the Prophet (peace and be upon him) is an important source of grammatical studies that should be put in his proper place in terms of inference in grammatical issues after Quran and Sunnah. The evidence in Quran That you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them and that they might give thought.This study deals with the grammatical and semantic levels, and clarified the meanings of the LAM JARA and its semantics. The study also showed the performance of the LAM meaning of a preposition, which are: (to), (about), (at), (after), (from), (with) , (B), (on), (Ki) and proved that Lama (Ki) and (ingratitude) of the factors of the names and sections of the LAM JARA, and this study was based on evidence from the Hadith. Key words: grammatical usage - semantic dimension - neighbor neighbor - Sahih al - Bukhari. Dr. Hamda Ahmed Othman Assistant Professor of Arabic Grammar and Morphology College of Arts and Sciences, Muhayil Assir, King Khalid University Email : haaothman@kku.edu.sa

Variation and change in a specialized register

AbstractCorpus-based studies of specialized registers typically sample texts using random methods as far as possible, but they disregard social characteristics of the speakers/writers. In contrast, in corpus-based studies of conversation and quantitative sociolinguistic studies, sampling is more typically designed to optimize social representation. To our knowledge, this study is the first to compare linguistic outcomes from random versus sociolinguistic sampling in a specialized register. Our data comes from the biographical radio chat show,Desert Island Discs(DID), at different points in time. We constructed two versions of aDIDcorpus: a sociolinguistic judgment sample based on guest demographics, and a random sample. We compare grammatical usage between them using an inductive (‘key POS-tags’) method and close manual analysis, uncovering some evidence of significant grammatical differences between the samples and differing patterns of diachronic change. We discuss the implications of our research for corpus design, representativeness and analysis in specialized registers.

An Investigation of the Marked Parallel Structure in Alice Munro’s “Amundsen”

Parallel structure is one linguistic feature implemented to bring aesthetics to the delivery of the English language. Traditional grammar and writing classes usually emphasize that parallelism must be observed when the language is used. In literature, as well as in real-life usage, however, parallelism is often flaunted to effect various purposes, a fact that is generally overlooked in grammar classrooms. In the present study, the concept of linguistic markedness is applied to the investigation of the parallel structure in Alice Munro’s short story “Amundsen” in order to explore the pragmatic usage of parallelism, as opposed to the grammatical usage listed in general commercial grammar textbooks and to answer the research question: How and for what purposes is parallel structure flaunted in Alice Munro’s short story “Amundsen”? The investigation of the marked parallel structure in Alice Munro’s short story “Amundsen” shows that approximately one out of four instances of parallel structure is flaunted to effect emphasis, exaggeration, elaboration and evaluation, which affirms that parallelism is routinely observed as well as purposefully flaunted to bring about linguistic flavours that reflect hands-on usage of the language.

Radical reform, inevitable debts

Summary In a letter to his friend Joan Serra, Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457) shows his contempt for medieval grammars, describing Alexander de Villa-Dei, Evrard de Béthune, Giovanni Balbi, and others as faex hominum. Many traces of Valla’s polemics against medieval authors are woven into his linguistic works, in primis in his Elegantie lingue latine. The Elegantie represent a monumental attempt to restore Latin to its original splendour after the so-called barbarities of the Middle Ages. Starting from its structure, this work adopts a completely different form compared with the systematic grammatical syntheses of the previous period. It functions as a series of thematic chapters united in the goal of denouncing earlier grammatical, lexical, syntactic, and interpretive usage and decisions. The chapters are built entirely on an expertly assembled collection of quotations. For Valla, only through consulting the best authors can a scholar reach the latine loqui. In practical terms, however, is Valla truly able to reach this goal and break from the medieval tradition? Beginning with this question, this paper focuses on Valla’s linguistic works, showing both their innovative and traditional facets. The most significant changes Valla proposes in his linguistic analysis – often presented by the author as a strong attack on medieval grammarians – are illustrated. Also, the paper clarifies the humanist’s inevitable debt to the tradition he scorns, particularly evident when considering his use of grammatical terminology.

Patterns of Interactions in a Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Collaborative Activity in the Saudi EFL Context

<p><em>This study explored patterns of interaction in a synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) collaborative activity in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting in the Saudi Arabian context. The study focused on the use of synchronous Chat in teaching and learning. Collaborative learning is considered to lead to a deeper level of learning, enhanced critical thinking, shared understanding and long-term recognition of the learned material.</em><em> A qualitative approach was used in the data collection process. </em><em>Participants were 20 high school students, native speakers of Arabic, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study examined participants’ English usage in conversation, a quiz, and a discussion, all of which took place online, in a CMC format. There was also a paired work presentation of 25 minutes’ duration. Results revealed that CMC enabled learners to further their understanding of instructional content and to better apply what they had learned when they were placed in a group. The results from the online discussion showed that participants’ linguistic performance improved, including better utilization of words. Although grammatical usages lack certain accuracy, the use of CMC to a larger extent contributed to enhanced communication skills and autonomy. </em><em>Based on the findings some suggestions and recommendations were provided</em><em> as to aid teachers as well as students in implementing the Internet technology in EFL classrooms.</em><em></em></p>

A Morphologic Contrast on Korean and Chinese Third-Person Pronouns

The purpose of this paper is to contrast the morphologic characteristics of Korean and Chinese third-person pronouns, and then to consider the similarities and differentiae of them through the perspectives of contrastive linguistics. Before the contrast, we made the analysis of preceding researches, and made them can be the contrasted objects by systemizing the analysis of preceding researches. After that, we analyzed their morphologic features through analyzing many example sentences. In addition, the contrastive analysis of them was made to identify the similarities and differentiae of their usages. From the morphologic viewpoints, whether the modification occurs or not was the point; from the syntactic viewpoints, the components of sentence and the grammatical usages were the main points. When the meaning of respecting turns up, Korean third-person pronouns have modifications, and Chinese third-person pronouns can achieve it through the change of syntactic structure.

Das erloschene Slawentum des Obermaingebietes und sein vorchristlicher Opferbrauch (<em>trebo</em>) im Spiegel eines mutmaßlich würzburgischen Synodalbeschlusses aus dem 10. Jahrhundert<br>Ugaslo slovanstvo ob gorenji Maini in njegovo predkrščansko žrtvovanje (<em>trebo</em>) v luči domnevno würzburškega sinodalnega sklepa iz 10. stoletja</br>

The Old Slavic term trěba (sacrifice) has hardly survived Christianization. Presumably the oldest report about this ritual dates from 785 and appears as the Wurzburg Synodal Resolution from the 10th century. The resolution speaks about the draconic measures against church heretics, all of whom were strangely of non-Frankish origin. Slavic and German imperial subjects are treated equally, and Slavs have their own judicial community. Their religion is syncretistic and the degree of their Christianization unclear. A strong resistance against the Church was evident. Trebo (sic), the ritual feast, was one of the forbidden returns to “paganism.” Analyzed are grammatical usages of the terms idolatria, idolothytum, and paganismus, and a new insight into the prehistory of the Bamberg diocese is given.

“Not a Choice between but Of”: Revisiting Stevens’ Other Major Grammatical Operator

“Not a Choice between but Of”:Revisiting Stevens’ Other Major Grammatical Operator Edward Alexander AS A CRITICAL PROJECT motivated by an inherently Stevensian impulse, Charles Altieri’s Wallace Stevens and the Demands of Modernity offers at least two significant contributions to Stevens’ critical reception. Drawing insights from the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Altieri’s first move is to develop a non-epistemic model of value that reorients the discourse on Stevens away from the real/fictive binary that has tended to preoccupy critics toward a fact/value emphasis, thus allowing his treatments of Stevens to focus on the uniqueness of his formal qualities without being beholden to either New Critical-style claims for truth-value or to deconstructive skepticism. In Altieri’s view, Stevens’ conception of the imagination deals less with what the world is than with how it is; the ways that qualities of experience take on vividness in relation to the mind become more relevant than what we can know about those qualities. Drawing on the philosophical grammar of Wittgenstein, Altieri develops a focus on elementary grammatical functions as the primary building blocks of imaginative activity, thus allowing one to bracket larger metaphysical claims for the imagination while still providing a conceptual arena within which to view its distinctive operation. At stake for Altieri, a stake he inherits from Stevens, is the possibility of shoring up a place for human agency without necessarily challenging the kind of naturalistic worldview advanced by the sciences. Perhaps as a consequence of the kind of philosophical heft Altieri wants to claim for Stevens’ poetics, this project remains haunted by certain pressures of reality that constantly threaten to reify or undo the sense of agency Altieri hopes to claim for the Stevensian imagination. Taken as a philosophical stance, Altieri’s reading of Stevens’ conception of the imagination is situated on a razor’s edge between the equally unsatisfactory accounts of consciousness we might call the Scylla of constitutive subjectivity and the Charybdis of empiricism. The tenacity of the question of agency appears both in Stevens’ oeuvre and in Altieri’s masterful readings as a persistent, animating ambiguity within the characterization of imaginative capacity between the mutually exclusive activities of making and finding. [End Page 65] This ambiguity is more a matter of latent emphasis than anything explicitly formulated by Altieri. It appears within Altieri’s text primarily through the ways in which claims are weighted rhetorically toward particular ways of framing how the Stevensian subject is positioned, or positions itself, in relation to an experienced world. For example, Altieri writes, “the values attendant on these conditions of experience need not be considered as somehow constructs composed by the mind. Instead, the values seem inseparable from the kinds of care and attention that poetry brings to that actual world” (41). Yet he advances a more direct claim for the constructive agency of the poetical subject shortly thereafter, when he notes that Stevens’ grammatical usages stage “equivalences that mark the activity of the subject in the formulation of the object” (42). Here we see the necessity of the intricate evasions of as. The aspects of experience that Altieri points to as concrete presentations of imaginative activity within Stevens’ poems give us that experience in value-laden form, as invested with the mind’s contributions, at which point the question arises of how to characterize the precise manner in which such value came to invest the experience. If a predominant focus on making emphasizes imagination’s production of value, one must either postulate a transcendental basis for this operation in subjective faculties, or allow that such a production merely amounts to a kind of fantasmatic projection onto the real. If the emphasis on imagination as what Altieri calls a “means of habitation” (45) frames value as purely found or discovered, on the other hand, its products can ultimately be traced back to the impingement of the real on a passive subject, however circuitously construed. Before attempting to explore whether Stevens’ work itself provides a way out of such a binary, I think it is important to consider why the question matters and how it arises as a necessary consequence of the kind of intellectual work Altieri...

Investigating the Gap between L2 Grammar Textbooks and Authentic Speech: Corpus-Based Comparisons of Reported Speech

Corpus Linguistics (CL) has made significant inroads into the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy. As more corpora have become available, researchers and teachers alike have begun to realize the importance of empirically testing ideas that have long been taken for granted and accepted as fact. This is especially true for grammar textbooks written for second language (L2) learners. Do the textbooks that are being used reflect real world grammatical usage? The current study is the first of two in which three corpora were used to examine real world usage of reported speech (RS) as compared to typical presentations of RS in popular L2 grammar U.S. textbooks as they existed in and up to the year 2007. Results show that indirect reported speech (IRS), direct reported speech (DRS) and alternative forms of RS constructions in combination are not only frequent in spoken English but also dependent on register and context. Further, simplifying RS explanations in terms of backshifing with the use of a past tense main reporting verb may be providing inaccurate information to L2 learners of American English. Results generally support, with some exceptions, the findings in previous studies which employed corpus-based analysis to study the relevance of EFL/ESL textbooks (Al-Wossabi, 2014; Barbieri & Eckhardt, 2007; Khojasteh &Shakrpour, 2014; Šegedin, 2008). A forthcoming study will examine new corpora and revised textbooks to measure the degree of change that has occurred since 2007, thereby seeking to replicate the results of a more general review on the same topic done by Khojasteh and Shakrpour (2014).

Grammatical production deficits in PPA: Relating narrative and structured task performance

Grammatical production deficits in PPA: Relating narrative and structured task performance

Understanding Chinese children's complex writing: Global ratings and lower-level mechanical errors

In the present study, we compared models of overall writing quality, in addition to differences in grammatical usage in this writing, between children from Beijing and Hong Kong societies. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) resulted in a five-element scoring system used to tap overall writing quality in the Beijing sample. In addition, Beijing and Hong Kong children showed certain differences in mechanical errors in their writings. For example, Beijing children exhibited fewer errors in word order and misnomers than did Hong Kong children, but Hong Kong children performed better in punctuation usage than Beijing children. Overall, the present study highlighted some patterns in overall writing quality and also common mechanical errors in Chinese writing among Chinese children.

Explicating some prepositional usages in Cameroon English

This study investigates a number of non-interference sources of some Cameroon English (CamE) prepositional usages. It is based on the observation that the investigation of causes or sources of post-colonial Englishisms (peculiarities of newer varieties of English spoken in former English and American colonies) has so far favoured the interference factor. More clearly, post-colonial English (PCE) specificities have generally been attributed to the influence of the speakers' other tongues on their (English) production (see, for example, Platt et al., 1984; Mbangwana, 1989; Bokamba, 1992; Gramley & Pätzold, 1992; Asante, 1995). Although the interference factor is indeed easily perceptible in CamE, it is interesting to note that other factors might have played a major role in the emergence of English in Cameroon. In reality, there are several non-contrastive causes that could underlie some grammatical constructions of PCE in general and CamE in particular. Many such causes are being studied, especially at the phonological level. However, few studies have been devoted to the non-interference sources of CamE grammatical usages in general and preposition use in particular. This paper will thus examine how CamE speakers use prepositions to express direction and location. From the analysis, non-interference sources of a good number of CamE specificities such as the colonial factor, logicalization, analogy and tacit national norm seem to be some of the autonomous routes unconsciously used by CamE speakers to yield a variety of English that markedly differs from the standardized varieties of British English (StE), officially the target of national education.

The Grammatical Multi-Functions and Usages of ‘Mankeum’-Focusing on the Usages of ‘Adnominal Endings+Mankeum’

The Grammatical Multi-Functions and Usages of ‘Mankeum’-Focusing on the Usages of ‘Adnominal Endings+Mankeum’

Topographies of Anticolonialism: The Ecopoetical Sublime in the Caucasus from Tolstoy to Mamakaev

Topographies of Anticolonialism: The Ecopoetical Sublime in the Caucasus from Tolstoy to Mamakaev

Shifting voices, shifting worlds

This paper examines evidentiality and epistemic modality in Quechua narrative discourse from the central highlands of Peru. Huamalíes Quechua falls into the broad Quechua ‘I’ dialect grouping established by Alfredo Torero (1964); evidential usage here can be compared to that of southern Conchucos Quechua as studied by Diane and Daniel Hintz (2007; 2006) while it differs in interesting ways from the Quechua ‘II’ dialects of southern Peru as studied by Faller (2002; 2006). The analysis focuses on an orally performed traditional narrative that deals with the theme of social interaction between a human protagonist and a spirit being of the ‘other world’. It describes the human protagonist’s gradual realization of the nature of the spirit being with whom he has become involved; evidential and epistemic markings grammatically structure this transition from conjecture, to supposition, to direct witness. The aim is to show how the story’s cultural content, and the way in which evidentials and epistemic modality are operationalized, are mutually entailing. Form and content taken together throw light both on how evidentiality and epistemic modality work in social interaction and on how Amerindian understandings of the interface between the ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ worlds, and between ‘humans’ and ‘non-humans’, inform grammatical usage.

Discontinuous constituents or independent constructions?

In many formal theories of grammar, pairs of expressions such as the active and the passive are treated as variants of each other — the passive typically being a secondary construction derived from the active by operations that change the syntactic structure. Recent accounts based on Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar have questioned the validity of such an analysis, arguing that these “variants” are actually independent constructions with their own usage conditions and meaning. An important piece of evidence comes from so-called split constituents, discussed by Croft (2001: 191), who argues that expressions like A guy who I hadn’t seen since high school came in vs. A guy came in who I hadn’t seen since high school differ in their grammatical structure and usage. In this paper we discuss the Finnish split genitive construction where the assumed genitive modifier is separated from its head by intervening material, typically the finite verb. In many respects, the split genitive resembles constructions of external possession, but its range of usage is relatively limited, and in the grammatical system of Finnish it can be seen in an intermediate position between adnominal genitive constructions, on the one hand, and productive external possessor constructions based on local cases, on the other hand. Traditionally, the split genitive has been taken to be a discontinuous variant of a contiguous NP where the genitive is positioned next to its head. However, this study shows that the two constructions differ in pragmatic, semantic and grammatical terms. The split genitive construction is more limited in its usage, and it serves more specific semantic functions such as the topicalization of the genitive-marked element that carries the role of an experiencer. As in many external possessor constructions cross-linguistically, these constraints restrict the types of genitive modifiers that are available in the split genitive construction.

El médico de su honra (review)

Calderon de la Barca, Pedro. El medico de su honra. Ed. Donald McGrady. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2007. 291 pp.In an informai poll asking colleagues to name the comedia they most enjoy teaching, the title that came up consistently and enthusiastically was Calderon de la Barca's El medico de su honra. This complex and controversial work continues to hold tremendous sway over students- both graduate and undergraduateand scholars, to judge from the articles and editions that continue to appear with some regularity. The edition by Donald McGrady, reviewed here, is one of the most thorough and student-friendly of the many already available, including D. W. Cruickshank's 1981 edition, the bilingual edition by Dian Fox and Donald Hindley (2007), and the Edicion Critica by Ana Armendariz Aramendia (2007).Once one gets beyond the generic cover with its incongruous Romantic landscape, McGrady's is indeed an attractive edition. The text is nicely laid out and easy to read, and the notes appear after the text of the play rather than as footnotes, so as to not clutter the page and distract from the pleasure of reading. The unencumbered layout of the text helps to bring certain scenes and passages into sharper focus. The notes themselves are extensive, even exhaustive, explaining everything from idioms to grammatical usage to cultural allusions. One could argue that certain terms do not, in fact, need to be explained. It is hard to imagine a reader who would not understand that frivolo means vano, or that en mi vida means nunca. Nevertheless, undergraduates should benefit from the meticulous clarifications. There are, in fact, two sets of annotations, and Notas suplementarias, the latter consisting of more in-depth commentary, including references to critical articles. There are also two separate bibliographies, one on the scholarship of the play and the other referencing the works cited in the notes. While this duplication attests to the editor's thoroughness, the effect is somewhat redundant, since many works appear in both.The introduction includes a general account of the date of composition, a helpful description of the staging, and an examination of the sources for El medico, including the work by the same name that has been wrongly attributed to Lope (an appendix includes a summary of the plot of the earlier play). The longest part of the introduction is dedicated to tracing the critical fortunes of the play and to a discussion of the character and themes, and it is here that the introduction comes up short, in my opinion. Although the bibliography is comprehensive and up-to-date, the overview of critical approaches to the play seems limited and even dated. For one thing, McGrady completely ignores in his discussion some of the more interesting approaches to the play, including the feminist and political readings by critics such as Ruth El Saffar, Georgina Dopico Black, and Dian Fox. …