BOOK NOTICES Wortarten und Wortartenwechsel: Zu Konversion und verwandten Erscheinungen im Deutschen und in anderen Sprachen. By Petra Maria Vogel. (Studia lingüistica Germanica, 39.) Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996. Pp. x, 311. This important book is a slightly modified version of Vogel's doctoral dissertation defended in 1994 at the University of Erlangen-Niirnberg. The problem of 'parts of speech' or word classes, as well as the interpretation of multiple class membership and functional shift (i.e. conversion), has never ceased to be a much-discussed topic for philosophers and linguists (cf. vols. 1-2 (1997) ofLinguistic Typology for the recent literature). The general orientation of the book is theoretical. Its illustrative examples come from English, German, Chinese, Russian, and, less frequently, from more than 30 other languages. As the author's approach is nonpartisan, the reader is able to benefit from ideas coming from sources which represent a variety of frameworks. After the introductory chapter (1-5), Ch. 2, 'Spurensuche ' (6-98), is divided into three sections: a 40page historical overview ofprevious English, French, German, and Russian studies dealing with derivationally unmarked word class shift (i.e. zero derivation ) and two sections interpreting theoretical concepts such as motivation, arbitrariness, iconicity, naturalness, markedness, and several others and clarifying how these notions relate to the subject of the book. Ch. 3, 'Wortarten und Wortartenkonzeptionen' (99-223), contains Vs principal contribution to the theory of parts of speech. As her discussion covers only content word classes (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives , and adverbs, but none of the so-called syncategorematic types), some explanation of the reasons for doing so would have been helpful to the reader. Ch. 4, 'Wortartenkonzeptionen und Wortartenwechsel ' (224-70), elaborates on zero derivation, syntactic recategorization, conversion, and, perhaps most importantly, on the concept of multifunctionality . It is suggested that in a certain language type (represented by Chinese) lexical items may have multiple class membership. Inherent multifunctionality , I would add, seems quite plausible in different language types, as well (cf. the case of English 'round'). Vs book is well-organized, and it is written in a clear German style which also considers nonnative audiences. Her work has very few weak points although some readers (including one reviewer) would have liked to learn more about certain specific problems , such as grammaticalization and syncategorematic word classes. The book concludes with a name index, a subject index, and a bibliography section (275-98) which provides readers with an especially extensive coverage of the German publications. [László Cseresnyési, Shikoku Gakuin University.] The rulings ofthe night: An ethnography of Nepalese shaman oral texts. By Gregory G. Maskarinec. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Pp. 276. Cloth $65.50, paper $22.95. Like its title, this book is intriguing, among the most compelling studies of shamanism I have read. Though daunting to the general reader, it has much to offer the specialist. Those planning to publish on shamanism should not miss it. Rulings will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, Asian studies, comparative religion, folklore, linguistics, myth, and oral-formulaic literature. Peripherally, philosophers and postmodernists can find nuts to crack in Maskarinec 's provocative book, too, which mentions 'Blakean epiphanies' (234) while alluding to Borges, Kundera, and Pynchon alongside Foucault and Lacan. Relentlessly, M engages the anthropologists, from pioneers like Malinowksi and Shirokogoroff through the synthesist Eliade and the structuralist LéviStrauss to current writers like Grève, Höfer, HuItkrantz , and Stone. Twice he disproves Eliadean generalizations (113-15, 195). But his theoretical base extends far beyond ethnomethodologies. He assimilates the ideas ofHegel, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Rousseau , Wittgenstein, and other philosophers. Aristotle and Parmenides appear. And, in a passage culminating in the apt oxymoron 'literal metaphor', M addresses Platonic hascceity, concluding 'that shamans deny this fundamental principle of Western metaphysics ' (191). He shows how we must escape ethnocentricities to fathom non-Western folkways. Having attained empathy—having immersed himself in Nepalese culture and learned more mantars than thejhangaris themselves (236)—M jettisons Aristotelean assumptions (191-92): 'Shamans use language to constitute reality, not to denote or imitate it. Shamanic language is not a mirror of the world but a set of technical devices to give form to a new...
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Jul 31, 2001
Dennis Shields 
Open Access