Reviewed by: Sintaksa složene rečenice u savremenom srpskom jeziku ed. by Predrag Piper et al. Ljiljana Progovac Predrag Piper, Milivoj Alanović, Slobodan Pavlović, Ivana Antonić, Marina Nikolić, Dojčil Vojvodić, Ljudmila Popović, Sreto Tanasić, and Biljana Marić. Sintaksa složene rečenice u savremenom srpskom jeziku Edited by Predrag Piper. Novi Sad: Matica Srpska; Beograd: Institut za srpski jezik, SANU, 2018. 766 pp. ISBN 978-86-7946-231-2. This 766-page syntax of the complex sentence in Serbian is a feat of thoroughness and attention to detail. It shows deep insight into the structure of sentences and their combinations. It provides a wealth of lucidly presented and described data that amply illustrate each type of imaginable combination, not only with the authors' own examples, but primarily with carefully selected passages from literature, mostly fiction, by prominent writers, as well as from newspapers. The examples from these sources were so carefully selected for each phenomenon discussed that it must have taken the authors days upon days just to find and integrate them. But each author of each chapter took the time to do that, and the chapters are quite uniform in their data coverage and the level of detail that the book reads as almost written by a single author. I have to admit that I was initially terrified when this book that I agreed to review arrived at my door, with its 766 packed pages. But I quickly realized that what I held in my hand was a treasure, with every page rewarding me with rich, often unexpected data and insight. The authors consider the description and the analysis of each phenomenon from multiple angles. They offer evidence for their view, while leaving the door open for the reader to explore alternative views. They acknowledge the complexity of the choice in each case, and this is especially welcome in the case of ambivalent forms that straddle the boundaries of traditional classifications, such as conjunctions vs. subordinators, parataxis vs. hypotaxis, and adjuncts/adverbials vs. arguments/complements. The sheer volume and detail of the data provided is disarming, listing quite possibly every single conjunction and subordinator, and a myriad of ways in which they can be used, and then citing relevant examples form the literature to illustrate various subtle differences in usage and in nuances of meaning. The authors often appeal to diachronic considerations, which is why the book can also be of relevance to historical linguists, specifically those interested in the changes in meaning and usage of particular words and expressions in Serbian. [End Page 193] This is a descriptive grammar that does not make much use of modern theoretical frameworks, but it offers the modern theoretician of syntax a wealth of data that often surprises and poses good, potentially productive challenges for various theoretical postulates. One of the common threads is a characterization of syntactic combinations of clauses/sentences as paratactic or hypotactic, offering sharp insight into this overarching topic, with each particular phenomenon receiving careful attention, including various correlative constructions. The theoretical syntactician is provided with endless possibilities for new ideas and projects, and made aware of how much rich data is out there to tap into. The content of this book, while not theoretical, is neither dull nor naïve; the analyses are deep, and the insights inspiring. It is also commendable that the authors resisted a prescriptive approach. They show the Serbian language as it is naturally used, with all the rich possibilities and nuances, rather than as a desideratum of some prescriptively minded scholars. To take just one illustrative example, there is a discussion of the naturalness and special effect of starting a sentences with a conjunction, quoting many carefully selected examples from the best literature. Although in some chapters there are subtle recommendations as to which form is more natural in Serbian, this is based on naturalness of usage, i.e., on what ordinary speakers of Serbian perceive as more natural or common, rather than on some prescriptive ideal having to do with logic, or proscribed by some "higher" authority. Faced with some of the data presented in the book, I realized that many phenomena that sound marginal to me in English...
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Apr 1, 2020
