This essay reviews two books on the work of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu with a special focus on issues of language, education and literacy. The essay sketches out Bourdieu's main theoretical ideas with respect to language, and raises a number of issues on classroom language and academic discourse. Bourdieu's approach is considered…

Two recent books provide varied resources for exploring ethical issues in the social sciences. Reflection on ethical issues aims to sensitize scholars to a range of consequences of their research, and to scholars' responsibilities to their discipline, their colleagues, and the public. This review article assesses the utility of these texts (and of…

In the "Handbook of Research on New Literacies," editors Julie Coiro, Michele Knobel, Colin Lankshear, and Donald J. Leu have compiled a set of papers representing the most comprehensive discussion to date of research and theoretical perspectives in this emerging field. The editors selected authors who are making important forays into our…

This article presents an analysis and review of Ljiljana Progovac's "Negative and Positive Polarity: A Binding Approach" (1994). It concludes that by pushing a syntactic analysis of polarity to, if not beyond, its limits, Progovac has focused attention on the work that remains for any approach to polarity to resolve. Contains 59…

Reviews Peter Muhlhausler's book "Linguistic Ecology: Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Region." Discusses the linguistic diversity of the Pacific, the linguistic impact of colonialism in the Pacific, and the role of linguists in the evolving linguistic situation in the Pacific. (Author/VWL)

Reviews four recent books of current research in vocabulary acquisition: "Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon," (D. Singleton); "Assessing Vocabulary," (J. Read); "Vocabulary in Language Teaching" (N. Schmitt); "Learning Vocabulary in Another Language" (L.S.P. Nation). (Author/VWL)

Reviews Tesar and Smolensky's, "Learnability in Optimality Theory" (2000). Discusses the main tenets of the book as well as the different topics included in each chapter. (Author/VWL)

Reflections on Tobin's "Semiotics and Linguistics" and Shaumyan's "Semiotic Theory of Language" are offered. (23 references) (LB)

Monik Charette's "Condition on Phonological Government" is reviewed. It is the first book-length study written in the framework of Government Phonology (GP), a theory that makes a dramatic break with the classical generative approaches to phonology. (Contains 10 references.) (LB)

Reviews two guides on the Child Language Data Exchange (CHILDES) project, both of which provide tools for analyzing talk. (Author/VWL)

Reviews four books on speech research: (1) "The Speech Chain: The Physics and Biology of Spoken Language" (Peter B. Denes and Elliot N. Pinson); (2) "Speaking: From Intention to Articulation" (Willem J. M. Levelt); (3) "Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition" (Richard R. Day); and (4) "Speaking" (Martin Bygate). (eight…

Reviews two textbooks that introduce generative research on second language acquisition and evaluate existing proposals about the role of universal grammar. Comparison of the two texts provides an opportunity to examine conventions the field uses in representing itself to a novice readership. (Author/VWL)

Notes that the "Comparative Austronesian Dictionary" (CAD) is one of a series of comparative dictionaries planned to cover the major world language families. The CAD provides detailed information on 80 languages and additional data on the history of the Austronesian (AN) languages. Adds that the CAD gives reliable citations in a broad…

Provides a general overview of two books--"The Second Time Around: Minimalism and Second Language Acquisition" and "Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction--and shows how the respond to key issues in second language acquisition, including the process of second language acquisition, access to universal grammar, the role of…

Reviews Barbara J. King's detailed observations of free-ranging baboons in Amboseli, Kenya; these observations contain a mass of recent research and report studies of divergent theories in primatology and paleontology. King's studies supply direct evidence about primate behavior that conveys information and show how natural information transfer is…