This volume contains 14 articles which approach word classes and their categorial manifestations from the viewpoint of typology and language universal research as well as from diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives. In the preface, the editors do an excellent job of summarising the position papers. Moreover, they provide very helpful indexes (index of authors, index of languages and index of subjects). The articles are organised in two parts. The first 8 articles deal with word class categorisation in general and the 6 articles in the second part deal with word class systems in individual languages. Certain topics are discussed in both parts of the volume. At some points, overlapping data is provided by different authors. Particularly controversial is the universality of the noun verb distinction which some of the authors deny (Bhat: Mundari, Vogel: Tongan) but others defend (Mithun: Iroquian, Vonen: Polynesian). Related to that topic is the question how Indoeuropean languages differ from other languages. Are their part-of-speech systems indeed essentially different or incomparable (Gil, Vogel, Broschart) or are there more similarities which have been neglected (Croft, Mithun, Vonen)? It is first and foremost the controversial treatment of such fundamental topics which makes this volume exciting to read. Moreover, other topics connect both parts of the volume. For instance, numeral classifiers are discussed by Rijkhoff and Sackmann, each oft them proposing a different account on noun classification. Grammaticalisation of part-of-speech systems (Vogel) in general and grammaticalisation of minor parts-of-speech are discussed in detail (Abraham: modal particles in German).In the theoretical part, several authors are concerned with Hengeveld's (1992) influential approach on parts-of speech-systems, either adopting it as a basic means for categorisation of parts-of-speech (Rijkhoff), extending it (Anward), combining it with a model of grammaticalisation (Vogel) or criticising it (Croft). Some of the authors present recent progress in their own theoretical work, as e.g. Croft (Radical Construction Grammar), Gil, and Wierzbicka (Natural Semantic Metalanguage). These theories have in common
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