Reviews

Abstract

Reviewed by MERVIN BARNES Manfred Bierwisch almost single-handedly introduced transformational grammar to Germany, and it was Bierwisch more than anyone else who established the now well-consolidated relationship between linguists in the United States and in Germany. One might well ask whether the level oflinguistics in Germany would be as high as it is today without the work of Manfred Bierwisch during the decade of the sixties. It was inevitable that a festschrift would eventually be dedicated to him. Crossing the boundaries in linguistics is a collection of essays dedicated to Manfred Bierwisch in honor of his fiftieth birthday. Bierwisch wrote on a variety of topics in various subdisciplines oflinguistics and, consistent with his practice, the essays in this book cover a variety of linguistic topics. It would be impossible to discuss the individual articles in any depth, so I will briefly describe the topics covered in the book and then make a general comment on the book as a whole. I would divide the articles into two groups: the 'philosophical' articles, which approach the linguistic problems primarily from the point of view of philosophy and semantics, and the 'other' articles, which include essays on phonology (Morris Halle and Jean Roger Vergnaud, "Harmony processes"), literature and linguistics (Haj Ross, "Robert Frost's 'Out, out-'"), child language (Eve Clark, "Negative verbs in children's speech"), and psycholinguistics (Helmut Schnelle, "Seman