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Ronald W. Langacker, Concept, image and symbol: the cognitive basis of grammar . Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990. Pp. x + 395.

This impressive collection of papers by Langacker is an excellent introduction to his theory of language, Cognitive Grammar. I recommend any novices to start here, and not in the much less penetrable Langacker (1987). (See also now Langacker, 1991.) Although all the twelve papers in this collection are quite easily accessible, and all are quite recent (post 1982), it is very helpful to see them together. They have been quite well edited and the inevitable overlap of content is helpful to the uninitiated. Readers should be warned that Langacker's theory is radically different from the better-known ones, particularly Government-Binding theory, and his very idiosyncratic terminology makes the novice's task even harder than it needs to be, but the rewards are worth the effort. Whether or not one agrees with his answers, the questions that he asks are important and fundamental. The first paper is an introduction to the theory, but it is rather abstract and uncompromising. In my opinion the best paper to read first is 'Inside and outside in Cora' (written with Eugene Casad), which is a gem of semantic analysis. Cora is a Uto-Aztecan language of Mexico, spoken in hilly country (a highly relevant fact, as it turns out). It has two morphemes which crop up all over the place, one meaning roughly 'inside', the other 'outside'. One of the problems addressed is why these morphemes contrast in two alternative translations of the English sentence Its tail is chopped short, where it refers to a dog. Apparently, the ' inside' morpheme is used if the speaker is behind the dog, and the ' outside' one if they are alongside it. The explanation is totally convincing, and rather surprising, but it rests firmly on some of the basic assumptions of Cognitive Grammar, such as the need to take account of the way a scene is conceptualized by a speaker as well as of its 'objective' properties. The paper is well written, and could be recommended to undergraduates as an example of an 'exotic' semantic system or world view (though, to be fair, Langacker plays down the implications of linguistic facts for the general world view of the speakers). Having read this paper, one should be prepared to take Langacker's views on semantics seriously. One of the most persuasive parts of the presentation is the use of diagrams, one of Langacker's specialities. In this paper they are wholly successful and helpful, and prepare us for the more abstract applications of some of the other papers, where their relevance, or even meaning, is less obvious.