Perspectives on Grammar Writing: (11 Benjamins Current Topics)

With over half the languages of the world currently in danger of extinction within a century, the need for high quality grammatical descriptions is more urgent than ever. Potential grammar writers, however, often find themselves paralyzed by the daunting task of describing a language. The papers in the present volume (originally published in Studies in Language 30:2 (2006)) provide suggestions and encouragement – from experienced grammar writers and users – regarding concrete methods for approaching the task of writing a descriptive grammar of a language. Salient "themes" emerging from the papers in this volume include: The necessity of community involvement in grammatical descriptions; The link between a grammar and the other products of a program of language documentation (a dictionary and collection of texts); The complementary functions of elicited vs. naturally occurring data; and grammatical description as 'art' as well as 'science'.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction, p1-9; 2. Contextualizing a grammar (by Bright, William), p11-17; 3. Writing grammars for the community (by Kadanya, James Lokuuda), p19-23; 4. Collective field work: Advantages or disadvantages? (by Kibrik, Aleksandr E.), p25-44; 5. Grammars and the community (by Mithun, Marianne), p45-69; 6. From parts of speech to the grammar (by Munro, Pamela), p71-111; 7. Grammar writing for a grammar-reading audience (by Noonan, Michael), p113-126; 8. A grammar as a communicative act, or what does a grammatical description really describe? (by Payne, Thomas E.), p127-142; 9. A typology of good grammars (by Rice, Keren), p143-171; 10. Thoughts on growing a grammar (by Weber, David J.), p173-198; 11. The linguistic example (by Weber, David J.), p199-213; 12. Index, p215-218

Review :
My conclusion from studying this book is that grammar writing (or a good grammar) must be both comprehensive and complete. A grammar must be written in a clear style and include many examples that are relevant and that have been carefully checked. The grammar should be readily accessible and appropriately presented, thereby enhancing the validity of the work and the author. These are also the basic concepts that all of the authors of this book address in differing but absolutely useful ways. The book provides a good starting point for anyone setting out to describe a language. It also provides a nice reference for what is expected of descriptive grammars as a genre, and I anticipate referring back to it, time and again, in the future as I expand upon my own grammar writing efforts. Although I doubt very much that there exists a description of a language that meets all the expectations presented in Perspectives on Grammar Writing, the volume is very readable and interesting, and the issues addressed are worth serious consideration and effort.