Reviews

Canadian Slavonic Papers, 9/1/2007 (Danko Šipka)

"This work is pioneering in that it is the first since the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia to make academic course materials for BCS generally available to English-speaking learners. In the fifteen years since the country disintegrated, we have seen various instances of scholarly inexpertness in the discourse surrounding BCS (confusion of regional linguistic features with ethnic ones, oversimplification in the use of the scripts, uncritical acceptance of extreme ethnic nationalist views from the region, and so forth). The authors have thus entered a sensitive field that is prone to various distortions. With that in mind, I should emphasise at the outset that the present work remains impeccably free of any non-scholarly distortions. In every segment of both books, linguistic and cultural facts are presented with full scholarly integrity, in a balanced manner, without ethnic or political bias of any kind. The authors are to be applauded for such a general attitude, as they have navigated this dangerous zone masterfully. (…)

"The layout of the course materials is the next feature of the work for which the authors deserve praise. In the textbook, the students have all they need for in-class activities. Those who are interested in more elaborate coverage of the structures and the sociolinguistic situation can purchase the grammar separately; those who work on their own can purchase the recordings; and finally, all those who are looking for more general information can consult the Web site. The layout is student-friendly. The value of the course books for students is considerable, given the high degree of accuracy and clarity of the facts presented in both books. Providing the lesson texts in different ethnic variants goes a long way to accommodating the diverse needs of both professional and heritage learners.

"Another strength of the course materials is the sequence in which BCS structural elements are introduced: they follow standard educational principles-from better-known to less-known, from simple to more complex. Thus, the authors first introduce the nominative case, then the accusative, followed by the genitive (these are familiar from English grammar); these cases are followed by the remaining case forms. As with the above-mentioned avoidance of any political distortions, here, too, the authors' educational expertise stands in positive contrast to some earlier Slavic-language textbooks which exhibit a dysfunctional sequencing of materials."

Full review available for download from HighBeam Research



Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 51, No. 3, Fall 2007: 656-659. (Keith Langston)

"The coverage of grammatical topics is comprehensive, and this book could be profitably used by everyone from beginners to the most advanced learners. The explanations are detailed and linguistically accurate, but at the same time are written in a manner that is accessible to readers with no special linguistic training. The author is also careful to point out some of the ways that the language as actually used by speakers differs from prescriptive norms. There are many features of this grammar that deserve special praise, but only a few can be mentioned here. The placement of clitics, a notoriously difficult problem for non-native speakers, is explained using a simple ‘XYZ’ schema that is gradually expanded from chapter to chapter. Numerous examples are cited to show the position of different types of clitics given various possible word orders in the sentence; e.g., with or without overt subject pronouns, with the use of clitic versus full forms of object pronouns, in different types of questions, and when the clitics are associated with a dependent infinitive. In Chapter 19, the placement of clitics is then given a more formal explanation in terms of obligatory and optional rhythmic constituents. The grammar uses the same simplified system of accent marking as in the textbook, and it also includes an especially clear discussion of accentual alternations, which are usually ignored in materials for teaching BCS. Different types of subjectless sentences and the various meanings and uses of verbs with se are discussed at length, and there is a very useful section on conjunctions, including an excellent explanation of compound conjunctions, which often cause problems for English speakers learning these languages. The use of aspect and tense in narrative contexts is given special treatment in Chapters 15 and 16. Last but not least, the sociolinguistic commentary in Chapters 21-26 gives an excellent and accessible overview of the complex issues surrounding Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian linguistic identity. This part of the grammar is a valuable work of scholarship in its own right that can also be read separately by anyone who wishes to learn more about this topic. The book as a whole has been very carefully produced and edited. (…)

"Whether they are used separately or together, these volumes represent a great advancement in the study and teaching of BCS. In both cultural and linguistic terms they are the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date instructional materials available. They successfully provide a thorough description of the common linguistic structure shared by all three languages while fully recognizing the separate identity of each, and will be an invaluable resource for teachers, students, and scholars for years to come."



Forum for Modern Language Studies, 43:3 (July)

"The energy and devotion behind the production of such a volume is difficult to imagine. The twenty chapters of the grammar cover all possible topics - from phonology to morphophonology, morphology, morphosyntax, syntax and word formation - fully and with extensive exemplification. The first five sociolinguistic chapters cover writing systems, dialect differences, and explorations of the three countries concerned, concluded by a sixth chapter asking if there is one language or more than one - for the reader to discover their answer."

Full review available at: http://fmls.oxfordjournals.org/current.dtl#REVIEWS

Errata

p. 2, In section 1b, under the heading The Latin Alphabet, there are examples of upper and lower case Latin letters on the left side of the lefthand box. The list furthest to the left provides examples of capital letters, while the one to its right should be examples of lower case letters. The first six letters of the list (A, B, C, Č, Ć, D) on the right are capitals when they should be lower case.
p. 409, the phrase lak / lak should be lak / laka

Comments

Please send your comments on  BOSNIAN, CROATIAN, SERBIAN, A GRAMMAR AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMMENTARY to comments@bcsgrammarandtextbook.org.