Rev~ws 267

Franqois Grosjean, Life with two languages." An introd, tction to bilingualism. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, MA, and London, England, 1982. xiii +370 pp.
£8.45, $10.60.
Reviewed by: Frank Nuessel, Department of Classical and Modern Languages,
• Program in Linguistics, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.

According to the author, this text has at least three principal objectives: (1) 'to
present a general and comprehensive introduction to bilingualism (p. vii), (2) 'to
separate fact from fiction about bilinguals and bilingualism' (p. viii), and (3) 'to allow
bilinguals to speak about their bilingualism' (p. viii). The extent to which Grosjean
(henceforth G.) accomplishes these stated purposes is a measure of the quality of
the book itself. An evaluation of the achievement of these goals will ensue later.
In his prefatory statement, G. further observes that even though bilingualism receives
the main focus in this study, 'much of what is written applies equally well to multi-
lingualism (as it does, for that matter, to bidialectalism and multidialectalism)'
(p. viii). Moreover, second language learning as a formal academic process is ignored.
Rather, the natural acquisition and usage of two languages in a non-contrived social
context is the subject matter of this book.
Chapter l, 'Bilingualism in the world' (pp. 1-41) is very crucial to the comprehension
of the rest of the book since many of the basic concepts of bilingual theory are
presented and exemplified in these pages.
Lucid and free-flowing prose, careful organization, and judicious exemplification
of this first chapter are positive features that characterize the entire book. Readers
will thoroughly enjoy the fresh and informative style of this author.
Five major topics are discussed in the opening chapter on global bilingualism. The
first two themes are the extent of bilingualism and national patterns of bilingualism.
The latter categories include basically monolingual nations (Japan, West Germany),
bilingual nations (Canada, Czechoslovakia, Israel), and multilingual nations (Switzer-
land, Singapore). The number of official languages in a given nation often fails to
reflect the number of languages in actual use. A prime example of this is India with
its one official language (Hindi), one associate language (English), fourteen national
tongues, and at least 200 currently used vernaculars. In some cases, official languages
will be endoglossic (Kloss (1968: 71)), i.e., chosen from one of the idioms spoken
within the borders of a given country (Swahili in Tanzania) or the selection may be
exoglossic (KIoss (1968: 71)), i.e., a language from outside the political borders of
the nation (French in Chad, Senegal, and other former colonies). Likewise, in officially
bilingual nations, one of two principles may be operative. On the one hand, a nation
may function on the principle of territoriality (Switzerland), i.e., 'the country is divided
into different monolingual areas, each with its own official language used by the
administration and in the schools, and individuals are required to use that language
when dealing with the governing bodies of the area' (pp. 12-13). On the other hand,
the principle of personality (Canada) states that 'bilingualism is the official policy
throughout the country' (p. 12).
268 Reviews

A third realm examined in this chapter is language policy and linguistic minorities. ~
Essentially, there exist two common responses to such linguistic groups: support or
repression. In the case of the former, constitutional recognition of other languages,
support for schooling, language planning organizations, and orthographic reform all
constitute endorsement of minority tongues. On the other hand, official neglect or
even condemnation of a non-official vernacular can cause serious damage to that
language's maintenance or survival.
The reasons for bilingualism is yet another area of discussion in this preliminary
chapter. The multiple causes of the phenomenon comprise: (1) military invasion
(colonialism and imperialism), (2) trade and commerce, (3) migration for social,
economic, political or religious purposes, (4) education and culture, and (5) industrial-
ization.

Factors qffecthlg language maintenance and language sh(ft

Social aspects Attitudes

Size of group Of the minority group
Birthrate of group - toward their language
Time of immigration - toward the majority language
Continued immigration - toward cultural pluralism
Permanent immigration - toward bilingualism
Geographic concentration - toward linguistic 'purity'
Urbanization Of the majority group :
Isolation from other minority groups - towards the minority group
Isolation from majority groups Use of languages
Isolation from home country Where used (domain)
Intermarriage For what (function, topic)
Social configuration of group With whom (interlocutor)
Social mobility Government policy
Religion Laws pertaining to languages
Activism (political, cultural, linguistic) Educational policies
Mobility within the family 0 ther factors
Occupations Periods of nationalism
Educational policy of the group Assimilative power of majority group
Cultural support by foreign state
Figure 1

t The notion o1 mmority is highly specific in the discipline of sociology. Its application
to a given group must correspond to six distinct criteria. Streib (1968) mentions all six in
his excellent essay on .the topic. In fact, linguistic minorities can be shown to correspond
to these six norms.
 Reviews 269

Two outcomes of bilingualism are possible. First, a group's bilingualism is retained

for a long period (Canada, Paraguay). Second, the group reverts to monolingualism.
The latter may manifest itself as language maintenance (the Hapsburg Empire) or
language shift (the Germanic invaders of the Roman Empire).
• Inadequately. treated (pp. 8, 41) are the important linguistic phenomena of pidgins
and creoles. This cursory treatment is insufficient to address the significance of these
global manifestations of languages in contact (cf. Hall (1966), Bickerton (1975)).
Chapter 2, 'Bilingualism in the United States' (pp. 42-112) deals with five separate
topics: (1) linguistic diversity and bilingualism, (2) aspects of the life of linguistic
minorities, (3) bilingual education, (4) exemplary linguistic minorities, and (5) lan-
guage maintenance and language shift.
The author provides an excellent synthesis of 'Facts affecting language maintenance
and language shift' (p. 107) reproduced here as figure 1. Lourie and Conklin (1983)
would provide excellent collateral reading for this chapter.
Chapter 3, 'Bilingualism in society' (pp. 113-166) treats four separate topics. First,
G. observes that social attitudes toward groups and languages determine their pro-
motion or repression. Positive sentiment (such as official governmental recognition
of a tongue) encourages its use and spread. The opposite, of course, is also true.

Factors h!lTuenchlg language choice

Participants Situation
Language proficiency Location/Setting
Language preference Presence of monolinguals
Socioeconomic status Degree of formality
Age Degree of intimacy
Sex Content of discourse
Occupation Topic
Education Type of vocabulary
Ethnic background Fwtction of #tteraction
History of speakers' linguistic interaction To raise status
Kinship relation To create social distance
Intimacy To exclude someone
Power relation To request or command
Attitude toward languages
Outside pressure

Figure 2
 270 Reviews

Language choice is another aspect of bilingualism that depends upon a number of

variables. G.'s 'Factors influencing language choice' (p. 136) reproduced here as figure 2
suggests the multiplicity of components involved in selection of a language.

Code-switching defined by G. as 'the alternate use of two or more languages in

the same utterance or conversation' (p. 145) is another complex feature of bilingualism.
Again, G. offers an explanation of why the process occurs. 'Some reasons for code-
switching' (p. 152) reproduced here as figure 3 is an excellent synthesis of this issue.

Some reasons for code-switchhlg

- Fill a linguistic need for lexical item, - Specify speaker involvement (person-
set phrase, discourse marker, or sen- alize message)
tence filler - Mark and emphasize group identity
- Continue the last language used (trig- (solidarity)
gering) - Convey confidentiality, anger, annoy-
- Quote someone ance
- Specify addressee - Exclude someone from conversation
- Qualify message: amplify or empha- - Change role of speaker: raise status,
size ('topper' in argument) add authority, show expertise
Figure 3

Finally, the related situations of bilingualism and biculturalism are briefly examined.
G. relates acceptance or rejection of another culture or language to a number of
complex factors such as prestige and prevailing social attitudes.
Chapter 4, 'The bilingual child' (pp. 167-227) deals with five themes related to
childhood bilingualism: (1) the state of being bilingual, (2) the acquisition of two
languages (simultaneous or successive), (3) various aspects of childhood bilingualism
(person-language bond, language choice, code-switching), (4) bilingual education pro-
grams (assimilation versus bilingual maintenance), and (5) the effect of bilingualism
on a child's cognitive development.
Chapter 5, 'The bilingual person' (pp. 228-288) is concerned with four aspects of
bilingual adults. The first is the simple description of such individuals. This involves
a complex of factors (Mackey (1968, 1976)) such as degree, linguistic function (internal
and external), ability to alternate in two languages, and interference of dominant and
subordinate language.
Next, the psycholinguistics of bilingualism concerns multiple issues. Existing research
in this nascent science has dealt with such issues as type of bilingualism (coordinate,
compound, and subordinate) and the number of lexicons. G. stresses that many of
these points are no longer considered significant. Only recently, has research begun
to address the basic questions involved in code-switching. Much remains to be learned
in this emerging interdisiplinary field.
 Reviews 271

The section on the bilingual brain (Albert and Obler (1978)) examines extant
research on aphasia in bilinguals. Recent studies have dealt with language lateral-
ization or hemispheric dominance of language, and language organization in the
bilingual brain.
Lastly, the bilingual as a human being is examined. Attitudes of monolinguals
towards bilinguals and the relationship of language use to emotional state such as
fatigue and stress, the pseudo-issue of multiple personality of bilinguals are among
the topics addressed. The author concludes this chapter with a list of 'Some well-
known persons who were or are bilingual' (p. 285). A few examples include: Pierre
Elliott Trudeau, Mahatma Gandhi, Pablo Picasso, Roman Jakobson, Joseph Conrad,
and Pablo Casals to name but a few.
The last chapter, 'Bilingual speech and language' (pp. 289-341) examines three
distinct aspects of bilingual communication: (1) speaking to a monolingual, (2) speaking
to a bilingual, and (3) the legacy of bilingualism.
At the onset of this rt.view, the G.'s three major objectives were enumerated. At
that point, it was noted that the extent to which these aims were achieved was a
measure of the book's success. In this regard, G. has succeeded admirably in all
three domains. First, G. has provided an exhaustive introduction to the complex and
extensive topic of bilingualism. The author's outstanding ability to synthesize the plethora
of published research in a responsible manner helps the reader to gain a comprehensive
overview of the field. Next, G. dispels much of the mythology surrounding bilingualism.
Because of his extensive and intensive knowledge of the subject, G. is able to present
a factual account of this phenomenon. Erroneous and faulty conceptions of this
prevalent human condition are quickly eliminated with accurate and precise accounts
of the various issues. Finally, quotes (separated in boxes from the main text) from
bilinguals from all over the globe are included to buttress the claims made in empirical
studies on various topics.
This book is an excellent introduction to bilingualism. G. is a fine researcher and
scholar who possesses the requisite skills to condense and recapitulate the major
points of view on various controversial and polemical topics in the realm of bilingualism
in a fair and impartial way so that the reader may arrive at an independent conclusion
on any of a number of debates in this field.
A comprehensive list of references (pp. 343-360), a list of acknowledgments (pp. 361-
362), and a very useful index (pp. 363-370) complement this text.

References

Albert, M. and L. Obler, 1978. The bilingual brain. New York: Academic Press.
Bickerton, D., 1975. The dynamics of a creole system. London and New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Conklin, N.F. and M.A. Lourie, 1983. A host of tongues: Language communities of the
United States. New York: The Free Press.
Hall, R.H., 1966. Pidgin and creole languages. Ithaca, NY: CorneU University Press.
272 Reviews

Kloss, H., 1968. Notes concerning a language-nation typology. In: J. Fishman, C. Ferguson
and J. Das Gupta (eds.), Language problems in developing nations, 69-85. New York:
Wiley.
lVlackey. W,, 1968. The description of bilingualism. In: J. Fishman (ed.), Readings in the
sociology of language, 554-584. The Hague: Mouton,
Mackey, W., 1976. Bilinguisme et contact des langues. Paris: Klincksieck.
Streib, G., 1968. Are the aged a liainority group? In: B. Neugarten (ed.), Middle age and
aging: A reader in social psychology, 35-46. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

T. Burrow and M.B. Emeneau, A Dravidian eO,mological dictionary. Second edition.

Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1984. xli + 853 pp. £40,00.
Reviewed by: K.R. Norman, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, Cam-
bridge CB3 9DA, England.

Tile first edition of A DravMian eO,mological dictionary (DED) by Burrow and

Emeneau was published in 1961. Dravidian borrowingsfi'om Indo-Ao'an (DBIA) appeared
in 1962. A Dravidian eO'mological dictionary: Supplement (DEDS) appeared in 1968,
and was followed by two parts of 'Dravidian etymological notes' (DEN) in JAOS
in 1972. The increase in the knowledge of the Dravidian languages which led to the
appearance of DEDS and DEN has not abated, and the desire to publish new
material which has accumulated, allied to the fact that the disparate materials already
available were difficult to collate and handle, while the works themselves were in any
case out of print and hard to obtain, led to the decision to publish a revised edition
of DED (DEDR).
The pattern followed for DEDR is that of DED. Each entry is numbered, and at
the end of each are listed any Indo-Aryan borrowings from Dravidian. The use of
this part of the work is greatly helped by the inclusion of entry numbers from Turner's
Comparative dictionaO" of the lndo-Aryan languages (CDIAL), which in some cases,
e.g., DEDR 4744, permits the abbreviation of long lists of Indo-Aryan forms which
were quoted in DED. The present reviewer is gratified to see the inclusion of various
references to possible Indo-Aryan borrowings from Dravidian which had been suggested
by earlier scholars but not included in DED, to whose omission he drew attention
in an article in hzdian Lhaguistics 27 (1966).
The reason for some changes which have been made from DED is, however, not
always clear. Anyone investigating the borrowing of Dravidian words into P~li will
find that andhaka (DED 128; DEDR 150) has been deleted without comment, as have
tiral3a (2683; 3278) and sukka (2175; 2646), Presumably the editors thought that
their earlier suggestions had been incorrect. This reason, however, cannot apply to
kal.zavira (977; 1164) and pa.t.tana (3199; 3868), for the Sanskrit (and Prakrit where
available) forms are still quoted. Ka.taha is deleted because the editors now believe
that the DED entry (944) was wrongly inserted. The word is now regarded as a
borrowing into Dravidian from Indo-Aryan, and appears with 60 other such newly