BOOK REVIEWS

539

any society I know. A detailed study of personality dynamics in Palauan culture should have important implications for general theories in the field of culture and personality.

J. E. WECKLER
UNIVERSITY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OF Los ANCELES,CALIFORNIA

LINGUISTICS
Leave Your Language Alone! ROBERT HALL, (xi, 254 pp., $3.00. Linguistica, A. JR. Ithaca, N. Y., 1950.)
This volume is intended as a popular introduction to the r61e of language in human affairs, and to the (largely potential) function of linguistics in clarifying that rble. I t contains a minimum of technical linguistics, and this only for illustrative purposes. First, it uses what its author calls the shock treatment, dwelling on popular and even learned misconceptions with respect to the nature of language; second, it follows this iconoclastic therapy with a description of what modem linguistics conceives language to be; and finally, it makes a number of specific recommendations as to what linguists and linguistics may be able to contribute to the solution of those many practical problems in which language is involved. Unfortunately, the language is on occasion belligerent, the tone is frequently dogmatic, and the philosophy is often shallow. The value of the shock treatment is questionable. The statements put forth in this treatment are often as extreme in their phraseology as the dogmas they are designed to combat. All languages are of equal merit, each in its own way is like all men are created equal, a relativistic ideal, but a factual falsehood-in specific situations they may be very unequal. The use of the term linguistician tends to solidify the entrenched opposition to the pronouncements of the linguist and to justify the general attitude of amused or annoyed incredulity which so often greets his statements, and the assumption that they are indeed the products of a disordered imagination, or his own fanciful inventions. The description of what modern linguistics conceives language to be, and of the tools now available for describing accurately and succinctly precisely what does go on, in any language or dialect, a t any point in time, is clearly presented and carefully illustrated. This is the best part of the book. Hall succeeds here as no one has before him in explaining somewhat complicated matters in a very simple way. His discussion of the relation of meaning to language is particularly lucid, although it leaves something to be desired from the anthropologists point of view. It is to be doubted that linguists, as such, will ever be able to state meaning as precisely and as concisely as they can do for form. The statement of meanings is the job of the cultural anthropologist, since it would appear likely that all meaning exists only in the cultural habits of the members of a social group (or in those of one individual in it). Even science has no absolutes, i.e., no extra-cultural meanings, so that Halls (and Bloomfields) faith in the chemist and physicist as superior sources of semantic statements would appear to be unjustified. The recommendations as to what contributions linguists may be able to make toward the solution of practical problems are uneven. The problems of literacy and

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[52, 1950

literature are carefully and objectively stated (as, for example, in the balanced presf entation of the pros and cons of spelling reform in English). I the facts about the sounds of English and their relation to our spelling were indeed common property, spelling bees might go out of fashion, but we would have two or more years additional time to learn substance rather than sterile mechanics. And if the structure of the English language were known to English teachers, much less time would be spent on futile rdes of grammar, and people who arrive a t the college level would be much better equipped to express themselves lucidly in English. The chapter on learning another language points out that the contribution of the linguist to the new or Army method of language teaching was on the side of objective analysis and presentation of materials, and that this is really the only, albeit the most important, innovation. I n the chapter on international language the enlightened tone of the rest of the book goes into eclipse, however. The treatment is theoretical throughout and no one would gather that a large quantity of facts are available with which one might test the theories. The scorn which Hall seems to feel for the desire for ease in learning is certainly not shared by the layman, nor, indeed, by all professional linguists! The assumption that ease of acquisition can be gained only a t the cost of impoverishment of form or of content is one which needs careful investigation, again, of readily available materials. There is, of course, no question of a choice between ones native language and an international auxiliary language, merely one of agreement on a single second language for everyone. Value-judgments are inevitable, as is apparent from Halls entire presentation of his thesis, and one cannot avoid them, even by the relativistic objective approach of scientific study and analysis. Modern linguistics, as Hall has convincingly shown, is, indeed, admirably equipped to find out the truth, but it may not always do so, and linguists (not to mention linguisticians) are not of necessity better equipped to act upon it than the man in the street. NORMAN McQuom A. UNIVERSITY CHICAGO OF ILLINO~S CHICAGO,
PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 1947. GABRIELW. LASKERand J. LAWRENCE ANGEL (eds.). (vi, 278 pp., lithoprinted. The Viking Fund, Inc., New York, 1948.)

Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 1948. GABRIELW. LASKERand FREDERICK P. THIEME (eds.). (vi, 217 pp., lithoprinted. The Viking Fund, Inc., New York, 1949.)
Two years ago the first and second issues of this annual publication were given a paragraph in a review by W. M. Rrogman of six books totalling 1,834 pages ( A m . Alzthrop., n.s. vol. 30, no. 2, 1949, pp. 319-322). Although the title was incorrectly listed and no mention was made of four original articles, the contents otherwise were accurately described as republished articles on human biology from relatively inaccessible sources in related and adjacent biological fields. It should have been stated also that these volumes are the product of the Symposium in Physical Anthropology,