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Saga-Book of the Viking Society
admirably expressed by Chafe (Language 47, no. I), that any
purely transformational grammar requires initial structures to
transform. Generative semantics proposes roughly that the
semantic component produces these basic structures. But much
else is involved: for instance, the lexicon contains semantic,
syntactic and phonological information, and must therefore be
organised and must operate at all of these levels. A theory of the
lexicon mustthus form an essential part of any theory of generative
semantics. Secondly, meaning remains relevant to the form of
speech at syntactic and phonological levels: e.g. certain formal
changes of surface structure can modify meaning, as Chomsky has
pointed out. And even the passive transformation can effect
a semantic shift of emphasis. Again, purely phonological
elements such as intonation may be meaningful in their own
right. It is essential, therefore, that any theory of generative
semantics recognises that semantic processes are not only anterior
but also parallel to formal syntax and phonology in sentenceproduction.
Kiparsky's paper may be considered as part of
a description of the semantic organisation of the lexicon.
Alvar Ellegaard gives a clear classification of clause-types
within a generative framework. Halld6r Halld6rsson discusses
some loan-words into Icelandic and the principles of loan-analysis
that can be deduced from these. Els Oksaar gives some examples
of connotation-profiles, a statistical method of describing the
implications of a word beyond basic meaning, by reference to
a number of other terms. Aleksander Szulc describes and gives
some classification of interference between languages in
bilinguals. Ulf Teleman discusses the generation of nounphrases.
William Moulton and Karl-Hampus Dahlstedt contribute
papers on dialectology: Moulton pleads for the retention of
the phoneme, on dubious grounds, while Dahlstedt discusses,
inter alia, the position in a generative theory of the social function
of dialect. Of the papers concerned with Nordic linguistics,
Einar Haugen contributes an elegant plea for a panoptic view of
Nordic linguistics, while Hans Anton Koefoed discusses semantic
variations between the Nordic languages, and Baldur ]6nsson
gives a paper on the reconstruction of unaccented verbal prefixes
in Primitive Norse on syntactic and semantic grounds. Elmer
Antonsen gives a somewhat speculative paper on runes and the
Germanic vowel-system. A number of papers deal specifically
with Swedish: Bengt Loman reports on research in progress into
social variation in syntax, and Sture Allen on a programme of
large-scale vocabulary processing. Bengt Nordberg outlines
a research programme into the urban dialect of Eskilstuna. Kim
Nilsson discusses the generation of causative clauses in Swedish,