Emi Morita, Negotiation of contingent talk: The Japanese interactional particles ne and sa. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005. Pp. xvi, 240. Hb $138.00.

The large category of Japanese words or morphemes commonly labeled “particles,” or in Japanese joshi, has long been problematic for linguistics. This in large part is due to the variety of apparent grammatical or pragmatic functions the category encompasses. While some particles seem to function as more or less straightforward postpositions, others are said to mark case or discourse functions, and still others have pragmatic functions but no clearly agreed syntactic or semantic position. The two particles tackled by Emi Morita's new book, ne and sa, are of this last variety. Morita argues that these “interactional particles” serve important roles of marking stance or activity in ongoing talk-in-interaction. As Morita puts it, “The insertion of interactional particles may serve to ‘salientize’ or ‘set apart’ certain units of talk in order to make them interactionally relevant to immediately adjacent action” (p. 95).

Publications received (through 11 July 2006).

This issue revives the “Book Notes” section. Book notes are 500-word reports that summarize new books that may be of interest to some readers of Language in Society. This format will mean that more of the books we receive can be reviewed. Book notes are assigned to people who volunteer, and advanced graduate students are welcome to write book notes with a faculty member's supervision. Anyone interested in writing a book note should contact Jennifer Andrus at langsoc@cambridge.org for a list of available books. Books that are of general interest to Language in Society readers will still be considered for full critical reviews, which I will continue to commission. Readers should keep in mind that unsolicited reviews or book notes are rarely accepted. If there is a book you would like to review, please contact me first, at the same address.