The magic of a common language : Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy, and the Prague Linguistic Circle /

This is a reader-friendly, impeccably scholarly study of the sociocultural frame of the Prague Circle, a group of Czech, Russian, and Ukranian linguists who banded together in the interest of creating a new basis for the study of language. Fearing a Dostoyevskian thicket of Slavic names encapsulating turgid apologetics for the group's views, this reviewer was delighted to find instead a series of urbane essays in which the author expresses concern for his reader and assumes the intimate tone of high-table recall of significant persons and events past. Toman (Univ. of Michigan) reassuringly guides his reader through the biographies of major and important minor figures and their peripheral writings for insight into recurrent themes, and then moves on to their interaction in Prague and the positions they held on linguistics and culture during the 1920s and '30s. He does not retrace linguistic arguments covered by other scholars; rather, he presents the detailed story of a moment in the history of ideas. Chapters are headed by helpful abstracts; notes are copious and cross-referenced; the bibliography is thorough and current. Toman's introduction even suggests shortcuts for readers seeking specific information. Would that most scholarly works were as accessible. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and above. G. M. O'Brien; University of Minnesota--Duluth