Synopses & Reviews
Comprising eleven studies on languages with designated structural topic and focus positions, this volume includes an introduction surveying the empirical and theoretical problems involved in the description of this language type. Focusing on languages outside the traditional Indo-European group, the essays look at Chadic, Somali, Basque, Catalan, Old Romance, Greek, Hungarian, Finnish, Korean, and Quechua. The papers provide interesting new empirical data, as well as a variety of means and alternatives of representing them structurally. At the same time, they address important theoretical questions in the framework of generative theory. This is the first study to apply methods of comparative syntax to the study of topic and focus.
Synopsis
The book provides an overview of the Postal Savings System and the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program. These institutions are a major feature of Japanese finance, not extensively discussed outside of Japan. Together, they represent a wide-ranging system of government financial
intermediation that is increasingly incompatible with Japan's early efforts to develop a modern financial system and help reverse the economic and financial decline that started in the early 1990s. The book is a mixture of policy, institutional, and quantitative analysis.