The authors of this monograph present the first attempt to explore the application of Natural Morphology theory to verb inflection patterns in French, complementing other recent accounts of derivational morphology processes in that language. The book is divided into two sections, the first of which presents the theoretical background, while the second applies the theory to the French verb. The theoretical presentation focuses on the key developments underpinning Natural Morphology theory since the 1990s. For example, the growing importance attached to the concepts of morphological naturalness and morphological preferences within a language is explored in terms of how parameters of naturalness constrain morphological preferences within a language – those parameters are outlined in Chapter 2 which constitutes the most substantial component of section I. Other key concepts introduced concern issues of ‘productivity’ and ‘prototypicality’ where the emphasis is placed on the benefits of a modular approach insofar as morphological categories are not seen as wholly distinct, but rather as potentially overlapping in their defining characteristics to varying degrees.

Drawing on such ideas, section II explores verb inflection patterns in French in terms of dynamic morphology, on the one hand, and static morphology, on the other − the distinction is primarily one of ‘productivity’ as a defining feature underlying the scope of application of inflectional morphology, with dynamic morphological forms being highly productive in terms of their generalisations, whereas static morphology has a greater lexicalised quality. Related issues to do with frequency, regularity, generality and analogy are also explored.

Apart from the extensive scope of its general contribution to the field, specific strengths of the book concern its very ‘joined-up’ quality, leading to a wholly unified account of French verb inflections. Other strengths concern the extensive cross-linguistic exemplification of phenomena discussed, while the authors also present an extensive bibliography which includes numerous references to the application of the approach to other languages. Although somewhat intermittent, reference is also made to morphological development and usage in language acquisition, language processing and language change, as well as in regional varieties of French. An empirical investigation of the psycholinguistic application of the theory to French is also a noteworthy strength, as presented as part of the third chapter in section II, providing interesting qualitative insights into tendencies at play in and specific to the French language compared to the authors’ extensive previous analyses of other languages. It is regrettable, however, that the questionnaire used for the study is not presented as an appendix.

On this count, other criticisms primarily concern the presentation style − there is scope at times to tease out the argument which would be particularly helpful for less expert and more novice readers. Such readers seem to constitute less the target audience than more specialist readers insofar as it is not necessary to explain the jargon used for the latter readership. Also, there is considerable imbalance in the length of chapters, while a new chapter does not necessarily begin on a new page. All in all, however, the book constitutes an important addition to the existing literature on French morphology in particular, and morphology in general, offering wide-ranging insights within a unified theoretical model which goes beyond merely describing morphological distribution phenomena to offer greater explanation of such phenomena.