The cambridge handbook of phonology

Acknowledgements 416480 For a book of this size and scope it is probably unsurprising that many people contributed to its formation. At Cambridge University Press, I owe Andrew Winnard a great deal of thanks. The idea for The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology was his, and it was a pleasure developing the project with him. My thanks also to Helen Barton for providing a great deal of editorial help throughout the process. One of the most exhausting jobs was compiling, checking, and making consistent the seventeen hundred references. I am very grateful to Catherine Kitto and Michael OKeefe for dealing with this task, and to Jessica Rett for contributing as well. Of course, without the contributors, this volume would not exist. My thanks to them for meeting such difficult deadlines and responding so quickly to my queries. A number of people commented on the initial proposal for this book, and every chapter was reviewed. My thanks go to: three anonymous reviewers, Crystal Akers, Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Daniel Altshuler, Eric Bakovic, Ricardo dez-Otero, Lee Bickmore, Andries Coetzee, Jose Elas-Ulloa, Colin Bermu Ewen, Randall Gess, Martine Grice, Bruce Hayes, Larry Hyman, Pat Keating, Martin Kra ămer, Seunghun Lee, John McCarthy, Laura McGarrity, Chloe Marshall, Nazarre Merchant, Jaye Padgett, Joe Pater, Alan Prince, Jessica Rett, Curt Rice, Sharon Rose, Elisabeth O. Selkirk, Nina Topintzi, Moira Yip, and Kie Zuraw. Of the reviewers, I must single out Kate Ketner and Michael OKeefe: they carefully reviewed several of the articles each, provided the perspective of the books intended audience, and also contributed a large number of insightful comments. There are also several times as many people again who unofficially reviewed chapters for each author my thanks to all those who in doing so contributed to this handbook. Finally, I thank my colleagues and friends for advising and supporting me in this exhausting endeavour: Colin Ewen, Jane Grimshaw, John McCarthy, Alan Prince, Curt Rice, Ian Roberts, Moira Yip, and my colleagues www.ATIBOOK.ir x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in the linguistics department at Rutgers. Finally, I thank my family Mary and Reg for their unfailing support, and Sapphire and Socrates for their help with editing. Most of all I thank Catherine, whose encouragement and support were essential to my survival. www.ATIBOOK.ir Introduction: aims and content Paul de Lacy Introduction Phonological theory deals with the mental representation and computation of human speech sounds. This book contains introductory chapters on research in this field, focusing on current theories and recent developments. 1 Aims This book has slightly different aims for different audiences. It aims to provide concise summaries of current research in a broad range of areas for researchers in phonology, linguistics, and allied fields such as psychology, computer science, anthropology, and related areas of cognitive science. For students of phonology, it aims to be a bridge between textbooks and research articles. Perhaps this books most general aim is to fill a gap. I write this introduction ten years after Goldsmiths (1995) Handbook of Phonological Theory was published. Since then, phonological theory has changed significantly. For example, while Chomsky & Halles (1968) The Sound Pattern of English (SPE) and its successors were the dominant research paradigms over a decade ago, the majority of current research articles employ Optimality Theory, proposed by Prince & Smolensky (2004). Many chapters in this book assume or discuss OT approaches to phonology. Another striking change has been the move away from the formalist conception of grammar to a functionalist one: there have been more and more appeals to articulatory effort, perceptual distinctness, and economy of parsing as modes of explanation in phonology. These are just two of the many developments discussed in this book. www.ATIBOOK.ir 2 INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND CONTENT 2 Website Supplementary materials for this book can be found on the website: http://handbookofphonology.rutgers.edu. 3 Audience and role The chapters are written with upper-level undergraduate students and above in mind. As part of a phonology course, they will serve as supplementary or further readings to textbooks. All the chapters assume some knowledge of the basics of the most popular current theories of phonology. Many of the chapters use Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004), so appropriate background reading would be, for example, Kagers (1999) textbook Optimality Theory, and for the more advanced McCarthys (2002) A Thematic Guide to Optimality Theory. Because it is not a textbook, reading the book from beginning to end will probably not prove worthwhile. Certainly, there is no single common theme that is developed step-by-step throughout the chapters, and there is no chapter that is a prerequisite for understanding any other (even though the chapters cross-reference each other extensively). So, the best use of this book for the reader is as a way to expand his/her knowledge of phonology in particular areas after the groundwork provided by a textbook or phonology course has been laid. This book is also not a history of phonology or of any particular topics. While it is of course immensely valuable to understand the theoretical precursors to current phonological theories, the focus here is limited to issues in recent research. 4 Structure and content The chapters in this book are grouped into five parts: (I) conceptual issues, (II) prosody, (III) segmental phenomena, (IV) internal interfaces, and (V) external interfaces. The conceptual issues part discusses theoretical concepts which have enduring importance in phonological theory: i.e. functionalist vs. formalist approaches to language, markedness theory, derivation, representation, and contrast. Part II focuses on the segment and above: specifically prosodic structure, sonority, and tone. Part III focuses on subsegmental structure: features and feature operations. The chapter topics were chosen so as to cover a wide range of phenomena and fit in with the aims of phonology courses. However, while the areas in Parts II and III are traditionally considered distinct, the boundaries are at least fluid. For example, Gussenhoven www.ATIBOOK.ir Introduction: aims and content 3 (Ch.11) observes that research on tone and intonation seems to be converging on the same theoretical devices, so the toneintonation divide should not be considered a theoretically significant division. In contrast, some traditionally unified phenomena may consist of theoretically distinct areas: Archangeli & Pulleyblank (Ch.15) observe that there may be two separate types of harmony that require distinct theoretical mechanisms. Nevertheless, the division into discrete phenomena is inevitable in a book of this kind as in practice this is how they are often taught in courses and conceived of in research. Part IV deals with internal interfaces the interaction of the phonological component with other commonly recognized modules i.e. phonetics (Kingston Ch.17), syntax (Truckenbrodt Ch.18), and morphology (Ussishkin Ch.19 and Urbanczyk Ch.20). Part V focuses on a variety of areas that do not fit easily into Parts IIV. These include well-established areas such as diachronic phonology dez-Otero Ch.21), areas that have recently grown significantly (e.g. (Bermu language acquisition Fikkert Ch.23) or have recently provided significant insight into phonological theory (e.g. free variation Anttila Ch.22, learnability Tesar Ch.24, phonological impairments Bernhardt & Stemberger Ch.25). Practical reasons forced difficult decisions about what to exclude. Nevertheless, as a number of phonologists kindly offered their views on what should be included I hope that the topics covered here manage to reflect the current concerns of the field. While phonological research currently employs many different transcription systems, in this book an effort has been made to standardize transcriptions to the International Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA) wherever possible: http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/index.html. www.ATIBOOK.ir 4 INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND CONTENT Chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet (revised 1993, updated 1996) This chart is provided courtesy of the International Phonetics Association, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, GREECE. www.ATIBOOK.ir