The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.
This book contains some of the material which originally appeared in my Ph. D. thesis Lexical Phonology, submitted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but it can hardly be called a revised version of the thesis. The theory that I propose here is in many ways radically different from the one that I proposed in the thesis, and there is a great deal of new data and analyses from English and Malayalam. Chapter VI is so new that I haven't even had the time to try it out on my friends. As everyone knows, research is a collective enterprise, even though an individual's name appears on the first page of the book or article. I would think of this book as a joint project involving dozens of people, in which I acted as the project coordinator, collecting suggestions from a wide variety of sources. Four major influences on what the book contains were Morris Halle, Paul Kiparsky, Mark Liberman, and Joan Bresnan. I learned the ropes of doing research on phonology, phonetics, and morphology from them, and almost everything that I discuss in this book owes its shape ultimately to one of them. Among the others who contributed generously to this book are: Jay Keyser, James Harris, Douglas Pulleyblank, Diana Archangeli, Donca Steriade, Elizabeth Selkirk, Francois Dell, Noam Chomsky, Philip Lesourd, Mohammed Guerssel, Michel Kenstovicz, Raj Singh, Will Leben, Joe Perkell, Victor Zue, Paroo Nihalani. P. Madhavan, and Stephanie Shattuck-Hafnagel.
This is a general discussion of the phonology of English within the frameworks of lexical, metrical, and prosodic phonology. It not only presents a synthesis of current approaches but also reconciles their discrepancies and presents critical commentary. There is a discussion of current theories, segment and syllable structure, stress, and prosodic categories and their role in determining the application of segmental rules. Two chapters discuss lexical phonology as divided into a cyclic and a postcyclic stratum, while the final chapter discusses postlexical phonology and some other approaches. The book includes exercises and can be used as an undergraduate or graduate textbook; at the same time, it is a valuable research tool for phonologists.
This book reviews the history of the interface between morpho-syntax and phonology roughly since World War II. Structuralist and generative interface thinking is presented chronologically, but also theory by theory from the point of view of a historically interested observer who however in the last third of the book distills lessons in order to assess present-day interface theories, and to establish a catalogue of properties that a correct interface theory should or must not have. The book also introduces modularity, the rationalist theory of the (human) cognitive system that underlies the generative approach to language, from a Cognitive Science perspective. Modularity is used as a referee for interface theories in the book. Finally, the book locates the interface debate in the landscape of current minimalist syntax and phase theory and fosters intermodular argumentation: how can we use properties of morpho-syntactic theory in order to argue for or against competing theories of phonology (and vice-versa)?
First published in 1989. The development of morphological and phonological theory within the broad framework of generative grammar poses a number of important questions concerning the mutual relationship of phonology and morphology. This study aims to answer these questions. On the basis of Polish and English language material, the author examines the most important aspects of phonology-morphology interaction, and suggests the best model with which to describe these phenomena.
This book is a revised version of my Ph.D. dissertation that was submitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. Although much of the analysis and argumentation of the dissertation has survived rewriting, the organization has been considerably changed. To Paul Kiparsky and Morris Halle, lowe a major debt. Not only has it been a great privilege to work on phonology with both of them, but it is hard to imagine what this piece of research would have looked like without them. (They, of course, may well imagine a number of appropriate ways in which the work could be different had I not been involved .... ) In addition, special thanks are due to Ken Hale, the third member of my thesis committee. Our discussions of a variety of topics (including tone) helped me to keep a broader outlook on language than might have otherwise been the result of concentrating on a thesis topic.
First published in 1988. This title explores the phonology of Sekani, a northern Athabaskan language, within the framework of Lexical Phonology. After providing an overview of the language of Sekani and the theory of Lexical Phonology, the author goes on to explore various issues in the application of this theory. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.
Originally published as the Continuum Companion to Phonology, this book offers the definitive guide to a key area of linguistic study. It covers all the most important issues, concepts, movements and approaches in the field. Each companion offers a comprehensive reference resource giving an overview of key topics, research areas, new directions and a manageable guide to beginning or developing research in the field. It offers a survey of current research and also gives more practical guidance on advanced study and research in the area. The book includes coverage of key research areas in phonology, including the interaction of phonology with other areas of linguistics while also providing some guidance on how phonological research can be conducted in the field and in the laboratory. It moves from coverage of the smallest units such as features and syllables to larger units incorporating phrasal and prosodic structure. It is a complete resource for postgraduate students and researchers working in phonology.
