The lively, informative book is full of evidence/cocktail party fodder proving that the English spelling system is a hopeless tangle of French, Dutch, Latin, German and much, much more and really makes no sense at all. (Portland Tribune )
A lively, engaging look at the idiosyncratic derivations and permutations of spelling in the English language. (Seattle Post Intelligencer )
“An engaging ramble through our orthographic thickets” (Boston Globe )
“Sprightly history that sensibly balances the merits of standardization against the forces for freedom.” (Kirkus Reviews )
An intellectual travelogue across the centuries that also ranges geographically from the Litchfield haunts of Dr. Johnson, creator of the first great English dictionary, to the Silicon Valley home of Les Earnest, the progenitor of computerized spell-checking. (Wall Street Journal )
“A funny and fact-filled look at our astoundingly inconsistent written language, from Shakespeare to spell-check.” (St. Petersburg Times )
This dictionary of technical terms covers nearly 1600 terms and includes a full bibliography. Each word is provided with a pronunciation, a part-of-speech label, synonyms and antonyms, any standard abbreviation and one or more definitions with examples. For the more important terms, further reading will be suggested, and whenever possible, the source of the term will be identified.
...important and impressive contribution to the field...the editors are to be congratulated on having provided the research community with such a resource... (Vyvyan Evans, Journal of Linguistics )
Completely revised and updated in its fourth edition, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics is the standard single-volume reference for its field. The fourth edition incorporates new words or senses which have developed in linguistics during the 1990s. Some 15 per cent larger than the preceding edition in its coverage, the dictionary contains new aspects of linguistic theory and research, including the developing terminology of principles and parameter theory in syntax and of the minimalist program; non-linear phonology; contemporary semantics; and speech recognition and synthesis, with associated acoustics terminology.
'… an attention to detail that is unusual for the genre.' Journal of Phonology
This book is the first detailed investigation and description of phonotactic sound patterns affecting Khoesan click consonant inventories. It also includes the first quantitative study of phonation types in Khoesan languages, and the first study of phonation types associated with pharyngeal consonants all around. Although bases of OCP constraints have been presumed to be perceptual, this is the first quantitative study showing the acoustic basis of a particular OCP constraint in a specific language. Amanda L. Miller-Ockhuizen describes the phonetics and phonology of gutturals in the Khoesan language of Ju|'hoansi. Hers is the first study of voice quality cues associated with epiglottalized vowels. Thus, it is the first study to show that laryngeal and pharyngeal vowels are unified phonetically by non-modal voice qualities associated with them. It is also the first study to show that in addition to laryngeal coarticulation, whereby voice quality cues associated with laryngeal consonants are spread to a following vowel, pharyngeal coarticulation also involves spreading of voice quality cues. Thus, guttural consonants are united in that they all spread voice quality cues onto a following vowel. Voice quality cues found on vowels following guttural consonants are as large as similar cues associated with guttural vowels. This acoustic similarity is shown to be the basis of a novel Guttural OCP constraint found in the language, which is demonstrated to exist via co-occurrence patterns found over a recorded database of all of the known roots. Thus, this is the first book to provide a detailed perceptual basis of an OCP constraint. The database study also reports several other novel phonotactic constraints involving gutturals, as well as a reanalysis of the well-known Back Vowel Constraint. This book describes both phonetics and phonology of the natural class of guttural consonants, and shows through a quantitative acoustic investigation how the phonetic cues associated with these sounds are the bases of phonotactic constraints involving them.
The Phonology of English offers a new approach to English phonology. It focuses on the prosody of the language, i.e. syllable and foot structure, and does so from an optimality-theoretic (OT) perspective. The book is thus intended as a detailed presentation of novel empirical results about the sound system of English, along with important theoretical results about phonological theory.
In 1993, as part of a computer project I was working on, I found myself reading an English dictionary and dividing all the words into prefixes, suffixes and roots. I had read studies in linguists which suggested that the initial consonants of a word had a set of meanings, and the remaining rhyming part also had a set of meanings. One 'sense' of 'str-' is linearity: string, strip, stripe, street, etc. And one sense of '-ap' is flat: cap, flap, lap, map, etc. If you put them together, you get a flat line: 'strap'. The idea fascinated me, and since I was marking all these words anyway, I decided to keep an eye out for these classes which have similar meaning and pronunciation both. It turns out that it is possible by means of a series of repeatable experiments to show that certain meanings hang out with certain phonemes and others do not. I have been working on a dictionary which outlines this data for English in much more detail rather formally and scientifically. But I also have many thoughts which I seem to express more openly and cheerfully when I voice them in a separate book. My purpose here is therefore not to prove anything, but to summarize my most important findings in plain English and to philosophize freely and naively on their significance.
The volume has appeared at a specially opportune moment ... In the Introduction the editors do an admirable job not only of summarizing the content of each paper, but also of identifying and highlighting recurrent themes, and of locating each contribution within a taxonomy of approaches to the nature of phonology ... a volume of intellectual richness. (Journal of Linguistics )
Highly comprehensive Introduction. (Linguist List 12.1568 )
(1)This unique resource provides a comprehensive review of current knowledge about phonological awareness, together with practical guidance for helping children acquire needed skills. Up-to-date findings are synthesized on the development of phonological awareness; its role in literacy learning; and how it can be enhanced in children at risk for reading difficulties and those with reading disorders or speech or language impairments. Of particular value to general and special educators and speech-language professionals, the book's clear recommendations for assessment and intervention show how to translate the research into day-to-day teaching and clinical practice. Methods and activities are described for working with preschoolers to adolescents, including those with special learning needs. Illustrative case studies and concise chapter summaries are additional useful features of this student- and practitioner-friendly volume.
'An excellent introduction to phonology. Difficult ideas are presented in an accessible manner - a plus for any textbook. It covers a variety of interesting phonological facts from typologically different languages. Using this text will acquaint students with the essence of theoretical concepts and phonological analyses.' Shosuke Haraguchi, Meikai University
'This book is a godsend for those of us in search for an introduction to phonology … Odden provides the entire package of tools and raw materials that the student needs.' Lee Bickmore, Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Albany University
'Odden's book stands out among phonology textbooks thanks to its focus on data and analysis. … Students of phonology and phonetics would benefit … and will find … some explanations that are clearly better than those available elsewhere.' Times Higher Education Supplement
'This book presents a highly original linguistic approach to literary structure, and especially to English metrical verse.' Journal of Literary Semantics
'… an interesting addition to the linguistic study of verse … Language and Literary Structure is a significant contribution to the linguistic analysis of literature. It describes and analyzes a broader set of English verse than previous generative accounts … The writing is clear throughout the book … Language and Literary Structure could easily serve as the textbook in an advanced course on metrics … the ongoing and active debate over t his makes Fabb's work both timely and relevant … Language and Literary Structure will prove useful to both the linguist and the literary scholar … The book poses interesting answers to provocative questions …' Journal of Linguistics
