Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

This is a handbook of phonological theory, and is thus neither a textbook nor a collection of research papers. Its goal is to provide its readers with a set of extended statements concerning mainstream conceptions of phonological theory in the first half of the 1990s, and perhaps beyond. The contributors have taken as their charge to bring together the leading ideas in the areas that they describe; in general, their aim has not been to provide new approaches so much as to offer a new synthesis of the ideas that are currently in the field. This handbook is thus ideally suited for the reader who has a background in phonology but who wants to know more about a particular subarea. A book such as my Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology (1990) or Kenstowicz's Phonology in Generative Grammar (1993), or the older Generative Phonology (1979) by Kenstowicz and Kisseberth, would be more than adequate background for the present volume. Most of the topics covered in this book need no explanation. It will come as no surprise to see articles on syllable structure, on metrical structure, and on feature geometry. Some topics have not been addressed directly for want of a general consensus at the time the book was constructed. For example, while there has been considerable discussion regarding the correct relationship between constraints on representations and phonological rules, there is no ... log in or subscribe to read full text