This book brings together phonologists working in different areas to explore key questions relating to phonological primitives, the basic building blocks that are at the heart of phonological structure and over which phonological computations are carried out. Whether these units are referred to as features, elements, gestures, or something else entirely, the assumptions that are made about them are fundamental to modern phonological theory. Even so, there is limited consensus on the specifics of those assumptions. The chapters in this book present differing perspectives on phonological primitives and their implications, addressing some of the most pressing issues in the field such as how many features there are; whether those features are privative or binary; and whether segments need to be specified for all features. The studies cover a wide range of methodologies and domains, including experimental work, fieldwork, language acquisition, theory-internal concerns, and many more, and will be of interest to phoneticians and phonologists from all theoretical backgrounds.

This book brings together phonologists working in different fields to explore key questions relating to phonological primitives. The studies cover a wide range of methodologies and domains, including experimental work, fieldwork, language acquisition, theory-internal concerns, and many more.

This book brings together phonologists working in different areas to explore key questions relating to phonological primitives, the basic building blocks that are at the heart of phonological structure and over which phonological computations are carried out. Whether these units are referred to as features, elements, gestures, or something else entirely, the assumptions that are made about them are fundamental to modern phonological theory. Even so, there is limited consensus on the specifics of those assumptions. The chapters in this book present differing perspectives on phonological primitives and their implications, addressing some of the most pressing issues in the field such as how many features there are; whether those features are privative or binary; and whether segments need to be specified for all features. The studies cover a wide range of methodologies and domains, including experimental work, fieldwork, language acquisition, theory-internal concerns, and many more, and will be of interest to phoneticians and phonologists from all theoretical backgrounds.

A study of how humans weave the sound-patterns of language, informed by insights from linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience and genetics.

This volume offers a theory of phonological structure which pays particular attention to the representation of 'complex segments', such as affricates. The first two chapters are concerned with the primitives needed to express place of articulation in phonological segments. In chapters 3 and 4 the relevance of complex segments to phonological theory is discussed from a general perspective. Chapter 3 also provides a general formalisation of complexity in segmental phonology, namely as branching in the segmental structure. Chapter 5 is concerned with the structure of the other phonological dimension that is investigated, namely manner. The second part of the volume deals with specific studies of segmental complexity on the place and the manner dimension, respectively: chapter 6 is concerned with place complexity, and chapters 7-9 with manner complexity. Chapter 7 deals with affricates, chapter 8 with prenasalised stops and chapter 9 with /s/ plus stop clusters. Chapter 10, finally, discusses a category of segments which combine two root nodes under a single timing position, such as consonants with secondary articulation and short diphthongs.

This volume contains revised, expanded and updated versions of papers originally presented at the International Workshop on Phonological Structure held at the University of Durham in September 1994. As the title suggests, the contributions focus on aspects of phonological structure, both segment internal and suprasegmental. A number of questions surrounding phonological structure are approached from a wide variety of theoretical standpoints, including the frameworks of prosodic phonology, declarative phonology, optimality theory, metrical phonology, government phonology, feature geometry, particle theory and dependency phonology. This range of viewpoints allows the crossfertilisation of various strands of phonological thinking with respect to many of the central issues concerning phonological structure. The empirical basis of the contributions is also wide-ranging, including among the languages dealt with Aranda, Cayuvava, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish.

This book is a compilation of manuscripts and publications from 2001-2010 by Jean-Roger Vergnaud, in collaboration with colleagues and students. This work is guided by the scientific belief that broader mathematical principles should guide linguistic inquiry, as they guide classical biology and physics. From this, Vergnaud’s hypotheses take the representation of the computational component of language to a more abstract level: one that derives constituent structure. He treats linguistic features as primitives, and argues that a 2 x n matrix allows for multiple discrete dimensions to represent symmetries in linguistic features and to derive the fabric of syntax (and perhaps of phonology as well). Three primary research questions guide the core of these papers. (A) Methodologically, how can broadly defined mathematical/cognitive principles guide linguistic investigation? (B) To what extent do general mathematical principles apply across linguistic domains? What principles guide computation at different levels of linguistic structure (phonology, metrical structure, syntax)? (C) How is the computational domain defined? In these manuscripts, Vergnaud’s goal is not to radically depart from the Minimalist Program within generative grammar, but rather to take the underlying goal of the generative program and bring it to an even more general scientific level. The themes of symmetry and periodicity in this book reflect his goal of scientific progress in linguistics, and he has opened the doors to new exploration of old empirical problems in linguistics that may, someday, have deeper biological and physical explanations through the theory presented in this publication.

Formal grammars by definition need two parts: a theory of computation (or derivation), and a theory of representation. While recent attention in mainstream syntactic and phonological theory has been devoted to the former, the papers in this volume aim to show that the importance of representational details is not diminished by the insights of such theories.

The International Review of Sign Linguistics -- which replaces the International Journal of Sign Linguistics -- is planned as an annual series publishing the most up-to-date scholarly work in all aspects of sign language linguistics. There is no other comparable publication. The international community of sign linguists needs an authoritative outlet for its research findings. IRSL provides this forum for sign linguists, and for those mainstream linguists increasingly interested in sign languages, by filling the void in linguistic analysis of sign language -- as opposed to other concerns, such as deaf education, teaching sign languages, training interpreters, etc. -- and by pulling together in one place linguistic dialogue on sign language structure. It provides a scholarly focus for all linguists who need to remain current with developments in sign linguistics. For the growing international community, IRSL provides a focus for developments within the field and for advancement of the field in scattered research communities. This review contains seven articles covering a wide range of linguistic areas, signed languages, and theoretical perspectives. Papers deal with the lexicon, morphology, phonology, syntax, pragmatics, prosody, metalinguistic issues, and socio-historical change. Five signed languages are represented including American, German, Australian, French, and Israeli.