Phonological Theory: The Essential Readings (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Phonological theory: The essential readings ed. by John A. Goldsmith Marc Pierce Phonological theory: The essential readings. Ed. by John A. Goldsmith. Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. Pp. viii, 438. This volume reprints 22 influential phonology papers (in some cases, abridged versions thereof), originally published between 1947 and 1996. The papers include among others: ‘On the role of notation in generative phonology’ (22–33) by James D. McCawley, ‘From cyclic phonology to lexical phonology’ (34–62) by Paul Kiparsky, ‘Phonology with tiers’ (303–12) by Alan S. Prince, ‘The syllable’ (328–50) by Elisabeth O. Selkirk, and ‘Immediate constituents of Mazateco syllables’ (313–27) by Kenneth L. Pike and Eunice Victoria Pike. There is also a useful ‘Introduction’ (1–16) by the editor and a detailed index. All but one of the papers are couched in some version of generative phonology, the single exception being the paper by Kenneth and Eunice Pike. Most of the advances in generative phonology are discussed here, including metrical phonology, auto-segmental phonology, syllable theory, prosodic morphology, and optimality theory. This is an extremely valuable book. It reprints classic articles in a convenient format, thus rendering repeated trips to the library and extensive use of the photocopier unnecessary. I wish that none of the articles had been abridged, and one could of course quibble about the choice of articles. These are minor objections, however, and do not detract from the general usefulness of the volume. Marc Pierce University of Michigan Copyright © 2001 Linguistic Society of America