The Historical Phonology of Vowel Length (RLE Linguistics C: Applied Linguistics)


Book Description

Data from a variety of languages are offered in support of the claim that although there are several processes by which languages commonly add to an already existing stock of long vowels, there is only one mechanism by which a language without a distinction of vocalic length commonly introduces such a distinction. This mechanism is the coalescence of vowel sequences, typically after loss of intervocalic consonants. This book examines vowels lengths, their differences and their effects on language.




Historical Phonology of English


Book Description

This book covers the historical development of the English phonological system from its earliest reconstructed and recorded forms to its most recent variations.




New Directions for Historical Linguistics


Book Description

This volume consists of revised versions of presentations given at a roundtable on “New Directions for Historical Linguistics: Impact and Synthesis, 50 Years Later” held at the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics in San Antonio, Texas, in 2017, as well as an introduction by the editors. The roundtable discussed the evolution of historical linguistics since the 1966 symposium on “Directions for Historical Linguistics,” held in Austin, Texas. Six prominent scholars of historical linguistics and sociolinguistics contributed: William Labov (the only surviving author from the 1968 volume), Gillian Sankoff, Elizabeth Traugott, Brian Joseph, Sarah Thomason, and Paul Hopper (a graduate student assistant at the original symposium).




Syllable-Based Generalizations in English Phonology


Book Description

This dissertation, first published in 1980, is concerned with the role of the syllable in generative grammar. Kahn argues that the syllable is a necessary element in phonological descriptions by identifying aspects of phonology that seem to call for analysis in terms of syllabic structure and demonstrating the superiority of syllabic analyses over possible alternative solutions. This title will be of interest to students of English language and linguistics.




Historical Linguistics


Book Description

Bringing the advances of theoretical linguistics to the study of language change in a systematic way, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theoretical linguistics can be used to solve problems where traditional approaches to historical linguistics have failed to produce satisfying results, and that the results of historical research can have an impact on theory. The book first explains the nature of human language and the sources of language change in broad terms. It then focuses on different types of language change from contemporary viewpoints, before exploring comparative reconstruction - the most spectacular success of traditional historical linguistics - and the problems inherent in trying to devise new methods for linguistic comparison. Positioned at the cutting edge of the field, the book argues that this approach can and should lead to the re-integration of historical linguistics as one of the core areas in the study of language.




Historical Linguistics


Book Description

This innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics.




Historical Linguistics 2005


Book Description

This volume contains 22 revised papers originally presented at the 17th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, held August 2005 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. The papers cover a broad range of languages, including well-studied languages of Europe but also Aramaic, Zoque and Uto-Aztecan, Japanese and Korean, Afrikaans, and the Pilbara languages of Australia. The theoretical approaches taken are equally diverse, often bringing together aspects of ‘formal’ and ‘functional’ theories in a single contribution. Many of the chapters provide fresh data, including several drawing on data from electronic corpora. Topics range from traditional comparative reconstruction to prosodic change and the role of processing in syntactic change.




Issues in Scottish Vowel Quantity


Book Description

This book primarily provides a detailed description and interpretation of one of the most fascinating and poorly understood processes in English accentology, i.e. Aitken’s Law, also known as the Scottish Vowel Length Rule by which vowel quantity in Scottish English is fully predictable, as opposed to the other regional accents of English speakers. The research also contributes to the understanding of the working of long-short vowel distinctions in the languages of the world and argues that all phenomena observed in connection with the presence and absence vowel quantity contrasts are a direct consequence of the working of a relatively small set of universal and inviolable principles of grammar.




The Theory of Lexical Phonology


Book Description

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.




Theoretical and Practical Developments in English Speech Assessment, Research, and Training


Book Description

This edited book presents and discusses theoretical, practical, and research developments in English pronunciation in order to establish evidence-based directions and recommendations for best practices in English speech assessment, research, and training. It features leading pronunciation experts from diverse contexts who share cutting-edge research and valuable insights. The collection consists of six parts. Part 1 introduces the aims, focus, and structure of the book, and describes its intended audience. Part 2 reviews, provides empirical evidence, and offers critical analyses guiding different aspects of English speech assessment. Parts 3 and 4 report empirical findings and research perspectives on the perception and production of English speech. Part 5 shares current practices in phonetic training and their effect on learners and listeners. Part 6 presents theoretical perspectives on the acquisition of phonology in multilinguals.