TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

This critical overview examines every aspect of the field including its history, key current research questions and methods, theoretical perspectives, and sociolinguistic factors. The authors represent leading proponents of every theoretical perspective. The book is a valuable resource for phonologists and a stimulating guide for their students.

This book provides hands-on experience with a major area of modern phonology, including phonetics; phonetic variation; natural classes of sounds; alternations; rule systems; and prosodic phonology. Working with problems is an essential part of courses that introduce students to modern phonology. This book provides hands-on experience with a major area of modern phonology, including phonetics; phonetic variation; natural classes of sounds; alternations; rule systems; and prosodic phonology. An introductory essay gives an overview of some of the principal results and assumptions of current phonological theory. The problems are taken from a wide variety of languages, and many are drawn from the authors' firsthand research. All have been used by the authors in their introductory courses, primarily at Harvard and MIT, and are meant to be used in conjunction with a textbook and/or other materials provided by the classroom instructor.

This book is the first to survey current developments in computational phonology, and it does so in a way that is accessible to computational linguists, phonologists and computer scientists alike.

This study investigates the phonological behavior of coronal consonants, i.e. sounds produced with the tip or blade of the tongue. The analysis draws on data from over 120 languages and dialects. A definition of coronality is proposed that rejects the current view holding that palatals are positively marked for this feature. The feature [coronal] is assumed to be privative; the natural class of noncoronals is captured with the feature [peripheral], which dominates [labial] and [velar] in feature geometry. The book contains a detailed examination of the phonological patterning of segments belonging to each of the six coronal subplaces (i.e. interdental, dental, alveolar, retroflex, palatoalveolar, and alveolopalatal). A universal set of features is posited that accounts for these facts. Inventories of coronal consonants are treated in depth and impossible contrasts are accounted for with several if-then statements. The present study also contains a lengthy analysis of the phonology of rhotic consonants. A set of features is postulated which captures natural classes involving rhotics and nonrhotic consonants and which distinguishes the various stricture types among rhotics (i.e. trill vs. tap vs. approximant).