Segmental and prosodic issues in Romance phonology: (282 Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

This volume is a collection of cutting-edge research papers written by well-known researchers in the field of Romance phonetics and phonology. An important goal of this book is to bridge the gap between traditional Romance linguistics — with its long and rich tradition in data collection, cross-language comparison, and phonetic variation — and laboratory phonology work. The book is organized around three main themes: segmental processes, prosody, and the acquisition of segments and prosody. The various articles provide new empirical data on production, perception, sound change, first and second language learning, rhythm and intonation, presenting a state-of-the-art overview of research in laboratory phonology centred on Romance languages. The Romance data are used to test the predictions of a number of theoretical frameworks such as gestural phonology, exemplar models, generative phonology and optimality theory. The book will constitute a useful companion volume for phoneticians, phonologists and researchers investigating sound structure in Romance languages, and will serve to generate further interest in laboratory phonology.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction, pvii-xv; 2. Part 1: Segments and processes; 3. Detection of liaison consonants in speech processing in French: Experimental data and theoretical implications (by Nguyen, Noel), p3-23; 4. Patterns of VCV coarticulatory direction according to the DAC model (by Recasens, Daniel), p25-39; 5. The stability of phonological features within and across segments: The effect of nasalization on frication (by Sole, Maria-Josep), p41-65; 6. Pre- and postaspirated stops in Andalusian Spanish (by Torreira, Francisco), p67-82; 7. Part 2: Prosodic structure; 8. Variation in the intonation of extra-sentential elements (by Astruc-Aguilera, Lluisa), p85-107; 9. Voicing-dependent cluster simplification asymmetries in Spanish and French (by Colantoni, Laura), p109-129; 10. The phonetics and phonology of intonational phrasing in Romance (by Frota, Sonia), p131-153; 11. Disentangling stress from accent in Spanish: Production patterns of the stress contrast in deaccented syllables (by Ortega-Llebaria, Marta), p155-176; 12. Part 3: Acquisition of segmental contrasts and prosody; 13. On the effect of (morpho)phonological complexity in the early acquisition of unstressed vowels in European Portuguese (by Freitas, M. Joao), p179-197; 14. The perception of lexical stress patterns by Spanish and Catalan infants (by Pons, Ferran), p199-218; 15. Logistic regression modelling for first and second language perception data (by Morrison, Geoffrey-Stewart), p219-236; 16. Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages (by White, Laurence), p237-257; 17. Subject Index, p259-262

Review :
A very useful volume that makes it clear that laboratory phonology has come of age. The focus on Romance not only gives a thematic coherence to the volume, but is appropriate in a broader sense. A century ago, the existence of a well studied group of languages with a well documented common ancestor was a valuable resource in the development our understanding of language change. Today, the close study of the Romance languages promises to advance our understanding once again. I congratulate the editors for putting this excellent volume together and for being bold and forward thinking in interpreting phonology as a broad discipline that concerns itself with all aspects of sound and souns systems. One of the most exciting developments in the field of linguistics in recent years has been the emergence of Laboratory Phonology. Both specialists in Romance languages and other scholars interested in laboratory phonology will want to read this important book.