This is an introduction to the phonology of present-day English. It deals principally with three varieties of English: "General American," Southern British "Received Pronunciation" and "Scottish Standard English." It offers a systematic and detailed discussion of the features shared by these major accents, and explains some major differences. Other varieties of English--Australian and New Zealand English, South African English and Hiberno-English--are also discussed briefly. Without focusing on current phonological theory and its evolution, the author demonstrates the importance of "theory," in whatever shape or form, in phonological argumentation. This textbook will be welcomed by all students of English language and linguistics.
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"...Giegerich's book combines a wealth of data with extensive discussion (within this narrow framework) and provides enough reference to the counterexamples to phonemic analysis to make most readers want to see what kind of additional insights (and additional problems) can be found in a less restrictive generative analysis of the same facts." John T. Jensen, Canadian Journal of Linguistics
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This introduction to the phonology of present-day English offers a systematic and detailed discussion of the features shared by three varieties of English: "General American," Southern British "Received Pronunciation" and "Scottish Standard English".
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
rigorous argumentation,
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This review is from: English Phonology: An Introduction (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)
Giegerich's English Phonology is used as the textbook for the introductory phonology course in Applied Linguistics at Portland State University. The MA-TESOL diploma in this dept requires a course in "linguistic argumentation" and for that purpose this is a good book. Not easy to understand, and not a fast read, but beautifuly argued. We needed very little supplemental handout since G's argument is extremely detailed and disciplined.
The argument's theoretical framework is essentially generative phonology, which claims that an adequate set of phonologically argued rules for a given language will produce all and only the correct expressions of that language. Three varieties of modern spoken English -- prestige Southern British "RP", middle-class Scottish English "SE", and midwest regional General American English "GA" -- are compared in great detail. In the first 130 pages, Giegerich develops a comprehensive feature set for English phonemes. In pages 130-330, he moves carefully stepwise from the phonemic basis into an argument for the structure of syllables, the metrical foot, and the metrical phrase in English. The argument itself is logically satisfying despite the proliferation of "exceptions" throughout. Exceptions are items that don't follow the rules. This is not a flaw from the educator's perspective. By paying close attention to each step as Giegerich lays out a long (330 pages) program of binary choices, the student observes phonological rule testing in action. When some items fail to pass the rules, we learn from the error. Professional phonologists will have heated opinions as to whether the presence of so many 'exceptions' invalidates the theory. However from the classroom perspective this is a good book from which to learn how to construct and test phonological rules. There is no mention in English Phonology of competing phonological theories or alternative representations such as Autosegmental Phonology or Optimality Theory. If the instructor wishes to introduce other theories, s/he might need additional texts.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Linguistics Book,
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This review is from: English Phonology: An Introduction (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)
While the author is a bit verbose, this is still a great introduction to English phonology book. The author is well organized, covers a lot of information, and explains topics well. I recommend this book for anyone looking for an introduction to English phonology.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book,
This review is from: English Phonology: An Introduction (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)
This is an excellent introduction in English phonology. In keeping with its title, it does not pay attention to the theoretical difficulties that can occur studying languages other than English.
Too bad it is out of print, though Mr Giegerich's website indicates that he works on a follow-up.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Most speech is produced by an air stream that originates in the lungs and is pushed upwards through the trachea (the windpipe) and the oral and nasal cavities. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
archiphonemic analysis, nonrhotic accents, basic vowel system, nonphonological structure, phonological generalisations, realisational differences, nonphonological information, concrete phonetic level, vowel trapezium, diphthongal realisations, phonetic explicitness, sonority theory, allophonic rules, reference accents, air stream escapes, precise phonetic description, onset template, derivational devices, lexical incidence, typical realisations, reference vowels, core syllable, obstruent system, phonemic theory, true diphthongs Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tense-Vowel Shift, New Zealand, Standard English, Lax-Vowel Shift, South African English, Ulster English, Scottish Vowel-Length Rule, Trisyllabic Laxing, United States, General American, Southern Hiberno-English, Derived-Environment Condition, Received Pronunciation, Southern British, Phrasal Prominence Rule, Northern English, Northern Ireland, Syllable-Boundary Rule, North of England New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Most speech is produced by an air stream that originates in the lungs and is pushed upwards through the trachea (the windpipe) and the oral and nasal cavities. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
archiphonemic analysis, nonrhotic accents, basic vowel system, nonphonological structure, phonological generalisations, realisational differences, nonphonological information, concrete phonetic level, vowel trapezium, diphthongal realisations, phonetic explicitness, sonority theory, allophonic rules, reference accents, air stream escapes, precise phonetic description, onset template, derivational devices, lexical incidence, typical realisations, reference vowels, core syllable, obstruent system, phonemic theory, true diphthongs Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tense-Vowel Shift, New Zealand, Standard English, Lax-Vowel Shift, South African English, Ulster English, Scottish Vowel-Length Rule, Trisyllabic Laxing, United States, General American, Southern Hiberno-English, Derived-Environment Condition, Received Pronunciation, Southern British, Phrasal Prominence Rule, Northern English, Northern Ireland, Syllable-Boundary Rule, North of England New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 49
books:
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17
books
cite this book:
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- The Physics of Speech (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) by D. B. Fry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Phonology in the Twentieth Century: Theories of Rules and Theories of Representations by Stephen R. Anderson in Back Matter
- An Introduction to English Prosody by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen in Back Matter
- An Essay on Stress (Current Studies in Linguistics) by Morris Halle in Back Matter
- Typology and Universals (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) by William Croft in Front Matter
See all 49 books this book cites
- Using the Board in the Language Classroom (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers) by Jeannine Dobbs on page 69, and Back Matter
- English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course by Peter Roach in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- An Introduction to English Language: Word, Sound and Sentence by Koenraad Kuiper on page 225
- The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book by Charles W. Kreidler in Back Matter
- The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book by Charles W. Kreidler in Back Matter
See all 17 books citing this book
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