The Sound Pattern of English [Paperback]

Noam Chomsky (Author), Morris Halle (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 026253097X | ISBN-13: 978-0262530972 | Publication Date: January 17, 1991

Since this classic work in phonology was published in 1968, there has been no other book that gives as broad a view of the subject, combining generally applicable theoretical contributions with analysis of the details of a single language. The theoretical issues raised in The Sound Pattern of English continue to be critical to current phonology, and in many instances the solutions proposed by Chomsky and Halle have yet to be improved upon.Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle are Institute Professors of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The theoretical issues raised in The Sound Pattern of English continue to be critical to current phonology, and in many instances the solutions proposed by Chomsky and Halle have yet to be improved upon.

"One of the great contributions to phonological theory in the history of linguistics... [it is] the most comprehensive and ambitious single statement on generative phonology." Kenneth C. Hill and Larry Nessly , Linguistics

About the Author

Morris Halle is Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at MIT.

Product Details

• Paperback: 484 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (January 17, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 026253097X
• ISBN-13: 978-0262530972
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #594,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. A member of the American Academy of Science, he has published widely in both linguistics and current affairs. His books include At War with Asia, Towards a New Cold War, Fateful Triangle: The U. S., Israel and the Palestinians, Necessary Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy and Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Foundational, July 17, 2009

By 

Michael B. Maxwell "McSwell" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sound Pattern of English (Paperback)

I'm going to disagree with the other two reviewers. It did not kick-start linguistics or phonology, which had been going for decades (if not a century). But it did give phonology a needed kick in the pants, for it showed that (a) native speakers of English had indeed internalized *some* means for predicting stress, and (b) it gave a set of rules that would predict stress.

While phonologists have long since moved beyond believing that those particular rules are what native speakers have internalized--it is anything but the last word--it set a standard for what an account of phonology needed to accomplish. For it came closer than anything before (and than a lot of things after) to being observationally adequate, if not achieving descriptive adequacy. Accounting for a large set of data--a corpus--has certainly not been replaced by experimental techniques; the latter are simply another arrow in the phonologist's quiver.

As for being obsolete, I guess SPE falls into the same category as writings by Galileo or Newton or Darwin: superseded in some sense, but still worth reading.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, December 14, 2009

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profling - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Sound Pattern of English (Paperback)

Despite the impressive phonological apparatus Morris Halle contributed to this work, the reader needs to look closely at the derivations proposed. In almost every case, the rule applications are no more than diachronic restatements. In other words, they simply recap the historical evolution of the current forms.That is because the concept of underlying forms is the stumbling block of Chomsky's theory, and although Chomskyians and their ilk try to avoid diachronic data, they really cannot in the long run.

15 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first and last word on this subject, July 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sound Pattern of English (Paperback)

The Sound Pattern of English (known as "SPE") is the most complete study of the phonology of any language that has ever been undertaken. It is the last word on English stress, vowels, and consonants. It will also tell you everything you need to know about how to write phonological rules, covering complexities like parentheses, parenthesis-star, curly brackets, angled brackets, and everything else. Chomsky and Halle also tell us about their discovery of "distinctive" "features", which are the universal sound system of every language. We owe them a great debt of gratitude for this stunning achievement. "'SPE'" was Chomsky's last work on phonology, so you can see what a loss it was that he decided to switch to syntax.