Generative Phonology

This book offers an accessible and integrated overview of generative phonology as it is practised today. Setting out to overcome the apparent fragmentation of the field, Iggy Roca brings together the various strands that have developed since the appearance of SPE a quarter of a century ago, and integrates the genuine advances and innovations into a coherent model of phonology. He supplies the basic terminology and conceptual tools to allow the non-specialist reader to penetrate current problems and debates, whilst providing a rich body of literature for the phonologist. He looks at major developments in mainstream generative phonology as well as work carried out under the umbrella of 'particle', 'dependency', and 'government and charm' phonology. All arguments and theoretical constructs are backed up with empirical illustrations drawn from a variety of languages, along with pointers for future research. Iggy Roca teaches phonology at the University of Essex. He is the co-author of Foundations of General Linguistics and the editor of Logical Issues in Language Acquisition and Thematic Structure: Its Role in Grammar.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.