Reviewed by Alejandrina Cristia, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Since it has been a mere fifteen years after the first edition of this book, readers of this review may wonder if they should buy it again. The question turns out to be ill-posed, as it presupposes a constant ‘it’. The current edition is a radically different selection of essays. Below is a succinct overview of its chapters.

In terms of phonological units, only ‘The syllable’ (John Goldsmith) and ‘Tone: Is it different?’ (Larry Hyman) are discussed. Suprasegmentals are addressed in ‘Quantity’ (Stuart Davis), ‘Stress systems’ (Matthew Gordon), and ‘Intonation’ (Mary E. Beckman and Jennifer J. Venditti). In-depth discussion of types of synchronic phenomena are limited to ‘Harmony systems’ (Sharon Rose and Rachel Walker) and ‘Opacity and ordering’ (Eric Baković), with ‘Contrast reduction’ (Alan C. L. Yu) covering both mergers and neutralization. Interfaces between phonology and other linguistic components are covered in ‘The interaction between morphology and phonology’ (Sharon Inkelas) and ‘The syntax-phonology interface’ (Elisabeth Selkirk). Notably, D. R. Ladd prefers to speak of ‘Phonetics in phonology’ (emphasis added).

Another group of chapters focuses on kinds of evidence feeding phonological theory, including ‘Language games’ (Bert Vaux), ‘Loanword adaptation’ (Carole Paradis and Darlene LaCharité), developmental data (Katherine Demuth), and psycholinguistic data (Matt Goldrick). Also on acquisition, Adam Albright and Bruce Hayes integrate formal and experimental approaches in ‘Learning and learnability in phonology’. The incorporation of the chapter by Mirjam Ernestus and R. Harald Baayen reflects recent tendencies to integrate quantitative analyses of large corpora into the phonological evidence toolkit, which typically also require linguists to bear in mind ideas presented in the chapter ‘The place of variation in phonological theory’ (Andries W. Coetzee and Joe Pater).

Three chapters discuss the basic structure of current phonological theories. David Odden’s ‘Rules v. constraints’ argues against the rule versus constraint dichotomy. The chapter by Harry van der Hulst describes the properties of a number of ‘Dependency-based phonologies’. Finally, Gunnar Ólafur Hansson provides a general review of ‘Diachronic explanations of sound patterns’. From a different approach, John Coleman provides a brief history of computational modeling in ‘Phonology as computation’.

This overview may suffice to illustrate the markedly different approaches in the two editions. Nearly a third of the chapters in the first edition documented current issues in specific language families, whereas only the chapter on ‘Sign language phonology’ (Diane Brentari) could arguably be classified as such. In contrast, insights from large corpora, theoretical approaches to variation, and psycholinguistic considerations are uniquely represented in the 2011 edition. Even in chapters that have a counterpart in the first edition, there are important perspective changes from the particulars of a language or language group to general phonological principles, possibly as a response of the editors’ challenge to ‘ask what the broader questions are [and] pass judgment […] on the degree to which the field had succeeded in providing answers’. As the previous edition proved to be, this edition will doubtless be a key reference in the field.