Beats-and-Binding Phonology

The Author: Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kolaczyk is professor of English linguistics at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. She has published extensively on phonology and phonetics, second language acquisition, first language acquisition, and morphology. In her works she has been pursuing and advocating the Natural Linguistic approach to language. She has also edited and co-edited a number of volumes, most recently on Constraints and Preferences.

The present monograph introduces a model of Beats-and-Binding phonology (B&B phonology), embedded in the epistemological framework of Natural Linguistics. B&B phonology operates with units called beats (B's) and relations called bindings. The syllable is epiphenomenal in the B&B approach to phonology and thus at most is a consequence of the operation of the B&B preferences. Universal phonotactic preferences follow directly from the binding preferences and unanimously refer to the Optimal Sonority Distance Principle . In order to demonstrate the explanatory potential of B&B phonology, a large number of diversified internal, historical and external sources of data are surveyed. Among the external evidence, the following areas are represented: first language acquisition, second language acquisition, aphasia, writing systems, phonostylistics, psycholinguistics and metaphonology, and phonetics. The monograph also contains an overview of the principles of Natural Linguistics, a critical historical review of approaches to the syllable, and a discussion of the epistemological compatibility between preferences and constraints in Natural Linguistics and Optimality Theory.

Contents : Beats-and-Binding phonology (B&B phonology) - Natural Linguistics: the syllable - theories of the syllable - universals - phonological processes - universal phonotactic preferences - the Optimal Sonority Distance Principle - internal and external evidence - diachronic evidence - first language acquisition, second language acquisition, aphasia, writing systems, phonostylistics, psycholinguistics and metaphonology, and phonetics - preferences and constraints - Natural Linguistics and Optimality Theory.