30.4376, Books: Highly complex syllable structure: Easterday

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4376. Mon Nov 18 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.4376, Books: Highly complex syllable structure: Easterday

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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2019 13:02:56
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [Sebastian.Nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Highly complex syllable structure: Easterday

 


Title: Highly complex syllable structure 
Subtitle: A typological and diachronic study 
Series Title: Studies in Laboratory Phonology  

Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: Language Science Press
	   http://langsci-press.org
	

Book URL: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/249 


Author: Shelece Easterday

Electronic: ISBN:  9783961101948 Pages: 616 Price: Europe EURO 0 Comment: Open Access


Abstract:

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose
strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a
universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long
sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically
marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic
structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with
highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether
these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they
constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible
diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in
the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified
sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns.

Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number
of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them
apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific
segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel
reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word
ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a
linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other
proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal
languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural
organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these
patterns out of simpler syllable structures.
This book received the 2019 Joseph Greenberg Award for fundamental
contributions to typology from the Association for Linguistic Typology.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Phonology
                     Typology


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=139573




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