Metrical Phonology and Phonological Structure: German and English (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics)

Inthismonograph,thefirsttobeexclusivelyconcernedwithamodelofphonologicalstructurethatisbecomingincreasinglyinfluential,HeinzGiegerichpursuestwomajoraims.First,heexploresthetheoreticalfoundationsof'metricalphonology'andinsodoingsuggeststhatthecurrentmodelshouldbesignificantlysimplified:auxiliarydevicessuchas'prosodiccategories','metricalgrids'andsegmentalstressfeaturesareshowntobeunnecessaryinthisstudy.Secondly,heappliesthemodeltoawiderangeofGermanandEnglishdataandinparticularprovidesadetailedaccountofthestresspatternsofGermanwords-nativeandnonnative,morphologicallysimpleandcomplex.ThemanysimilaritiesbetweenGermanandEnglishphonologicalstructurearetherebystrikinglyillustrated.Thebook'sclarityofexpositionwillenablereadersnotwhollyfamiliarwithmetricalphonologytoappreciatefullytheeleganceofthismodelin,arguably,itsmostbasicform.