The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory, edited by S.J. Hannahs and Anna R. K. Bosch, is a collection of twenty-three chapters which address a wide range of perspectives on phonological theory, reflecting the current diversity of the field. The editors’ aim is to ‘provide a snapshot of the current state of phonology, phonological analysis, and the continuing debate about the demarcation, if any, between the study of phonetics and that of phonology’ (9).
The handbook is divided into two parts. Part I, which takes up roughly two-thirds of the volume, deals with theoretical frameworks which have for the last decades formed the core of generative phonology. There are four chapters on Optimality Theory (OT), three on Rule-Based Phonology (RBP), three on Government Phonology (GP), and one on Dependency Phonology (DP). The first part of the book also contains two chapters on connectionist phonology. These feel a little out of place, given that connectionism is associated primarily with psycholinguistics rather than with theoretical phonology per se. To my mind, it would have made more sense to group them in the second part of the book, although I take the editors’ point that ‘it can be difficult to structure a volume of this sort to reflect objectively the many threads of investigation … while at the same time trying to achieve coherence of coverage’ (5).
Part II of the book covers what the editors call ‘something of a smorgasbord of issues’ (5). Here we find among other things chapters on Laboratory Phonology, Articulatory Phonology, sign language phonology, statistical approaches and Exemplar Theory.
In keeping with the overall perspective of the book, each of the chapters is primarily theory-oriented. Comparatively little attention is devoted to linguistic data. The language index contains a little over a hundred languages, which is not much for a book this size. (Of the languages, English is by far the most frequently represented.) The chapters have a high level of theoretical detail. Most of them should be accessible to researchers, although readers who lack a background in mathematics may find themselves struggling with the chapter on statistical phonology. A useful feature of the book is that most of the chapters conclude with an outline of future directions of research and recommendations for further reading. What is less helpful is that the chapters contain very few cross-references to other chapters in the book, and that none of the authors engage in a dialogue with each other – a point to which I return below.
The structure of Part I offers a good basis for assessing and comparing the assumptions and formalisms of the core theories which are covered there. Pavel Iosad discusses the mechanics of OT and highlights a number of advantages which OT has over earlier, rule-based models. The next three chapters flesh out some aspects of OT in more detail. Martin Krämer examines different types of constraint interaction, Michael Ramsammy considers the interface between phonetics and phonology from an OT perspective, and Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero outlines the theory of stratal phonology, an approach to the phonology–morphology interface which combines OT with a cyclic model.
The three chapters on RBP are set up in a similar fashion. Thomas Purnell outlines the main assumptions of RBP and provides historical background on the use of rules in generative phonology. Bert Vaux & Neil Myler offer a critical comparison of RBP and OT, arguing that some of the purported advantages of OT, e.g. the interpretation of ‘conspiracies’, are not without problems either, while RBP is better equipped to handle opacity and unnatural sound patterns. Heather Newell argues for a rule-based approach to the syntax–phonology interface, which she carefully compares with a constraint-based approach. Taken together, the chapters by Newell and Bermúdez-Otero offer a state-of-the-art overview of current work on the interface between phonology and morpho-syntax.
The three chapters on GP address different aspects of this framework. Tobias Scheer & Nancy C. Kula discuss the GP architecture of the phonological component of the grammar and describe the basic principles of Element Theory. In the first of two chapters, Tobias Scheer & Eugeniusz Cyran consider the GP approach to syllable structure and outline the Strict CV model, in which the traditional arboreal structure of syllables has been replaced with a flat structure. In their second chapter, Scheer & Cyran examine the issue of interfaces from a GP perspective. While it is good to see that a non-mainstream theory like GP is represented with three chapters, it is puzzling that Tobias Scheer co-authored each of them. (Was the original intention to have just one chapter, which ended up having too much material?) There are many phonologists working in GP today; the book could have offered some of them a platform to outline their views.
The chapters on GP are followed by a single chapter on DP, in which Harry van der Hulst & Jeroen van de Weijer discuss the main tenets of this framework and consider some recent developments. Part I concludes with two chapters on connectionist phonology. The first, by John Alderete & Paul Tupper, shows how a connectionist model can be applied to a range of phonological phenomena, including stress, harmony, assimilation and dissimilation. The second, by Joseph Paul Stemberger, presents a connectionist approach to the interface between phonology and morphology, and considers language production and acquisition from this perspective.
As mentioned, Part II of the handbook has a broader and more varied focus, and covers theoretical issues and approaches which are to different extents independent of specific frameworks. This part contains interesting and highly readable chapters on substance free phonology (by Charles Reiss), sign language phonology (by Jordan Fenlon, Kearsy Cormier & Diane Brentari), Emergent Phonology (by Diana Archangeli & Douglas Pulleyblank), Laboratory Phonology (by Abigail C. Cohn, Cécile Fougeron & Marie K. Huffman), Articulatory Phonology (by Nancy Hall), exemplar-based phonology (by Stefan A. Frisch), algebraic phonology (by Iris Berent), statistical phonology (by Michael Hammond), and phonology and evolution (by Bart de Boer).
The assumptions, aims and concerns of these chapters overlap to different extents with those of the chapters in Part I. It is therefore a pity that the contributing authors hardly engage in a dialogue with each other, especially in those cases where their theoretical positions are conflicting – on such issues as rules vs. constraints, innate vs. emergent features, algebraic rules vs. associative processes (Berent’s chapter argues that both are in fact needed), categorical vs. gradient processes, the storage of phonetic detail in lexical representations, the degree of substantive grounding in phonology, and, more generally, the demarcation between phonetics and phonology. This would have helped to put the various approaches into a larger context.
The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory makes clear that phonology is currently a varied landscape – probably more so now than at any time before. The chapters in the book do a good job of making explicit the assumptions and goals of the various approaches. Each provides important insights and brings up interesting questions for future research. At the same time, their diversity shows how fragmented the field of phonology has become, and how little consensus there is, even on some of the most fundamental issues.
