The 'broken' plural problem in Arabic and comparative Semitic: Allomorphy and analogy in non-concatenative morphology By Robert R. Ratcliffe (review)

234 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 1 (2000) The textpresupposes abasic knowledge ofphonetics . Ch. 1, 'Preliminaries to analysis' (1-30), discusses notions of inventory symmetry, motivates a post-Sound Pattern ofEnglish set of distinctive features , and includes a section on SPE-slyle rule formalisms . Ch. 2, 'Phonemic analysis' (31-79), includes not only phonemic analysis but also brief yet useful crosslinguistic universals of inventories. Ch. 3, 'Morphophonemics' (81-113), includes case studies of phonologically and morphologically conditioned alternations. One of the real strengths of the book is the section (Chs. 4-6) on 'Natural phonological processes', which acquaints the phonological novice with many of the most common phonological processes. Ch. 4, 'Conditioning by surrounding segments' (115-45), proposes three sources for processes—articulation, acoustics, and cognition—and provides many examples of assimilation, logically grouped by whether vowels influence vowels or consonants, etc. Ch. 5. 'Conditioning by syllable structure' (147-203), includes useful diagnostics on segment ambiguity (e.g. whether a stop-fricative sequence is a unit or a cluster ) as well as processes such as metathesis and syllable -domain phenomena such as tone. Ch. 6, 'Conditioning by larger units' (205-30), describes stress, processes such as syncope, and vowel harmony . The final two chapters, which are admittedly 'outrageously brief, are meant to help introduce the student to current phonological theory. Ch. 7, 'Autosegmental phonology' (231-71), and Ch. 8, 'Metrical phonology' (273-300), which also includes templatic morphology and reduplication, give brief exposure to recent pre-optimality generative theory, and may help students grapple with more indepth works. B's treatment of discovery procedures, inventory patterns, and phonological processes makes the book a useful undergraduate text or a valuable companion textbook in courses which are primarily theoretically oriented. [Paul D. Fallon, Howard University.] The 'broken' plural problem in Arabic and comparative Semitic: Allomorphy and analogy in non-concatenative morphology. By Robert R. Ratcliffe. (Current issues in linguistic theory, 168.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia : John Benjamins, 1998. Pp. xii, 261. As generally held, the 'broken' plural (also called internal plural) is a characteristic feature of the noun morphology of the South Semitic languages (e.g. Arabic , Ethiopie) as opposed to the North Semitic languages (e.g. Hebrew, Akkadian). By internal reconstruction on the basis of Arabic and comparison with other Semitic languages, the author attempts to determine whether this feature goes back to ProtoSemitic or is an innovation. Ch. 1 sets up the methodological orientation in which importance is given not to the form and function of linguistic elements but rather to the distribution of such elements. The primary concern is to describe the historical-comparative factors for the variation in the formation of the 'broken' plural. The morphological analysis of Arabic in Ch. 2 is done with the idea of providing a synchronic basis for further diachronic analysis. The author uses recent theoretical discussions in the field while introducing more economical formulations and greater force of explanation . This chapter merits serious consideration. The new classification of singular vs. plural opposition into seven groups given in Ch. 3 is perhaps the author's most important contribution. The underlying working hypothesis is that the plural forms are conditioned by phonological and morphological features of the singular. Groups 1 and 2 exhibit regular plural formation of triconsonantal and longer nouns but are not highly productive. Group 3 comprises regular and productive plural formation of quadriconsonantal and longer nouns. Group 4 includes triconsonantal singulars which have the same plural formation as Group 3. Groups 5 and 6 cover participles and two types of verbal adjective which do not have sound plurals or plural forms like group 4. Group 7 contains a small group of adjective types with productive but inegular plural formation. This classification helps determine the extent to which productivity and regularity govern the singular-plural relationship and at the same time opens the way for an internal reconstruction of the plural system without having to rely on the functional and semantic explanation the way traditional analysis does. The above-mentioned classification also serves as a basis for comparative reconstruction. After reevaluating previous scholarship in Ch. 4, the author proceeds , in Ch. 5, with an analysis of the comparative evidence for the singular-plural relationship. The...