Electronic synthesis of speech By R. Linggard (review)

BOOK NOTICES 705 [P. Swiggers, Belgian National Science Foundation.] Linguistics in the Netherlands 1985. Ed. by Hans Bennis and Frits Beukema . (AVT publications, 1.) Dordrecht , Holland, & Cinnaminson, NJ: Foris, 1985. Pp. x, 234. /38.00. This is the first volume in a new series published for the Algemene Vereniging voor Taalwetenschap , the Linguistic Society of the Netherlands. However, it continues a long series of proceedings of the annual meetings, containing 25 of the 53 papers presented at the 16th such meeting; one is written in French, the rest in English. While many contributions deal with Dutch, there are also papers on French, English, German , Russian, Hungarian, Papiamentu, Latin, and Pali. Together, these articles give a reasonably adequate picture of the present trends in Dutch linguistics; however, one university (Leiden ) is heavily over-represented in the list of contributors, and there are not many papers on semantics. The quality of the papers is roughly that of American conference proceedings such as CLS; but as in the US, the limited space allotted to each author often makes full discussion impossible (the maximum length of the papers is 1 1 pages). Consequently, the analyses as well as the descriptions of the facts remain sketchy. The syntactic contributions show the current prevalence of Chomsky's Government/Binding theory in the Netherlands, which may well have the largest number of linguists working in that framework outside the state of Massachusetts. Among the issues addressed are: the referential status of Dutch het 'it' (H. Bennis); the categorial status of the infl node (F. Drukoningen ); small clauses and non-small clauses in French (A. Hulk); predication in Dutch noun phrases (J. Kerstens); weak cross-over phenomena in Hungarian (L. K. Maracz); Burzio's generalization—the claim that verbs assign Case to their direct object iff they assign a tíiematic role to their subject—as it relates to phase verbs in Russian (J. Oduk); the status ofEnglish infinitival to (B. Rigter); X-bar theory (F. Stuurman); and word order and verb particle combinations in Old English (W. Koopman). Besides these GB contributions, there are papers by R. Lankamp & R. Verheuen on English adverb placement (in a GPSG framework); by R. Verheuen on a new theory ofantecedent/ reflexive agreement; by F. van Putte on complementizer selection in Papiamentu; by J. Wester on Latin subjunctive relative clauses (in the Functional Grammar paradigm); and by B. Kampers-Manhe on French subjunctives. H. van der Hülst makes the controversial but interesting claim that intervocalic consonants after short vowels in Dutch are ambisyllabic geminates. Iftrue, this would vindicate the spelling system, which marks shortness ofvowels in open syllables by geminating the following consonant. Other phonological contributions discuss the interaction of syntax and intonation in Dutch (J. Baart); final devoicing and subject clitics in Dutch (G. E. Booij); yet another reanalysis ofHungarian vowel harmony (C. Ewen & H. van der Hülst); morphological factors in stress assignment (J. G. Koou; S. Langeweg); morphologically and phonotactically governed shwa deletion and suffix truncation in German (W. U. S. van Lessen Kloeke); and the development of aspirated geminates in Pali from Old Indie sibilant/stop combinations (W. L. Wetzels & B. Hermans). Finally, there are a few papers on semantics. L. De Smet discusses French noun phrases introduced by des and tries to account for their distribution and generic interpretation. M. D. de Wolff draws on theories of word meaning to get a handle on irony. The lack ofcontributions on semantics is probably related to the fact that, in the Netherlands, much work in formal semantics is carried out by philosophers rather than linguists. [Jack Hoeksema, University of Pennsylvania.] Electronic synthesis of speech. By R. Linggard. Cambridge: University Press, 1985. Pp. viii, 149. Although speech synthesis is perhaps too specialized a topic for the majority of Language readers to consider in depth, the area has enjoyed great popular success in the recent decade . Electronic speech is everywhere: from video-game parlors to talking dashboards in cars, to telephone answering systems that take data interactively. The technological breakthroughs have brought into reliefsome problems that linguists are best trained to solve, e.g. rules for synthesizing speech rhythms and intonation. It is to be expected, therefore, that this area will attract an...