The phonology of German By Richard Wiese (review)

LANGUAGE, VOLUME 73, NUMBER 4 (1997) More generally, this is an informative and comprehensive introduction to the particular problems faced by Indian ELT, which are unlikely to be anticipated by ELT specialists from other countries. [Shravan Vasishth, Ohio State University.] Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication. 4th edn. By Adrian Akmajian, Richard A. Demers , Ann K. Farmer, and Robert M. Harnish. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. Pp. xiv, 577. This is the latest edition of a well used and respected introductory linguisücs text. The authors follow the basic organization of the third edition. 'The structure of human language', part 1, includes the topics of morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, language variation, and language change. 'Communication and cognitive science', part 2, comprises pragmatics, psychology of language (speech production and comprehension), language acquisition , and language and the brain. The comprehensiveness of the volume, particularly with respect to the cognitive science and language use sections, permits it to serve as a basic text for courses with diverse foci, from straightforward introductory linguistics to communications and psycholinguistics. Since the text contains more material than even the most ambitious instructor could hope to cover in a semester, the authors suggest a number of modular formats, selecting particular chapters to be tailored to the goals of the course. There is much to like about the new edition. The authors use an inductive pedagogical approach that invites students to examine language as an object of inquiry, taking as much space as needed to build important linguistic intuitions. Students are initiated into the reasoning and methodologies that linguists use in formulating theories and making inferences from data. The authors employ a fairly elevated register , with unapologetic use of technical terms which are always well-defined and illustrated. Tables and figures are pertinent and not overused. One perennial problem in writing linguistic texts remains the choice of which version of a theory to present: One wishes to be as current as possible so as to show the advances of the discipline to fullest advantage and at the same time to leave students, the majority of whom will not continue in linguistics, with a coherent model having reasonable explanatory power. The authors have chosen to present theories that are well-established, if not cutting-edge, that serve to demonstrate the requirements of a viable linguistic theory. Thus the authors present distinctive feature theory and foot-based prosody as their phonological models, with an advanced section on tone contour. To illustrate syntactic models, they present transformational theory, with an advanced section on X-bar theory. A choice that pleases me less is the strong focus on English examples, to the near exclusion of those from other languages. The authors are fully cognizant of this decision, arguing that their intention is to encourage linguistic intuitions in a largely Englishspeaking audience. A counter to this position is that first, a linguistics course may well provide the only opportunity for the college population to be exposed to the vast though diminishing range of linguistic diversity, particularly of non-European languages. Second, many of the intuitions we wish to foster can be strengthened, not by examining English in evercloser detail, but by noting the contrast between an English linguistic strategy and a very different one that marks the same concept. [Marcia Haag, University of Oklahoma.] The phonology of German. By Richard Wiese. (The phonology of the world's languages, ed. by Jacques Durand.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. x, 351. This, the fourth volume in Durand's ambitiously titled series, aims to be 'a thorough and in-depth survey of the phonological system ofpresent-day [standard ] German ... as it is spoken . . most frequently and directly in the northern parts of (former East and West) Germany' , and an 'application of recent theories and models ... to the German language!,] ... a guide to and critical discussion of the standard literature . . . [with] emphasis on both empirical coverage and on theoretical argumentation and analysis' (1); it is intended for phonologists and tertiary-level teachers and students of German alike. Wiese argues that traditional descriptive tools lead to potentially contradictory accounts depending on whether one proceeds from phonetic observation or overall systemic requirements, motivating his choice of a...