Date: 16-Dec-2009
From: Michael Shelton <msheltonoxy.edu>
Subject: Linguistics: An Introduction
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AUTHORS: Andrew Radford, Martin Atkinson, David Britain, Harald Clahsen, &Andrew SpencerTITLE: LinguisticsSUBTITLE: An IntroductionSERIES: 2nd EditionPUBLISHER: Cambridge University PressYEAR: 2009
Michael Shelton, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, Occidental College
SUMMARYThis textbook is a thorough introduction to generative approaches tolinguistics. It is unique in its organization in that it divides its discussionof theory into three broad categories: ''sounds,'' ''words,'' and ''sentences.''Within each division, a description of theory is presented first, followed byresearch in applied/related disciplines that support the previous theoreticalconcerns. Each section of the book is followed by short collections of exercisesand recommendations for further reading. In this review, I will outline thespecific organization of the text and follow with a critical evaluation of itscontents.
In the introduction to their text, the authors state that the major perspectiveadopted in the book is that language is a cognitive system that can be studiedboth as part of a psychological structure as well as an aspect of socialstructure. It is immediately clear to the informed reader that the authorsfollow the Chomskyan approach to theoretical linguistics. They also raiseinterest in language acquisition, psycho/neurolinguistics and sociolinguisticsas these fields can inform the theories of Universal Grammar described in thelater chapters of the book. The remainder of the introduction identifies fiverelated fields which will be examined throughout the rest of the textbook:linguistics (theoretical), developmental linguistics, psycholinguistics,neurolinguistics, and sociolinguistics. In the subsection on theoreticallinguistics, the authors present the competence/performance distinction, as wellas general concepts related to phonology and syntax. They introduce the conceptsof Phonetic Form (PF) and Logical Form (LF) and present Universal Grammar (UG)as the principal goal of linguistic study, in addition to the study ofindividual language grammars. In their subsection on developmental linguisticsthe innateness hypothesis is discussed, including Chomsky's language acquisitionprogram and the poverty of the stimulus. The subsection on psycholinguisticspresents the general concept of language processing with a simplified model oflanguage comprehension. Terminology such as aphasia, specific languageimpairment (SLI), Broca's and Wernicke's areas, and imaging techniques arediscussed in the subsection on neurolinguistics. In their subsection onsociolinguistics, the authors present language use as characterized by variationamong speakers based on societal factors and situational contexts (e.g. Labov'sapparent-time approach).
After the introduction appears Part I, the first large division of the book. Itis entitled ''Sounds'' and is divided into seven sections. Section 1 is anintroduction that motivates the study of the phonological system and introducesthe subsequent sections. Section 2, 'Sounds and suprasegmentals,' begins with adiscussion of the difference between phones and graphemes and introduces theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). A traditional presentation ofarticulatory phonetics of English follows. In example words, British English isthe preferred dialect for transcription, although the authors do includeexamples from other dialects in exercises and example data in later sections.The reader then finds a discussion of suprasegmental features, including a cleardiscussion of the differences between stress, accent, tone, and intonation.Section 3 concerns sound variation, focusing principally on sociolinguisticchange. Beginning with linguistic and then sociological variables, the authorsoffer an engaging discussion of sociolinguistic variation via examples of famousstudies such as Trudgill's work on standard-nonstandard variants in Norwich(1974), Milroy's research on social networks in Belfast (1987), Eckert's studiesof jocks and burnouts in Detroit (2000), and Labov's investigation of rhotics inNew York (1972). Section 4 concerns sound change, beginning with consonantalprocesses such as flapping, spirantization, and yod-dropping, and then moving tovowel change including merger/split and chain shifts. Broader issues such asregularity in sound change and lexical diffusion follow. The final subsection,suprasegmental change, discusses historical stress shifts in English that haveled to stress-marked noun/verb distinctions. Section 5 is entitled 'Phonemes,syllables and phonological processes.' It begins by introducing the phoneme anddiscussing distribution. Here the syllable is discussed in detail including howto diagram syllables, phonotactic constraints, the sonority principle, and themaximal onset principle. The subsection on phonological processes introduces theconcepts of underlying representation (UR) and surface representation (SR). Asubsection on phonological features presents distinctive features,underspecification, natural classes, and how to read phonological rule notation.Finally, a very short discussion of Optimality Theory (OT) concludes section 5.Section 6 discusses first language (L1) phonological acquisition. This sectionbegins by describing the early milestones in phonological development andintroduces experimental techniques in infant research, such as sucking rates,head turns, and heart rate studies. The authors conclude this section with agenerative theory of phonological acquisition (dual-lexicon model), whichaccounts for child phonological processes such as prevocalic voicing, fricativestopping, and vowel/consonant harmony. This subsection also describes conceptssuch as despecification, feature spreading, and Stray Erasure. The final sectionin Part I discusses speech perception and production. Experimental methods suchas identification and discrimination tasks present speech perception. Speechproduction is presented with a discussion of error analyses, such asspoonerisms, anticipations, perseverations, and substitutions. These errors aremotivated in a discussion of forward planning and the scan-copier model. Thissection concludes with a subsection on other aspects of phonological processing,which discusses poetics and alphabet development.
Part II, ''Words,'' is an introduction to morphology and the mental lexicon. Thissegment of the book is also divided into seven sections. After an introductorysection (8), sections 9-12 introduce theoretical perspectives, and the followingsections (13-16) discuss acquisitional, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguisticconcerns, as well as an informative section on language disorders. Section 9,'Word classes,' presents the reader with a discussion of morphologicalcategories. This section covers lexical and functional categories, wordformation, and derivational morphology. Section 9 ends with a discussion ofinflection and inflectional categories. Focusing on the principal morphologicalproperties of English verbs, this subsection examines agreement, tense, aspect,transitivity, and active/passive voice. 'Building words,' section 10, is atraditional introduction to morphology, defining morphemes, bound/freemorphemes, roots and affixes. After the introduction of basic terminology,section 10 continues by examining derivational and inflectional processes with adiscussion of the implications of these processes for the lexical representationof words. Other morphological aspects of English, such as compounding andclitics, are considered next. Here the reader learns about recursion andstructural ambiguity. Section 10 concludes with a discussion of allomorphy,including the phonological/lexical conditioning of allomorphs, suppletion, andthe Separation Hypothesis. Section 11, 'Morphology across the languages,' is avery informative section that takes the reader outside of English to view othermorphological processes that are found in the world's languages. Discussingprocesses in languages such as Turkish, Latin, Chukchee, and Tagalog, thissection introduces the reader to isolating, agglutinating, inflectional, andpolysynthetic languages and processes. Inflectional classes are also discussed,including case/number endings, declensions, conjugations, and syncretism. Thissection ends with the difference between concatenative and non-concatenativemorphology, with examples of processes such as reduplication, ablaut, umlaut,circumfixation and infixation. Section 12 breaks away from morphology proper todiscuss semantics and the structure of the lexicon. It begins with entailmentand follows with semantic relationships such as hyponymy, synonymy, antonymy,and complementarity. This section ends with the presentation of semanticdistinctive features and a very short introduction to prototypes. Section 13introduces the reader to the acquisition of morphology. Following a shortdescription of early child speech, the reader finds a review of influentialstudies in L1 morphological acquisition, including the wug test and Brown'sordering of verbal morphology. Next the authors discuss developmental processessuch as overregularization and how children's intuitions regarding morphology,such as novel compounds, reflect the organization of their morphologicalsystems. The following subsection returns to semantics to discuss developmentalprocesses such as overextensions, which are discussed in relation to distinctivefeatures and taxonomic relationships. Section 14 introduces lexical processingand the mental lexicon. Serial-autonomous and parallel-interactive processingmodels start the discussion. The authors introduce activation and primingthrough examples of processing studies. They argue that serial-autonomous modelsare reliant upon phonology for processing, whereas parallel-interactive modelsarguably allow more access to contextual information. The following subsectionexamines Levelt's model as exemplary of the representation of words in themental lexicon. This section differentiates between lexemes and lemmas,lemma-level and form-level encoding, and introduces a small set of speecherrors, specifically blends, substitutions, and word exchanges. Section 14concludes with another brief mention of prototypes and semantic 'distance' inthe lexicon. Lexical disorders are discussed in section 15, which offers adetailed discussion of aphasia and SLI. This section presents the symptoms ofBroca's and Wernicke's aphasia as well as related consequences, such astelegraphic speech and frequency, categorization-level, and similarity effects.Lastly, this section examines the inflectional systems of SLI subjects. Thefinal section of Part II is entitled 'Lexical variation and change.' Section 16explores cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal variation. Concepts such asborrowings (including resulting phonological and morphological changes),calques, and register are discussed within the context of language/dialectcontact. From a historical perspective, the text discusses semantic broadeningand narrowing over time, as well as amelioration and pejoration. The finalsubsection examines variation and change in morphology with examples fromAfrican American Vernacular English (AAVE) and East Anglian English, as well asempirical studies of phonological variation of '-ing' endings across dialects ofEnglish. In this reviewer's opinion, this final section reads more like adiscussion of sociolinguistic variation of phonology rather than morphology.Nonetheless, it rounds out an informative section on variation that the curiousreader will find both entertaining and informative.
Part III concerns the sentence-level of linguistic inquiry and comprises anin-depth introduction to generative syntax. This is the largest section of thebook, divided into eleven sections. After the introduction, sections 18-23 covertheoretical syntax, and sections 24-27 introduce acquisition of syntax, sentenceprocessing, syntactic disorders and pragmatics, respectively. Section 18introduces the concept of the clause and presents the reader with basicterminology to discuss syntactic categories and functions. Included in thisdiscussion are constituents, a detailed description of case with Englishpronouns, finiteness, and clause functions. Section 19 is an introduction toX-Bar Theory. It begins by introducing merger and the basic concepts of phrasestructure, such as heads and phrase projection. The authors then motivate TensePhrase (TP) through a discussion of infinitival subordinate clauses. Theremainder of this section discusses tests for constituency such as coordination,spec-head agreement, case assignment in English, and the selectional propertiesof verbs. Section 20 is a detailed section which motivates and discusses themain properties of empty categories. An empty head for TP is argued for invarious contexts including African American Vernacular English (AAVE), gappingstructures, tag questions, do-support, and bare infinitive clauses. Next are twoshort subsections introducing PRO and covert complements. The final subsectionof section 20 introduces complementizer phrases (CP) and determiner phrases (DP)and asserts that all nominals are D-projections and all clauses areC-projections. Section 21 introduces movement. It covers basic examples of headand operator movement, introducing important concepts such as traces and theEconomy Principle. Yes-no questions are also examined, with polarity itemsoffered as evidence for a covert yes/no operator in Spec-CP. This sectionconcludes with examples of other types of movement such as topicalization andpassivization. Section 22 introduces parameters with a discussion of syntacticvariation, such as inversion in AAVE and null subjects in Early Modern English.This section ends with a crosslinguistic comparison of head direction in Englishand German. Section 23 closes the introduction to syntactic theory by discussingsentence-level semantics and LF. The authors present arguments for covertmovement at LF via a discussion of structural ambiguity, thematic roles, andtruth conditions. Very clear tree diagrams offer the reader examples of movementthroughout this section and introduce concepts such as coindexation, boundvariable interpretation and the Crossover Principle. Section 24 examines aspectsof child syntactic development couched within Principles and Parameters Theory(PPT). In this section, the authors argue that the acquisition of syntax islimited principally to setting parameters. Examples of child syntax areconsidered, such as null subjects and non-finite clauses in child English. Afterexamples of null heads in child DPs, the final subsection argues forunderspecification of functional categories in child speech. Section 25 beginswith a definition of sentence parsing. Next it examines processing studies thatoffer support for the previously mentioned syntactic theories. Exampleexperiments include click studies and probe-recognition tasks for recencyeffects in filler-gap dependency. The processing of structural ambiguities isexamined next, focusing on attachment preferences, garden-path sentences andcenter-embedding. The discussion returns to aphasia and SLI in section 26, thistime from a syntactic perspective. Here agrammatism is described as a deficit inthe interpretation/construction of functional projections, while paragrammatismis only mentioned briefly as it is considered a condition concerning lexicalaccess not syntactic processing. Based on multiple examples from German, theauthors close this section by describing SLI as an impairment of theinflectional system. The last section of Part III is entitled 'Using sentences'and comprises a traditional introduction to pragmatics. In this final section,the reader learns basic concepts such as deixis, prosody in relation totopic/focus, presuppositions, speech acts, the Cooperative Principle and Griceanmaxims, implicature, Relevance Theory, and turn-taking in conversation analysis.
EVALUATIONThis textbook, as admitted by the authors in their introduction, is strictly anintroduction to Chomskyan linguistics. The reader finds very few references toany linguistic accounts other than traditional generative grammar. This makesthe text a perfect fit for use in intermediate-level courses on generativelinguistics. However, for those readers/instructors who are looking for abroader introduction to the field, the lack of alternative viewpoints andapproaches may be disappointing. For example, while the authors include adescription of articulatory phonetics, which later feeds into their discussionof generative phonology, no description of acoustic features is included. Whilethe text does include examples of a historical nature throughout, no mention oflarge language families, e.g. Indoeuropean, are found. Perhaps due to commentsfrom the first edition, it appears that the authors have made attempts toinclude some presentation of alternative frameworks, such as their discussion ofOT in phonology. However, these sections feel disjointed from the remainder ofthe text, as though they were being presented as an afterthought, rather than asan important line of research in current linguistic studies. As frequency hasbeen shown to play a large role in language use and representation, somereference to usage-based theories as well would make the text a more thoroughintroduction. Similarly, unlike most other introductory linguistics textbooks(e.g. Fromkin et al. 2007, Bergmann et al. 2007, Curzman & Adams 2009, Finegan2008) this text offers no contextualization of linguistics within the broaderdiscussion of language studies, such as animal vs. human communication orHockett's design features. This is likely due to the narrow focus adopted by theauthors.
Perhaps the most attractive feature of this textbook is its organization intothree predominantly independent, although smoothly transitioned, sections onsounds, words and sentences. This book differs from most introductory texts inthat areas of research such as acquisition studies, psycho/neurolinguistics,sociolinguistics and diachronic change are not compartmentalized into separatechapters. Rather each level of linguistic inquiry is discussed first from atheoretical perspective which is then supported by and reinforced with studiesfrom related fields. This approach gives the reader a strong understanding ofboth theoretical and applied research within phonology, morphology, and syntax.A possible limitation to this structuring of the text is that it provesdifficult to examine these related fields individually. For example, if readersare interested in child language in general, they must consult three separatechapters of the book. However, in this reviewer's opinion, this nontraditionalapproach to the organization of an introductory text helps the reader betterunderstand the various branches of linguistic research and the interdisciplinarynature of related fields.
A matter of concern related to the organization of the text, however, is itsintended audience. As the theoretical scope of the text is narrow, so too is theintended audience. I would be surprised if this textbook could easily beincorporated into a true introductory linguistics course at the undergraduatelevel or be read by the layman with a casual interest in linguistics. While thetitle and organization of the book suggest that the text is intended for use bynovices in the classroom, the authors indicate in their notes for courseorganizers and class teachers that the book is more appropriate for graduatestudents, students of more specialized courses in phonology, morphology, orsyntax, or for students who have completed an introductory course which is at asomewhat lower level than what they are aiming at in this text. I agree that themost appropriate use for this text is probably in a more specializedgraduate-level course, or as a basic reference for students who would appreciatea fundamental review of introductory generative grammar. This may also be themost practical application of the text given its length and in-depth discussionof the material. It would be very difficult to incorporate the entire text in anintroductory course at any level. However, as individual courses of study, or asa reference, the three divisions of the text offer sound introductions to thetheory and methods of research in each field.
Another strong point of this text is its exercises. The authors have included alarge amount of empirical studies in the practice sections that give the studentthe opportunity to work with real data. One aspect that I found particularlyappealing is that the individual exercises at the end of each section arereferenced within the text itself. After each concept is introduced, the readeris referred to specific exercises at the end of the chapter that concern thetopic under discussion. In this way readers may make use of the exercises asthey read, not only once they reach the end of a lengthy section. One problemwith some examples in the text, both in exercises as well as within thediscussion of the material itself, are the examples from American English. As anative speaker from the United States, I was surprised by transcriptions ofAmerican English exhibiting non-rhotic pronunciation and unnatural soundingvowels (ex. 8, p. 46), lexical items that are listed as typical of this dialectwhich I do not recognize (p. 227), and sentence structure that is crucial tounderstanding the exposition of syntactic theory that appears ungrammatical tomy intuitions (ex. 237b, 450a). For a North American student who is justbeginning to learn to transcribe and to understand generative theory, theseexamples and the adoption of British English as the preferred dialect throughoutcould make this text more difficult without extra support from the instructor.At the same time, it is clear that the authors are very aware of their diverseaudience and have included examples from not only standard British and Americandialects but also standard New Zealander, Australian, and South Africanvarieties as well as nonstandard dialects in the U.S. and Britain. This range ofinclusion is impressive.
If we compare this text to other introductory texts, a few more observationsalso arise. First, after exploring the ancillary sections at the end of thebook, it is surprising to find no glossary. While principal concepts are foundin bold-face with clear definitions throughout the text, a centralized referencefor readers at the end of an introductory text would be a very welcome additionto the next edition. Two useful sections in this text are the appendices whichinclude the IPA chart and a chart of the distinctive phonological features ofEnglish. However, the IPA chart is unfortunately not the most recent revision,something perhaps overlooked for the second edition of the text. The book'sbibliography contains an adequate listing of sources that are pertinent to thematerial discussed throughout the text, although many researchers whose work isdiscussed in the chapters are listed without specific citation or reference andare absent from the bibliography. Students who would like to read further onmany of the basic studies described in the book will have to find the referenceson their own. The inclusion of the specific sources used as examples throughoutthe text would greatly improve this text's bibliography. Two final observationsthat stand out when comparing this introduction to similar texts is thediscussion of sign languages and lexical processing. First, sign languages arequickly dismissed by the authors in the first chapter when they state that''their serious study requires the introduction of a considerable amount ofspecialized terminology for which we do not have space in an introductory bookof this kind.'' Given the extremely specialized terminology included throughoutthis text, it is unlikely that the inclusion of sign languages would have provedtoo technical. On the contrary, many texts do include reference to sign languagephonology, morphology, and syntax, which offers examples of comparison betweenmodalities. This would be a possible addition to this book, especially given thegrowing amount of bimodal research in the field. Lastly, the presentation oflexical processing is less a discussion of lexical activation and more one ofsyntactic processing with certain implications for the organization of thelexicon. The models are described with regards to their ability to usecontextual cues to interpret words out of sentences, which is an area usuallystudied under parsing strategies. A discussion of the levels of representationin processing models and the interaction between them, the more traditionalapproach to the study of processing words in the lexicon, seems to be lacking.
The previous limitations notwithstanding, this text is a uniquely-organized,solid introduction to Chomskyan linguistics. The semi-autonomous sections ofthis book have multiple possible applications in graduate-level courses or as anappealing reference book. While not appropriate for true novices or for a broadintroduction to language and linguistic studies, this text offers a stablefoundation in the prominent generative framework.
REFERENCESBergmann, A., Currie Hall, K., & Ross, S. M., (Eds.). (2007). Language files 10. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.Curzman, A., & Adams, M. (2009). How English works: A linguistic introduction.New York: Pearson/Longman.Eckert, P. (2000). Linguistic variation as social practice: The linguisticconstruction of identity in Belten High. Oxford: Blackwell.Finegan, E. (2008). Language: Its structure and use. Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth.Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2007). An introduction to language.Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth.Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Oxford: Blackwell.Milroy, L. (1987). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Trudgill, P. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Michael Shelton received his Ph.D. in Hispanic linguistics from The Pennsylvania State University. He currently teaches general linguistics, Hispanic linguistics and Spanish language at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA, USA. His principle research interests are experimental approaches to phonology, the cognitive representation of phonological structure, and language processing.
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