Sharon Inkelas, The interplay of morphology and phonology. (Oxford surveys in syntax and morphology, 8)

Abstract

The author of this book has worked on the topic of the interplay of morphology and phonology since the beginning of her linguistic career. She has also taught this topic for many years in various forms, and it is therefore great that she has managed to finish a monograph on this topic, which, in line with the aims of the book series in which it has been published, presents a thorough survey of the various types of interplay between morphology and phonology found in natural languages, and of the theoretical proposals and debates on how to analyze the relevant phenomena.1 The range of languages studied is impressive, and the book is very rich in data. Through its extensive references and indexes readers of this book are guided towards more detailed studies of the various phenomena discussed. The book does not advocate particular theories, and starts systematically from a range of data, and then discusses the analytical problems that they raise. That is, its goal is “an exposition on and reflection about the many types of interplay between morphology and phonology that should inform contemporary theories” (p. 3). The chapters deal with the following topics: Morphologically conditioned morphology, Process morphology, Prosodic templates, Reduplication, Infixation, Interleaving: The phonological interpretation of morphologically complex words, Morphologically derived environments effects, When phonology interferes with morphology, Nonparallelism between phonological and morphological structure, and Paradigmatic effects. There are three indexes: an index of languages, an index of authors, and an index of subjects.