Phonology in Generative Grammar (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics)

Rating:
Summary: Search Elsewhere
Review: I had to use this book for my intro phonology class at Harvard, and i have never been led so astray by a textbook in my entire life. Even my professor apologized for it's horrible quality on numerous occasions. It's a shame that there aren't more textbooks on the subject available, because if there were, they would certainly be preferable to this catastrophe of a piece of academic writing.

Rating:
Summary: Well-informed, poorly laid-out
Review: Kenstowicz's textbook is an excellent starting place for an more in-depth examination of phonological theory. While he presents his arguments in a cogent fashion, the structure of the textbook leaves a great deal to be desired. It is probably most beneficial for a student or teacher to jump around the book putting things together that for some reason have been separated. But on the whole, I feel like this book provides a detailed presentation of both linear and non-linear phonology with a wealth of challenging and informative exercises. An excellent resource for graduate level work in phonology.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Intro to basic problems in phonological theory
Review: This text is a classic and should be required reading for any non-introductory student of phonology. Its strengths include its discussion of the basic issues of phonology and its lovely problem sets.

Its greatest weakness is that many of the issues so clearly laid out in this book were of great concern to phonologists in 1977, but less so today.

Still, while the model that phonologists use to represent, for example, "rule ordering" has changed, the discussion of "feeding," "counter feeding," "bleeding," and "counter bleeding" in this text, and certainly the language examples are relevant today.

This book may not be ideal for a student who takes only one course in phonology since some of the discussion is outdated and a bit complicated. It is, however, a good place to start for any student who wishes to understand the issues of generative, linear phonology, even if only out of historical interest.