Böcker av Roger Lass

A detailed study of Old English, taking as its point of departure the 'standard theory' of generative phonology as developed by Chomsky and Halle. Dr Lass and Dr Anderson set out all the main phonological processes of Old English and aghainst their larger historical background (including subsequent developments in the history of English).

Dr Lass examines certain crucial issues in phonological and general linguistic theory through detailed studies of English phonetics, dialectology and language-history. He argues that contemporary 'standard' phonological theory is inhibited and misled by the related disadvantages of an artificially constrained formalism and a restricted database.

What is the phonological organisation of natural languages like? What theoretical and analytical approaches are most fruitful? Is there any phonological theory that is 'the best' in all ways? The student of phonology is currently faced with a number of major and apparently competing theories, and the textbook writer who genuinely wishes to confront these questions is faced with the task of assessing the contribution each theory can make, while avoiding the merely fashionable or ephemeral in this contentious and evolving discipline. Roger Lass sees phonology as essentially a problem-centred discipline. Since in his view none of the supposedly comprehensive answers proposed to the questions raised above is really comprehensive or acceptable in all its detail, he concentrates rather on introducing the student to the perennial concerns in the study of sound structure. Hence his book adopts a broad and eclectic framework, unbiased toward any one model or theory. Instead, important aspects of the phenomenology of sound structure are discussed in relation to the particular phonological theory - be it Prague phonology, American structuralism, prosodic phonology, generative phonology - for which they are most salient. The book surveys a wide range of competing theories, analytical strategies, and notational systems, and attempts to provide a coherent intellectual and historical perspective on a discipline which has too often been viewed recently as developing via a series of 'revolutions'. Although this textbook assumes some command of phonetics, little other linguistic background is presupposed, and the author carefully provides the groundwork for each new development before it is introduced. In addition, the book deals in detail with two areas not customarily treated extensively in introductory texts; the phonology of casual speech, and phonological change. This spirited and original synthesis will enable its readers to acquire a real understanding of the fundamentals of phonology.

Old English is a companion to Old English studies and to historical studies of early English in general. It is also an introduction to Indo-European studies in the particular sense in which they underpin the history of English. Professor Roger Lass makes accessible in a linguistically up-to-date and readable form the Indo-European and Germanic background to Old English, as well as what can be reconstructed about the resulting state of Old English itself. His book is a bridge between the more elementary Old English grammars and the major philological grammars and recent interpretations of the Old English data.Old English assumes a basic knowledge of phonetics and phonology, the elements of syntactic and morphological theory, and an introduction to historical linguistics. An extensive glossary gives definitions of the major technical terms used.