Martha C. Pennington's book Phonology in context is a collection of studies relating phonology to contemporary linguistic trends, such as second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, clinical linguistics, language teaching, language variation and language contact.
In the introductory chapter, ‘The context of phonology’ (1–24), the editor makes the familiar distinction between phonetics and phonology: phonetics considers speech sounds as physical objects, while phonology studies how languages organize sounds into different patterns. Phonetics embraces concrete methods of analysis which reveal ‘physiological, aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of speech-sounds’, while phonology supposes a series of operations such as the discovery of contrasts and of distinctive features. Applied phonology deals with the social and psychological evolution of speech and language, and includes behavioral data such as lip gestures and facial movements. The idea that phonology represents a living and changing ecosystem is stressed (see Zsiga Reference Zsiga, Fasold and Connor-Linton2006).
During the last few decades, interest in language acquisition, by both children and adults, has accelerated. The first article of the collection, ‘Phonology in infancy and early childhood: Implications for theories of language learning’, by Shelley Velleman & Marilyn Vihman (25–50), deals with the way language is acquired by children, from babbling to the creation of independent sentences. They begin by citing Jakobson: ‘infants babble the sounds of all language; there is discontinuity between babbling and first words; phonemes are acquired in a universal order’ (25). The first phase of speech is mainly physiological, when infants begin babbling sounds, making distinctions between grammatical words and lexical words, recognizing information from the outer world around them. Three factors influence a child's linguistic development: human physiological and cognitive capacities, ambient language patterns, and individual response to perceptual and vocal experience (32).
In ‘The description and acquisition of variable phonological patterns: Phonology and sociolinguistics’ (51–75), Paul Kerswill & Linda Shockey explain various aspects of phonology as seen by phonologists and show to what extent they have been exploited by sociolinguists. They suggest that there are many areas of phonology which are largely unexplored by the sociolinguistic community and that more fusion of theoretical phonology and sociophonology is desirable.
Norval Smith's contribution on contact phonology shows that languages and dialects intermingle in a variety of strategies, such as loanword phonology (knowing that the phonology of the borrowing idiom remains unchanged), areal influence (whereby in restricted geographical areas, people use several languages in contact), dialect mixing (when two or more dialects mix) and language mixing. Koiné formation means the construction of a new dialect on the basis of a group of existing dialects, preserving the phonological features of all of them.
In ‘Second-language phonology: The role of perception’ (109–134), Paola Escudero writes about the learning of foreign languages by adult learners who experience great difficulty in distinguishing and correctly reproducing the sounds of a second language, because all consonants and vowels of a language are much influenced by the first language (L1), that was defined as a ‘phonological filter’, as specialists say (109). The mechanisms of producing sounds place perception before the uttering of individual sounds; wrong pronunciations are caused by perceptual matters, namely the linguistic experience of (L1) the speaking subject has.
In the same vein, in ‘The visual element in phonological perception and learning’ (135–158), Debra Hardison explains the contribution of visual cues in language processing, experimentally demonstrating that through sustained training the recognition of [r] was significantly improved. Face-to-face communication supposes visual marks and gestures: lip movements, facial movements, the duration of the production of sounds, lip-reading of words (regarding the right pronunciation); brain activity can correlate both visual and auditory information, this activity being often accomplished by computer techniques that processed heard and seen representations in order to improve the uttering of sounds by hard training.
In ‘Sounds, brain, and evolution: Or, why phonology is plural’ (159–185), April McMahon distinguishes several types of phonology: articulatory phonology, concerned with gestures, movements of speakers, lexical phonology focusing on interactions with morphology, metrical phonology, about stress, syllables and rhythm, Optimality Theory focusing on syllables and stress. Phonologists study both prosodic and segmental phonology, with an emphasis on the neurological, acquisitional, evolutionist component.
Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen also analyzes segmental and suprasegmental aspects of language in her discussion of Autosegmental Phonology, Metrical Phonology, Intonational Phonology and Prosodic Phonology. In her chapter, ‘Situated phonologies: Patterns of phonology in discourse contexts’ (186–218), the author develops a method for talk-in-interaction, gathering data from a collection of natural conversations that are to be transcribed impressionistically, with an emphasis on factors such as lexical and syntactic structures, action type, position in the turn-constructional unit, and word order.
In ‘Phonology and literacy’ (219–244), Keiko Koda writes about phonology in the context of first-language and second-language learning. By introducing the concept of metalinguistic awareness, the author hypothesises a developmental process in the attempt to learn to read (which includes the abilities to identify, analyze and manipulate language forms). Metalinguistic awareness means that children must recognize that words are made up of phonemes and acquire the capability to analyze their internal structure. The operation of reading involves decoding the phonological information, followed by the comprehension of the transmitted message. Language is conceived as a code that needs mental decoding and decipherment: assembling letters, pronouncing and blending familiar spelling patterns, retrieving the pronunciation of right words from memory, using context cues to predict right words. Phonological awareness is an important factor in reading ability.
In ‘Research and practice in developmental phonological disorders’ (245–278), Fiona Gibbon studies children who have major difficulties in expressing themselves. The diagnosis can include sensory deficits, cognitive deficits, psychiatric and emotional disorders, neuromotor disorders, and structural abnormalities of the vocal tract (245) The phenomenon previously known as dyslalia, conceived as phonetic disorder, has been recently renamed as phonological disorder, whereby the author implies cognitive problems of knowledge with phonological consequences, such as poor phonological memory, poor speech motor control, imprecise articulation, additional difficulties with aspects of language development and language use. Psychological, neurological and medical considerations are used to explain the degree of deviation from correct pronunciation, The method is largely linguistic, as it relies on aspects of phonological classification, so the inclusion of the paper in this volume is highly motivated.
In ‘Technological advances in researching and teaching phonology’ (279–299), Dorothy Chun covers research in the field of phonetics, phonology and pronunciation, with an emphasis on spontaneous speech and the role of prosody in interpreting speech. Computer techniques are involved in recording, synthesizing and analyzing speech, also in prosody of second-language research, speech recognition and synthesis, lexical and synthetic analysis, hypertext, digital audio and video, and network communication.
Phonology in context is a very specialized collection of contributions from sciences like psychology, pathology, dialectology, neurology and computer science. It is aimed at both linguists and scholars from other, related fields, providing new themes, ideas and methods for studying the sounds of language and new directions for further research. More than being a guide or a textbook, it gives examples of the authors' work and opinions in theoretical and experimental matters, and highlights the importance of interdisciplinary thinking.
