The articles in this volume came out of a workshop held by the editors in 1990 on the campus of Pattimura University, in Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia. In these articles, the phonologies of the Sawai, Kisar, Larike, and West Tarangan languages are described. Also, maps and information about the languages' locations, various ethnic features, and suggested classifications are included in the book.

This book is designed as a textbook and is intended to present a sample of the more popular approaches to linguistic theorizing. It covers different aspects of each theory including general ontology, methodology, world view, and certain specifics including its problem-solving capacity regarding the English auxiliary complex. It gives a brief summary of the salient points of each theory and concludes with a brief treatment of concurrent developments in phonology. Included are discussions on: tagmemics, generative transformational grammar, stratificational linguistics, Montague grammar, generalized phrase structure grammar, lexical-functional grammar, relational grammar and functional approaches to grammar.