This volume includes papers by leading figures in phonetics and phonology on two topics central to phonological theory: tones and phonological features. Papers address a wide range of topics bearing on tones and features including their formal representation and phonetic foundation.

In "Ideology and Linguistic Theory, " two students of principals on both sides of the argument--Geoffrey J. Huck and John A. Goldsmith--reappraise the outcome of the Deep Structure Debate. They question the conclusions and the theoretical basis of both camps and propose that a reassessment of the period is overdue.
Supplemented by interviews with four of the major participants in the debate--Ray Jackendoff, George Lakoff, Paul Postal and John Robert Ross--this book shows that the paradigm which has dominated American linguistics for the last twenty years has failed to settle some of the most basic questions about the nature of language.

Just what is the role of meaning in grammar? In the late 60s and the early 70s the question split the linguistics community and separated Chomsky from some of his most prized students. In the Ideological Structure of Linguistic Theory Geoffrey Huck and John Goldsmith provide a revisionist account of this very public schism and the ensuing Deep Structure Debates. The triumph of Chomsky's interpretative semantics, they argue, had less to do with the fact that it was right, than with the fact that the opposing side with their programme for generative semantics, failed to establish an institutional base. Through detailed examination of the principle theoretical arguments the authors reveal just how similar the two models really were, and demonstrate just how many of the concepts employed by the losing side were incorporated into the Chomskyan paradigm. Supplemented by extended interviews with four of Chomsky's former students, this book provides a re-appraisal of the paradigm which has dominated American linguists for the last quarter of a century. This book will appeal to any with an interest in the study of language and mind or the history of the human sciences.

This interdisciplinary new work explores one of the central theoretical problems in linguistics: learnability. The authors, from different backgrounds--linguistics, philosophy, computer science, psychology and cognitive science-explore the idea that language acquisition proceeds through general purpose learning mechanisms, an approach that is broadly empiricist both methodologically and psychologically. For many years, the empiricist approach has been taken to be unfeasible on practical and theoretical grounds. In the book, the authors present a variety of precisely specified mathematical and computational results that show that empiricist approaches can form a viable solution to the problem of language acquisition. It assumes limited technical background and explains the fundamental principles of probability, grammatical description and learning theory in an accessible and non-technical way. Different chapters address the problem of language acquisition using different assumptions: looking at the methodology of linguistic analysis using simplicity based criteria, using computational experiments on real corpora, using theoretical analysis using probabilistic learning theory, and looking at the computational problems involved in learning richly structured grammars. Written by four researchers in the full range of relevant fields: linguistics (John Goldsmith), psychology (Nick Chater), computer science (Alex Clark), and cognitive science (Amy Perfors), the book sheds light on the central problems of learnability and language, and traces their implications for key questions of theoretical linguistics and the study of language acquisition.

Is a career as a professor the right choice for you? If you are a graduate student, how can you clear the hurdles successfully and position yourself for academic employment? What's the best way to prepare for a job interview, and how can you maximize your chances of landing a job that suits you? What happens if you don't receive an offer? How does the tenure process work, and how do faculty members cope with the multiple and conflicting day-to-day demands?
With a perpetually tight job market in the traditional academic fields, the road to an academic career for many aspiring scholars will often be a rocky and frustrating one. Where can they turn for good, frank answers to their questions? Here, three distinguished scholars--with more than 75 years of combined experience--talk openly about what's good and what's not so good about academia, as a place to work and a way of life.
Written as an informal conversation among colleagues, the book is packed with inside information--about finding a mentor, avoiding pitfalls when writing a dissertation, negotiating the job listings, and much more. The three authors' distinctive opinions and strategies offer the reader multiple perspectives on typical problems. With rare candor and insight, they talk about such tough issues as departmental politics, dual-career marriages, and sexual harassment. Rounding out the discussion are short essays that offer the "inside track" on financing graduate education, publishing the first book, and leaving academia for the corporate world.
This helpful guide is for anyone who has ever wondered what the fascinating and challenging world of academia might hold in store.
Part I - Becoming a Scholar
* Deciding on an Academic Career
* Entering Graduate School
* The Mentor
* Writing a Dissertation
* Landing an Academic Job
Part II - The Academic Profession
* The Life of the Assistant Professor
* Teaching and Research
* Tenure
* Competition in the University System and Outside Offers
* The Personal Side of Academic Life

"[Ruwet] raises fundamental questions about the place of grammar in the study of language and provides several studies which suggest the possibility that some core data are outside the realm of grammatical explanation. A very remarkable book, in which the breadth of Ruwet's reflection is both challenging and deeply rewarding."--Denis Bouchard, University of Quebec, Montreal