Titles in the 'Bloomsbury Companions' series are intended to bridge the gap between textbooks and the primary literature. The present volume occupies this niche admirably. Initial chapters provide practical advice on research methods, with guidance on factors that have been shown to confound results; the section on phonetic fieldwork in particular shares direct experience, and could be useful to any linguist who ventures beyond the lab. Successive chapters deal with such broad research areas as prosody or universals, and applications in clinical work, forensics, and technology. The volume concludes with suggestions for new research directions. Each contribution is breife - typically about 15 pages - and highly structured, synthesizing current literature and placing it in historical context. Contributors represent a range of countries including Australia, Canada, and Germany; there is a slight bias toward the UK in the applied chapters. Knowledge of phonetic concepts and terminaology is assumed. The book is likely to be of particular use to beginning graduate students, to contextualize theory and situate their research within ongoing programs of inquiry, or to experienced linguists who wish to review the specialized subfields of phonetics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and researchers. -- J. Adlington, McMaster University * CHOICE *
Biografía del autor
Dr Mark Jones is Lecturer in Phonetics at City University London, UK. Dr Rachael-Anne Knight is Senior Lecturer in Phonetics at City University London, UK.