This handbook contains current trends and theories in phonology. The core of this handbook is about the popular phonological model - Optimality Theory, but there are also some chapters, which talk about the development of phonology without OT (e.g. Keren Rice in Ch.4, Matthew Gordon in Ch.3). Each chapter gives a good elaboration about the topic of that chapter in way of being easily understood. That's why I said that this handbook is educational. Meanwhile, every chapter independently discusses how phonology plays different role with different perspective. Therefore, you must have some basic understanding to phonology or OT to comprehend some deep thoughts. That's why I also said that this handbook is theoretical. As shown in the table of contents, none of chapters is more than 40 pages.  The first few chapters even have less than 20 pages, which should not be a burden for a reader to digest the most important concept(s) in these chapters. If compared to Goldsmith's The Handbook of Phonological Theory (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics), I would say that de Lacy's handbook is even more like a 'handbook' (I mean, easier). (It doesn't mean that Goldsmith's handbook is bad. It is just harder but is still a very important one.) Many famous phonologists contribute to this handbook and make this handbook definitely worthwhile. Besides, each chapter has a strong connection with each other. Especially, the editor Paul de Lacy categorizes chapters into four themes. A reader can therefore know where he/she is going or what he/she is looking for. Contributors in this handbook try to be unbiased in introducing different phonological theories or aspects. They also keep throwing questions to readers and lead readers to think more about phonology. In sum, I suggest that all the linguistics students or phonologists should read through this handbook to understand what phonology is nowadays.

The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics) PDF

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