English Phonology 1ed

It is increasingly common for analysts to seek out the opinions of individuals and organizations using attitudinal scales such as degree of satisfaction or importance attached to an issue. Examples include levels of obesity, seriousness of a health condition, attitudes towards service levels, opinions on products, voting intentions, and the degree of clarity of contracts. Ordered choice models provide a relevant methodology for capturing the sources of influence that explain the choice made amongst a set of ordered alternatives. The methods have evolved to a level of sophistication that can allow for heterogeneity in the threshold parameters, in the explanatory variables (through random parameters), and in the decomposition of the residual variance. This book brings together contributions in ordered choice modeling from a number of disciplines, synthesizing developments over the last fifty years, and suggests useful extensions to account for the wide range of sources of influence on choice.

This is an introduction to the phonology of present-day English. It deals principally with three varieties of English: 'General American', Southern British 'Received Pronunciation' and 'Scottish Standard English'. It offers a systematic and detailed discussion of the features shared by these major accents, and explains some major differences. Other varieties of English - Australian and New Zealand English, South African English and Hiberno-English - are also discussed briefly. Without focusing on current phonological theory and its evolution, the author demonstrates the importance of 'theory', in whatever shape or form, in phonological argumentation. The book also includes a helpful introductory section on speech sounds and their production, and detailed suggestions for further reading follow each chapter. This clear and helpful textbook will be welcomed by all students of English language and linguistics.