functional phonology , paul boersma new from holland academic graphics : functional phonology . formalizing the interactions between articulatory and perceptual drives by paul boersma in functional phonology , paul boersma develops a theory that seeks to explain and describe the data of the languages of the world from general capabilities of human motor behaviour and perception . by separating the roles of the articulation and the audition of speech sounds , it predicts and clarifies generalizations about the organization of human speech , and solves several outstanding controversial phonological issues . providing a synthesis between the " phonetic " and " phonological " standpoints , the theory of functional phonology expresses explanatory functional principles like the minimization of articulatory effort and the minimization of perceptual confusion directly in a descriptive formal grammar , and offers a typologically and empirically adequate alternative to generative theories of autosegmental phonology and feature geometry . the subjects covered in this book include articulation and perception models , constraint-based accounts of phonetic implementation , the acquisition of articulatory and perceptual phonological feature values , an algorithm for learning stochastic grammars , the construction of phoneme inventories , circular optimization in sound change , and a determination of the fundamental principles that underlie the surface phenomena sometimes ascribed to the primitive phonological operations of spreading and the obligatory contour principle . this book will appeal to phonologists interested in the possibility that the grammar directly reflects common principles of efficient and effective communication , to phoneticians interested in the idea that phonetic explanations can be expressed as constraint interactions in a formal grammar , and to any linguist interested in the innateness debate . contents : introduction part i . representations 1 . representations and features 2 . articulation model 3 . acoustical simulation 4 . perception models 5 . test of the articulation model part ii . constraints 6 . functional optimality theory 7 . articulatory constraints 8 . perceptual contrast and faithfulness 10 . acoustical faithfulness 11 . typology and the local-ranking hypothesis 12 . corespondence 13 . degrees of specification part iii . grammar 14 . learning a production grammar 15 . how we learn variation , optionality and probability 16 . inventories 17 . sound change 18 . the obligatory contour principle 19 . spreading 20 . conclusion 1998 . xii + 494 pp . isbn 90 5569 054 6 . paperback . [ lot international series 11 . ifott / university of amsterdam dissertation . ] price for individuals ordering directly from hag : nlg 66 . 00 ( excl . p&p and vat ) . holland academic graphics , the hague < http : / / www . hagpub . com > .