Author Description

This is a new and revised edition of the title first published by OUP in 2000. From the reviews of the first edition: 'This book is a comprehensive study of the phonology of Standard Chinese. Not only is it rich in detailed and amazingly accurate factual description, it also proposes elegant theoretical solutions to many long-standing problems in Chinese phonology, such as word length variation, word order, and the application of the third tone sandhi. Another great strength of the book is that in every chapter, the generative literature on related issues is carefully reviewed. Therefore it can also serve as a great reference book for the past advances in Chinese generative phonology. Moreover, the book is written in a down-to-earth fashion and is very approachable by anyone with the slightest interest in Chinese languages or phonology but relatively little training in either area.' Jie Zhang, Linguist 'Because of its accessibility, this book can be used as an introductory textbook for Chinese phonology or Chinese linguistics.... Every phonologist and student of Chinese linguistics will find something valuable from the book because of its wealth of data and insightful analyses.' Yen-Hwei Lin, Phonology 'Explanations are based on a variety of perspectives, from traditional views of the phoneme to feature geometry and Optimality Theory, each concisely introduced so that the discussion easy to follow even for the novice. The result is a flowing, integrated approach that addresses - and solves - some of the thorniest perennial problems in Chinese phonology.... Because this user-friendly introduction offers innovative new solutions to old problems, it enjoys the rare distinction of succeeding both as an essential textbook of Standard Chinese phonology and as an important new theoretical advance in phonological analysis.' Edward J. Vajda, Language