This book examines the formal bases of postvelar harmony and its crosslinguistic variation. It is of interest especially to phonologists concerned with segmental harmony and its explanation within Optimality Theory. Postvelar harmony in two unrelated languages, Palestinian Arabic and St'át'imcets Salish, is examined in detail. The result is the first comprehensive clarification of postvelar phonology for either language. Two harmonies are distinguished: uvularisation harmony ('emphasis spread') and pharyngealisation (tongue-root-retraction) harmony. The distinction between these two in the Arabic and the Salish is supported by much instrumental phonetics data. The complex harmony properties are explained as the result of systematic interaction between Correspondence, Alignment and Grounded constraints. In the course of the investigation, the segmental inventories of both languages are clarified, and a careful understanding of the distinction between phonology and phonetics, and the use of phonetics in phonology, is applied.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

The papers in this volume address core areas in contemporary Arabic linguistics: syntax, phonology, and variation studies. The papers in the syntax sections address different topics from the perspective of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995) and subsequent work. The topics in this section are adverbs and adjectives, resumptive pronouns, gapping and VP deletion, and the morphosyntax of reciprocals. The phonology section consists of a contribution on coarticulation effects of uvular(ized) segments, and of a paper on pharyngealization and uvularization within the framework of Optimality Theory. The sociolinguistics papers in the third section of the volume represent three important lines of inquiry: discourse level variation, stylistic variation, and diachronic variation.

The papers in this volume are a selection of papers presented at the 10th Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (Salt Lake City, 1-3 March 1996). The contributions are: Remarks on Focus in Standard Arabic: Jamal Ouhalla; Definiteness Realization and Function in Palestinian Arabic: Dina Belyayeva; Case Properties of Nominalization Dps in Classical Arabic: Arthur Stepanov; Underspecification of Lexical Entries for Arabic Verbs: Mark S. LeTourneau; Plural Formation in Arabic: Ali Idrissi; Prosodic Templates in a Word-Based Morphological Analysis of Arabic: Robert R. Ratcliffe; The Suppletive Imperative of Arabic 'Come': David Testen; On an Optimality-Theoretic Account of Epenthesis and Syncope in Arabic Dialects: Bushra Adnan Zawaydeh; Acoustics of Pharyngealization vs. Uvularization Harmony: Kimary N. Shahin; Phonological Variation in Syrian Arabic: Correlation with Gender, Age, and Education: Jamil Daher; Arabic speakers and Parasitic Gaps: Naomi Bolotin; Stress Prosody and Speech Segmentation: Evidence from Moroccan Arabic: Younes Mourchid.

The papers in this volume are a selection of papers presented at the 10th Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (Salt Lake City, 1-3 March 1996). The contributions are: Remarks on Focus in Standard Arabic: Jamal Ouhalla; Definiteness Realization and Function in Palestinian Arabic: Dina Belyayeva; Case Properties of Nominalization Dps in Classical Arabic: Arthur Stepanov; Underspecification of Lexical Entries for Arabic Verbs: Mark S. LeTourneau; Plural Formation in Arabic: Ali Idrissi; Prosodic Templates in a Word-Based Morphological Analysis of Arabic: Robert R. Ratcliffe; The Suppletive Imperative of Arabic ‘Come’: David Testen; On an Optimality-Theoretic Account of Epenthesis and Syncope in Arabic Dialects: Bushra Adnan Zawaydeh; Acoustics of Pharyngealization vs. Uvularization Harmony: Kimary N. Shahin; Phonological Variation in Syrian Arabic: Correlation with Gender, Age, and Education: Jamil Daher; Arabic speakers and Parasitic Gaps: Naomi Bolotin; Stress Prosody and Speech Segmentation: Evidence from Moroccan Arabic: Younes Mourchid.

This volume contains 22 of the papers presented at the 5th Conference on Afroasiatic Languages (CAL 5) held at Université Paris VII in June 2000. The authors report their latest research on the syntax, morphology, and phonology of quite a number of languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Tigrinya, Coptic Egyptian, Berber, Hausa, Beja, Somali, Gamo). The articles discuss new solutions to familiar questions such as the free state/construct state alternation of nouns, the Semitic template system, and the morphosyntax of nominal and verbal plurality. Ten of the papers center on morphology, especially the relation of phonology to syntax and morphology; others address questions at the syntax/semantics/pragmatics interface; two papers also offer comparative and historical perspectives. Taken as a whole, the papers provide an accurate picture of the state of current research in Afroasiatic linguistics, containing important new data and new analyses. Given its coverage, the book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Afroasiatic languages and theoretical linguistics.