Book ReviewsBeing Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End Atul Gawande Profile Books 2014 Price £15.99. Pp 288 ISBN 978 1 84668 581 1Oxford Desk Reference: Toxicology Edited by Nick Bateman, Robert Jefferson, Simon Thomas, John Thompson, Allister Vale Oxford University Press 2014 Price £55.00. Pp 432 ISBN 978 0 19 959474 0The Complete Recovery Room Book (5th edition) Anthea Hatfield Oxford University Press 2014 Price £24.99. Pp 240 ISBN 978 0 19 967060 4

2014 ◽  
Vol 75 (12) ◽  
pp. 717-717
Author(s):  
Emily Maile ◽  
Marc George ◽  
Mark Dodd
Keyword(s):  
Recovery Room ◽  
Complete Recovery ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Desk Reference ◽  
What Matters ◽  
Oxford University Press

Michael Hammond (1999). The phonology of English: a prosodic optimality-theoretic approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xvi+368.

Phonology ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-426
Author(s):  
April McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
The World ◽  
Definite Articles ◽  
What Matters ◽  
Oxford University Press

Hammond's book is the volume on English in the series The Phonology of the World's Languages; and therein lies an inevitable problem. Writing a contribution for a series with as many definite articles as this one, and on English, which like it or not, and with no disrespect to the less attended-to languages of the world, has been the focus of quite disproportionate phonological attention, is for anyone a rather daunting task. This means that there is even more literature to review than usual in a book of this kind, and more controversies to be embroiled in; and in consequence, there will inevitably be restrictions in coverage. What matters, then, is that the author must set out what he intends to do, be consistent with that, and explain his choices in terms of those entirely inevitable restrictions. Although this book has many good points, it often seems that Hammond does not actually carry through his stated intentions, or justify the choices he has made as cogently as might be hoped.

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