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Beyond and behind the tables – a reply to Michael Bulley: Why no mips?1

Delving deeper into the phonology of non-occurring possible words of English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2012

Extract

In a recent article in ET 109 Michael Bulley (2012: 35) presents ‘the permutations for monosyllables in common use in standard British English having the phonetic pattern: single consonant + short vowel + single consonant’, using the OED as his source for data. While acknowledging the usefulness of Bulley's tables for pedagogical purposes, I wish to offer a very distinct answer to the question why certain words are missing from the contemporary English lexicon although they could have occurred as possible words.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

1

David Crystal, a member of our editorial board, recently sent in a note pointing out an earlier account by Denyse Rockey (Phonetic Lexicon, London: Heyden, 1973), which is highlighted in chapter 28 of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal (2nd ed. CUP, 1997).

References

Bulley, M. 2012. ‘Why no mips?English Today 28(1), 3549.Google Scholar