It has long been observed that not all languages fit neatly into a ‘stress’ vs. ‘tone’ dichotomy. Recent research has concentrated on how to account formally for ‘hybrid’ prominence systems which have been argued to exhibit both metrical and tonal properties.

What influence do syntax and phonology have on one another ? Two types of answer to this question appear in the literature. The consensus view is probably best expressed by Zwicky & Pullum (1986) (see also Myers 1987; Vogel & Kenesei 1990), who claim that the relation is one-way: although phonological phrasing above the word is affected by syntactic structure, syntax itself is phonology-free.

The phonetic gesture of stop consonant aspiration, which is predictable in a Germanic language such as English, has been described traditionally as ranging from a ‘puff of air’ upon release of closure (Heffner 1950) to the segmental occurrence of a following voiceless glottal approximant /h/ (Trager & Smith 1951). Within the generative phonology paradigm, however, aspiration has been construed as a featural property rather than as an independent segment of its own, often casually identified simply as [+aspiration], or, following Chomsky & Halle (1968), as a positive specification resulting from ‘heightened subglottal pressure’. We take this kind of view here as well, employing a notation with superscript h ([Ch]) to indicate representations in which aspiration is encoded as an integral feature of the segment with which it is associated, while we explore the phonological realisation of aspiration in Germanic as the reflex manifestation of a spread or open glottis, an idea first advanced in the seminal work of Kim (1970), and since developed in Anderson & Ewen's treatment of ‘|O| languages’ (1987: 195–199)

Phonology is concerned with all aspects of phonology and related disciplines. Each volume contains three issues, published in May, August and December. From time to time, one of the issues is devoted to one or two topics of current interest. The editors encourage the submission of papers on proposed themes as well as on other topics relevant to the interests of Phonology. In addition, they welcome suggestions for future themes, as well as offers to act as guest editor for particular themes. The normal language of publication is English. Contributors intending to submit a paper in a language other than English should first contact the editors.