Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables.

Preface.

1 Setting the Stage.

1.1 Phonetics or Phonology?

1.2 Fast Speech?

2 Processes in Conversational English.

2.1 The Vulnerability Hierarchy.

2.2 Reduction Processes in English.

2.3 Stress as a Conditioning Factor.

2.4 Syllabic Conditioning Factors.

2.5 Other Processes.

2.6 Icons.

2.7 Weak Forms?

2.8 Combinations of these Processes.

3 Attempts at Phonological Explanation.

3.1 Past Work on Conversational Phonology.

3.2 Natural Phonology.

3.3 Variable Rules.

3.4 More on Rule Order.

3.5 Attempts in the 1990s.

3.6 And into the New Millennium.

4 Experimental Studies in Casual Speech.

4.1 Production of Casual Speech.

4.2 Perception of Casual Speech.

5 Applications.

5.1 Phonology.

5.2 First and Second Language Acquisition.

5.3 Interacting with Computers.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the Author

Linda Shockey is Lecturer in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading. She specializes in acoustic and articulatory phonetics and phonology and is co-editor of In Honor of Ilse Lehiste (1988).

Reviews

"…the detailed information that is densely packed into this quite short text will be appreciated by many phoneticians, who will find it an exceptionally useful summary of the processes that affect conversational speech and the contexts under which they are most likely to occur." (Journal of the International Phonetic Association)