Syllable Theory in Prosodic Phonology (Routledge Library Editions: Phonetics and Phonology)

First published in 1988. The goal of this study is to explore the workings of a syllable theory which is an integral part of Prosodic Phonology. It will be shown that theory-internal considerations and a variety of empirical arguments converge on a conception of syllabification as continuous template matching governed by syllable wellformedness conditions and a directional parameter. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

Since her dissertation, which developed a prosodic theory of the syllable, Junko Itô’s work has been concerned with constraint-based phonological theory, specifically with an optimality-theoretic model of phonology. One empirical focus of her research has been the morphophonemics and prosody of Japanese, including compound structures and their phonological form.