J.C. Catford (1988) A Practical Introduction to Phonetics

Abstract

Any new publication on phonetics by J.C. Catford is to be warmly welcomed. As the book cover rightly states, he 'is widely regarded as the leading practical phonetician of our time'. The present work is an introductory book on phonetics, building on the technical foundation laid down in his 1977 book Fundamental Problems in Phonetics and subsequent research.

Catford is quick to point out in his Preface that this book is entitled A Practical Introduction to Phonetics and not An Introduction to Practical Phonetics. That is, the topic of the book is general or theoretical phonetics, which is approached in a practical way. A basic knowledge of general phonetics, Catford argues, is of use to many groups: students of linguistics and languages, comparative historical linguists, speech pathologists and therapists, teachers of the deaf, the hearing- impaired themselves, communications and computer scientists, actors, and so on. 'The teacher of languages ... including the teacher of English as a second language, must be able to diagnose the pronunciation errors made by students, and to devise means of correcting them - this is impossible without both theoretical and practical knowledge of phonetics' (p.1).