Carlos Gussenhoven and Aoju Chen (eds.) (2020). The Oxford handbook of language prosody. (Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. lvi + 891.

Abstract

The Oxford handbook of language prosody, edited by Carlos Gussenhoven and Aoju Chen, is a collection comprised of 49 chapters divided into eight parts, with contributions from 121 researchers and nearly 700 pages of content. As these numbers might suggest, this volume is expansive. In introducing the handbook, the editors note that volumes focusing on one aspect of prosody (e.g. intonational phonology) are more common than those that cover the field as a whole. Unlike a volume which offers an introduction to a particular domain of prosody research or a particular model, this handbook reads as a catalogue of the current state of knowledge in the field, as described by leading prosody researchers. As such, theoretical or methodological cohesion is not a goal, though many chapters share a theoretical and methodological approach, described below. As an overview of the field, the handbook is certainly a success. It offers, among other things, a well thought-out and wide-ranging compilation of prosody research, which spans topics such as the role of prosody in first language acquisition, second language instruction and automated speech processing. The eight parts of the handbook vary in size. The largest, ‘Prosody across the world’, contains 18 chapters surveying prosodic typology; the smallest, ‘Fundamentals of language prosody’, contains just two chapters. Chapters within a section can also be only very broadly related, for example the ‘Prosody and language processing’ section contains three contributions on very different topics: ‘Cortical and subcortical processing of linguistic pitch patterns’ (Joseph C. Y. Lau, Zilong Xie, Bharath Chandrasekaran & Patrick C. M. Wong), ‘Prosody and spoken-word recognition’ (James M. McQueen & Laura Dilley) and ‘The role of phrase-level prosody in speech production planning’ (Stefanie ShattuckHufnagel). The focus of the volume, if any, comes across as typology (‘Prosody across the world’ is by far the largest part), though given the overview-oriented structure, the reader does not get the sense that there is an intended focus on one particular aspect of prosody research. The production quality of the handbook is good overall. Typographical errors, though present, are few and far between. Figures and visualisations are also generally well-placed, though they vary widely in their detail and quality, even sometimes within a chapter. However, given the number of contributors, this might be expected, and does not seriously detract from the content. One clear strength in