"Reading this volume transported me back to Harvard and MIT lecture halls of the 1960s, where weekly Roman Jakobson would spellbind his audience (this reviewer included), developing his vision of language through impassioned exposition, deft and devastating allusions to critical literature, anecdotes with the force of parables, metaphors of mythic imagery, and above all else overriding verbal artistry: truly in his own phrase, 'In the poetry of grammar'. The Sound Shape of Language, his collaboration with Linda R. Waugh, a scholar who has devoted considerable attention to an exposition and elaboration of Jakobsonian views, fortunately has preserved in print the authoritative lectorial voice."Michael Silverstein in: Journal of Communication

• I-XII -- PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION -- Chapter One: Speech Sounds and Their Tasks -- Chapter Two: Quest for the Ultimate Constituents -- Chapter Three: The Network of Distinctive Features -- Chapter Four: The Spell of Speech Sounds -- AFTERWORD -- APPENDIX ONE: The Role of Phonic Elements in Speech Perception -- APPENDIX TWO: On the Sound Shape of Language: Mediacy and Immediacy by Linda R. Waugh -- REFERENCES -- INDEX OF NAMES -- INDEX OF LANGUAGES -- INDEX OF TOPICS DISCUSSED