This book introduces Prominence Phonology, whose primary goal is to serve as a bridge between Natural Phonology (NP) and Government Phonology (GP). NP and GP find common ground in their approach to the relationship between phonetics and phonology. To give explicit expression to this notion, Prominence Phonology assumes that representations must be listener oriented.
To exploit this compatibility we adopt two types of device found in GP. Primes known as elements afford linguistic meaning to melodic signatures specified for their auditory properties. Seeking to model the primacy of onsets in speech perception, we reduce all phonological structure to a series of binary units called beats, each of which is comprised of an onset and nucleus. The functional role of the onset is greater than that of the nucleus in Prominence Phonology, affording an interesting perspective on phonotactic  patterns.
Another goal of Prominence Phonology is to create an environment for a formal analysis of grammar-external  forces that affect phonological representations. This environment is framed as a hierarchy of phonological elements that predicts the application of processes under various external  conditions.
The final chapters apply the representations of Prominence Phonology to issues in L2 pronunciation, and offer a Prominence – based proposal for teaching of English as a Lingua Franca.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Natural Phonology as a Starting Point
Chapter 2: Three Fundamental Assumptions
Chapter 3: Overview of Prominence Phonology
Chapter 4: Spectral Elements in Prominence Phonology
Chapter 5: Beat structure elements
Chapter 6: Process Application in Prominence Phonology
Chapter 7: Prominence in Second Language Speech Learning
Chapter 8: A Prominence – based Core for English Pronunciation