Chapter 7 - Word-Level Phonology

Summary

The detailed phonology of the word level, defined as the last lexical stratum. This is stratum 2 in English, which, like stratum 1 is word bounded, is structure preserving, and has access to word-internal structure assigned at the same stratum, but unlike stratum 1 is not cyclic and is not subject to the Strict Cycle Condition, allowing rules like Vowel Shift and Velar Softening to apply freely in nonderived contexts. Vowek Shift is a chain shift that affects stressed tense vowels by shifting high vowels to low and raising low vowels to mid and mid vowels to high, without creating any mergers. Some additional rules are required to ensure the final vowel qualities. Some tensing rules apply on stratum 1 or this stratum before Vowel Shift, another applies after Vowel Shift. Vowel reduction produces two or three vowels (depending on dialect), not just schwa as in SPE. Rules for consonants include Velar Softening, Palatalization, Spirantization, with interesting and complex ordering relations. Summary of the stratum 2 rules and their ordering.