Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- About this book
- Acknowledgments
- A note on languages
- List of abbreviations
- 1 What is phonology?
- 2 Phonetic transcriptions
- 3 Allophonic relations
- 4 Underlying representations
- 5 Interacting processes
- 6 Feature theory
- 7 Doing an analysis
- 8 Phonological typology and naturalness
- 9 Abstractness and psychological reality
- 10 Nonlinear representations
- Glossary
- References
- Index of languages
- General Index
5 - Interacting processes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- About this book
- Acknowledgments
- A note on languages
- List of abbreviations
- 1 What is phonology?
- 2 Phonetic transcriptions
- 3 Allophonic relations
- 4 Underlying representations
- 5 Interacting processes
- 6 Feature theory
- 7 Doing an analysis
- 8 Phonological typology and naturalness
- 9 Abstractness and psychological reality
- 10 Nonlinear representations
- Glossary
- References
- Index of languages
- General Index
Summary
KEY TERMS
interaction
ordering
PREVIEW
In this chapter, you will broaden your understanding of how phonological systems work by
looking at more complex patterns of phonological alternation
seeing how complex surface patterns of alternations result from the interaction of different but related phonological rules
understanding the effect of different rule orderings on how an underlying form is changed into a surface form
Phonological systems are not made up of isolated and unrelated phonological rules: there are usually significant interactions between phonological processes. This chapter concentrates on two related topics. First, the fact that a seemingly complex set of alternations can often be given a simpler explanation if you separate the effect of different rules which often happen to apply in the same form. Second, applying rules in different orders can have a significant effect on the way that a given underlying form is mapped onto a surface form.
Separating the effects of different rules
Very often, when you analyze phonological alternations, insights into the nature of these alternations are revealed once you realize that a word may be subject to more than one rule, each of which may affect the same segment. You should not think of a phonology as being just a collection of direct statements of the relation between underlying segments and their surface realization. Such a description is likely to be confusing and complex, and will miss a number of important generalizations.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Introducing Phonology , pp. 99 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005