Phonological rule

Rule Ordering

According to Jensen, when the application of one particular rule generates a phonological or morphological form that triggers an altogether different rule, resulting in an incorrect surface form, rule ordering is required.^[13]

Types of Rule Ordering

Given two rules, A and B, if we assume that both are equally valid rules, then their ordering will fall into one of the following categories:^[14]

• Feeding: the application of A creates the opportunity for B to apply.
• Bleeding: the application of A prevents B from being able to apply.
• Counterfeeding: the application of B creates the opportunity for A
• Counterbleeding: the application of B prevents A from being able to apply.

Derivations

When a distinct order between two rules is required, a derivation must be shown. The derivation must consist of a correct application of rule ordering that proves the phonetic representation to be possible as well as a counterexample that proves, given the opposite ordering, an incorrect phonetic representation will be generated.^[15][13]

Example Derivation

Below is an example of a derivation of rule ordering in Russian as presented by Jensen:^[13] Given the following rules with rule 1 applying before rule 2:

1. ${\displaystyle l\rightarrow \emptyset /C}$___# (l-Deletion)^[13]
2. ${\displaystyle \left[-sonorant\right]\rightarrow \left[-voice\right]/}$___ # (Final Devoicing)^[16]

Correct Derivation:^[13]

1. /#greb+l#/ (Underlying Representation)
   • greb (Application of l-Deletion)
   • grep (Application of Final Devoicing)
2. [grep*=] (Correct Phonetic Representation)

Incorrect Derivation:^[13]

1. /#greb+l#/ (Underlying Representation)
   • ------ (Application of Final Devoicing)
   • greb (Application of l-Deletion)
2. *[greb] (Incorrect Phonetic Representation)

Expanded Notation

On their own, phonological rules are intended to be comprehensive statements about sound changes in a language. However, languages are rarely uniform in the way they change these sounds. For a formal analysis, it is often required to implement notation conventions in addition to those previously introduced to account for the variety of changes that occur as simply as possible.^[17]

• Subscripts: Indicate the number of occurrences of a phoneme type.^[17]
  • ${\displaystyle C_{x}}$ indicates that ${\displaystyle x}$ or more consonants occur, where ${\displaystyle x\geq 0}$.
  • ${\displaystyle V_{x}}$ indicates that ${\displaystyle x}$ or more vowels occur, where ${\displaystyle x\geq 0}$.
• Word Boundaries: indicate the left and right boundaries that, between them contain a complete word, represented with a hashtag symbol.^[17] For example, the word "cat".
  • #cat#, the beginning and end hashtags indicate the respective beginning and end of the word "cat".
• { } (
  Curly Braces): Indicate a logical-disjunction relationship of two expressions.^[18]
  For example,
  • The two expressions, ABD and AED and be written with curly braces as:
    • ${\displaystyle A{\begin{Bmatrix}B\\E\end{Bmatrix}}D}$, A is followed by either B or E and then D.

• ( ) (
  Parenthesis): Indicate a logical-disjunction relationship of two expressions and an abbreviated version of the curly braces notation,^[17]
  while maintaining the same disjunctive relationship function. For example,
  • The two expressions, ABD and AD and be written with parentheses as:
    • ${\displaystyle A(B)D}$, B is optionally permitted to come between A and D.
• < > (
  Angled Brackets): Indicate a conditional relationship within a set.^[13][18] For example, vowel harmony in Turkish
  ,
  • ${\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}+syll\\\langle +high\rangle \end{bmatrix}}\rightarrow {\begin{bmatrix}\alpha back\\\langle \beta round\rangle \end{bmatrix}}/{\begin{bmatrix}+syll\\\alpha back\\\beta round\end{bmatrix}}C_{0}}$__ , All vowels will take on the [+/- back] value of the vowel that precedes it, regardless of the number of intervening consonants. If a vowel is [+ high], it will also take on the [+/- round] value of the preceding vowel, regardless of the number of intervening consonants.

• Alternation (linguistics)
• Sound change

Notes

References

Citations