KEY TERMS

1. interaction

2. 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.