The split of IE *VRs and *VsR into VRR in Lesbian and Thessalian and VR in the other dialects cuts a striking isogloss through ancient Greece. This split may be related to other developments of Greek by applying Jakobson's feature system to four Greek sound changes, all of them in essence well known and widely accepted. It is then shown that this suffices to solve, with no modification of the rules, the problem of the reflexes of IE *ws and *sy in Greek, and accounts for such hitherto ill-explained developments as *awsōs > Doric āwṓs, Lesbian aúōs ‘dawn’; *awsēr > Ionic āḗr, Lesbian aúēr ‘lower atmosphere’; *dewsomai > Attic déomai, Lesbian and Thessalian deúomai ‘need’; *dhusyō > Ionic thūō, Aeolic thuíō ‘rage’; and gen. *-osyo > Attic and Ionic *-ōo > -ō, Aeolic -oio.

This work contains a discussion of redundancy rules and the role they play in the phonological component of a generative grammar. Phonological redundancy rules were first given a clear theoretical foundation in the morpheme structure rules used by Halle (1959) to predict redundant phonological information in morphemes. We will be concerned in what follows with reformulating and extending this original theory of morpheme structure rules. We will give particular attention to the formal nature of morpheme structure rules and to the use of blanks in representing redundancies, and will give a solution to a long-standing problem in this area. In spite of this improvement in morpheme structure rule theory, we will find other motivations for introducing a new formal device, morpheme structure conditions, to replace morpheme structure rules. We will attempt to show that, both in the types of statements which can be made about the structure of morphemes and in the formal nature of these statements, morpheme structure conditions are to be preferred over morpheme structure rules.

In the opinion of the authors, the greatest gap in the field of semantics today is the lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the precise relations (similarities, differences, presupposition relations, and the like) between the meaning-carrying elements of a language. The acquisition of this knowledge will lead to the uncovering of the semantic structure of the language in question. The present monograph reports on an effort to develop an inductive approach to the identification and description of semantic relations. It is proposed that such a description will result in the formulation of a semantic classification of pertinent linguistic units.

The idea that functional load offers a tool of potentially great explanatory power in diachronic linguistics is shared by a number of contemporary linguists, particularly those influenced at first or second hand by Prague. It is the purpose of the present paper to investigate the hypothesis that functional load plays a significant role in sound change. I will attempt to demonstrate that functional load, if it is a factor in sound change at all, is one of the least important of those we know anything about, and that it is best disregarded in discussions centering on the cause and direction of phonological change.

For the sake of argument, the extreme view is taken that the identification of phonological entities on the basis of articulatory or acoustic features is not in keeping with the strict structural linguistic tenet that only information from language itself be employed in determining the units used in linguistic description. The attempt is then made to show how the morphophonemes of Finnish are distinct from each other on the basis of their distribution within the word. The notions employed in the analysis are taken only from within language; i.e. no reference is made to nature or to the human body. The weaknesses of this approach are also pointed out.

The following article is, first, an algorithm or set of rules for deriving the phonology of Proto-Germanic from that of Indo-European. The input to this set of rules consists of individual IE lexical items specified completely (i.e. allophonically) in terms of Jakobsonian distinctive features; the output consists of the corresponding lexical items of Proto-Germanic. Second, the article gives a criterion of simplicity for the construction of a similar algorithm describing phonological change from a prior stage of a language to a later one. The claim made for such a set of optimally written rules is that if one orders the rules so that the fewest possible feature specifications are used in their formulation, the order in which the rules occur reflects the historical chronology of the sound changes.

A method is described which allows us to plot, easily and rapidly, the positional relations among linguistic elements which have fixed order relative to each other (such as affixes). The relationship of this method to connectivity matrices is dicussed, as well as the relation to Nida's and Hays's methods of positional analysis.

According to the conventional formula, IE /e/ is expected to appear in Gothic as ai /e/ only when bearing primary or secondary stress and occurring before one of the consonants h h r. This formula per se fails to explain Go. ai in reduplicating syllables of preterits like fai-falþ, sai-so, lai-lot, which contain no h, h or r. The evidence presented below suggests that ai in all Gothic reduplicating syllables reflects an exactly definable process of assimilation. The same may well be true of au /o/ in aufto ‘perhaps’.

The doubling of intervocalic glides in Proto-Germanic has been attributed to different causes: preceding accent, following accent, and various laryngeals. Rather than introducing factors which have left no traces in the historical languages, it is preferable to take into account the inherited ablaut system and its productivity. The starting point of the Germanic innovation consists in the replacement of the prevocalic zero-grade -u-, -i- by -uṷ-, -ii̭-, a development which has parallels in other languages. The relation between the zero-grade -uṷ-, -ii̭-and the full-grade -euṷ-, -eii̭- is analogous to the relation between -uT- and -euT-, -iT- and -eiT- (T = obstruent). Hence strong verbs with roots in -eu, -ei are to be considered as the chief source of forms containing a geminated glide.

Some of Pāṇini's rules contain negative compounds. In such cases there is ambiguity; the negative can be construed with the nominal following it in the compound, or it can be construed with a verb. According to the Mahābhāṣya, the first interpretation yields a positive rule providing an operation in a domain specified by the negative compound: non-x. The second interpretation yields a negative rule providing for the cancellation of an operation already provided for. Again, the first interpretation yields a one-step operation, while the second interpretation requires that two sentences be understood, providing two steps: tentative application of an operation and its subsequent cancellation. Both interpretations involve negation (pratiṣedha); the first type is called paryudāsa (pratiṣedha) 'limitation(al negation)', the second type prasajyapratiṣedha 'negation (subsequent to tentatively) applying'. The conclusions derived from the Mahābhāṣya are used to judge some formulations in the Kāśikā. In addition, it is shown that, while Patañjali usually demonstrates that both interpretations of an ambiguous negative compound will yield desired results, later commentators decide in favor of one or the other interpretation on the basis of economy. Finally, it is shown that the rules usually considered by Western scholars do not lend themselves to a clear understanding of the essential difference between paryudāsa and prasajyapratiṣedha.

Generative grammarians have claimed that, in situations where no trust can be placed in intuition, and several alternative analyses appear equally possible, the criterion of simplicity can be relied on to indicate which alternative is the ‘descriptively adequate’ one. This claim is put to the test with the English ‘aspectuals’ keep, begin, continue etc. It is found that reliance on simplicity makes possible a choice in one area of the grammar only at the expense of intuitions in another. We conclude that, as long as the basic concept of ‘descriptive adequacy’ remains undefined, reliance on the derived criterion of simplicity must be illusory.

Language is viewed as a system in which semological structures, manifested in experience, are symbolized by phonological structures, manifested in sound. Other animal communication systems exhibit a one-to-one symbolization of semological units by phonological units. The evolutionary expansion of human experience was accompanied by developments through which language came to diverge radically from the one-to-one model. Shorter term (non-evolutionary) change also has led language away from one-to-one symbolization, as exemplified here by the effects of phonological change and (on the semological side) of idiom formation. In consequence of both its evolutionary and non-evolutionary history, language exhibits an initial organization of experience within deep semology, a set of mutations which lead to surface semology, an initial phonological symbolization, and another set of mutations which lead to a final phonological organization manifested in sound. The place of separate semantic and syntactic components within such a system is questioned.

The problem here is to determine whether the OLF i-umlaut reflexes of PGmc. */u ū ō aw/ were phonemically distinct from their non-umlaut reflexes. This is interesting because: (1) the OLF orthography offers no consistent evidence for phonemic contrast between umlaut reflexes of these sounds and their non-umlaut counterparts; (2) Middle Low Franconian (Middle Limburgic) does show phonemic contrasts here; yet (3) there was apparently no factor present in Old Low Franconian that would have led to the phonemic splits implied by the Middle Limburgic contrasts. The present paper makes the assumption that a consistently applied orthographic distinction implies a phonemic contrast, and points out some obvious limitations of this assumption. The vowels of weakly stressed final syllables are discussed, and it is suggested that previously distinct vowels had merged in a single vowel in this position. It is finally concluded that the OLF reflexes of PGmc. */u ū ō aw/ in umlaut position were phonemically distinct from the reflexes of those sounds in other positions.

OE brecÞa in Beowulf 171 is taken by editors and commentators as either nominative singular of a masculine n-stem or nominative plural of a feminine ō-stem. Syntactic considerations suggest and morphologic observations prove that it is a masculine n-stem. OE -brecÞ occurs only in composition and is a different formation.

Variation in IE languages between morphemes containing o and yo is found in genitive singular and dative-ablative plural endings, in four non-finite verbal formations, and in the sigmatic future. Suffixation with o was a frequent source of IE adjectives. If the o was added to a noun stem in i or to a locative form ending in i, the resulting yo through re-analysis could itself become a productive suffix. The yo so derived was the basis of three participial formations. The sigmatic future and the Vedic infinitive in -dhyai derived their y from present formations with stems in yo. The genitive singular and dative-ablative plural endings must be otherwise explained.

That section of Pāṇini's grammar which deals with Sanskrit morphology has an underlying principle which in this paper is illustrated by the theory of the active finite verb. The rules that govern the formation of the verb from its elements are stated in terms of replacements. In theory, these are valid throughout the grammar, but by the grammar's design the replacement rules are only effectively operative in specific environments. The rules, their scope, and their occasional failures are given in detail.