Abstract
In Chapter 1, we were able to show the sequence of phonemes which combine to make up the phonological form of a word. Thus, the phonological form of the Tamil word for ‘twenty’ is, we proposed (see p. 29), /ir℧p$$\left[ \kappa \right]$$℧/. We referred to this as the phonological representation of the word, and as the phonetic representation. The rules we devised were said to mediate between these representations, so that we derive the phonetic representation from the phonological representation. In arriving at such rules and representations, we took the word as our domain: we considered environments at the beginnings and ends of words, and within words. We made no attempt to define what we meant by ‘word’, and we will not do so now; we will assume that it is perfectly clear what is meant by that term. But to understand the way phonological rules work within words, we need to consider the internal structure of words a little more carefully. The linguistic term for the study of such structure is morphology, and from now on, we shall be considering the morphological structure of words as well as their phonological form.
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Further Reading
There is a great deal of literature on the subject of morphophonological alternations, but much of it cannot profitably be approached by the new student at this stage. Lass (1984a), Chapter 4, covers the issues in more detail.
For more exercises on alternations, see the end of chapter exercises in Kenstowicz and Kisseberth (1979), Chapter 3, and the Section 2 exercises in Halle and Clements (1983).
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© 1993 Philip Carr
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Carr, P. (1993). Alternations. In: Phonology. Modern Linguistics Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22849-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22849-2_3
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