1. Looking through opacity.
- Author
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Mielke, Jeff, Armstrong, Mike, and Hume, Elizabeth
- Subjects
- *
PHONETICS , *MARKEDNESS (Linguistics) , *OPTIMALITY theory (Linguistics) , *COMPARATIVE grammar , *GENERATIVE grammar , *GRAMMAR , *LINGUISTICS -- Methodology , *LINGUISTIC analysis - Abstract
The author of this article comments on some phonological issues concerning the Comparative Markedness theory and Optimality Theory in linguistics. The author argues against a theoretical approach in which all surface forms are generated by the grammar in the form of rules or constraints. It has been suggested that at least some observable sound patterns are not generated by the grammar. Rather, the alternations are memorized as less abstract forms and stored in the lexicon as such. In this approach, the distinction between grammar and lexicon basically amounts to a distinction between productive phonological processes and memorized lexical alternations, a not uncommon assumption in traditional generative phonology.
- Published
- 2003
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