LIN229H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Final-Obstruent Devoicing, Underlying Representation, Sonorant
Document Summary
Alpha stands for all values are either plus" or minus". A single rule may also contain more than one alpha-variable (beta, gamma) With an alpha : the rule for the feature is the same rule for the environment i. e. , same voicing, same place of articulation, etc: method of expediting binary features and poa features. Many rules do not interact: e. g. , language with two rules: word-initial vowel deletion and final devoicing, one rule does not change what the other rule is doing. When languages have multiple rules, must consider what order to put rules in: only the correct ordering will give accurate surface forms, other orders will give unattested surface forms. Concepts looking at surface, it appears that a rule applies in some words but not others. Use features: do not rewrite features. [+son, +cons] -> [-son] is redundant; if we know the surface form is. Sonorant, then we don"t need to mark down that the underlying representation is +sonorant.
