Rules and Derivations in Generative Grammar
Elizabeth C. Zsiga · 2012
This chapter considers in more detail the approach to phonology (and to linguistics in general), known as Generative Grammar, particularly rule-based Generative Grammar. It examines phonological rules and their operation in more detail, especially the question of what formal devices should be used in writing rules. The chapter reviews the basic tenets of the theory in its historical context and discusses the representation of underlying representations. It covers the specifics of writing and evaluating phonological rules and considers an alternative rule formalism, that of auto segmental representations. Languages will differ in having different items in their warehouses, and in having different assembly lines, that is, different rules applying in different orders. Auto segmental contours can be created with other features as well, accounting for other types of segments where feature values change part-way through, such as pre-nasalized stops, diphthongs, and affricates.