323 Notes on Phonemic Theory in Terms of Set Theory

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323 Notes on Phonemic Theory in Terms of Set
Theory
This page last updated 6 DE 06
1. Notes on Phonemic Theory Here I will discuss
phonemic theory in terms of set theory. A phoneme
is a set of allophones which are not contrastive
and share a common phonological feature or
features. For example t and th are not
contrastive and they form a set containing apical
voiceless stops. We may write the name of this
with anything we want, but it is strongly
advisable to use a symbol that can be associated
with the set. Let us select T for this
set E.g. T t, th or /T/ t, th
It helps if the symbol comes close to the
default. T is not complete. The two allophones
are members of /T/, but there are at least two
more allophones in the set E. g. /T/ t,
th,, ? (the penultimate slot is a
tap.) When completing exercises, I will expect
phonemic notation, not phonetics ones, i.e.
th is incorrect for /T/. If a phonetic
transcription is wanted, I will explicitly state
that. Not that th in English is constrained to
intervocalic positions after a stressed vowel
(relatively standard) and in V _ V _ Where the
first vowel is stressed and the second one
unstressed. This position is not common in
Canadian dialects it is an American
pronunciation in some dialects. This allophone is
much more restricted than t. Having the widest
distribution, t is the default, which may write
as t. is not a phonetic symbol but it
simply means that t or whatever allophone is
the default E.g. T th, , ?, t
2. Morphophonemes Depending on ones point of
view, /s/ and /z/, for example, could be seen as
two distinctive phonemes in all positions. This
is the Bloch axiom Once a phoneme,
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2. Morphophonemic Theory
always a phoneme. Note that z belongs to two
phonemes /S/ and /Z/. The same will hold true
for d /D/ and /T/. Some now consider this
axiom outdated. If no contrast exists between
them in a certain position, then they may be
members of the same phoneme set. The plays a role
in two English paradigms involving s and z.
Traditionally, the phonemic representation for
dogs and cats is /dagz/ and /kæts/. The plural
marker is /z/ and /s/, respectively. In this
position, there can be no contrast between /z/
and /s/. Their phonetic representations are z
and s, which can be predicted. Suppose we
consider the plural marker s. If s occurs
after a voiceless obstruent, then it is realized
as z. This means that there is a set s,
z, whose distribution is determined by a
preceding voiceless obstruent. What should we
name this set? Let us call it /Z/ E.g. /KÆTZ /
lt--gt khæts. Here the double ended arrow refers
to mapping the phonemic form is mapped to its
phonetic form and vice versa. Where s and z
do contrast, then /S/ is distinctive from
/Z/ E.g. hæwz vs. hæwz /HÆWS/ vs. /HÆWZ/
(houseN vs. houseV). Note that this contrast is
not possible after voiceless obstruents. The set
for /Z/ is given E.g. /Z/ s, z and /S/
s. z is the default since z
everywhere else (not after a voiceless
obstruent) E.g. sofas is /sof?z/ lt--gt
sówf?z Mapping refers to the correspondence
between one set and another related set. In the
above example, /sof?z/ corresponds with sówf?z.
/sof?z/ is mapped to sówf?z, and sówf?z lt--gt
/sof?z/. It is obvious that the two sets are
related. Now can state that the plural morpheme
in English is /Z/, and not as /s/, /z/ and /z/ as
in traditional analyses. This leads to a state of
greater elegance, since at least one awkward stop
is removed. It is now possible to state that in
terms of this theoretical framework, the sign for
the English nominal plural is /Z/. This is one of
two allomorphs. I will return to this shortly.
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2. Morphophonemic Theory
Before we leave /S/, there is another case we
must look at. It is well known now that a barred
I ? appears phonetically between fricatives and
a word-final z p?š?z. This is predictable.
Suppose we add ?z to /Z/. And now let us put
this in a mapping relation E.g. /Z/ lt--gt ?z/
___, where is a word boundary. Or E.g.
/Z/ lt--gt ?z. The former is the more
traditional way of writing the rule. ? is not a
distinctive phoneme in English. It only occurs in
unstressed syllables in certain contexts,
different from ? in many dialects of English.
These two unstressed phones are often viewed as
contrastive E.g. Rosas rowz?z and roses
rowz?z. However, this differentiation is
predictable. The first contains a stem final
schwa ?, whereas in the latter, ? is
epenthetic E.g. /ROZ?/-/Z/ lt--gt
rówz?z. Here, /z/ is adjoined to the stem and
is spelled out as z, as expected. In the latter
case, rose /ROZ/. When it is plural, the affix
with the sign /Z/ is adjoined to the stem E.g.
/ROZ-Z/. The first /Z/ lt--gt z, whereas the
second /z/ lt--gt ?z. Note that this schema will
cause traditionalists either to turn over in
their graves or cause them to lose more hair and
risk having a stroke. The set /Z/ is now modified
to include ?z E.g. /Z/ ?z, s,
z. The contexts for mapping the phoneme /Z/
to its allophones is well known. In a given
context, on of the three allophones occurs. I
will adopt the filtering or constraint method
adopted in Optimality Theory. The first
constraint states that sibilants
(dental/apical/palatal fricatives and affricates)
plus another sibilant cannot occur at the end of
a word-form
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2. Morphophonemic Theory
Double Sibilant Constraint SibSib.
indicates a word boundary, and an
unacceptable string. I will illustrate this with
roses. Recall that /Z/ ?z, s, z.
Suppose we select the default allophone
z E.g. rowzz. The double word-final
sibilant constraint is violated. That leaves two
more allophones. If s is selected, we
get E.g. rowzs. The same constraint is
violated again. And other constraints, as well.
That leaves ?z E.g. rowz?z. The above
constraint is not violated. Now consider the
plural bats Suppose the following is
selected E.g. bætz. The above constraint
is not violated, but the form is not acceptable.
It is well-known that English syllables cannot
end two obstruents with opposing signs of voice
that is t is voiceless and z is voiced. The
constraint is E.g. Opposite Voicing Signs
Constraint XaVoice? -aVoice???____ ??. If
s is selected, this constraint is not violated
as the sign of voice matches E.g. bæts.
This constraint blocks word-form strings like
hîtd and hîdt. (See the verb hit
below.) This constraint blocks a sequence of two
phonetic segments each with opposing signs of
Voice in word final position (actually, this
should be syllable final position). The use of
the Greek letter alpha a has been around for
roughly 40 years. It represents either a minus
value or a plus value. In a rule or constraint,
if a means plus in the first form, it must be
plus throughout. The placement of a minus sign
immediately changes the sign. The in last
constraint, if Voice is plus in the first
feature, then it must be plus in the second
feature. Since it is preceded by a minus sign,
then its value is reversed becoming minus. As a
consequence, a
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2. Morphophonemic Theory
voiced and voiceless obstruent cannot occur at
the end of a word, and a voiceless obstruent and
a voiced one cannot occur at the end of a word.
Other constraints will be introduced when
needed. The past tense sign for regular English
verbs is /D/. The classical English phoneme /d/
contains two allophones d and the flap .
Note that t and d do not contrast when they
follow voiceless obstruents E.g. tacked
thækt, tagged thægd/ The phone t is added
as a member of the phoneme set /D/ E.G. /D/
, t, th, d. /T/ has no d
allophone E.g. /T/ ?, t, th. If /D/
or /T/ follows an alveolar stop, an epenthetic
vowel is inserted (in traditional phonology).
alveolars E.g. sited saj??d, sided
saj?d. The barred-i is predictable. I
consider ?d a member of the phoneme set
/D/ E. g. /D/ ?d, , t, d. Two
alveolar stops cannot occur in word-final
position Double Stop Constraint
StopStop. Thus sajdd, sajtd and
ph?td petted, for example, are not acceptable
according the word-final double stop constraint.
Note that this constraint is intended to block
any sequence of double word-final stops, not just
alveolar stops. The flap presents an
interesting problem. As an allophone of either
/T/ or /D/, it must follow a stressed vowel and
in some dialects, a stressed vowel and a
consonant and another stressed vowel. The latter
occurs in some American dialects, but I havent
found it in any Canadian dialects, though it
cant be ruled out E.g. city s?i, caddy
kh?i, oddity á??, uppity ?p?I.
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2. Morphophonemic Theory
What is even more interesting flapping can be
suppressed in which case t or d occurs in the
appropriate position and aspiration of voiceless
stops is not suppressed. In this case the speech
rate is slowed down E.g. city s?thi, caddy
kh?di, oddity ád?thi, uppity
?ph?thi The Flapping Constraint -V?V
or -VCV?V.1 The Flapping Constraint states
that if a flap does not occur between vowels
where the first one is stressed or in a second
syllable where the vowel of the first one is
stressed. The minus sign out side of the bracket
states that if what follows inside the bracket is
not true, then the constraint applies. If
syllable initial t is not aspirated and the
vowel, then the string fails The Aspirated Stop
Constraint Stop, Voiceless, -Aspirated
Vocalic, Stressed. E.g. táp top, but
stáp stop. Note these constraints are based
on the same phonological principles that you
might be familiar with.2 Consider mapping /S?TI/
city to a phonetic realization E.g. s??i
or s?thi but s?ti, because initial t
must be aspirated before a vowel (the final vowel
must have some stress if flapping is suppressed.
This could be a dialect constraint). Now consider
a past tense form, for example, potted, stem
/PAT/ E.g. phath?d, aspirated must occur
before some degree of stress. phathd, two
stops cannot occur at the end of a syllable, two
stops cannot have opposing signs of voice at
the end of a word (syllable) and an aspirated
stop cannot occur before a consonant. phátt
, two stops cannot occur at the end of a
syllable. phát?, a flap must cannot occur at
the end of a word, it is not between
vowels. phá?t, the same as
above. phá??, the same as above. phát?d,
no constraints violated. Not all possible
realizations of /T/ or /T/ are listed above, but
the student should be able to figure out why
other phonetic strings do not occur.
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2. Morphophonemic Theory
The sign of the progressive participle is /i?/.
There is an alternate sign that occurs in
substandard English, which is frequently used
/?n/. I will not cover this here. The
non-progressive participle is /n/ or /ø/ for
strong verbs E.g. with /n/ thrown, beaten,
broken, ridden, written, spoken, hidden, lain,
driven, done, gone, flown, been, chosen,
slain, shown, shone, seen, . with /ø/)
drunk, sunk, swum, run, sung, hung, rung, flung,
. These are two allomorphs, although their
distribution is nearly predictable. /ø/ occurs
after a stem with a final nasal or final /k/ plus
a nasal. /?n/ occurs elsewhere. A phonemic
string can be mapped to a phonetic one and vice
versa E.g . /KÆTZ/ lt--gt khæts. /TÆKZ/ lt--gt
thæks. We have discussed left to right. What
about right to left? This falls in the realm of
interpretation. A listener must interpret what a
speaker says. Let us select the noun thæks.
This one is interesting because the noun is
ambiguous it means either tax or tacks. If the
argument that a speaker adds all inflected forms
to his word-form lexicon (as opposed to his
lexeme-based lexicon), then he could recognize
both forms as extant words. In that case, he must
depend on the context of the utterance to decide
which one is the right one. This usually works,
but it doesnt always work. One interpretation
leads to /TÆKS/, the other to /TÆKZ/. It is from
here he determines the lexical meaning. The
morpheme /Z/ is interpreted as Pl if he knows
that /TÆK/ is a noun, or as -Personal, -Pl if
he knows or has determined that the stem is a
verb. Traditionally, a morphophoneme is a set
of phonemes that alternate in a given paradigm.
Generative Phonology tried to eliminate the level
of the bi-unique phoneme. There have been several
attempts to resurrect the traditional phoneme. I
have attempted to put some of these alternation
into a revised phonemic theory which is set
oriented. Whether all such alternations can be
relegated to this revised theory remains to be
seen.
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3. Verb Classes
There are four classes of English verbs plus at
least two verbs which straddle two of these
classes. Each class is a distinct set. The first
division is between strong verbs and non-strong
verbs Strong. These two classes show more
differentiation than the smaller classes. In the
strong class (this term is more or less
traditional), the past tense word-form is always
different from the non-progressive
word-form E.g. swim - swam - swum run - ran -
run write - wrote - written see - saw -
seen. This class is also characterized by a vowel
change in the past tense, an occasional vowel
change in the non-progressive participle. Another
occasional feature is the allomorph -en in the
non-progressive participle. The major feature
of the non-strong -Strong class of verbs is the
fact that the past tense forms and the
non-progressive are phonologically identical
marked with the suffix -ed E.g. Type - typed
- typed walk - walked - walked tame - tamed -
tamed. The non-strong verbs can be divided into
the weak (regular) verbs and the non-weak verbs.
The non-weak verbs show some irregularity. The
past tense and non-progressive participles are
formed with either -t or -d, forming two
subclasses of verbs, the D-stems and the T-stems,
named after which suffix is employed. Some of the
verbs in in the non-weak verbs show a
phonological vowel change E.g. keep - kept -
kept deal-dealt - dealt sleep - slept - slept
make - made - made. Stem final consonants are
sometimes omitted in the past and non-progressive
participle forms E.g. Make - made - made have
- had - had A few verbs show this in their
orthographic system but not in their phonological
sign E.g. tell - told - told, sell - sold -
sold. The following tree shows the four verb
classes 323-Notes on Phonemes and other
things.ppt
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3. Verb Classes
The feature Strong refers to a marked class.
The strong verbs are set off from the -Strong
by having a past tense form that is different
from the non-progressive participle. The -Strong
verbs by not distinguishing the sign of the past
tense from the non-progressive participle. Of the
four classes of verbs, the Weak verbs are
those that are regular. Strong verbs tend to have
more unpredictable forms that the weaker ones.
The weakest set is the class of regular verbs. At
this time I have found no way to distinguish the
D-class from the T-class using a binary feature
system, though the T-class seems to be the marked
one, since the other two classes are voiced D.
This will take more contemplation and
research. With exception of (recent) borrowings,
it is impossible to determine which class a verb
belongs to.This information must be listed in the
lexicon. A sample of each verb class is given
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3. Verb Classes
LIFT
V Weak
/lIft/
SLEEP
V -Weak, T

HOLD
V -Weak, D

SWIM
V Strong

Note that all verbs that are Weak are
-Strong. Since this predictable, it not
necessary to include this information in the
lexical entry. The rationale here is to keep the
lexicon as simple as possible containing
necessary information that is not predictable.
The sign of the -Weak and Strong verbs is
left blank. In order to fill these cells in,
unpredictable phonemic alternations must be
discussed. Let us start with SLEEP. This verb
shows an alternation of /i/ and /E/ in past tense
and non-progressive participle forms. These two
form a set, a set of vowels that alternate in the
stems of certain verbs. We can write this set as
/i/, /E/. However, it would is desirable to
have a symbol to represent this morphophonemic
set. Let us call it E. The curly brackets are
necessary here because it is necessary to
distinguish the phoneme /O/ from the
morphophoneme E E.g. E /I/, /E/. Now we
write the sign as E /SLEP/. HOLD contains
the alternating set /O/, /E/. Suppose we call
this O. E.g. O /O/, /E/. HOLD now
has the sign /HOLD/. SWIM shows the
alternation of /I/, /æ/, and /?/. Let us
represent this set as ?. One of the problems
that we will be encountering is finding a
grapheme to represent this set. We will run out
of grapheme sooner or later to represent odd
morphophonemic sets. ? is fine here since
/I/
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3. Verb Classes
it represents a recurring set. That is, î
occurs in some of the strong verbs E.g. /SWî,
æ, ?M/, /DRî, Æ, ?NK/, /Sî, Æ, ?NK,
?Rî, Æ, ?NK,
LIFT
V Weak
/LîFT/
SLEEP
V -Weak, T
/SLEP/
HOLD
V -Weak, D
/HOLD/
SWIM
V Strong
/SW?M/
Later, it will be necessary to add complements
and other required features used in syntax. 4.
Morphophonemic Rules Morphophonemic rules in this
approach (set theory) are not rules in the sense
that take an input, apply a rule to it and get an
output A -gt B / ___C, as in the standard
approach. It is a selection process. Lets go
back to SLEP. When it comes up while
determining the word-form, the is a choice to be
selected either /i/ or /E/. In order to do this
we must set up a context for the alternate
phonemes. /i/ is the default phoneme. All we need
do is set up a context for /E/. /E/ occurs when
the verb occurs in the past tense, passive voice,
or perfect relevance /slEpt/. The contextual
rule is placed in the phonological component, as
other verbs contain E keep, kept dream,
dreamt feel, felt deal, dealt and so forth.
The contextual rule takes the following
form Informal Mapping Given E, select /E/
if the inflectional marker for the verb is
Past, -Passive or -Progressive. To
illustrate this, I will use the sign cell
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLEP/ /T/-W, /D/-W , /D/W
It is desirable to suggest a symbol for the set
/T/-W, /D/-W , /D/W. The symbol -S
   (-Strong) is proposed for this
set.2 -S-Substitution Weak Past Tense Set
-S /T/-W, /D/-W , /D/W. The above figure
is replaced with the abbreviated figure
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLEP/ -S
The morphophonemic set E is restated
formally Morphophonemic mapping E lt--gt /œ/
/ ____X -S, /I/. X represents a string of
phonemes or morphophonemes that occurs before the
first occurrence of -S. Thus the above figure
is now mapped to
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLœP/ -S
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLœP/ /T/-W, /D/-W , /D/W
lt--gt
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
-S is mapped out in the last figure above. Let
us assign a symbol to represent the set
containing Past, Passive or
Perfect Minus Strong Verb Class Set D
Past, Passive, Perfect. D has
three signs. /T/-W is mapped to the features
-Weak, T. Now the appropriate set can be
determined. The same feature in the verb must
agree with it in the suffix
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLœP/ /T/-W
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLœP/ -Weak, /T/
lt--gt
In a purely phonemic transcription, the result is
/SLœPT/ lt--gt slœpt.
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
If /I/ were chosen for /œ/ in SLEEP, the result
would be unacceptable sleeped. In the present
tense, there is no feature D to which /œ/
should be linked. In this case, the default
alternant must be /I/, since it has no contextual
constraint sleep, sleeps, and sleeping. Some
new subfeatures have been introduced above. The
feature -Weak marking the non-weak verb classes
with the subfeature T included. The non-weak
stems show the alternation of a final stop and
ø. Because of the proliferation of Single CAP
letters to represent morphophonemic sets, I will
assign a pair of CAPS to represent it TW. I
represents /T/-Weak. TW-Substitution TW
/ø/ / ___ T, -Weak, /T/. This can be read as
follows The morphophoneme TW is mapped to /ø/
if the verb stem is T, -Weak. Otherwise it is
mapped to the default /T/.
SEND Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SœNTW / D
SLEEP Past
V -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SœNø/ /T/
?
The sign /T/ plays a role in the non-weak
phonological alternation. That -Weak, /T/ is
non-weak indicates that the stem is non-weak and
subject to alternations. The final obstruent of a
non-weak stem may be omitted phonetically.
Alveolars are omitted and there is evidence that
final /K/ is omitted. The set does not include
labials stops. As long as this is predictable,
this information need not be stored in each
relevant lexeme, but is subject to the obvious
phonemic-phonetic mapping
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping

 HîT Pass
 V, T, -Weak Suffix, V-Host
/HîTW/ -S
Note that if we adopt the output constraint
 HîT Pass
 V, T, -Weak Suffix, V-Host
/Hîø/ -S
First, the sign HîT-Pass is mapped to /Hîø/3
because it occurs before TW. The constraint
barring double alveolar stops at the end of a
word blocks spelling TW out as /T/
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
/ø/ is selected because of the constraint
barring double alveolar stops at the end of a
word. The phoneme selected for the past tense is
/T/. Therefore, /HîT/Past is spelled out
as /Hî/T/, /ø// /T/-W, /D/-W , /D/W
lt--gt /Hî/T/, /ø// /T/-W, /D/-W , /D/W
lt--gt /Hî/T/, /ø// - /T/ lt--gt /Hî-T/ lt--gt
hît. The next problem is determine each step
based on feeding and bleeding which means that
extrinsically ordered rules might be omitted.
Let us go through SLEEP to become more acquainted
with this process.
The morphophoneme T here is technically a set
containing /T/, /ø/. Morphophonemic Mapping
T ? /ø/ / ____ - Apical, stop.
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
In the above diagram The final stem consonant is
not /T/. Therefore, the stem before the
inflectional suffix is T. SLEEP is -Weak verb
and belongs to the T-class. The latter is linked
to the morphophonemic sign in the affix. A link
is established between the form-feature in SLEEP
and /T/-W. This member of the set is selected
SLEEP Past
V, -Weak, T Suffix, V-host
/SLœP/ /T/-W
SLEEP-Past can be spelled out /SLœP-T/. Let
us do another one, one with a stem final D READ
inflected for the passive voice. It belongs to
the D-class
READ   Passive
V, -Weak, D   Suffix, V-host
/RED/   -S
Referring now to E, /?/ must be linked to
-Weak, D. It succeeds and /œ/ is selected
READ   Passive
V, -Weak, D   Suffix, V-host
/RœD/   -S
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
It is thus phonemically spelled out as /RœD/, the
remaining forms are spelled out phonemically as
/RID/, /RIDZ/ and /RIDIñ/. Morpheme boundaries
are not part of phonemic representation, although
phonemes are conditioned by (clitics and type
2 affix boundaries) and (word boundary).
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
E.g. goose, geese tooth, teeth foot, feet
mouse, mice. There are two default vowels with
/U/, and one with /?/. It is possible to define a
set for the high back rounded vowels. Let U
represent them E.g. U /U/, /?/. This
idea simply will not work. It makes the grammar
unnecessarily complex. That means there is one
/U/, /I/ and another set /?/, /I/. The first
one occurs in two lexemes and the latter in just
one lexeme. It is better just write the set in
the lexical entry for these nouns. The lexical
entry for FOOT would be
FOOT
N
/F/I/, /?/T/
The lexeme still does not contain enough
information to determine in which context /I/
occurs. Obviously, it occurs in the plural
FOOT
N
/F/I, ____Pl/, /?/T/
This is still not enough to account for
everything. In the plural there is no overt
affix /FIT/. The concept of an empty cell
(phoneme) has been introduced earlier /ø/. Hs
proposal of a morphemic operator seems to be
ill-thought out. It is difficult to incorporate
his proposal into this scheme. Suppose we adopt
the null phoneme hypothesis. There are now three
allomorphs of the feature Pl
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4. Morphophonemic Mapping
E.g. Pl /ø/, /N/, /Z/ The abbreviation
Pl must include a context in order to select
the appropriate allomorph E.g. Pl /ø/
/___ ø-class nouns, /N/ /___ N-class nouns,
/Z/ The ø-class of nouns includes all those
will empty affixes in the plural (foot/feet), the
N-class those with the suffix /N/ (ox, oxen
child, children brother, brethren). Note that
besides ø-class stems, there are ø-class stems
that exhibit no morphophonemic change of the
stem deer/deer sheep/sheep elk/elk. These
nouns have a null affix in the singular and in
the plural. This leads to ambiguity E.g. The
deer eats the grass every day and looks at
himself in the pools reflection. E.g. The deer
eat the grass every day and look at themselves in
the pools reflection. Deer in the first example
is interpreted as singular because of the
agreement with the verb and as plural in the
second example, and the agreement with the
anaphor in the second clause. Formally, both
forms are /DEERø/. The remainder of irregular
nouns with overt suffixes are formed similar to
the above lexical entry. There are only two
irregular adjective stems in the comparative and
superlative. The procedure as above applies.
Another type of alternation is the voiced
alternation of final fricatives E.g. elf,
elves shelf, shelves dwarf, dwarves house,
houses bath, baths path, paths. There are three
morphophonemic sets F /V/, /F/, S
/Z/, /S/, O /ð/, /O/. The voiced
alternants occur when the function is Pl.
There exists another set The entry for elf is
the following
ELF
N
/?LV/
21
4. Morphophonemic Mapping
E.g. FRV /V/, /O/, /Z/, /?/. This is a
naturally occurring set in phonology, except not
all voiced fricatives alternate with voiceless
fricatives. /FRV/ represents the phonemic set of
voiced fricatives. FR stands for fricative, and
V stands for voiced. Its complementary set are
the voiceless fricatives E.g. FRVL /F/,
/ð/, /S/, /?/.The voicing rule is expressed in
the following Voiced Fricative Mapping for
Nouns FRV ? /FRV/ / ____ Pl/,
/FRV/. Otherwise, the default member
applies. The lexical entry for elf and its
mapping to its phonemic is now shown E.g.
ELF-PL ? /?LF/-Pl ? /?LV-Pl ? /?LV-Z/.
4.2 Irregular Adjectives. Only three
inflectional categories exist in English for
adjectives the positive, the comparative, and
the superlative. The positive dgree is used in
American grammas to mean the unmarked or plain
degree in contrast to the comparative and
superlative. Im sure if this term is sued in
Canadian grammars. First, they should be
categorized by binary features. The feature
Degree includes the inflected and the
periphrastic forms of the adjectives. The next
division is Degree-affix. Deg-affix refers
to adjectives and adverbs formed with the
suffixes -er and -est warm, warmer, warmest
fast, faster, fastest (adjective and adverb).
-Deg-affix refers to adjectives and adverbs for
which the forms of the comparative and
superlative are formed with the periphrastic
forms more and most. At this time I will only
cover the forms with the overt affixes as well as
the positive degree. The positive degree is
always /ø/, when the comparative and superlative
forms are overt affixes. When degree category is
formed periphrastically, there is no affix, overt
or covert. The comparative sign is always /R/,
even when the stem is irregular. The
superlative is -est with one exception best.
The problem is what is the phonemic form of the
ending?
22
4. Morphophonemic Mapping

At this time it appears to be /ˆST/ (barred-I)
ST/. If we assume that the phonemic form for the
comparative and superlative stem is /Bî?T/.
Previously, it was claimed that T lt--gt /ø/
before apical stops Morphophonemic Mapping,
T ? /ø/ /___ -Sonorant , /T/. The
above mapping rule is now expanded to include
obstruents E.g. T ? /ø/ / ____
-Sonorant , /T/ . This a noteworthy
improvement as the mapping shows the true nature
of some stops. In more advanced morphophonology
some suffixes and prefixes are classified as type
1 or strong, since they trigger alternations that
do not occur with type 2 or weak affixes.
23
5. A note on Interpretation
The interpretation of a phonetic string occurs
when the listener attempts to determine the
phonemic string that is mapped with the phonetic
string, which the listener hears. For example if
a listener hears t in English, he will
interpret it as /T/ if he hears a, he will
interpret it as /A/, and so forth. However,
interpretation is not as easy as the above.
Suppose the listener hears laks. It is possible
that he will interpret it as /LAKS/ lox. But
he could also interpret it as /LOKZ/, in which
case /Z/ can only be interpreted as Pl. The
astute listener will interpret it either way, in
which case he must make a decision. In isolation,
he has nothing to go on. In a context he should
be able to make a decision E.g. He bought two
loks. (Here I am focusing on the last
word-form.) The key word here for interpretation
is some. Some is an indefinite quantifier. If the
noun it modifies is a count noun, then the noun
must be plural E.g. Two locks (plural), two
lock. If the word is a mass noun, then the noun
must be in the singular E.g. Some lox, two
loxes, some loxes. The astute listener will hear
laks either as locks or lox. The complement of
two must be plural. However, locks is a mass noun
and cannot occur in the plural. The only possible
interpretation is locks if it is assumed the
speaker is speaking grammatically. Let us do
another one. Pl is mapped to
/Z/ /BAR/Pl lt--gt /BARZ/ (erasing morpheme
boundaries).
24
5. A note on Interpretation
Now let us map the phonemic form back its
morphological form. Probably the first task is to
determine where there is a lexical stem /BARZ/.
There is no known lexical item in standard
English that would be spelled as barz. Hence,
interpreting it as a lexical item fails. Next,
other possibilities must be sought out. We can
start at the right end or the left end. Lets
start at the right end. /Z/ matches the sign for
Pl for nouns, the sign for -Pers and -Pl
for verbs. Going though verbs, the verb bar (BAR)
is found -Pers, -Pl lt--gt /Z/ (This
correspondence can be written in either
direction.) Once we have determined that /Z/ has
a correspondence, that means it is a separate
morpheme E.g. /BAR-Z/. By the above
correspondence mapping, /Z/ lt--gt -Pers, Pl.
Replace /Z/ with -Pers, Pl E.g. /BAR/
-Pers, Pl. The sign /BAR/ is part of the
lexical entry for BAR E.g. BAR -Pers,
Pl. However, we should continue checking the
lexicon, because /BAR/ may show somewhere else,
which in fact is does. It also occurs in the set
of nouns in the lexicon a bar. The fact that the
noun stem BAR has several meanings has no bearing
on interpreting /BAR/. There is a correspondence
rule for /Z/ in the context of a noun. Pl
lt--gt /Z/.
25
5. A note on Interpretation
/BARZ/ lt--gt /BAR-Z/ lt--gt /BAR/ PL lt--gt BAR
PL. The rules for interpretation are
rather complicated. As a person acquires speech,
he also learns how to interpret words, phrases,
clauses, and sentences. I will terminate this
discussion here, leaving interpretation for
another course.

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  Chapter 2, Go to Chapter 4, Go to Chapter 5, Go
  to Exercise 3