Some aspects of English phonology: An optimality theoretic approach
This thesis investigates some morphophonemic alternations in English vocalic and consonantal phonology. The alternations include three types of phonological phenomena: vowel quality discrepancies, Cluster Simplification, and Voicing Assimilation. This thesis focuses on why these phenomena occur. The goal of this work is to explore the motivating forces of these phenomena and present a principled account of the morphophonemic alternations. Unlike studies in the previous classical generative approach, this work appeals to functional principles fully integrated into a formal phonological analysis. To present explicit formal analyses of the three kinds of phenomena, I adopt the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993a, b).
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign