1 How to State Phonological Rules
Several exercises in this workbook require an informal statement of some
phonological rule(s). These rules express regularities in the patterning of the sounds
in the language in question. In this appendix we will demonstrate how to state
such rules, using examples from English.
Consider the following regularity in the pronunciation of vowels in American
English: vowels are longer when they appear before voiced consonants than when
they appear before voiceless ones. To perceive this difference, utter the words bit
and bid a few times. Notice how much longer the vowel lasts in bid than it does
in bit. The conditioning factor for the lengthening of the vowel in this case is the
voiced sound d that follows it. A similar length difference appears in the words tap
and tab. Even the already long or tense vowels in pairs such as beat and bead
show a relative length difference.
This lengthening rule of American English vowels is thus a condition on
pronunciation that every native speaker has learned. The regularity describing
vowel length can be expressed in statement 1.- A vowel is lengthened before a voiced consonant.
This statement can also be expressed in the following more concise notation:- [vowel] -+ [lengthened] / [voiced consonants]
And this statement in turn is an instance of a more abstract rule pattern:Rule pattern 3 can be read as follows: "A is realized as B when it appears in an
environment where it is immediately preceded by C (i.e., A is to the right of C)
and immediately followed by D (i.e., A is to the left of D)."
In other words:+ is to be read "is realized as" or "becomes."
/ is to be read "in the environment of."
(called the focus bar) specifies the relative position of the segment subject to
the rule, in this case A, to the segments conditioning the rule, in this case C
and D.The pattern given in rule schema 3 is characteristic of most of the phonological
regularities found in this workbook and is typical of the pattern of phonological
rules found in the world's languages.
In the case of the American English vowel-lengthening rule, A is any vowel, B is
the specification "lengthening," C is lacking, and D is a voiced consonant. This is G
the form given as rule statement 2. U^0
An example of a phonological rule in which both C and D must be present is
the Flap Rule (see Linguistics, pp. 92-93), which specifies that a flap, [r], replaces g
a [t] when it occurs between vowels and when the first vowel is stressed: o 0