The theory of lexical phonology

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: The study of linguistics is a large branch of knowledge that deals with language and communication systems. Since a variety of linguists work on different interests concerning this science, there have been a lot of theories and models to describe specific approaches in human language. Since Chomsky and Halle¿s Sound Pattern of English (1968), there are a number of further developments according to linguistics. The theory of lexical phonology is one part of the study of linguistics which passes through several conceptions from the 1950s until today. Lexical phonology was developed in the early 1980s by K. P. Mohanan and P. Kiparsky and is the one most similar to classical generative phonology. In the theory of lexical phonology, the lexicon is given a key role and that represents a significant departure from classical models. In the following paper an outlook is given of what is meant by the term lexical phonology, and also a historical background to achieve a general overview. After having arranged the theory into linguistics and historical developments, there is a distinction between lexical and generative phonology. The relation between lexical phonology and morphology with its sharp distinction between lexical and postlexical rules, is presented afterwards. The interaction of phonology and morphology with the levels of representation will be explained to get to mechanisms of phonological changes and the output of phonology. For that reason, the information of the arrangement of affixes will be given. Different word formation processes such as vowel shift rule, vowel reduction, voicing or stress placement are mentioned to show the effect on what was elaborated before. The aim of this paper is to give a general overview of the theory of lexical phonology with its classical roots rather than to go into very specific details.