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THE LINGUISTICS STUDENT’S HANDBOOK 40
when the precise value is not important, but matching of values is. With binary
features, the � stands in place of a�or a -, so that we can get rules like (12);
where features have a wider range of potential values, the alpha-notation can
cover those as well, as in (13).
(12) [� nasal] → [� back] / ___ [� back]
(13) [� nasal] → [� place] / ___ [� place]
The important point in (12) and (13) is that the � must have the same value
everywhere it occurs on any given application of the rule. So (12) means that
the nasal is further specified as [� back] before something which is [� back]
and as [– back] before something which is [– back]. Similarly (13) means that
whatever value for [place] the following segment has (e.g. labial, coronal,
dorsal, etc.), the nasal will take the same value.
Refinements
Only the basics of rule notation have been dealt with here, and there are a
number of conventions for writing and interpreting rules which are not mentioned
here. For example, alpha-notation can be used for marking disagreement
as well as agreement, and can become more complex than was illustrated
in (12) and (13). Such complexities have not been mentioned partly because
they may not be required (at some particular level of study, in a particular
model), partly because, being more complicated than those facets which have
been mentioned here, they require more assumptions about the form of the
grammar. Many phonology textbooks will provide more elaborate discussions
of rule writing and rule interpretation.
References
Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle (1968). The Sound Pattern of English. New York:
Harper & Row.
Jensen, John T. (1990). Morphology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Lieber, Rochelle (1992). Deconstructing Morphology. Chicago and London: University
of Chicago Press.
Wartburg, Walther von (1967). Évolution et structure de la langue française. 8th edn.
Berne: Francke.