Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Key to symbols
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Segmental representations and their phonetic interpretation
- 3 Segmental and transformational phonology
- 4 Non-linear phonological representations in contemporary generative phonology
- 5 Phonological representations in Declarative Phonology
- 6 A declarative analysis of Japanese words
- 7 A declarative analysis of English words
- References
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Key to symbols
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Segmental representations and their phonetic interpretation
- 3 Segmental and transformational phonology
- 4 Non-linear phonological representations in contemporary generative phonology
- 5 Phonological representations in Declarative Phonology
- 6 A declarative analysis of Japanese words
- 7 A declarative analysis of English words
- References
- Index
Summary
Rules and representations in linguistic theory
In generative grammar, a distinction is made between linguistic representations, which are formal or mental objects of linguistic theory, and rules, which are (usually derivational) relations between representations of different kinds. The idea of different kinds or levels of representation (morphemic, morphophonemic, phonemic, phonetic etc.) predates generative linguistics. Generative linguistics inherited the notion of ‘levels of representation’, and by making explicit the notion of linguistic rule, explored the relations between representations of various kinds. The distinction, articulated by Chomsky (1980), has remained so fundamental to generative grammar from its earliest days that until recently it was not questioned.
The distinction was explored at length in relation to theories of phonology by Anderson (1985), who regarded rules and representations as notions of grammars and languages respectively:
the notion of linguistic representations is one that arises as the central object of study in a theory concerned with languages (construed as sets of sentences, words, utterances, etc.); while the notion of rules is one that arises particularly in connection with the study of grammars. Many of the central concerns of the field at present are fundamentally questions about the basic properties of representations; but if this is a notion that pertains particularly to theories of languages, and we accept the proposal that the appropriate object of study in linguistics is actually grammars, then it follows that concerns about properties of representations must at minimum be raised anew.
(Anderson 1985: 7)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Phonological RepresentationsTheir Names, Forms and Powers, pp. 1 - 17Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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