Segmental Rules of English and Cyclic Phonology

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to incorporate a description of some segmental rules of English into the framework of cyclic phonology which has grown out of the classical SPE type of phonology, on the one hand, and Kiparsky's works, on the other. The discussion is organized around the problems of palatalization in American English. The rules arrived at are divided into cyclic and postcyclic types, and some predictions which follow from the proposed division are discussed. The analysis considers a number of modifications in the statement of rules originally introduced in SPE.