What is generative phonology?

Generative phonology is a component of generative grammar that assigns the correct phonetic representations to utterances in such a way as to reflect a native speaker’s internalized grammar.

The following are crucial components of generative phonology:

• Levels of phonological representation

  Generative phonology posits two levels of phonological representation:

  • An underlying representation is the most basic form of a word before any phonological rules have been applied to it. Underlying representations show what a native speaker knows about the abstract underlying phonology of the language.
  • A phonetic representation is the form of a word that is spoken and heard.

• Phonological rules

  Phonological rules map underlying representations onto phonological representations. They delete, insert, or change segments, or change the features of segments.

• Derivations

• Distinctive features

  Distinctive features make it possible to capture the generalities of phonological rules.

• Linearity

  A stream of speech is portrayed as a sequence of discrete sound segments. Each segment is composed of simultaneously occurring features.

Kenstowicz and Kisseberth 1979

Context for this page:

• Concept module: generative phonology
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): G
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 February 2004

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