Blackwell Reference Online

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At the heart of particle phonology is a set of unary features: the aperture particle |a| and the tonality particles |i| and |u|. These three particles encompass the traits of openness, palatality, and labiality, respectively. The different combinations of single occurrences of the particles (including the null set) yield the eight vowels in (1). (1)  The initial impetus for the theory of particle phonology stemmed from limitations of the binary distinctive features of generative phonology in expressing interrelationships between diphthongs and monophthongs. The standard notation, as presented in Chomsky and Halle (1968), did not reveal in an enlightening manner processes such as the diphthongization of [ü ] or the monophthongization of [a ] to [e ]. In the earliest work on particle phonology (Schane 1984a, 1984b), diphthongization was viewed as the splitting apart (fission) of a particle complex and a realignment of the component particles into the two halves of the diphthong. Conversely, monophthongization was the fusion of a sequence of particles into a simultaneously occurring configuration. Fission and fusion acted directly on the particles. In (2) we illustrate, for that early framework, the fission of [ü ] into [i ] and the fusion of [a ] into [e ]. (2)  Phonological representation has become considerably richer, and we shall see that the fission/fusion that characterizes ... log in or subscribe to read full text