Blackwell Reference Online

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The principle of cyclic rule application is taken as a fundamental property in much current theoretical work in phonology, with far-reaching effects on the behavior of phonological rules and rule systems. Cyclicity is invoked to explain many characteristics of rule application, such as: • the failure of rule application in nonderived, monomorphemic environments; • the application of a rule to a morphological constituent which is a substring of the word; • rule ordering paradoxes – apparent violations of the strict linear ordering hypothesis, which requires all phonological rules to apply in a sequence, with each rule applying only once. Cyclicity was at the core of some of the earliest work in generative phonology, playing an important role in the analysis of English stress in the landmark work of Chomsky and Halle (1968, hereafter SPE ). Laying out the crucial role of morphological structure in constraining phonological rule application, cyclicity in early generative theory paved the way for the future development of the influential theory of lexical phonology (Mohanan 1986; Kiparsky 1982c, 1985a; inter alia). Current research on the syntax-phonology interface can be seen as further extending our understanding of the nature of domains which constitute complex phonological expressions (Nespor and Vogel 1986; Inkelas and Zec 1990; Kisseberth 1992). From the perspective of current ... log in or subscribe to read full text