MODELING THE PHONOLOGY–MORPHOLOGY INTERFACE

Abstract

This chapter presents a defense of interactionism that phonological rules may precede morphological rules. Pesetsky's model might be called the standard theory of phonology–morphology interaction in lexical phonology, incorporating several hypotheses. Lexical phonological rules apply cyclically in an unmarked case, the lexical phonology may precede word formation, and the word-internal structure is invisible to certain later processes. The model predicts that any lexical phonological rule that belongs to the same or an earlier phonological domain as a morphological rule should be able to precede that morphological rule. McCarthy and Prince adduce a number of morphological rules from various languages that operate on a prosodically circumscribed base in this manner. This well-supported conclusion presupposes and thus provides support for interactionism—that is, phonologically defined circumscription of a base precedes some morphological process in a number of languages.