Introduction

The last chapter attempted to strengthen the constraints usually assumed in Lexical Phonology, and to streamline the architecture of the lexical component, reducing it to two levels. However, these alterations were mainly made on general theoretical grounds, and were largely independent of actual phonological analyses. In this chapter, then, we turn to the application of the constraints. Specifically, I shall propose a revised account of the Modern English Vowel Shift Rule (VSR), which adheres to the principles that underlying and lexical representations should be identical in non-alternating and underived forms. This reanalysis will have implications for various other aspects of the English vowel phonology, including the analysis of surface diphthongs, and the derivation of the [jū] sequence, and will furthermore indicate that synchronic rules can differ markedly from the historical changes which originally caused the variation they describe, a hypothesis to be developed in the following chapters. Finally, even given the constraints of LP, dubious cases will inevitably arise. For instance, alternations may exist in a language, but the time depth from the creation of these alternating forms may be so great, and the forms involved so few, that speakers may be unable to discern a synchronically productive pattern.