Generative phonology, a comparatively recent development on the
linguistic front, has stimulated a reconsideration of the
conceptual scheme of phonology in general in the past ten years.
The ground gained is certainly evident in the present study, a
technical reorganization according to generative phonology of the
phonological description of Yawelmani--one of the six dialects
analyzed in Stanley Newman's classic book of 1944, The Yokuts
Language of California.Although the informed reader will
immediately see by comparison the remarkable advances made in the
theory of phonology since Professor Newman wrote, Yawelmani
Phonology is self-contained and does not assume complete
familiarity with Newman except where explicit comparison is made.
The book is concerned primarily with the most systematic part of
verb derivation and the regular type of noun paradigms.
Specifically, it considers verbs involving the "reduced stem" of
the verb base and the "normal stem" of the verb theme; nouns with a
"regular stem" are treated as well. Irregular forms, outside this
circle of intensity, are examined too if they have any bearing on
regular forms, or if they can be brought into the description by
way of reference. A previously unpublished list of Yawelmani nouns
collected by Newman is consulted to establish some general
phonological rules and determine the underlying representations of
noun bases.Despite the acknowledged debt to Professor Newman, the
research reported here will throw new light on the understanding of
the structure of the Yawelmani language. Organized
heuristically--so that the presentation of phonological rules
proceeds evenly from the general to the specific--the material can
be easily adapted to serve as a short introduction to the theory
and method of generative phonology. Where applicable, diagrams are
introduced with each new rule to demonstrate what ordering of the
rules already obtained is needed to generate the correct speech
forms at that level of analysis. The overall exposition borrows
terms (morph, allomorph) from descriptive linguistics, which, while
not affecting the theoretical import, will facilitate understanding
of the book's organization for those readers only tentatively
familiar with the generative branch of phonology.MIT Press Research
Monograph No. 43
General
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