Lexical phonology

Lexical phonology is an approach to phonology that accounts for the interactions of morphology and phonology in the word building process.



The lexicon plays a central, productive role in the theory. It consists of ordered levels, which are the domain for certain phonological or morphological processes.

Models of phonology

Different models of phonology contribute to our knowledge of phonological representations and processes:

• In classical phonemics, phonemes and their possible combinations are central.
• In standard generative phonology, distinctive features are central. A stream of speech is portrayed as linear sequence of discrete sound-segments. Each segment is composed of simultaneously occurring features.
• In non-linear models of phonology, a stream of speech is represented as multidimensional, not simply as a linear sequence of sound segments. These non-linear models grew out of generative phonology:
  o autosegmental phonology
  o metrical phonology
  o lexical phonology

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