The term generative phonolgy refers to statements, rules or axioms which can produce all but only those well-formed utterances of a language. The goal of this theory is to make precise and explicit the ability of native speakers to produce utterances of a particular language. In generative phonology, the level of the phoneme is redefined to match…

This article argues that QUE-deletion in Montreal French is a syntactic rule, rather than a phonological one, as earlier treatments had claimed. It is divided into five sections: (1) a discussion of why the rule accounting for the alternation of QUE with zero is a deletion, not an insertion rule, (2) a critique of the best known earlier…

A device of emphasis in French syntax is defined as a construction of syntactic paraphrase whose function is to make certain parts of a sentence stand out for purposes of contrast, clarification, differentiation, or because a given element is considered important. These devices exist in French because of the lack of a phonemic stress system, and…

Noam Chomsky's transformational-generative grammar model may effectively be translated into an equivalent computer model. Phrase-structure rules and transformations are tested as to their validity and ordering by the computer via the process of random lexical substitution. Errors appearing in the grammar are detected and rectified, and formal…

The internalized grammar of the bilingual is different from that of a monolingual. The bilingual has, in addition to the entries that are proper to each of the two languages he speaks, certain union entries. These are extensive in the case of the Spanish/English bilingual since there are many items in the two languages that manifest systematic…

Two questions are central to the controversy in phonological theory: (1) are there empirical differences between morphophonemic alterations and allophonic variation, and (2) what are the universal constraints on the ordering of phonological processes within the phonological rule component. This paper illustrates a Natural Generative Phonology…