Phonotactic Descriptions and Their Representation

Abstract

Statements of permissible combinations of phonemes in a language are known as its phonotactics. Such statements can be formulated as constraints on wellformedness of phonological structures within the domain of declarative phonology (cf. Chapter 2). However, as will be seen below, although phonemes may be the heuristic starting point for such descriptions, they are not required to act as primitives. In the following sections, adequacy criteria for phonotactic description are introduced and discussed with respect to possible phonotactic representations. A linear segmental network representation formalism for phonotactic description is then formally defined from both a declarative and procedural perspective in Section 5.3. In Section 5.6, this representation formalism is then extended to cater for the multi-linear temporal event descriptions of Time Map Phonology. The network representation formalism for event descriptions serves as a basis for the definition of syllable event networks (phonotactic descriptions) and complex phonetic event networks for German in Sections 5.6 and 5.7.