This is the first study in which the principles of generative of French phonology and morphology that accounts for the phonological alternations occurring in morphological related forms. (An example is the morpheme 'want,' which occurs in such phonologically different forms as veulent, voulons, and volonté.) Professor Schane's emphasis throughout the book is on the interrelationships between the phonological and morphological processes, in which these two aspects of the language emerge as a complete, integrated system rather than as independent phenomena.
Three major areas are treated in detail: elision and liaison, the vowel system, and verbs. Of particular interest is the treatment of the classical problem of elision and liaison, in which the two are shown to be in fact a single phonological phenomenon and syntactic constraints. The discussion of the vowel system details a set of underlying vowels needed to produce the vocalic alternants observable both within the paradigm and in derivational forms. In the treatment of verbs Professor Schane develops a set of rules for producing the various paradigmatic forms. Furthermore, many “irregular” verbs – including some of the most anomalous forms – can be accounted for under this system.
French Phonology and Morphology will have a wide audience among linguistics, in both theory and applications, and among students of French or of Romance languages. In order to make the work accessible to students outside the single field of linguistics, a minimum of linguistic notation is used.
