PHONOLOGICAL VERSUS MORPHOLOGICAL RULES - ON GERMAN UMLAUT AND ABLAUT

This paper addresses the relationship between phonology and morphology , using the vowel alternations of Standard German Umlaut and Ablaut as relevant examples. Umlaut is analysed as a completely unified process of vowel fronting which can be found in a wide variety of morphologic ally derived environments. A number of nonlinear phonological analyses of Umlaut, involving a floating feature, are presented and compared. While Umlaut is interpreted, in current analyses, as a morphological r ule, the present paper argues for its status as a lexical phonological rule. Ablaut, on the other hand, is, synchronically, a totally unpred ictable vowel change found mostly in the paradigms of so-called strong verbs. On the grounds of its internal and external behaviour, it is a rgued that this phenomenon must receive a completely different descrip tion by means of additional specifications for lexical entries.