A formal system of the accentuation of compounds in Tokyo dialect

Abstract

This paper presents a system which aims at a formal description of accentual alternations in Tokyo dialect within the framework of generative phonology.
The organization of the system is as follows:
(i) Accentual information is encoded in lexical entries by means of Accentual Features.
(ii) A Compound Rule is formulated as a redundancy rule, which derives the values for the Accentual Features of a compound on the basis of the values of its constituent elements.
(iii) The surface tone pattern is derived by Tone Assigment Rules, which apply to the output of a Compound Rule.
(iv) The domains in which a Compound Rule and Tone Assignment Rules operate are called Accentual Unit and Accentual Phrase, respectively.
A tentative extended version of the system applicable to dialects other than Tokyo dialect is also proposed.