This article discusses vowel diachronic changes with an emphasis on Great Vowel Shift (GVS) in Early Modern English from the viewpoint of their internal mechanisms. The motivation of GVS is attested by Open Syllable Lengthening (OSL).
The heart of OSL is the interrelationships among “height”, “tenseness” and “length”, as seen from the fact that short vowels in open syllables were not only lengthened but also lowered. The intricate interplay of the parameters is appropriately described by means of the feature “particle” presented by Schane (1984).
Chapter 3 and 4 investigates particle analysis of GVS by Schane, pointing out the contradiction of the markedness arrangement to the symmetrical vowel system. I alternatively suggest its generalization on the basis of SPE's simplicity principle, on the ground that it displays the balancing of markedness at every stage in accordance with unmarked symmetry. My analysis is based on the combination of Schane's elementary particle and SPE's simplicity principle. It provides an explanation of “how” and “why” regarding GVS with a certain viewpoint “reciprocal change”.
