The theoretical framework of the present study was originally proposed by Mc Carthy (1979), which was further developed by Halle & Vergnaud (1980) and Clements & Keyser (1981).
The underlying assumption of the theory is that a phonological or morphological representation is not linear but “tiered” or “dimensional” in the sense that there is an autonomous segmental level called
CV-slot (or
prosodic template, to use Mc Carthy's terminology), which is independent of a phonological level, in line with the autosegmental theory.
This paper will present a description of the morpho-phonological phenomena called “ONBIN” with special reference to past tense formation of verbs. I will focus my attention on the issues of (i) how a CV-slot level and phonological level are related;(ii) how the process of “ONBIN” is described in terms of the theory adopted here;(iii) how a dialectal variation of “ONBIN” is systematically accounted for.
Furthermore the present paper attempts to shed new light on the treatment of so called “consonantal morae” in relation to syllable template in Japanese. The conclusion is that the representational apparatus of the multi-tiered theory of phonology is able to give some insight into Japanese phonology and morphology.
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