| 研究実績の概要 |
Despite numerous discussions in the past decades, the validity of rule ordering still remains a controversial topic in the field of phonology. Thus, I refer to Canadian Raising (henceforth CR), the most famous phonological phenomenon entangled with rule ordering, to search for direct evidence for rule ordering.
I propose to treat CR as variation and explain it in terms of variable rules. I assume that CR, in addition to phonological environments, is as well influenced by many other extra-linguistic factors, such as age, class, etc. With such a theoretical background, the application of rules for CR is not either 0 or 1. The same term applies to rule ordering as well: the ordering relation between the Canadian Raising Rule (1) and the Intervocalic Voicing Rule (2) depends both on internal linguistic factors and extra-linguistic factors. With every change in one factor, the ordering relation may vary too. The supposition presented here needs to be confirmed by empirical data and test results. Accordingly, I use chi-square test to examine the correlation between extra-linguistic factors and CR data. And the test result seems to support my supposition. Variable rules is an extension of rules, thus it appears that CR is a piece of evidence for rule ordering and the validity of rule ordering is accordingly strengthened. In this way, not only an explanation for CR is provided, but also a piece of evidence for the validity of rule ordering is presented. The objective of this study is achieved.
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