Disjunctive ordering

FORMAT

Disjunctive ordering is a type of rule interaction, introduced by Chomsky & Halle (1968). Two rules A and B are ordered disjunctively if rule B may not be applied to the output of rule A, even if the output of rule A satisfies the structural description of rule B. See also parenthesis notation.

Example

rule (a) and (b) are two rules among the stress rules of English:

a	V ->	    V    / ____C_0VC0
		     [+stress]
b	V ->	    V    / ____C0
		     [+stress]

IPA	Please add or correct the following transcriptions: both examples. Please remove this block only when the task has been completed.

Rule (a) is applied in ellípsis; Rule (b) could then in principle also apply yielding the incorrect ellí­psís (with two main stresses). Therefore, rule (a) and (b) are ordered disjunctively to prevent rule (b) from applying after rule (a) has applied.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Chomsky, N. and M. Halle 1968. The Sound Pattern of English, Harper and Row, New York.
• Halle and Keyser 1971. English stress: its form, its growth and its role in verse, Harper & Row, New York.