Chapter 7: Generative Treatments of Rendaku and Related Issues

This chapter provides an overview of how rendaku has been analyzed in the history of generative phonology, the mainstream framework of theoretical phonology. As we will observe, theoretical analyses of rendaku have been developed in tandem with the development of phonological theory. Therefore, rendaku has been analyzed within a theoretical framework that was dominant during that era. Concretely, the three major theoretical frameworks discussed in this chapter are: (i) the rule-based framework developed by Chomsky and Halle (1968) in their seminal book on generative phonology, The Sound Pattern of English (SPE), (ii) autosegmental phonology (Goldsmith 1976) coupled with underspecification theory (Kiparsky 1982), and (iii) Optimality Theory (OT: Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004), the currently most-dominant analytical framework. Although we will briefly explain the fundamental features of these theories, the readers are referred to other introductory textbooks for further details.