ABSTRACT
Various 'frameworks' have developed whereby the minimal two-dimensional, or 'linear', conception has been enriched in two complementary respects. With respect to its conception of phonological representations, CLASSICAL GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY can be characterised as structurally minimalist. No intermediate phonological units are posited as intervening between the minimal unit, or segment, and the 'phonological phrase', the maximal domain for phonological processes. Dependency phonology involves a contention that not merely constituency but also the dependency relation (in terms of which constituency may be defined) is crucial to the expression of recurrent syntagmatic groupings. The phonological structures assigned to words determine in part the structure of utterances. The rules associating the sequences of word structures with an appropriate utterance representation also take into account the organisation of the utterance in terms of syntactic structure and information ('pragmatic') structure, as well as rhythmic templates and tempo requirements. In the terminology of natural phonology, it is 'colourless' or 'achromatic'.
