ABSTRACT
In the history of linguistics, phonology has played an important role and, at various points, has been seen as providing the key concepts for the analysis of language as a whole. After the Second World War, for instance, the work of phonologists such as Trubetz-koy and Jakobson was seen by many scholars as providing a model of precision that should be emulated in the social sciences: for instance, the structural anthropology of Lévi-Strauss was explicitly based on the achievements of structural phonology (see Dosse 1991). In recent years, however, many of the claims concerning the nature of the theory of language would appear to have come from syntax, semantics and pragmatics. While in terms of volume of production, the place of phonology within an account of linguistic structure seems unassailable, there are wide differences in the field as to the role, nature and structure of a phonological component. The purpose of this chapter is to offer a brief rational reconstruction of aspects of the theory of phonology. While the discussion here is framed within the Chomskyan paradigm of linguistic structure, I will take as little for granted as possible. Inevitably, there are many short-cuts and the reader is asked to exercise some charity in filling in the gaps at various points of the discussion.
