ABSTRACT
Approach in phonology developed by P. Kiparsky and others that divides the lexicon into levels within which the different means of word formation and inflection in a language interact with a predetermined set of cyclically applying phonological rules in order to derive word structures. Affixes of the first level (level I) together with their stem undergo phonological processes such as word stress, assimilation, vowel shortening (cf. Eng. párent and parént+al; il+legal, im+possible, but in+effi-cient; opāque, but opac+ity). The output of each level always forms a possible word stem, whose internal structure is visible to that level, but which, owing to the deletion of the original bracketing, is inaccessible to higher levels which are organized according to their own characteristic phonological rules. Typical for stems serving as a base for level II affixes and compounds is their phonological as well as semantic transparency (cf. Eng. non-legal; opāque-ness, teeth-marks). Regular inflection (cf. Eng. cat-s vs teeth, or brother-s vs brethren) comprises the third and last level. Irregular inflection corresponds to the phonological processes of the first level.
