ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the theory of Lexical Phonology (LP). It develops an analysis of Sekani phonology and morphology within this theory. There are two features of the LP model which most distinguish it from competing models of grammar, such as that presented in Chomsky and Halle. First, analyses in which phonological rule applications precede morphological processes, some of which are correctly predicted to occur. Second, the theory correctly predicts a significant number of differences between two types of phonological rules; 'lexical' and 'postlexical' rules. The model of grammar proposed by Chomsky and Halle in the Sound Pattern of English (SPE) was widely assumed. The major difference between the LP and SPE models concerns the location of the phonological rule component. The Chomsky/Jackendoff abstract approach to morphology and the lexicon contrasts sharply with the approach assumed by researchers within the theory of level ordering. According to this theory, morphological and phonological rules are assigned to blocks called 'levels'.
