Bleeding order is a term used in
phonology to describe specific interactions of phonological rules. The term was introduced in 1968 by
Paul Kiparsky.
If two phonological rules are said to be in bleeding order, the application of the first rule creates a context in which the second rule can no longer apply.
The opposite of this is called
feeding order.
Examples
An example of this in
English is the -insertion between a
voiceless alveolar fricative and a
plural-''z'', as in (with the
underlying representation ). English also has a rule which
devoices segments after
voiceless consonants, as in , with the underlying representation ). In the output form (''buses''),
final devoicing
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in final p ...
has not applied, because the phonological context in which this rule could have applied has gone as a consequence of the application of -insertion. Put differently, the application order "(1) -insertion (2) final devoicing" is a bleeding order in English.
Counterbleeding order
If two rules which ''would'' have a bleeding relationship in one order ''actually'' apply in the opposite order, the latter is called a counterbleeding order. An example of this can be seen in the pronunciation of the
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
of the word ''slang'' ("snake") in the
Dutch dialect of
Kaatsheuvel: . If
insertion had applied first, then the rule which inserts an additional between the
noun stem and the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
could no longer have applied and the output form would have been . However, the rules have applied in the reverse order.
See also
*
Feeding order
*
Markedness
*
Optimality theory
*
Phonological opacity
Literature
*Gussenhoven, C. & Jacobs, H. (1998). Understanding Phonology. Arnold, Londen.
*Jensen, J.T. (2004). Principles of Generative Phonology: An introduction
References
Phonology
Sound changes
Phonotactics
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