Bloomfield's Taxemes

[Daniel Everett]

Are there any explicit comparisons between 'readjustment rules' in DM
and SPE with Bloomfield's 'taxemes'?

For example, in Bloomfield (1935, 167ff), for example, alternations
e.g. duke + ess --> duchess are discussed.
After combing these two forms, Bloomfield argues that a phonetic
modification is necessary to get duchess which is a further feature of
grammatical arrangement. This feature he calls a 'taxeme'. Moreover, he
claims that taxemes cannot contribute to meaning. This is also
discussed in PH Matthews' Grammatical theory in the United States from
Bloomfield to Chomsky (CUP), 1993.

-- Dan


********************
Daniel L. Everett
Professor of Phonetics and Phonology
Department of Linguistics
N1.14 Arts Building
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester, UK
M13 9PL
Phone: 44-161-275-3158
Department Fax: 44-161-275-3187
http://ling.man.ac.uk/info/staff/de/
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