Final Devoicing in the Phonology of German

This book deals with final devoicing in German. Specifically, it discusses how this phonological event can be handled in a theoretical framework based on principles and parameters rather than rules. It begins with an outline of the data to be analysed, which is followed by a detailed discussion of earlier work on final devoicing. The author then introduces Government Phonology and develops a Government Phonology analysis which overcomes many of the problems associated with these previous accounts. She argues that final devoicing should be interpreted as a phonological weakening process which consists in the withdrawal of autosegmental licensing from the laryngeal element L (= voicing on obstruents). Finally, the author investigates whether final devoicing results in phonological neutralisation, as is often assumed in the literature.Brockhaus, Wiebke is the author of 'Final Devoicing in the Phonology of German', published 1995 under ISBN 9783484303362 and ISBN 3484303360.