Level Ordering and Economy in the Lexical Phonology of Turkish

We support the theory of level ordering by demonstrating, on the basis of productive morphology and phonology, that Turkish has four lexical levels. The evidence, however, motivates modifications in the way level ordering is implemented. The first is the principle of Level Economy, according to which a form is subject to the phonology only of those levels at which it is morphologically derived. The second is level prespecification, which exempts a root entirely from early lexical levels. Level Economy accounts for systematic exceptionality, while level prespecification accounts for idiosyncratic exceptionality, to the entire phonology of given levels. These mechanisms yield analyses of facts in Turkish that prove intractable in other theories. Both rely on a structural, rather than a temporal, approach to level ordering.