Classical Versus Generative Phonology

This paper examines the basic views of classical and generative phonology. It then considers the similarities and differences in the two theoretical models. Both approaches focus on the sounds of human language and are both offshoots of structural grammar. They also recognize the level of phonetic representation. However, classical phonology is preoccupied with phonemicising, while generative phonology is concerned with the generation of rules that apply to the phonemic level of representation to yield the phonetic level of representation. Besides, while classical phonology sees the phoneme as irreducible, generative phonology sees it as a bundle of features.