On Phonotactics Rules Of Consonant Clusters In The Light Of Autonomy/Dependence Alignment

In recent years, cognitive linguistics as a vigorously developing subject has gradually shown its special attractiveness. Autonomy and dependence alignment (A/D alignment) and related theories play an important role in valence grammar. Langacker mainly makes use of it to analyze semantic expressions. When it is used to analyze something at phonological pole, it is mainly used to analyze the relationship between root and affix, or the relationship of vowel and consonant. Previous studies often focus on language expressions by A/D alignment, such as pun, twister and so on. This thesis extends the researching scope of A/D alignment to study consonants’arrangement problems in clusters.Many scholars at home and abroad have made an agreement on the phonotactics of consonants. Most of their researches just have researched the form of rules, but few of them have researched the generative mechanism of phonotactics rules of consonant clusters from cognitive angle. Also a few related researches are being done about its generative mechanism from the phonetic aspect. This thesis takes on a new perspective of cognitive linguistics, and classifies consonants into autonomous components and dependent components in clusters, aiming at explaining why consonants align like phonotactics rules described.Based on some researches at home and abroad, this thesis explains A/D alignment and phonotactics rules of consonant clusters systematically, and analyzes phonotactics rules of consonant clusters by A/D alignment and its related theories. Through the analysis of some examples, it is found that consonants which have the stable sonority, stresses or rising tone often are autonomous components. And they usually influence other dependent consonants’ pronunciation. They constitute elaboration of a salient substructure within the dependent ones. In cc pattern of onset pattern,[1],[r],[w] often take the role of autonomous component, and [b],[d],[f],[g],[k],[p] and [s] often take the role of dependent components. In ccc pattern of onset clusters,[1],[r],[j],[w] often are autonomous components.[s],[p],[k],[t] usually are dependent components. In cccc pattern of coda clusters,[s],[t],[p] often are regarded as dependent components, while [1],[m],[r] often take the role of autonomous components. In a simple word,[s],[t] and [k] are often dependent components, whereas [r],[l],[j] and [w] usually are regarded as autonomous components.In a word, through the cognitive analysis of phonotactics rules of consonant clusters, this thesis pioneers a new path for researching phonotactics rules of consonant clusters which provides a new thinking way for teaching and studying consonant clusters.