Editing Elision (section)

==Deletion==
The term ''deletion'' is used in some modern work instead of ''elision''.<ref name="CelceMurcia">{{cite book |last1=Celce-Murcia |first1=Marianne |last2=Brinton |first2=Donna |last3=Goodwin |first3=Janet |title=Teaching Pronunciation |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-40694-3 |pages=163–4}}</ref> When contemporary or historic deletion is treated in terms of [[Generative phonology]] it is usual to explain the process as one of substituting zero for a phoneme, in the form of a [[phonological rule]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kreidler |first1=Charles W. |title=The Pronunciation of English |date=2004 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=1-4051-1336-7 |pages=249–250 |edition=2nd}}</ref> The form of such rules is typically

 X --> ∅ (i.e. the segment x becomes zero)

An example of a deletion rule (for /r/-deletion in English RP) is provided by Giegerich.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Giegerich |first1=Heinz |title=English Phonology |date=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-33603-1 |pages=301–2}}</ref> If we start with the premise that the underlying form of the word "hear" has a final /r/ and has the phonological form /hɪər/, we need to be able to explain how /r/ is deleted at the end of "hear" but is not deleted in the derived word "hearing". The difference is between word-final /r/ in "hear", where the /r/ would form part of the rhyme of a syllable, and word-medial /r/ which would form the onset of the second syllable of "hearing". The following rule deletes /r/ in "hear", giving /hɪə/, but does not apply in the case of "hearing", giving /hɪərɪŋ/.
                 rhyme
     /r/ --> ∅/  _____