The very regular phonology of English irregular verbs

This talk offers an account of the English irregular PAst Tense verbs, Passive PArticiples and Perfect PArticiples (PA). Examples of these approximately 160 alternations include leave-left-left, sing-sang-sung, and drive-drove-driven. I argue that an autosegmental phonological account of these ‘irregular’ forms is more comprehensive and explanatory than analyses appealing to either (i) multiple phonological levels (Halle & Mohanan 1985), (ii) readjustment rules (Embick & Halle 2005, Embick & Schwayder 2018), or (iii) the direct conditioning of the allomorphy of the past tense morphemes (e.g., -ed, -t…) by the verb root or of the verb root by the PA morphology (Embick 2010).