Different effects of rule ordering

Besides showing how greater generality can often be achieved by splitting a process into smaller pieces, the preceding examples have illustrated that the application of one rule can bring into existence new environments where the second rule can apply, an environment which did not exist in the underlying form. What we observed happening in these cases was that both of the rules applied. Not all interactions between phonological processes have this characteristic – sometimes applying one rule prevents a second rule from applying – and we consider some of the effects of different rule orderings.