Underlying representation

In phonology and morphophonology, an underlying representation (UR) or underlying form (UF) is a hypothesized, abstract representation of a morpheme or word stored in the lexicon and used as the input to phonological analysis. The output of phonological analysis is commonly described as a surface representation (SR), which reflects the effects of phonological processes and may differ systematically from an underlying form. Underlying representations are used to express generalizations about alternations, including cases where a single morpheme has different surface pronunciations in different environments or within a paradigm.

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