In the lexicon of a language, each word is represented in its underlying, or basic, form, which discounts all of the alternations in pronunciation that are predictable by phonological rules. For example, there are phonological rules that will account for the variations in the placement of stress and the alternations of vowel quality that occur in sets of words such as harmOny, harmOnic, harmOnious and melOdy, melOdic, melOdious. The rules that predict the pronunciation of the capitalized O’s are general, rather than specific for each word, and the grammar should state such rules so that the regularities