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THE INVARIANT in PHONOLOGY the Role of Salience and Predictability

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THE INVARIANT in PHONOLOGY the Role of Salience and Predictability Sede Amministrativa: Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari (DISLL) SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN: Scienze linguistiche, filologiche e letterarie INDIRIZZO: Linguistica, lingue classiche e moderne CICLO: XXVI THE INVARIANT IN PHONOLOGY The role of salience and predictability Direttore della Scuola : Ch.ma Prof.ssa Rosanna Benacchio Coordinatore d’indirizzo: Ch.mo Prof.ssa Carmen Castillo Peña Supervisore: Ch.mo Prof. Alberto Maria Mioni Dottorando: Antonio Baroni Abstract. This aim of this thesis is to give a phonological account of acoustic variation and reduction. It is argued that phonological representations are uneven and include information about the relative strength of the segmental and subsegmental units composing them. This unevenness implies a distinction between the invariant – the “phonetic essence” of a word, which is practically undeletable – and other units which can be dispensed with under certain circumstances. In the first chapter I compare different theoretical approaches to the problem of acoustic variation, in particular with reference to generative phonology and exemplar-based theories. In the second chapter I propose a model which combines aspects of Optimality Theory, Element Theory and usage-based linguistics. Additionally, I discuss the role of acoustic salience in the formation of the invariant. In chapter three, typological and experimental data are examined in order to establish a salience scale for consonants. In chapter four, the results of the acoustic analysis of four dialogues extracted from a corpus of spoken Italian are presented. As expected, highly salient consonants are preserved to a greater extent than less salient ones. In chapter five I attempt to identify the phonological correlates of acoustic salience and discuss other factors which may favor reduction and deletion, among which predictability. In chapter six I draw some conclusions, deal with some pending issues and suggest future directions for research. Riassunto. Lo scopo di questa tesi è di rendere conto della variazione e della riduzione acustica da un punto di vista fonologico. Secondo il modello che propongo, le rappresentazioni fonologiche sono disomogenee e racchiudono informazioni sulla forza relativa delle unità segmentali e subsegmentali che le compongono. Questa disomogeneità implica una distinzione tra l’invariante, o “essenza fonetica” di una parola, che è praticamente incancellabile, e altre unità di cui, in certe circostanze, si può fare a meno. Nel primo capitolo vengono confrontati diversi approcci teorici al problema della variazione acustica, facendo riferimento in particolare alla fonologia generativa e alla Teoria degli Esemplari. Nel secondo capitolo, oltre a proporre un modello che combina aspetti della Teoria dell’Ottimalità, della Teoria degli Elementi e della linguistica usage- based, si discute anche il ruolo della salienza acustica nella formazione dell’invariante. Nel terzo capitolo vengono esaminati dati tipologici e sperimentali per costruire una scala di salienza delle consonanti. Il quarto capitolo presenta i risultati dell’analisi acustica di quattro dialoghi estratti da un corpus di italiano parlato. Come previsto, le consonanti più salienti vengono conservate più frequentemente di quelle meno salienti. Nel quinto capitolo si tenta di individuare i correlati fonologici della salienza acustica e vengono discussi altri fattori che possono favorire la riduzione e la cancellazione, tra cui la predicibilità. Nel sesto capitolo si traggono alcune conclusioni, vengono trattate alcune questioni irrisolte e si suggeriscono delle future linee di ricerca. CONTENTS Acknowledgments p. v Abbreviations and conventions p. ix 0. Introduction p. 1 1. Representations: Poor vs. RicH p. 5 1.1 Abstractionist models: less is more p. 7 1.1.1 Optimality Theory p. 7 1.1.2 Government Phonology p. 19 1.1.3 Concordia School p. 21 1.2 Exemplar-based models: the richer, the merrier p. 22 1.2.1 Usage-based linguistics p. 24 1.3 Hybrid models p. 26 2. Representations are Uneven p. 29 2.1 A theory of representation p. 31 2.2 Elements p. 38 2.3 Elements and constraints p. 54 2.4 Acquisition of uneven representations p. 60 2.5 Perception, production and unevenness p. 66 3. Defining Salience p. 69 3.1 Markedness-driven account p. 71 3.2 Sonority-driven account p. 78 3.3 Beats-and-Binding Phonology and the Net Auditory Distance p. 84 3.4 The other side of the syllable: coda clusters p. 88 3.5 A salience-based account of consonant clusters p. 94 3.5.1 Obstruents p. 96 3.5.2 Nasals p. 99 3.5.3 Liquids p. 101 3.6 Testing salience p. 104 3.6.1 Methods and materials p. 106 3.6.2 Results p. 108 3.6.3 Results for obstruents p. 108 3.6.3.1 Correlation between CR and salience p. 109 3.6.3.2 Other variables p. 111 3.6.4 Results for nasals p. 115 3.6.5 Results for liquids p. 117 3.7 Discussion p. 119 4. Acoustic Reduction p. 123 4.1 Casual speech: an introduction p. 123 4.2 Previous studies p. 126 4.2.1 English p. 126 4.2.2 Dutch p. 129 4.2.3 French and Spanish p. 130 4.2.4 German p. 131 4.2.5 Danish p. 133 4.3 Italian p. 134 4.3.1 Aim of the study p. 136 4.3.2 Procedure p. 136 4.3.3 Casual Italian phenomena p. 137 4.3.3.1 Vowels p. 137 4.3.3.2 Liquids p. 139 ii 4.3.3.3 Nasals p. 150 4.3.3.4 Obstruents p. 158 4.4 Summary p. 178 5. Salience and Informativeness in PHonology p. 185 5.1 Phonological salience p. 188 5.1.1 Headedness p. 188 5.1.2 Is A the salience element? p. 190 5.2 Unpacking MAX-INVARIANT p. 192 5.2.1 Predictability of elements in C and V p. 193 5.2.2 Predictability of structure vs. melody p. 196 5.3 An ET-OT analysis of casual Italian p. 204 5.3.1 sinistra p. 205 5.3.2 punto p. 211 5.3.3 televisore p. 216 5.4 The interpretation of V and C p. 221 5.4.1 Level-1 and level-2 elements p. 225 5.4.2 Constraints formulation p. 229 5.5 Universality and word-specificity of the invariant p. 230 5.5.1 Positional factors p. 231 5.5.2 Inherent characteristics p. 231 5.5.3 Informativeness p. 231 5.5.4 Unevenness in the representation p. 232 5.6 Interaction between informativeness, salience and headedness p. 239 5.6.1 /s/ p. 241 5.6.2 /ʃ/ p. 241 5.6.3 /f/ p. 242 iii 5.6.4 /k, p, t/ p. 242 5.6.5 /m/ and /n/ p. 243 5.6.6 /r/ and /l/ p. 243 6. Conclusion p. 245 6.1 Residual issues p. 250 6.1.1 On markedness p. 250 6.1.2 Faithfulness to V in C p. 251 6.1.3 About U and I p. 251 6.1.4 /s/-debuccalization p. 252 6.2 Further research p. 254 References p. 257 Appendix A p. 289 Appendix B p. 293 Language index p. 307 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I need to express my gratitude towards my supervisor, Alberto Mioni. He has, in fact, been my supervisor for more than just the three years of this PhD, since we worked together for my MA thesis as well. In all honesty, I have been extremely fortunate to work with someone with such an eclectic knowledge of all aspects of linguistic theory, such broad experience and such an incredibly open-mind. Not only is Alberto one of the most important Italian linguists, but he is also wonderfully curious about the newest theories and approaches. I am also indebted to René Kager, who agreed to be my tutor during my stay in Utrecht as a visiting PhD student. Although René was tremendously busy, given his dedication to his students, he managed to discuss my project with me and advise me about the experiment I was preparing. René also generously offered me his own funds in order to pay the participants to the experiment. Moreover, he introduced me to all aspects of the academic life of the Utrecht Linguistic Institute and made me feel more than welcome. Among the professors and my colleagues at the University of Padua, thanks are due in particular to Paola Benincà, Rosanna Benacchio, Maria Grazia Busà, Davide Bertocci, Jacopo Garzonio, Vania Masutti, Alessio Muro, Andrea Padovan, Diego Pescarini, Cecilia Poletto, Luca Rognoni, Marija Runić and Laura Vanelli. v Outside Padua, I had the chance to meet some very inspiring linguists who helped broaden my view on phonology and phonetics: Birgit Alber, Pier Marco Bertinetto, Hans Basbøll, Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Paul Boersma, Eugeniusz Cyran, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Katarzyna Dziubalska- Kołaczyk, Mirjam Ernestus, Brigitte Garcia, Bruce Hayes, Giovanna Marotta, Mark van Oostendorp, Tobias Scheer, Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska, Linda Shockey. In no particular order, I want to thank the following people for exchanging ideas and/or sharing some drinks with me: Athanasia Asyllogistou, Tommaso Balsemin, Claudia Bianchini, Florian Breit, Nathalie Boll-Avetisyan, Basilio Calderone, Marta Castella, Edoardo Cavirani, Chiara Celata, Stefano Coretta, Bartlomiej Czaplicki, Radek Iwanckiewicz, Adèle Jatteau, Brigitta Keij, Yuni Kim, Tom Lentz, Pedro Martins, Sandrien van Ommen, Diana Passino, Des Ryan, Shanti Ulfsbjorninn. I also want to thank Iris Mulders, Paola Sessa and Theo Veenker for their technical support for the experiment, Steve Parker and Guillaume Jacques for sharing with me their typological data, Joey Redwood for her invaluable proofreading skills and all the participants in the experiment. I owe thanks to Federico Albano Leoni, Francesco Cutugno, Renata Savy, Valentina Caniparoli and all the people involved in the CLIPS project for their great work and for making the corpus available to researchers.
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