Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Principles of Generative Phonology [oimT, Jensen PRINCIPLES OF GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE General Editor E.F. KONRAD KOERNER (Zentrum fur Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung, Berlin) Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY Advisory Editorial Board Lyle Campbell (Christchurch, N.Z.); Sheila Embleton (Toronto) Brian D. Joseph (Columbus, Ohio); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh) Manfred Krifka (Berlin); E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.) Joseph C. Salmons (Madison, Wis.); Hans-Jiirgen Sasse (Koln) Volume 250 John T. Jensen Principles of Generative Phonology An introduction PRINCIPLES OF GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY AN INTRODUCTION JOHN T. JENSEN University of Ottawa JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jensen, John T. (John Tillotson) Principles of generative phonology : an introduction / John T. Jensen. p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 251-250) i. Grammar, Comparative and general--Phonology. 2. Generative grammar. I. Title. II. Series. P217.6.J46 2004 4i4--dc22 2004048608 ISBN 90 272 4762 5 (Eur.) /1 58811 513 5 (US) (Hb; alk. paper) ISBN 90 272 4767 6 (Eur.) /1 58811 562 3 (US) (Pb; alk. paper) © 2004 - John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 36224 • 1020 ME Amsterdam • The Netherlands John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA Contents Preface ix Chapter 1 Phonetics 1 1.1 Articulatory phonetics 2 1.1.1 Consonants 4 1.1.1.1 Manner of articulation 4 1.1.1.2 Place of articulation 7 1.1.1.3 Glottal state 8 1.1.1.4 Airstream mechanisms 11 1.1.2 Vowels 12 1.1.2.1 Parameters of vowel articulation 12 1.1.2.2 Glides and diphthongs 15 1.1.3 Suprasegmentals 16 1.1.4 Broad and narrow transcription 16 1.2 Acoustic phonetics 17 1.3 Phonetic alphabets 26 1.3.1 ThelPA 27 1.3.2 Problems with the IPA 29 1.3.3 Compromise adopted in this book 30 1.4 Exercises 33 Chapter 2 Contrast and Distribution 37 2.1 Complementary distribution 37 2.2 Coincident distribution 44 2.3 Overlapping distribution 45 2.4 Pattern congruity 47 VI CONTENTS 2.5 Free variation 50 2.6 Phonological rules and notations 53 2.7 Common types of phonological processes 55 2.7.1 Assimilation 55 2.7.2 Dissimilation 55 2.7.3 Lenition 56 2.7.4 Fortition , 57 2.7.5 Insertions 57 2.7.6 Deletions 57 2.7.7 Lengthening 58 2.7.8 Compensatory lengthening 59 2.7.9 Shortening 59 2.8 Problems with phonemic analysis 60 2.8.1 Neutralization 60 2.8.2 Pattern congruity 63 2.9 Summary 64 2.10 Exercises 66 Chapter 3 Distinctive features 79 3.1 Features as smallest building blocks 79 3.2 Binary distinctions 79 3.3 Further vowel features 85 3.4 Major classes: major class features 89 3.5 Features of consonants 91 3.5.1 Voicing and aspiration 92 3.5.2 Manner of articulation 93 3.5.3 Place of articulation 95 3.6 Secondary articulation of consonants 99 3.7 Features for suprasegmentals 100 3.8 Redundancy and implications 100 3.9 Exercises 107 Chapter 4 Alternations 113 4.1 Alternations as phonology 113 4.2 Morphology 114 4.3 Russian devoicing 115 CONTENTS vn 4.4 More on phonological rules 119 4.5 ATR harmony 121 4.6 Spanish lenition; Fortition and nasal assimilation in Lumasaaba 125 4.7 Steps in phonological analysis 131 4.8 Writing up the analysis 133 4.9 Further rule writing conventions and abbreviatory devices 134 4.9.1 Curly braces 134 4.9.2 Parentheses 135 4.9.3 Greek letter variables 137 4.9.4 Angled bracket notation 139 4.9.5 Mirror image rules 142 4.9.6 Transformational rules 142 4.10 Exercises 144 Chapter 5 Rule order 153 5.1 Russian 153 5.2 Methodology: discovering rule order 158 5.3 Formulation of the ordered rule hypothesis 159 5.4 Iterative rules 161 5.5 Spanish r-sounds 167 5.6 Yawelmani 173 5.6.1 Vowel Shortening and Epenthesis 173 5.6.2 Vowel Harmony 176 5.6.3 Some additional rules 183 5.7 Rule ordering relationships 189 5.7.1 Feeding order 190 5.7.2 Bleeding order 190 5.7.3 Counterfeeding order 192 5.7.4 Counterbleeding order 194 5.7.5 Mutually bleeding order 194 5.7.6 Opacity 195 5.8 Exercises 196 Chapter 6 Abstractness 207 6.1 Phonetic representations 207 viii CONTENTS 6.2 The null hypothesis 207 6.3 Two levels of representation 209 6.4 The simplicity criterion 212 6.5 The naturalness condition 215 6.6 Degrees of abstractness in underlying representations 217 6.6.1 Concrete underlying representations 217 6.6.2 Underlying representation as one of the phonetic alternants 218 6.6.3 Morphemes with several alternations 219 6.6.4 More abstract underlying representations 222 6.6.5 Limits on abstractness 228 6.7 Corpus-external evidence 230 6.7.1 Speech errors 231 6.7.2 Second language acquisition 231 6.7.3 Writing systems 232 6.7.4 Language games 233 6.7.5 Poetry 237 6.7.6 Language change 246 6.7.7 Maori 252 6.8 Exercises 254 Chapter 7 Multilinear phonology 263 7.1 Autosegmental phonology 263 7.1.1 Tone 263 7.1.2 Vowel harmony 268 7.1.3 Stability 271 7.2 Metrical and prosodic phonology 272 7.2.1 Metrical syllable structure 273 7.2.2 Metrical stress 278 7.2.3 Higher metrical units 282 7.3 Underspecification 289 7.4 Lexical phonology 297 7.5 Exercises 305 References 309 Index 319 Preface Principles of Generative Phonology is intended as a basic, thorough intro­ duction to contemporary phonological theory and practice. While the theory is in a constant state of revision and refinement, it is not possible to appreci­ ate recent developments or follow the argumentation involved without a firm foundation in the theory of distinctive features, formal notations for phono­ logical rules, and the theory of rule ordering. In the first six chapters I have essentially followed the theory of SPE (Chomsky & Halle 1968) in discussing these concepts, with the exception that I use iterative rules rather than SP£'s simultaneous rule schemata for rules with multiple effects, as in vowel har­ mony. The first chapter is a review of phonetics. An understanding of phonetics is essential for the study of phonology. The reader unacquainted with phonet­ ics is advised to supplement this chapter with a textbook devoted to the sub­ ject, such as MacKay (1987). This chapter also introduces the phonetic sym­ bols used throughout the book, in that I do not strictly follow IPA conventions, for reasons detailed there. Chapter 2 discusses contrast and distribution, with emphasis on rules as the mechanism for describing distributions. The terms basic, underlying seg­ ment, and phoneme are used more or less interchangeably for the segment that appears in underlying representations at this stage, but problems with the con­ cept of a phoneme as a group of phonetically similar sounds in complementa­ ry distribution (or free variation) are also discussed. In anticipation of the dis­ cussion of distinctive features, the notion of pattern congruity is also intro­ duced here. Chapter 3 introduces distinctive features, natural classes, and redundancy. I have adopted strictly binary features, since there does not appear to be any consensus on a replacement set of unary or multivalued features or some com­ bination of these. For similar reasons I have excluded feature geometry, pre­ ferring standard unordered feature matrices as the clearest presentation of these concepts at this stage. X PREFACE Chapter 4 builds on the concept of rules from chapter 2, showing how rules of the same type account for phonological alternations, and introduces additional rule writing conventions. Chapter 5 demonstrates the use of ordering of rules to achieve maximum generalization, starting with examples of two or three rules and advancing to the nine rules of Yawelmani discussed in Kenstowicz & Kisseberth (1979). Chapter 6 discusses abstractness and the motivation for abstract underly­ ing representations, as well as the limitations on abstractness. Chapter 7 discusses some post-SPE developments, including autosegmen- tal phonology, metrical and prosodic phonology, underspecification theory, and lexical phonology. For a number of reasons I have decided not to include Optimality Theory, despite its current popularity. One reason is that it does not really fall under the head of principles of generative phonology, being something of a depar­ ture from these principles in rejecting derivations with ordered rules. Second, Optimality Theory has achieved far more success in morphology than in phonology. It has made significant headway in describing infixation and redu­ plication without resort to unconstrained morphological processes, but encounters difficulties in the description of the opaque phonological interac­ tions that occur constantly in languages and that are most convincingly treat­ ed in terms of ordered rules. In order to treat basic principles thoroughly I have thought it best to leave more advanced topics for others to tackle. Indeed there are a number of introductions to Optimality Theory that have recently become available, such as Archangeli & Langendoen (1997) and Kager (1999).