Dagbani Tongue-Root Harmony: a Formal Account with Ultrasound Investigation
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Dagbani Tongue-root Harmony: a formal account with ultrasound investigation by Fusheini Angulu Hudu B.A., University of Ghana, 2002 M.Sc., University of Alberta, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Linguistics) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) August, 2010 c Fusheini Angulu Hudu 2010 ! Abstract The aim of this dissertation is (i) to contribute to understanding of [ATR] harmony patterns with a formal account of Dagbani [ATR] harmony using the theory of Headed Spans (Span Theory) and (ii) to answer basic empirical questions about the relations between tongue-root phonological features and the articulatory gestures involved in producing vowels with these features. In Dagbani [+ATR] harmony, there are three vowel triggers: the high front vowel /i/ triggers progressive assimilation of [+ATR]; the mid vow- els [e] and [o] trigger regressive assimilation. Mid vowel triggers predictably surface in domain-final open syllables while /i/ is contrastive. I account for [+ATR] harmony using the theory of Grounded Phonology and the in- teraction of height-based markedness constraint hierarchies. In addition to the basic harmonic patterns, Dagbani [ATR] harmony is constrained by a height similarity condition limiting the trigger and target to vowels of the same specification for [ high]. Within Span Theory, this is argued to be a ± restriction on height featural combination in a [+ATR] span. A unique part of the formal analysis is the account of direction-specific consonant opacity. Having challenged previous harmony theories, the ac- ii Abstract count here demonstrates the relative strength of Span Theory and supports the assumption that intervocalic consonants are targets of vowel harmony features. The second goal of the dissertation is achieved with an ultrasound imag- ing study testing the hypothesis that there is a direct mapping between tongue-root features and the articulatory positions of the tongue in pro- ducing vowels with different tongue-root feature specifications. It further investigates whether such a mapping also reflects which of the values of the feature [ATR]/[RTR] is dominant in a language. The results of 5 experiments show that in addition to the tongue-root position distinguishing [+ATR] from [-ATR] vowels, the dominant [+ATR] feature has a tongue-root position ante- rior to the neutral tongue-root rest position while the recessive [-ATR] vowels have a variable tongue-root position. The results support a direct mapping between the phonological feature [ATR] and the articulatory gestures that produce it. iii Contents Abstract .................................. ii Contents ................................. iv List of Tables .............................. xii List of Figures ..............................xiv Acknowledgements ...........................xviii Dedication ................................ xx 1 Introduction to Dagbani phonology and morphology .... 1 1.1 Introduction . 1 1.2 Dagbani and its speakers . 3 1.3 Consonants . 7 1.3.1 Consonant inventory and distribution . 7 1.3.2 Debuccalisation . 9 1.3.3 Spirantisation . 12 1.3.4 Palatalisation . 12 iv Contents 1.3.5 Other alternations . 14 1.4 Vowels . 15 1.4.1 Vowel inventory . 15 1.4.2 Vowel epenthesis . 16 1.4.3 Stress and tone . 19 1.5 Dagbani morphology . 20 1.5.1 Nominal/adjectival morphology . 21 1.5.2 Verb morphology . 25 1.5.3 Clitics . 26 1.6 Structure of the dissertation . 27 2 Dagbani vowel phonology ..................... 30 2.1 Introduction . 30 2.1.1 Vowel contrasts . 33 2.1.2 Surface alternations . 36 2.2 [ATR] markedness . 41 2.3 Mid vowel phonology . 46 2.3.1 Non-final mid vowels . 46 2.3.2 Account of non-final mid vowels: Markedness vs faith- fulness hierarchies . 56 2.3.3 Final mid vowels . 63 2.3.4 Mid vowels as [+ATR] harmony triggers . 70 2.3.5 Alternative analysis: No underlying mid vowels . 74 v Contents 2.4 Prosodic Conditioning . 78 2.4.1 Distribution of [-ATR] high vowels . 78 2.4.2 Analysis of surface [1], [U]................ 83 2.4.3 Analysis of contrastive /i/ in words of more than one mora ........................... 89 2.5 Summary . 93 3 Formal approaches to vowel harmony in OT: a review ... 96 3.1 Introduction . 96 3.2 Parallel OT approaches to vowel harmony . 98 3.2.1 Featural Alignment and Optimal Domains Theory . 98 3.2.2 Positional faithfulness and markedness . 100 3.2.3 Spread constraint . 101 3.2.4 Agreement . 103 3.2.5 Other approaches . 105 3.3 Problems with parallel OT . 106 3.3.1 No partial spreading . 106 3.3.2 Pathological predictions . 108 3.3.2.1 Harmony by alteration of blockers . 108 3.3.2.2 Harmony by deletion . 113 3.3.2.3 Harmony by affix repositioning . 116 3.3.2.4 Harmony by reduplicant shortening . 118 3.3.2.5 Other predictions . 119 vi Contents 3.4 Serial derivation . 120 3.4.1 Targeted constraints . 120 3.4.2 Serial Harmony and Harmonic Serialism . 125 3.5 The theory of Headed Spans . 134 3.5.1 Constraints in Span Theory . 137 3.5.1.1 No Adjacent spans of [F] . 138 3.5.1.2 Faithfulness to span heads . 139 3.5.1.3 Head-forcing constraint . 140 3.5.1.4 Directionality . 140 3.5.2 Opacity in ST: no ‘sour-grapes’ property . 142 3.5.3 No pathologies . 145 3.5.3.1 Harmony by alteration of blockers . 145 3.5.3.2 Harmony by deletion . 150 3.5.3.3 Harmony by affix repositioning . 151 3.5.3.4 Harmony by reduplicant shortening . 153 3.6 Summary . 158 4 Formal account of Dagbani [ATR] harmony .........159 4.1 Introduction . 159 4.2 Dagbani [ATR] harmony patterns . 161 4.2.1 Domain of [ATR] harmony . 161 4.2.2 Harmonic triggers and targets . 162 4.2.3 Span Theory analysis . 166 vii Contents 4.2.4 Restriction on high vowel target . 174 4.2.5 Restriction on low vowel target . 176 4.3 Height-conditioned harmony . 178 4.4 Summary . 182 5 Direction-specific opacity in Dagbani [ATR] harmony ...184 5.1 Introduction . 184 5.1.1 Direction-specific blocking in harmony systems . 186 5.1.2 Pattern of consonant opacity . 189 5.2 Deriving opacity: Analysis . 196 5.3 Featural compatibility and span headship . 199 5.3.1 Featural compatibility . 200 5.3.2 Weakening the power of blockers . 202 5.4 Summary . 204 6 Articulatory correlates of dominant tongue-root features . 206 6.1 Introduction . 206 6.1.1 Articulatory correlates of lingual harmony . 209 6.1.2 Dagbani vowel harmony . 215 6.1.3 Hypotheses . 219 6.1.3.1 Hypothesis A . 219 6.1.3.2 Hypothesis B . 221 6.2 General methodology . 224 6.2.1 Participants . 224 viii Contents 6.2.2 Procedure . 225 6.3 Experiment 1: Testing the Non-harmonic [ATR] Hypothesis . 229 6.3.1 Introduction . 229 6.3.2 Methods . 231 6.3.3 Results . 233 6.3.3.1 Participant AAB . 236 6.3.3.2 Participant AB . 237 6.3.3.3 Participant AIM . 238 6.3.3.4 Participant HS . 240 6.3.3.5 Participant IZD . 241 6.3.4 Discussion . 243 6.4 Experiment 2: Testing the Harmonic [ATR] Hypothesis . 243 6.4.1 Introduction . 243 6.4.2 Methods . 244 6.4.3 Results . 245 6.4.3.1 Participant IZD . 246 6.4.3.2 Participant AIM . 248 6.4.3.3 Participant AAB . 251 6.4.3.4 Participant AB . 251 6.4.3.5 Participant HS . 252 6.4.4 Discussion . 253 6.5 Experiment 3: Harmonic versus non-harmonic [+ATR] vowels 255 6.5.1 Introduction . 255 ix Contents 6.5.2 Methods . 255 6.5.3 Results . 256 6.5.4 Discussion . 260 6.6 Experiment 4: Distance effects . 261 6.6.1 Introduction . 261 6.6.2 Methods . 261 6.6.3 Results . 262 6.6.4 Discussion . 263 6.7 Experiment 5: Articulatory correlate of dominant tongue-root feature . 265 6.7.1 Introduction . 265 6.7.2 Methods . 266 6.7.3 Results . 266 6.7.4 Discussion . 272 6.8 Summary and conclusions . 273 7 Summary and conclusions .....................275 7.1 General summary . 275 7.2 On the integration of phonetics and phonology . 278 7.3 A final look at Span Theory . 279 7.4 Contributions . 280 7.5 Limitations and future research . 281 Bibliography ...............................283 x Contents Appendices A List of Constraints .........................308 B UBC Certificate of Ethics Approval ..............312 xi List of Tables 1.1 Consonant inventory . 8 1.2 Vowel inventory . 15 2.1 Dagbani vowel features . 33 2.2 Distributional restrictions on [i, 1, a, u, U] (in non-harmonic contexts) . ..