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Understanding Nasality UNDERSTANDING NASALITY by Karthik Durvasula A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Fall 2009 Copyright 2009 Karthik Durvasula All Rights Reserved UNDERSTANDING NASALITY by Karthik Durvasula Approved: Frederick Adams, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science Approved: George H. Watson, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: Debra Hess Norris, M.S. Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: Peter Cole, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: William J. Idsardi, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: Jeffrey N. Heinz, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: Uri Tadmor, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In my time as a graduate student, I have read, at least, a few dissertations. The first two things I always did and will probably always do with a dissertation are read the abstract and then the acknowledgements. Somehow knowing the influential people in the author’s life was as important as the research itself. And I always dreamt that when it was time for me to write my acknowledgements page, I would sincerely acknowledge everyone that ever helped. However, as all before me did surely, I have come to realize that no amount of thanks actually does justice to all the help and support one has received in my life. My family, my friends, especially those in Delaware, and my academic mentors are really the reason I am at this final step of my graduate life – the writing of the acknowledgements page. I could not have written this dissertation without the massive help from my committee members: Peter Cole, Bill Idsardi, Jeff Heinz and Uri Tadmor. At times, it looked like they cared more about me finishing and setting up shop as a career linguist than I myself did. Peter, my advisor, was a real father-figure to me through my graduate career. I owe the completion of this dissertation more to him than anyone else that I know of. I appreciate both his conviction in my abilities and the constant support he provided. And of course, as any of the students at the Dept. of Linguistics in Delaware will iv acknowledge, his Syntax I course is a real boon to aspiring linguists. And hopefully, I will carry the skills and tools I picked in his course with me for the rest of my life. I would also like to thank Peter for supporting my field trips to Jambi City, Indonesia through an NSF grant meant for the study of Jambi Malay dialects (BCS-0444649). Bill, my second advisor, is just awesome! Anyone who has discussed anything with Bill will know him to be just awesome! I have gotten most of my phonological inspiration from this one man. However, more than his incredible intelligence or breadth of knowledge, it is his open-mindedness to new ideas that I truly admire about him. I have always seen him to be very receptive to ideas that he himself was, at times, skeptical of; and if I could pick up one trait of his, his open-mindedness would be it! Jeff, who joined the Linguistics department at Delaware towards the latter stages of my graduate term, has somehow managed the tricky role of a great mentor and a close friend. He cares about the details; the finer-points. He would always read anything I wrote and never fail to point out the tacit assumptions, the incomplete logic, and the unfinished arguments in my work. Through him, I learnt to appreciate both the grander picture and the minutiae. I must say, I also owe him many hours of wasted time – time spent talking about politics, life and even a little linguistics over lunches, dinners, and coffees. Uri, my fourth and last committee member, is my source for all things Malayo- Indonesian. His knowledge of the various dialects/languages of the Malayo-Indonesian family is incredible. It never ceases to amaze me how his memory of the data from so many different dialects/languages is always so readily retrievable to him. From him, I v learnt to respect the real variation and intricacies of languages as they exist in natural settings; sometimes as theorists, people tend to abstract away from the data a little too much, and he taught me to respect data for what it is. I would also like to thank him for all the help and support, during my field-work in Indonesia. In my list of mentors, I have to include David Gil. I admire him for many reasons - his love for language, the factual details, the raw enthusiasm he has for life. Thanks to David and Uri, I also got financial and logistical support provided by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and its Jakarta Field Station during my field-trips to Jambi City, in Indonesia. My field-trips led me to a lot of exciting data and to a host of wonderful people. My principal informants for the Tanjung Raden dialect of Jambi Malay, Eko and Ibu Marianna, were phenomenal informants. Eko also spent a lot of time showing me the ‘real’ Jambi, with all its natural splendour. Yanti, a graduate colleague at Delaware, and her family in Jambi City, were very kind in hosting me and helping me acclimitise during my trips to the city. Finally, Mila and her family were always a there to help, at every step. Jane, our department secretary, was always there to help me with all the submissions, and the deadlines. I doubt the department could run as smoothly as it does without her. She is the best! As far as close friends go, there have been too many that have been way too helpful – thanks guys! Naveen Prakash, my closest friend, has borne a lot of my nonsense, a lot of my silliness – I couldn’t have done it without his support. Also, thanks to the LOUNGE vi and the lounge members – Ashwin, Dog, JAKS, Naveen, PS, Rags - fellow vagabonds in college, for just being themselves. A shout-out to all the students in the Linguistics programme at UDel. I would like to especially mention the following: Sean Madigan, Sachie Kotani, and Ozge Ozturk, who joined the programme with me, were there with me thru the thick and thin. Chang-yong Sim, thanks for being my first linguistics guru! Timothy McKinnon and Toni McLaughlan, the other two members of the unbreakable CONSTITUENT that I shall always be part of need ‘specified complements from the head’ - only they know how much they mean to me. Thanks to you two for all the nights of inebriation and fun! Life just wouldn’t have been the same without you. The one graduate student at UDel that I would like to thank most is Darrel Larsen. He, through his most obnoxious, yet endearing, actions, has pushed me more towards completing this dissertation than anyone else. He and his lovely wife, Mi-sun, thank you for everything! I just cannot end my unfairly short list of close friends without mentioning Erica Hansen. Her patience and support helped me past the finish line! Thanks for everything, loo! I would like to end by thanking my whole extended family – especially, my father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, Teddy and Archie – my ultimate source of inspiration and support. They would hate it if I praised them too much, I am sure. So I will just say this: they were there when I didn’t trust myself; they were there when I was lost; they were vii there whenever I looked back for help; and they were there to share my happiest moments. I just could not have done it without their love and support. viii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to the four most important beings in my life: My father, Durvasula Sitarama Murthy; My mother, Durvasula Seshavalli Murthy; My brother, Kameshwar Durvasula; My dog, Teddy Durvasula. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES……..………………………………...…………………………….xiii ABSTRACT………………………………...……………………………………………xv 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….17 1.1 Goals of the thesis…………………………………………………………..17 1.2 Theoretical preliminaries – the nature of representations in Phonology…...19 1.2.1 Discrete representations - trivial interface……………………………19 1.2.2 No discrete representations – no interface…………………………….24 1.2.3 Multiple representations - Feature-gesture interface………………….26 1.3 Outline of the dissertation…………………………………………………..30 2 [nasal] IS ARTICULATORY DEFINED………………………………………..32 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………32 2.2 Review of Distinctive Features……………………………………………..34 2.3 Linguistic Theory and the feature [nasal] …………………………………..39 2.3.1 The phonetics of nasality…………………………………………….. .39 2.3.1.1 The Acoustics of Nasality………………………………………39 2.3.1.2 The articulation of Nasality……………………………………..43 2.3.2 The phonology of nasality…………………………………………….44 2.4 [nasal] is articulatorily defined…………………………………………….
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