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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zmb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 74-3207 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from die document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zmb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 74-3207 HUTCHESON, James Wallace, 1939- A NATURAL HISTORY OF COMPLETE CONSONANTAL ASSIMILATIONS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1973 Language and Literature, linguistics University Microfilms, A \ERO\Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. A NATURAL HISTORY OF COMPLETE CONSONANTAL ASSIMILATIONS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By James Wallace Hutcheson, A.B., M.A. The Ohio State University 1973 Reading Committee: Approved By Robert J. Jeffers David L. Stampe Arnold M. Zvicky Adviser Department of Linguistics ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is impossible to thank sufficiently those colleagues at Ohio State who have contributed in some way or another to making the completion of this dissertation possible. I would, however, like to acknowledge that but for the help, encouragement, and friendly prodding of Arnold Zwicky, my advisor, Marlene Payha, my typist, and Jo Ann, my wife, none of this would have been possible. Thanks also to Angeliki Malikouti-Drachman who gave me much help with one particular problem and Larry Schourup who proofread in the hectic last-minute rush. ii VITA September 29, 1939 ... Born - Marion, Indiana 1961 ................ A.B., Wabash College, Cravfordsville, Indiana, cum laude. 1964 ................ M.A., The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 1964-1966 .......... Instructor of German, Wabash College, Cravfordsville, Indiana. 1966-1970............ Instructor of German, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina. 1971-1973 .......... Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS "Notes on Complete Consonantal Assimilations," Working Papers in Linguistics No. l4, pp. 58-6 5 . The Ohio State University. "Eemarks on the Nature of Complete Consonantal Assimilation," Papers from the 9th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. ( i n press). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Linguistics Phonological Theory. Professors David L. Stampe and Arnold M. Zwicky Historical Linguistics. Professors Wolfgang U. Dressier and David L. Stampe iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................... ii VITA ..................................................... iii INTRODUCTION ........................................... 1 Chapter I. SINGLE STEP FORTUITOUS ASSIMILATION ............. 11 II. COMPLETE ASSIMILATIONS INVOLVING SEVERAL RULES . 23 III. SOME PUTATIVE SINGLE PROCESS COMPLETE ASSIMILATIONS................................ 51* IV. STRENGTH, WEAKNESS AND A NOTE ON MORPHOLOGIZATION ............................ 02 V. CONCLUSION ...................................... 103 APPENDIX................................................. 108 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 120 iv INTRODUCTION O.O. Background and Theoretical Orientation. My purpose in writing this dissertation is to try to explain a variety of phonological phenomena which have been classed as complete consonantal assimilations. This study is one of a number of phonological investigations within the conceptual framework of natural phonology (Stampe 1972b). Such investigations have dealt with either of the two basic kinds of phonological processes. Studies in context free processes are best represented by Stampe (1972a) and Miller (1972), both of whom show that context free processes in simple vowels and diphthongs are to be explained by the nature of the sounds themselves. Recent studies in context-sensitive processes— syncope (Zwicky 1972b), nasal assimilation (Zuckerman 1972), palatalization (Neeld 1973), and vowel nasalization (Schourup 1973a* 1973b)— have demonstrated that these processes too are to be explained largely on the basis of the function of the processes themselves and by the character of the sounds which are affected by them. Investigations like those mentioned in the previous paragraph result from taking seriously a notion which has been around for many years, the notion of ease of articulation. Stampe states this in the following way (l972b:l): 2 A phonological process is a mental operation that applies in speech to substitute, for a class of sounds or sound sequences presenting a specific common difficulty to the speech capacity of the individual, an alternative class identical but lacking the difficult property. Grammont writes with similar intent when he says (1933:176). La loi du moindre effort. II est certain que cette loi joue un grande role dans 1*evolution des langue3, et qu'en particulier tous les phenomenes d'assimilation, a quelque degre et sous quelle forme que ce soit, lui soit, lui sont dus. Mais si elle etait seule a regir 1*Evolution phonetique des langues, tous le mots arriveraient assez vite a se reduire a une seule syllabe, voire a un seul phoneme. Elle a contre elle la loi du plus grand effort, ou plutot du besoin de clarte, qui commande toutes les differenciations et tous les renforcements. The latter part of Grammont's statement involves the other major force at work in the development of phonological systems, the need to maintain distinctiveness. The results of the interaction of these two opposed forces in the development of children's language has been particularly well stated by Stampe (1969). It is precisely in the earliest stage of language development in the child that ease of articulation dominates the phonological system to the extent of reducing everything to a kind of verbal pablun, consisting of a simple consonant-vowel sequence. This notion of ease of articulation a3 reformulated by Stampe will play an especially important role in the characterization of complete consonantal assimilations, particularly the way in which such processes apply and are extended in a hierarchical fashion. As might he ohvious from the foregoing statements, much of the work in my study of complete consonantal assimilations involves the reduction of phonology to a kind of phonetic teleology. Such a reduction is, however, limited by the seeming paradox that, even though many phonological processes can be shown to serve the requirements of the vocal tract, they are at the same time essentially mental processes. There are also a number of important ways in which nonphonological conditions constrain the operation of phonological processes, as will be shown with respect to complete consonantal assimilations in chapter four of this work. Many of the observations made in the present study are not new, as a perusal of older literature on the subject makes quite clear. One such observation in particular, which is of central importance was made in the late nineteenth century by Sievers (1901:277): Endlich hat man auch noch zwischen partieller und totaler Assimilation unterschieden. Letztere tritt urn so leichter ein, Je mehr Faktoren die beiden Nachbarlaute bereits mit einander gemein haben. Es wird z, B. adna unter denselben Bedingen zu anna mit totaler Assimilation, wie agna zu anna oder abna zu amna mit partieller, weil d. und n neben der Stimme auch noch den dentalen Verschluss gemeinsam haben, so dass nur die verschiedene Stellung des Gaumensegels sie uberhaupt u n t e r s c h e i d e t 'Wo weiter auseinanderliegende haute vollkommen assimiliert werden, sind nach dem allgemeinen Gesetz der Allmahlichkeit des u Lautwandels in der Regel Uebergangsstufen anzusetzen, also etwa fur lat. summits aus *supmus die Mittelstufe *submus (wenn nicht vorher noch *submus mit mit stimmloser Media aus
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