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POSITIONAL ALLOMORPHY Pausal Vs The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities School of Philosophy, Linguistics and Science Studies Department of Linguistics POSITIONAL ALLOMORPHY Pausal vs. Context forms in Tiberian Hebrew MA thesis submitted by ROMAN HIMMELREICH Prepared under the guidance of PROF. OUTI BAT-EL FOUX PROF. GEOFFREY KHAN Tel-Aviv University University of Cambridge September 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 3 Morphological abbreviations .......................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 5 2 Theoretical background ............................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Word stress .................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Prosodic domain boundaries ......................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Final lengthening .......................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Final strength vs. final weakness ............................................................... 10 2.3 Vowel reduction .......................................................................................................... 11 2.3.1 Integrated phonetics and phonology .......................................................... 12 2.3.2 Phonetically driven phonology .................................................................. 13 2.3.3 Structural prominence ................................................................................ 15 2.3.4 Duration induced licensing ........................................................................ 16 2.3.5 Three vowel reduction systems .................................................................. 16 2.3.6 Summary .................................................................................................... 20 2.4 Phenomenon-specific prominence .............................................................................. 22 3 Pausal forms in Tiberian Hebrew ........................................................................................... 25 3.1 Tiberian Hebrew transcription .................................................................................... 25 3.2 Pausal phenomena: the data ........................................................................................ 28 3.3 Distribution ................................................................................................................. 29 3.4 Phonological alternations ............................................................................................ 30 3.4.1 Open syllables (CV) ................................................................................... 30 3.4.2 Closed syllables (CVC) .............................................................................. 32 3.4.3 The phonetic realization of Shewa ............................................................. 34 3.5 Base of derivation ....................................................................................................... 36 3.6 Residual phenomena ................................................................................................... 38 3.6.1 Alternation in CeC syllables ...................................................................... 38 3.6.2 Non-alternation in CeC and CoC syllables ................................................ 40 3.7 Minor pause ................................................................................................................ 41 3.8 Interim summary ......................................................................................................... 43 4 Metrical structure .................................................................................................................... 44 4.1 A conflict in prominence: stress vs. vowel reduction ................................................. 44 4.2 Syllable weight scheme for vowel reduction .............................................................. 48 4.3 Vowel reduction in the contextual allomorph ............................................................. 51 4.4 Vowel reduction in the pausal allomorph ................................................................... 54 5 Optimality Theory Analysis .................................................................................................... 58 5.1 The metrics of Stress ................................................................................................... 58 5.1.1 Weight Assignment .................................................................................... 59 5.1.2 Metrical parsing ......................................................................................... 60 5.2 The metrics of vowel reduction .................................................................................. 62 5.2.1 Weight Assignment .................................................................................... 62 5.2.2 Metrical parsing ......................................................................................... 67 5.3 The interaction of vowel reduction and stress ............................................................ 69 5.3.1 Derivation of contextual CV.CVC-final forms .......................................... 71 5.3.2 Derivation of pausal CV.CVC-final forms ................................................ 72 5.3.3 Derivation of contextual CVC.CV-final forms .......................................... 73 5.3.4 Derivation of pausal CVC.CV-final forms ................................................ 74 5.3.5 Derivation of contextual CV.CV-final forms ............................................. 75 5.3.6 Derivation of pausal CV.CV-final forms ................................................... 77 5.3.7 Grammar overview ..................................................................................... 79 6 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ 82 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 84 1 Abstract According to the Masoretic script, Tiberian Hebrew exhibits positional allomorphy, whereby a word has different surface structures: the pausal form – in phrase final position, and the contextual form – in phrase medial position (Revell 1981; 2012; Goerwitz 1993; Dresher 2009). Pausal form Contextual form ’wrote 3MSG‘ בַתָכּ kɔ.táv בָתָכּ a. kɔ.tɔ́v ’said 2MSG‘ ָתְּרַמָא ʔɔ.már.tɔ ָתְּרָמָא ʔɔ.mɔ́r.tɔ ’guarded 3PL‘ וּרְמָשׁ ʃɔ.mə.rú וּרָמָשׁ b. ʃɔ.mɔ́.ru ’go! 2MPL‘ וּכְל lə.xú וּכֵל lé.xu In this study, the vowel alternation in these data is analyzed as vowel reduction. The main problem encountered with pause-context allomorphy is that, in some cases, the reduced vowel resides in a stressed syllable – which is typically a prominent prosodic position that resists reduction. Earlier studies have proposed different foot-types for each phenomenon – trochaic feet for stress and iambic feet for vowel reduction (Rappaport 1984). Conversely, the current analysis employs consistent trochaic foot-type for both phenomena. An elaborate scheme of phenomenon-specific syllable weight is developed, where syllable weight is grounded in a cross-linguistically attested hierarchy of positional prominence. Specifically, weight assignment varies, depending on syllable structure, the position of the vowel in the word, the position of the word in the phrase and the relevant phenomenon (stress vs. vowel reduction). Such phenomenon-specific syllable weight systems are found in numerous languages (Gordon 2006; Ryan 2019). For the phenomenon of stress, weight assignment is sensitive only to syllable structure (CVC is heavy). Whereas for the phenomenon of vowel reduction, weight assignment is based on the following prominence hierarchy, which is grounded in perceptual and phonetic factors: Stressed, Phrase-final > Word-final > Stressed > Unstressed, Non-final The elevated prominence of domain-final syllables stems from cross-linguistically attested phenomena of phonetic lengthening which target the boundaries of prosodic domains (Berkovits 1994; Cambier-Langeveld 1997; Turk & Shattuck-Hufnagel 2007). Consequently, the lengthened state of vowels provides for the blocking of vowel reduction (Barnes 2006; Lindblom 1963), and ultimately to the emergence of pausal forms. The proposed analysis provides a metrically consistent account of Tiberian Hebrew stress and reduction patterns, while being based on cross- linguistically attested patterns of phonetic domain-final lengthening and vowel reduction. The presented formal analysis is couched in the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993). 2 Acknowledgements I start by expressing my deepest gratitude to Prof. Outi Bat-El Foux, for her boundless patience, wisdom, humor and keen interest in this study. For the countless hours of discussing and editing this paper, preparation for conferences and presentations, and
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