Topics in the Morphophonology of Standard Spoken Tamil (Sst): an Optimality Theoretic Study

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Topics in the Morphophonology of Standard Spoken Tamil (Sst): an Optimality Theoretic Study TOPICS IN THE MORPHOPHONOLOGY OF STANDARD SPOKEN TAMIL (SST): AN OPTIMALITY THEORETIC STUDY MOHANA DASS RAMASAMY A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSHOPHY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS UNIVERSTY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE UNITED KINGDOM OCTOBER 2010 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have reached this shape without the contribution of many good souls who have offered their valuable time and invaluable help on many occasions. It is my privilege to register my sincere heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed directly and indirectly to the completion of this thesis. First and foremost in the list of generous souls deserving my gratitude is my supervisor, S. J. Hannahs. I am indebted to him for accepting me as his student and introducing me to the study of generative linguistics, especially Optimality Phonology. He has contributed immensely in completing this study. Without his enthusiasm, valuable guidance, constructive comments, moral support, motivation and immense patience, it would have been impossible for me to complete this study. I wish to convey my heartfelt gratitude to him. My sincere thanks are due also to the authorities of the University of Malaya for granting me a scholarship and study leave to conduct this research work successfully. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to my colleagues at my home institution, especially my foster father Professor Dr N Kanthasamy, Head of Department of Indian Studies, Associate Professor Dr S Kumaran, and Associate Professor Dr M Krishanan for their continuous encouragement and moral support which were shown in every possible way. Special thanks also due to them for verifying the collected data and the accuracy of the transcriptions. My gratitude is due also to my friends, Yousef Elramli, Riaz Islam Mongrio, Said Omar, Ari Om Namashivaya and everyone who has helped me directly and indirectly with valuable suggestions and extended help whenever I needed them. I gratefully acknowledge the help I have received from every one of them and others whom I have not mentioned individually by name. Without the constant encouragement and support of my family, immediate and extended, it would have been impossible for me to have got this far. Most of all, my wife, Vimala Devi who has always been a constant source of inspiration to me deserves my sincere gratitude. My heartfelt thanks are due to her for her inequitable tolerance and all the cooperation she has extended to me throughout this period of study. My ii thanks are due also to my daughters Sarmila, Lalitha Sri, Nishalny and my mother, G Sivapuniam for their passionate support in the past four years. It goes without saying that other than me no one mentioned in the foregoing is responsible for any shortcomings in the study. iii Abstract This thesis provides a novel account of the morphophonology of Standard Spoken Tamil (SST) in a constraint-based framework. Special focus is given to the constraints governed by sonority-distance in avoiding possible tension at morphology and phonology interfaces (M-P interfaces). The study is based on a thorough analysis of an extensive body of data which constitute empirical evidence for the present research. It has been argued that the repair strategies devised at M-P interfaces can be properly predicted from the perspective of sonority distance between the segments occupying the edges of the preceding and succeeding lexical items. This thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter, in addition to laying a background for the present study, also gives theoretical and empirical evidence justifying the need for conducting a constraint-based study for long-running issues on the morphophonology of Tamil. The chapter includes an overview of widely applied SST in Malaysia, the source which provided statistical and empirical evidence for the present study, a brief review of the related literature, and description of the aims of the study, research questions, methodology, limitations of the study and the organization of the chapters. Chapter two, the theoretical framework of sonority-related repair strategies (SrRS) at M-P interfaces in Tamil, introduces the theoretical framework guiding the present thesis. This chapter illustrates the sonority requirement underpinning the solutions at different types of interfaces, namely, vowel hiatus ((i) vowel versus vowel (V-V)), onset/coda asymmetry ((ii) consonant versus consonant (C-C)), general alignment ((iii) consonant versus vowel (C-V)), and less-preferred interaction of (iv) the vowel versus consonant (V-C). This chapter clarifies the relevance of sonority distance and the selection of the correct strategies to resolve conflict at M-P interfaces. The third chapter is on the prosodic phonology of the SST. It provides a description of the prosodic phonology of standard spoken Tamil without relying upon a particular theoretical framework. The description is intended to provide insight into the overall phonological patterns of lexemes and the phonological properties of the language. iv Chapter four, vowel hiatus (_V# + #V_) and SrRS in Tamil, deals with issues relating to vowel hiatus (VH), which commonly emerge when two vowels come into contact as a result of morphological concatenation. Tamil as an agglutinative language which applies various processes to word result in to various types of V# + #V_ interfaces. The language employs a range of sonority related resolutions to avoid vowel hiatus, with the sole aim of maintaining the uniformity of word internal syllables and preserving harmonic contact at the M-P interfaces. This chapter explores the sonority-related motivation behind the assignment of glides, vowel deletion (VD), and epenthesis to avoid hiatus. Chapter five is on _C# versus #C_ interfaces and conflict management in Tamil. It deals with sonority-related resolutions applied to avoid Onset-Coda asymmetries in Tamil. Irregularities resulting from consonant versus consonant (_C# versus #C_ ) interaction at M-P interfaces are aggressively initiated by various segmental and sub-segmental properties. Involvement of segmental values including the visible individual segmental values and the invisible sub-strength properties such as sonority, prosodic features and the positional prominences at the interfaces have been analyzed within the positional faithfulness framework in this chapter. Chapter six deals with _C#_#V_ (C-V) and _V#_C#_ (V-C) types of interactions in Tamil. Though these interactions appear to be a simple form of interaction at face value, they exhibit systematic and interesting phonological reactions at M-P interfaces. Previous studies analyzing the nature of the phonological reactions of C-V and V-C in literature, which have treated the foregoing interfaces as a natural way of forming demisyllables, have to a great extent obscured their amazing phonological relevance. The present study offers alternative remedies, claiming that the C-V and V-C interfaces are hosting equally important phonological reactions just as in the case of vowel hiatus (V-V) and coda and onset asymmetry (C-C), casting relevance on sonority distance. The last chapter is the conclusion. It provides a summary and discussion of the findings. v Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................... II ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................. IV CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................................. VI TABLES ..................................................................................................................................................... X ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................. XI NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION .................................................................................................... XIII CHAPTER ONE......................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 ...AND WHY OT FOR THE PRESENT STUDY .............................................................................. 6 1.3 TAMIL ELSEWHERE: AN INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 12 1.3.1 TAMIL LANGUAGE IN MALAYSIA .................................................................................................. 13 1.3.2 TAMIL AND ITS VARIETIES AND THE STANDARD SPOKEN TAMIL ................................................... 17 1.3.3 DEFINITION OF STANDARD SPOKEN TAMIL ................................................................................... 18 1.4 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES ..................................................................................... 20 1.4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES ................................................................................................................... 20 1.4.2 THE GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY (A STUDY OF THE MADURAI DIALECT) ........................................
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