Proquest Dissertations

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Proquest Dissertations Consonant geminates: Towards a theory of integrity and inalterability Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Suh, Chang-Kook, 1961- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 20:15:12 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282508 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly fi'om the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter &ce, while others may be firom any type of computer printer. The quality of this reprodaction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed? Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 \ t \ i I IJ I CONSONANT GEMINATES: TOWARDS A THEORY OF INTEGRITY AND INALTERABILITY by Chang-Kook Suh Copyright 0 Chang-Kook Suh 1997 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1997 DMI Number: 9814396 Copyright 1997 by Suh, Chemg-Kook All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9814396 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Chang-Kook Suh entitled Consonant Geminates; Towards a Theory of Integrity and Inalterability and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy liana Ar^ geli Date Micjiael Hammond Da D. Terence Langendoen Date Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and rec immend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Dissertation Director na Archangeli Date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the writing of this dissertation, many people helped me in many ways. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Diana Archangeli, my dissertation advisor, great teacher, and never-ending source of inspiration and ideas. She has influenced my work at every point. I had long discussion with Diana Archangeli about every part of my dissertation, and the bits and pieces suggested by her slowly formed the core of my dissertation. Without her patience, continuous encouragement, and insightful guidance, I could never have written this dissertation. Special thanks go to the other members of my committee, Mike Hammond and Terry Langendoen, who patiently read the drafts of the dissertation and helped me with insightful suggestions and criticism. Mike Hammond meticulously examined the whole dissertation and helped greatly improve this dissertation both in quality and in style. From Terry Langendoen, I learned precious lesson of translating thinking into logical and lucid argumentation. I consider myself fortunate and privileged to have worked on my dissertation with these three great teachers. Several people also helped move towards the development of this dissertation: John McCarthy, Donca Steriade, Douglass PuUeyblank, Stuart Davis, Moira Yip. and Paul Smolensky. An initial impetus came through a series of conversation with the above-mentioned people and they gave me the help and reassxarance I badly needed. I am further indebted to other teachers who taught me and contributed to my being a linguist today: Andy Barss, Dick Demers, Dick Oehrle, Susan Steele, Adrienne Lehrer, Janet Nicol, Molly Diesing, Kerry Green, Eloise Jelinek, Kook Chung, Soon-Ham Park, and In-Seok Yang. Special thanks go to Professor Kook Chung, my former academic advisor, for his continued support and encouragement. I wish to extend my thanks to the fellow graduate students for many helpful discussions on linguistics: Younghyung Cho, Colleen Fitzgerald, Chip Gerfen, Andrea Heiberg, Diane Meador, Young-Gie Min, James Myers, Shaun O'Conner, Diane Ohala, Pat Perez, Yongtae Shin, Sung-Hoon Hong, Keiichiro Suzuki, Jane Tsay. Dirk Elzinga. Amy Fountain, Jan Mohammad, Shensheng Zhu, Pilar Pinar, and Tania Zamuner. I owe special thanks to my fhend Sung-Hoon Hong for his never-ending mental support. Also, I will never forget the kindness, love and help of Rosemary Emery. I am specially indebted to my church members here and in Korea, and to the Reverends Jin-Myung Park, Seong-Shik Jo, and Luke K. Pak for their love and prayers for me and my family. Special thanks to Sharons family, who graciously let my family stay with them for a couple of months. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, brothers and sister, father-in- law and mother-in-law, my wife Chi-Won. and my daughters Yi-Rey and Da-Hye, and my son Peter, who have endured all the difficult moments during my stay in the U.S.A. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 12 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 14 1.1 Scope and Issues: Geminate Integrity and Inalterability 14 1.2 Geminate Facts and Previous Approaches 15 1.2.1 Geminate Facts 15 1.2.1.1 Integrity 18 1.2.1.2 Inalterability 21 1.2.2 Previous Approaches to Geminates 24 1.3 Optimality Theory 27 1.3.1 The Character of the Optimality Theory 28 1.3.2 An Illustration 30 1.3.3 Correspondence Theory 34 1.3.4 Factorial Typology 35 1.4 Layout 36 1.4.1 Gaps in the Predicted Types of Geminates 45 1.5 The Structure of the Dissertation 49 CHAPTER 2. THE NATURE OF CONSONANT GEMINATES 51 2.1 Introduction 51 6 2.2 Background: The OCP 52 2.3 Standard Moraic Theory of Length 58 2.3.1 Motivations for Moraic Structure 59 2.3.2 Weight and Length in Moraic Theory 60 2.3.2.1 Weight 61 2.3.2.2 Length 62 2.4 Segmental Theories of Length 68 2.4.1 Two-Root Theory of Length 69 2.5 Cunent Assumptions: Summary 81 2.6 The Nature of Geminate Integrity and Inalterability 81 2.6.1 Geminate Integrity under Moraic Theory 82 2.6.2 Geminate Inalterability under Moraic Theory 83 2.7 Summary of Chapter 2 87 CHAPTER 3. INTEGRITY EFFECTS IN GEMINATES 89 3.1 Introduction 89 3.1.1 Major Key Constraints 91 3.1.1.1 Faithfukiess: MAX, DEP, and NOBREAKING (2a-c) 92 3.1.1.2 Syllabification: PLONS and ONS (2d-e) 93 3.1.1.3 Distribution and Prosody: ALIGN(WD-R, M-R) and PROSHIER (2f & g) 95 3.1.2 Summary 98 7 3.2 Medial Geminates 99 3.2.1 Introduction 99 3.2.2 The Predicted Typology 103 3.2.3 Pero: DEP-IO is subordinate and/CiCtCi/ —> [C1C1FC2] 107 3.2.3.1 Epenthesis in C1C1C2 108 3.2.3.2 PLONS and Assimilation in CC 115 3.2.3.3 No Loss of Place: Choosing between [yig/llu], [yillmi] and [yikk/ru] 116 3.2.3.4 Intervocalic Voicing 119 3.2.3.5 Sonorant Codas 120 3.2.3.6 The Final Touch 123 3.2.3.7 Summary of the Constraints in Pero 123 3.2.3.8 The Proof 124 3.2.3.9 Summary and Conclusion 128 3.2.4 Ponapean: —> [...CiRI]2...] 130 3.2.4.1 Word-medial CC 131 3.2.4.2 Summary of the Constraints 134 3.2.4.3 The Proof 135 3.2.4.4 Summary 139 3.2.4.5 Reduplication 139 3.2.4.6 Summary and Conclusion 150 8 3.2.5 Palestinian Arabic: PLONS is subordinate and/...CiC|C2.../ —> [...CiCiCi—] 151 3.2.5.1 The Predictions 152 3.2.5.2 Word-final [-CC#] 156 3.2.5.3 A Return to Geminates 158 3.2.5.4 An Added Wrinkle: Fake Geminates 160 3.2.5.5 Summary and Conclusion 167 3.2.6 Summary of Medial Geminates 169 3.3 Final Geminates 171 3.3.1 Introduction 171 3.3.2 Ponapean: [-CiCi] 173 3.3.3 Summary of Final Geminates 179 3.4 Initial Geminates 181 3.4.1 Introduction 181 3.4.2 Woleaian: [CiCiV-] 184 3.4.3 Ponapean and Fijian: [CV-] 191 3.4.3.1 Ponapean 191 3.4.3.2 Fijian 204 3.4.4 Marshallese; [CI^C,CiV] and [CiFC,V] 208 3.4.4.1 The Dialect Difference in Marshallese 209 9 3.4.4.2 Lexicon Optimization: What Does OT Say about the Nature of URs? 213 3.4.4.3 Lexicon Optimization and Anti-integrity in Ratak 216 3.4.4.4 Summary 218 3.5 Summary of Chapter 3 220 CHAPTER 4.
Recommended publications
  • The Serial Interaction of Stress and Syncope John J
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series Linguistics January 2008 The serial interaction of stress and syncope John J. McCarthy University of Massachusetts, Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs Part of the Morphology Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons, and the Phonetics and Phonology Commons Recommended Citation McCarthy, John J., "The es rial interaction of stress and syncope" (2008). Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 90. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs/90 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Nat Lang Linguist Theory (2008) 26: 499–546 DOI 10.1007/s11049-008-9051-3 ORIGINAL PAPER The serial interaction of stress and syncope John J. McCarthy Received: 7 November 2007 / Accepted: 12 April 2008 / Published online: 26 August 2008 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract Many languages respect the generalization that some or all unstressed vow- els are deleted. This generalization proves elusive in classic Optimality Theory, how- ever. The source of the problem is classic OT’s parallel evaluation, which requires that the effects of stress assignment and syncope be optimized together. This article argues for a version of OT called Harmonic Serialism, in which the effects of stress assignment and syncope can and must be evaluated sequentially. The results are po- tentially applicable to other domains where process interaction is best understood in derivational terms.
    [Show full text]
  • Syncope in Crimean Tatar*
    Syncope in Crimean Tatar* Darya Kavitskaya Yale University Crimean Tatar has a pervasive syncope of high vowels postlexically. The syncope of unstressed vowels only occurs when it results in a phonotactically acceptable syllable structure. Additionally, stressed high vowels delete between identical consonants with the following degemination which is attributed to a highly ranked OCP constraint. An apparent counterexample, the syncope of high vowels followed by voiceless geminates, is shown to be a matter of phonetic implementation, while the former processes have to be represented in phonology. 1. Introduction Crimean Tatar (henceforth, CT) is a West Kipchak language which belongs to the northwestern branch of Turkic (Johanson 1998:81). CT is spoken mainly in the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine, as well as in Uzbekistan, and also in small communities in Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. According to traditional descriptions, CT is subdivided into three dialects: Southern (or Coastal), Central, and Northern (or Steppe) (Johanson and Csato 1998). All three dialects are endangered (Southern and Northern more so than Central): the language is now extensively used mostly by the speakers older than forty, and very few children learn it as their first language. The sociolinguistic situation of CT is quite unusual. In 1944, the entire Tatar population of Crimea was deported to Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan), and to several locations in Russia. As a result, the speakers of CT dialects that used to be linguistically homogenous were separated, mixed, and immersed into radically different language environments. The early 1990s saw the return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland. Currently about 250,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea again, and another 250,000 are still in exile.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonological Domains Within Blackfoot Towards a Family-Wide Comparison
    Phonological domains within Blackfoot Towards a family-wide comparison Natalie Weber 52nd algonquian conference yale university October 23, 2020 Outline 1. Background 2. Two phonological domains in Blackfoot verbs 3. Preverbs are not a separate phonological domain 4. Parametric variation 2 / 59 Background 3 / 59 Consonant inventory Labial Coronal Dorsal Glottal Stops p pː t tː k kː ʔ <’> Assibilants ts tːs ks Pre-assibilants ˢt ˢtː Fricatives s sː x <h> Nasals m mː n nː Glides w j <y> (w) Long consonants written with doubled letters. (Derrick and Weber n.d.; Weber 2020) 4 / 59 Predictable mid vowels? (Frantz 2017) Many [ɛː] and [ɔː] arise from coalescence across boundaries ◦ /a+i/ ! [ɛː] ◦ /a+o/ ! [ɔː] Vowel inventory front central back high i iː o oː mid ɛː <ai> ɔː <ao> low a aː (Derrick and Weber n.d.; Weber 2020) 5 / 59 Vowel inventory front central back high i iː o oː mid ɛː <ai> ɔː <ao> low a aː Predictable mid vowels? (Frantz 2017) Many [ɛː] and [ɔː] arise from coalescence across boundaries ◦ /a+i/ ! [ɛː] ◦ ! /a+o/ [ɔː] (Derrick and Weber n.d.; Weber 2020) 5 / 59 Contrastive mid vowels Some [ɛː] and [ɔː] are morpheme-internal, in overlapping environments with other long vowels JɔːníːtK JaːníːtK aoníít aaníít [ao–n/i–i]–t–Ø [aan–ii]–t–Ø [hole–by.needle/ti–ti1]–2sg.imp–imp [say–ai]–2sg.imp–imp ‘pierce it!’ ‘say (s.t.)!’ (Weber 2020) 6 / 59 Syntax within the stem Intransitive (bi-morphemic) vs. syntactically transitive (trimorphemic). Transitive V is object agreement (Quinn 2006; Rhodes 1994) p [ root –v0 –V0 ] Stem type Gloss ikinn –ssi AI ‘he is warm’ ikinn –ii II ‘it is warm’ itap –ip/i –thm TA ‘take him there’ itap –ip/ht –oo TI ‘take it there’ itap –ip/ht –aki AI(+O) ‘take (s.t.) there’ (Déchaine and Weber 2015, 2018; Weber 2020) 7 / 59 Syntax within the verbal complex Template p [ person–(preverb)*– [ –(med)–v–V ] –I0–C0 ] CP vP root vP CP ◦ Minimal verbal complex: stem plus suffixes (I0,C0).
    [Show full text]
  • Prosodic Identity in Copy Epenthesis Evidence for a Correspondence-Based Approach
    Nat Lang Linguist Theory DOI 10.1007/s11049-017-9385-9 Prosodic identity in copy epenthesis Evidence for a correspondence-based approach Juliet Stanton1 · Sam Zukoff2 Received: 31 October 2016 / Accepted: 23 June 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017 Abstract This paper focuses on languages that exhibit processes of copy epenthe- sis, specifically those where the similarity between a copy vowel and its host ex- tends to prosodic or suprasegmental resemblance. We argue that copy vowels and their hosts strive for identity in all prosodic properties, and show that this drive for prosodic identity can cause misapplication in the assignment of properties such as stress and length. To explain these effects, we argue that any successful analysis of copy epenthesis must involve a correspondence relation (following Kitto and de Lacy 1999). Our proposal successfully predicts the extant typology of prosodic identity ef- fects in copy epenthesis; alternative analyses of copy epenthesis relying solely on fea- tural spreading (e.g. Kawahara 2007) or gestural realignment (e.g. Hall 2003, 2006) do not naturally capture the effects discussed here. Keywords Copy epenthesis · Phonology · Correspondence · Misapplication · Prosody 1 Introduction The term copy epenthesis describes a class of patterns in which the quality of an epenthetic vowel depends on the quality of one of its vocalic neighbors. For exam- ple: in a language where underlying /pri/ is realized as [piri] but /pra/ as [para] (not *[pira]), the vowel that appears in the unexpected position (the copy) is featurally identical to the vowel that appears in the expected position (its host). B J.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonological Processes
    Phonological Processes Phonological processes are patterns of articulation that are developmentally appropriate in children learning to speak up until the ages listed below. PHONOLOGICAL PROCESS DESCRIPTION AGE ACQUIRED Initial Consonant Deletion Omitting first consonant (hat → at) Consonant Cluster Deletion Omitting both consonants of a consonant cluster (stop → op) 2 yrs. Reduplication Repeating syllables (water → wawa) Final Consonant Deletion Omitting a singleton consonant at the end of a word (nose → no) Unstressed Syllable Deletion Omitting a weak syllable (banana → nana) 3 yrs. Affrication Substituting an affricate for a nonaffricate (sheep → cheep) Stopping /f/ Substituting a stop for /f/ (fish → tish) Assimilation Changing a phoneme so it takes on a characteristic of another sound (bed → beb, yellow → lellow) 3 - 4 yrs. Velar Fronting Substituting a front sound for a back sound (cat → tat, gum → dum) Backing Substituting a back sound for a front sound (tap → cap) 4 - 5 yrs. Deaffrication Substituting an affricate with a continuant or stop (chip → sip) 4 yrs. Consonant Cluster Reduction (without /s/) Omitting one or more consonants in a sequence of consonants (grape → gape) Depalatalization of Final Singles Substituting a nonpalatal for a palatal sound at the end of a word (dish → dit) 4 - 6 yrs. Stopping of /s/ Substituting a stop sound for /s/ (sap → tap) 3 ½ - 5 yrs. Depalatalization of Initial Singles Substituting a nonpalatal for a palatal sound at the beginning of a word (shy → ty) Consonant Cluster Reduction (with /s/) Omitting one or more consonants in a sequence of consonants (step → tep) Alveolarization Substituting an alveolar for a nonalveolar sound (chew → too) 5 yrs.
    [Show full text]
  • Bleaching and Coloring*
    386 Bleaching and Coloring* Patricia D. Miller Ohio State University Current studies in natural phonology have dealt with vowels in terms of three cardinal properties: palatality, labiality, and sonority. Palatality and labiality--the chromatic properties--are optimized by a minimally open, maximally constricted vocal tract; and sonority is optimized by a more open vowel tract) Thus the familiar triangle: A or, more exactly a a represents the maximal opposition of the three properties.2 And in many ways, the vowel space does seem to be triangular: ordinarily, the more sonorant a vowel is, the less color it has; and the more chromatic it is--the less sonorant. Thus, while i, e, and m are all palatal, i is more palatal than e, and e is more palatal than m; and, similarly, the degree of rounding varies for u, o, 3. The vowels #, A, and a are colorless or achromatic. They lack both palatality and labiality, and differ only in sonority.3 In this framework, the terms bleaching and coloring are almost self-explanatory: bleaching removes color, and coloring adds color. Bleaching Bleaching may remove palatality or labiality, or both simultaneously: V !lover -Labial !unstressed and/or !lax/short -Palatal] !mixed _(context) Full-scale operation of bleaching will produce linear vowel systems like those of the Caucasian languages reported to have k, A, a. If A lowers, it will produce the system 4, a like that of Kabardian (Kuipers 1960:23 et passim), or that of the child Curt4 (011er forthcoming); or, if all achromatics lower, it will give the single- vowel system, a.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society
    UC Berkeley Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society Title Perception of Illegal Contrasts: Japanese Adaptations of Korean Coda Obstruents Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6x34v499 Journal Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 36(36) ISSN 2377-1666 Author Whang, James D. Y. Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTY SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY February 6-7, 2010 General Session Special Session Language Isolates and Orphans Parasession Writing Systems and Orthography Editors Nicholas Rolle Jeremy Steffman John Sylak-Glassman Berkeley Linguistics Society Berkeley, CA, USA Berkeley Linguistics Society University of California, Berkeley Department of Linguistics 1203 Dwinelle Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 USA All papers copyright c 2016 by the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0363-2946 LCCN: 76-640143 Contents Acknowledgments v Foreword vii Basque Genitive Case and Multiple Checking Xabier Artiagoitia . 1 Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway? Lyle Campbell . 16 Putting and Taking Events in Mandarin Chinese Jidong Chen . 32 Orthography Shapes Semantic and Phonological Activation in Reading Hui-Wen Cheng and Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris . 46 Writing in the World and Linguistics Peter T. Daniels . 61 When is Orthography Not Just Orthography? The Case of the Novgorod Birchbark Letters Andrew Dombrowski . 91 Gesture-to-Speech Mismatch in the Construction of Problem Solving Insight J.T.E. Elms . 101 Semantically-Oriented Vowel Reduction in an Amazonian Language Caleb Everett . 116 Universals in the Visual-Kinesthetic Modality: Politeness Marking Features in Japanese Sign Language (JSL) Johnny George .
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture 5 Sound Change
    An articulatory theory of sound change An articulatory theory of sound change Hypothesis: Most common initial motivation for sound change is the automation of production. Tokens reduced online, are perceived as reduced and represented in the exemplar cluster as reduced. Therefore we expect sound changes to reflect a decrease in gestural magnitude and an increase in gestural overlap. What are some ways to test the articulatory model? The theory makes predictions about what is a possible sound change. These predictions could be tested on a cross-linguistic database. Sound changes that take place in the languages of the world are very similar (Blevins 2004, Bateman 2000, Hajek 1997, Greenberg et al. 1978). We should consider both common and rare changes and try to explain both. Common and rare changes might have different characteristics. Among the properties we could look for are types of phonetic motivation, types of lexical diffusion, gradualness, conditioning environment and resulting segments. Common vs. rare sound change? We need a database that allows us to test hypotheses concerning what types of changes are common and what types are not. A database of sound changes? Most sound changes have occurred in undocumented periods so that we have no record of them. Even in cases with written records, the phonetic interpretation may be unclear. Only a small number of languages have historic records. So any sample of known sound changes would be biased towards those languages. A database of sound changes? Sound changes are known only for some languages of the world: Languages with written histories. Sound changes can be reconstructed by comparing related languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Phonological Consonant Epenthesis Possible? a Series of Artificial Grammar Learning Experiments
    Is Phonological Consonant Epenthesis Possible? A Series of Artificial Grammar Learning Experiments Rebecca L. Morley Abstract Consonant epenthesis is typically assumed to be part of the basic repertoire of phonological gram- mars. This implies that there exists some set of linguistic data that entails epenthesis as the best analy- sis. However, a series of artificial grammar learning experiments found no evidence that learners ever selected an epenthesis analysis. Instead, phonetic and morphological biases were revealed, along with individual variation in how learners generalized and regularized their input. These results, in combi- nation with previous work, suggest that synchronic consonant epenthesis may only emerge very rarely, from a gradual accumulation of changes over time. It is argued that the theoretical status of epenthesis must be reconsidered in light of these results, and that investigation of the sufficient learning conditions, and the diachronic developments necessary to produce those conditions, are of central importance to synchronic theory generally. 1 Introduction Epenthesis is defined as insertion of a segment that has no correspondent in the relevant lexical, or un- derlying, form. There are various types of epenthesis that can be defined in terms of either the insertion environment, the features of the epenthesized segment, or both. The focus of this paper is on consonant epenthesis and, more specifically, default consonant epenthesis that results in markedness reduction (e.g. Prince and Smolensky (1993/2004)). Consonant
    [Show full text]
  • Aspirated and Unaspirated Voiceless Consonants in Old Tibetan*
    LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS 8.2:471-493, 2007 2007-0-008-002-000248-1 Aspirated and Unaspirated Voiceless Consonants * in Old Tibetan Nathan W. Hill Harvard University Although Tibetan orthography distinguishes aspirated and unaspirated voiceless consonants, various authors have viewed this distinction as not phonemic. An examination of the unaspirated voiceless initials in the Old Tibetan Inscriptions, together with unaspirated voiceless consonants in several Tibetan dialects confirms that aspiration was either not phonemic in Old Tibetan, or only just emerging as a distinction due to loan words. The data examined also affords evidence for the nature of the phonetic word in Old Tibetan. Key words: Tibetan orthography, aspiration, Old Tibetan 1. Introduction The distribution between voiceless aspirated and voiceless unaspirated stops in Written Tibetan is nearly complementary. This fact has been marshalled in support of the reconstruction of only two stop series (voiced and voiceless) in Proto-Tibeto- Burman. However, in order for Tibetan data to support a two-way manner distinction in Proto-Tibeto-Burman it is necessary to demonstrate that the three-way distinction of voiced, voiceless aspirated, and voiceless unaspirated in Written Tibetan is derivable from an earlier two-way voicing distinction. Those environments in which voiceless aspirated and unaspirated stops are not complimentary must be thoroughly explained. The Tibetan script distinguishes the unaspirated consonant series k, c, t, p, ts from the aspirated consonant series kh, ch, th, ph, tsh. The combination of letters hr and lh are not to be regarded as representing aspiration but rather the voiceless counterparts to r and l respectively (Hahn 1973:434).
    [Show full text]
  • On Syncope in Old English
    In: Dieter Kastovsky and Aleksander Szwedek (eds) Linguistics across historical and geographical boundaries. In honour of Jacek Fisiak on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter, 1986, 359-66. On syncope in Old English Raymond Hickey University of Bonn Abstract. Syncope in Old English is seen to be a rule which is determined by syllable structure but furthermore to be governed by a set of restricting conditions which refer to the world-class status of the forms which may act as input to the syncope rule, and also to the inflectional or derivational nature of the suffix which are added also to the precise phonological structure of those forms which undergo syncope. A phonological rule in a language which does not operate globally is always of particular interest as the conditions which restrict its application can frequently be recognized and formulized, at the same time throwing light on the nature of conditions which can in principle apply in a language’s phonology. In Old English a syncope rule existed which clearly related to the syllable structure of the forms it did not operate on but which was also subject to a set of restricting conditions which lie outside the domain of the syllable. The examination of this syncope rule and the conditions pertaining to it is the subject of this contribution. It is first of all necessary to distinguish syncope from another phonological process with which it might be confused. This is epenthesis, which appears to have been quite widespread in late West Saxon, as can be seen in the following forms.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhythmic Syncope and Opacity in Mojeño Trinitario Françoise Rose
    Rhythmic syncope and opacity in Mojeño Trinitario Françoise Rose To cite this version: Françoise Rose. Rhythmic syncope and opacity in Mojeño Trinitario. Phonological Data and Analysis, Linguistic Society of America, 2019, 1 (2), pp.1-25. 10.3765/pda.v1art2.2. hal-02275393 HAL Id: hal-02275393 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02275393 Submitted on 30 Aug 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Phonological Data & Analysis Volume 1, Article 2: 1–25 (2019) pɗɑ https://doi.org/10.3765/pda.v1art2.2 Received 7 December 2017; revised 19 October 2018; accepted 29 January 2019. © 2019 Françoise Rose. Published by the Linguistic Society of America with permission of the author under a CC BY 3.0 license. Rhythmic syncope and opacity in Mojeño Trinitario Françoise Rose* Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – [email protected] This paper presents rhythmic syncope in Mojeño Trinitario, an Arawak language spoken in lowland Bolivia. In this language, every vowel that is in a weak prosodic position can syncopate. The syncope pattern of Mojeño Trinitario is remarkable for several reasons.
    [Show full text]