Final Devoicing Principles and Parameters Wiebke Gertrud Brockhaus University College London University of London October 1991 Thesis submitted to the University of London in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ProQuest Number: 10610943 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10610943 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT This thesis addresses the problem of how to deal with the phonological event of final obstruent devoicing (FOD) in a theoretical framework based on principles and parameters rather than rules. The data used comes almost exclusively from German (Hochlautung). The first chapter presents the 'raw facts' of FOD. Its purpose is to provide an outline of the sort of data to be accounted for in the remainder of the thesis. Previous treatments of FOD in German are discussed and evaluated in the second chapter. All of them are shown to be associated with a number of problems, many of which are artifacts of inadequate theoretical frameworks. The third and fourth chapters address the questions of what FOD is and where it occurs. The proposed answer is couched in the framework of Government Phonology (Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud 1985, 1990), a phonological theory whose basic tenets are introduced in the course of the discussion. The conclusion drawn is that FOD is an instance of autosegmental licensing, where the laryngeal element L" requires licensing by a nuclear position with phonetic content. Chapter 5 explores the question of why FOD should exhibit the particular properties that it does. Both physical factors which are responsible for the general tendency of (final) obstruents to exhibit some degree of devoicing and the cognitive benefits which FOD can bring to speech recognition are investigated. The final chapter takes a new look at the concept of neutralisation in the context of FOD in German. It highlights Trubetzkoy's and Kiparsky's views of neutralisation and discusses some of the experimental work which has examined FOD as a putative process of neutralisation over the past decade. It is shown that apparent problems for phonological theory raised by the experimental studies can be resolved by Government Phonology. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS A b stra ct.................................................................................................................... 3 Table o f Contents ................................, .............................................................. 5 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 11 Abbreviations and Notational Conventions ........................................................ 13 Introduction and Overview .................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER ONE THE FACTS’ OF FINAL OBSTRUENT DEVOICING 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 17 1.2 FOD in G erm an ............................................................................................ 21 1.2.1 Historical development ............................................................ 21 1.2.2 The application of FOD in present-day German Hochlautung 23 1.2.2.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 23 1.2.2.2 Voicing alternations ................................................................. 26 1.2.2.3 Distributional constraints affecting voicing .......................... 39 1.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER TWO 22 YEARS OF FOD: EARLIER APPROACHES FROM 1968 TO 1990 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 43 2.2 What is FOD? Problems with SPE-type rewrite rules involving binary features ............................................................................................ 45 2.3 Where does FOD occur? Four earlier analyses from 1968 to 1990 .... 53 2.3.1 Vennemann 1968 ...................................................................... 53 2.3.1.1 Vennemann's analysis: obstruents devoice before a #- boundary ..................................................................................... 53 2.3.1.2 Problems with Vennemann's 1968 analysis .......................... 58 2.3.1.2.1 Using a #-boundary to represent a syllable-boundary 58 5 Contents 2.3.1.2.2 Deleting a single internal #-boundary before a v o w e l 63 2.3.1.2.3 Dealing with controversial items: 'unpronounceable' clusters 67 2.3.1.2.4 Summary..................................................................................... 71 2.3.2 Vennemann 1978 ...................................................................... 72 2.3.2.1 Vennemann's analysis: obstruents are voiceless in syllable codas .......................................................................................... 72 2.3.2.2 Problems with Vennemann's 1978 analysis ........................... 73 2.3.3 Kloeke 1982 (and Wurzel 1970) ............................................ 75 2.3.3.1 The analysis: obstruents devoice at the end of a m orphem e .................................................................................. 75 2.3.3.2 Problems with the 'morpheme-final process' analysis 77 2.3.4 The Lexical Phonology analysis: Rubach 1990 ................... 80 2.3.4.1 Introduction: Wiese 1988, Hall 1989a .................................... 80 2.3.4.2 Rubach's analysis: FOD is syllable-conditioned and requires cyclic syllable structure assignment ....................................... 81 2.3.4.3 Problems with Rubach's analysis............................................ 87 2.3.4.3.1 His framework - Lexical Phonology ....................................... 87 2.3.4.3.2 Rubach's optional rules: German Onset (part of the SSA) and Sonorant Desyllabification ............................... 87 2.3.4.3.3 Schwa epenthesis and underlying syllabic sonorants ........ 105 2.3.4.3.4 Summary.......................................................................... 109 2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 110 CHAPTER THREE WHAT IS FINAL OBSTRUENT DEVOICING? A GOVERNMENT PHONOLOGY APPROACH 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. I l l 3.2 Phonological government ......................................................................... 112 3.2.1 Phonological government ..................................................... 112 3.2.2 'Ground rules' and some principles of grammar ............... 121 3.3 Phonological elements and segmental representations in G P ................ 126 3.3.1 Phonological elements in Government Phonology ............ 126 3.3.2 Segmental representations of some obstruents .............. 131 3.3.3 Do H- and L- contribute their charm even when operators? 133 3.3.4 Segmental representations of coronal sonorants in German 138 6 Contents 3.4 What are the changes involved in F O D ? ................................................ 141 3.4.1 What is ’voicing’? ................................................................ 141 3.4.1.1 Some general cues to the voicing contrast ................... 141 3.4.1.2 F0 perturbations and the voicing contrast ..................... 145 3.4.2 What are the options for FOD made available by GP? .. 151 3.4.3 Final obstruent devoicing as loss of lexical L - ............ 158 3.4.3.1 A typical weakening process? ............................................. 158 3.4.3.2 What are the implications of losing L-? ............................ 162 3.4.3.2.1 FOD is not a neutralisation process in the sense of Kiparsky 1976 162 3.4.3.2.2 Syllable-final devoicing and voicing assimilation in German can be reduced to a universal principle of gram m ar .......... 169 3.4.3.2.3 Devoiced fricatives can govern only homorganic nasals . 181 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 189 CHAPTER FOUR WHERE DOES FINAL OBSTRUENT DEVOICING OCCUR? A GOVERNMENT PHONOLOGY APPROACH 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 191 4.2 Straightforward FOD environments ........................................................ 191 4.2.1 Word-final and term-final in compounds ...................... 191 4.2.2 Before certain suffixes .......................................................... 199 4.3 FOD as an instance of autosegmental licensing ............................. 205 4.4 FOD in Vennemann’s variable items ...................................................... 213 4.4.1 Introduction ...................................................................... 213 4.4.2 FOD preceding domain-internal licensed empty nuclei . 215 4.4.2.1 Impossible alternative