Canadian French Vowel Harmony A dissertation presented by Gabriel Christophe Poliquin to The Department of Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Linguistics. Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts August 2006 © 2006 Gabriel Christophe Poliquin All rights reserved. iii Advisors: Prof. Andrew Nevins and Prof. Donca Steriade Author: Gabriel Poliquin Canadian French Vowel Harmony This thesis provides a phonological, psycholinguistic and phonetic description of vowel harmony in Canadian French (CF), as well as a theoretical account of the phenomenon showing that the CF facts may only be accounted for in derivational frameworks that include the notion of ‘cycle.’ CF [ATR] vowel harmony is regressive, optional, and parasitic on the feature [+high]. CF [ATR] harmony involves spreading of a [-ATR] feature from a final [+high] vowel in a closed syllable to other [+high] vowels within the same word that are in non-final open syllables (e.g. [fi.lp] or [f.lp] are both acceptable variants for ‘Phillip’). The thesis describes and explains the four key attributes of harmony in this language: 1) There is inter-speaker (and possibly intra-speaker) variation with respect to whether harmony is applied locally and/or iteratively. Variation with respect to these parameters leads to the existence of three patterns of harmony, as evidenced by words of more than two syllables. There is the local non-iterative pattern, e.g. [i.l.st] (‘illicit’), the non-local pattern, e.g. [.li.st] and the ‘across-the-board’ pattern [.l.st]. 2) As shown in 1), there exists a pattern of non-local harmony, in which the target vowel is separated from the trigger by another [+high] vowel. 3) Harmony is counterbled by a process of ‘pre-fricative tensing,’ which leads to opaque allophony. 4) Harmony applies cyclically, but is then counterbled by another ‘open-syllable tensing’ process, which results in another case of opacity. For example, harmony can apply in a word like [m.zk] (‘music’), but if we concatenate a resyllabifying suffix like [al], we obtain [m.zi.kal] (‘musical’). The initial [+high] vowel can be [-ATR], since harmony applied in the stem, but the resyllabified trigger must be [+ATR], by an open syllable tensing rule. The thesis makes the following claim: CF vowel harmony shows very compellingly that models of the phonological component must include mechanisms accounting for non-local relations, derivational opacity and the interaction between phonology and morphology. iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Topics………………………………………………………………………………. 1 2 Overview…………………………………………………………………………… 14 Chapter 2: Variation in Locality and Iterativity 1 Chapter overview…………………………………………………………….…… 17 2 Closed syllable laxing……………………………………………………………. 24 2.1 Acoustic properties of word-final lax [+high] vowels……………………….. 25 2.1.1 The duration of tense and lax [+high] vowels………………………… 28 2.1.2 F1 and F2 frequencies of tense and lax [+high] vowels……………….. 32 3 The underdetermined analysis of potentially harmonic words…………………… 41 3.1 How underdetermined is the stimulus?………………………………………. 46 3.1.1 Child-directed speech…………………………………………………. 46 3.1.1.1 Using the CHILDES database…………………………………….. 46 3.1.1.2 Results from the CHILDES database …………………………….. 46 3.1.2 Adult speech ………………………………………………………….. 48 4 Judgment task results on locality parameters: seven grammars of CF…………………………………………………………………………………. 50 4.1 Judgment task methodology…………………………………………………. 51 4.2 Results………………………………………………………………………... 53 4.2.1 Harmony in disyllabic words…………………………………………. 53 4.2.2 Harmony in trisyllabics: variation in locality………………………… 58 4.2.2.1 Across-the-board speakers………………………………………... 59 4.2.2.2 Non-local speakers………………………………………………... 61 4.2.2.3 Adjacent non-iterative speakers…………………………………... 68 4.2.2.4 Other speakers: BGB, LL, MB…………………………………… 69 4.2.3 Harmony in tetrasyllabics…………………………………………….. 73 4.2.3.1 ATB speakers……………………………………………………... 75 4.2.3.2 Non-local speakers………………………………………………... 76 4.2.3.3 Adjacent non-iterative speakers…………………………………... 77 4.2.3.4 Other speakers: BGB, LL, MB…………………………………… 79 4.2.4 Neutral vowels: opacity and transparency of medial vowels as a function of locality…………………………………………………… 82 4.2.4.1Non-local speakers’ acceptance rates for non-final laxing in inédite-type words……………………………………………………………… 84 4.2.4.2 Adjacent non-iterative speakers’ acceptance rates for non-final laxing in inédite-type words………………………………………. 85 v 4.2.4.3 ATB speakers’ acceptance rates for non-final laxing in inédite- type words………………………………………………………… 86 4.2.4.4 Other speakers’ acceptance rates for non-final laxing in inédite- type words………………………………………………………… 87 4.3 Summary……………………………………………………………………... 89 5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… 90 Appendix: Stimuli………………………………………………………………….. 91 Chapter 3: Opaque Vowel Harmony 1 Chapter overview………………………………………………………….. 100 2 Opaque allophony: the interaction of vowel harmony and pre-fricative tensing…………………………………………………………………... 102 2.1 Pre-fricative tensing………………………………………………... 102 2.2 Vowel harmony data and generalisations……………………... 104 2.3 Phonetic data: diphthongising speakers and non-diphthongising speakers…………………………………………………………….. 111 2.3.1 Non-diphthongising speakers……………………………….. 112 2.3.2 Diphthongising speakers……………………………………. 118 2.4Reassessing transparent accounts of CF vowel harmony facts…………………………………………………………………… 125 2.4.1 Déchaîne (1991): opaque vowel harmony and the Weight-to- Stress principle………………………………………………… 127 2.4.2 Assimilation and dissimilation………………………………… 130 2.5 The productivity of opaque vowel harmony………………………….. 134 2.5.1 Evidence for the product of opaque vowel harmony: nonce words………………………………………………………….. 134 2.5.2 Evidence for the product of opaque vowel harmony: low frequency words…………………………………………………………. 136 2.6Opaque harmony in trisyllabic words of the utilise type…………………………………………………………………… 140 vi 3 The cyclical application of laxing and harmony……………………….….. 143 3.1 CF vowel harmony in Lexical Phonology…………………………….. 143 3.2 The productivity of the musical pattern……………………………….. 150 4 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 157 Appendix: stimuli……………………………………………………………… 158 Chapter 4: Canadian French vowel harmony: a rule-based analysis 1 Chapter overview………………………………………………………….. 165 2 Vowel harmony: a rule-based account……………………………………. 166 2.1 Section overview……………………………………………………... 166 2.2 Laxing and tensing…………………………………………………… 170 2.2.1 Closed syllable laxing………………………………………… 170 2.2.2 Tensing in open syllables……………………………………… 173 2.2.3 Pre-fricative tensing and lengthening………………………… 173 2.3 Vowel harmony: one rule, two parameters…………………………… 178 2.3.1 Data overview and formalisation of the vowel harmony rule…………………………………………………………….. 178 2.3.2 On locality in terms of directionality………………………….. 190 2.3.3 On Nevins (2004) and predictions for Hungarian and Finnish harmony……………………………………………………….. 203 2.3.4 Iterativity, optionality and the relative complexity of grammars……………………………………………………… 217 3 Opaque vowel harmony: on rule ordering and the ‘Cycle’……………….. 220 3.1 Harmony counterbled by pre-fricative tensing……………………… 220 3.2 Cyclicity: ‘Strict Cycle Condition effects in CF and Javanese….…… 223 4 A note on metaphony……………………………………………………... 241 5 Conclusion………………………………………………………………... 246 Appendix: On the different formulations of the Strict Cycle Condition……… 248 vii Chapter 5: The inadequacy of non- and semi-derivational models of phonology 1 Chapter overview………………………………………………………… 253 2 The ‘over-evaluation’ problem…………………………………………… 255 2.1 Classical OT…………………………………………………………. 256 2.2 Classical OT and the case of highly specific constraints (McCarthy 2003)…………………………………………………………………. 260 2.2.1 Non-specific constraints: ‘Agree’ and ‘Spread’ constraints….. 260 2.2.2 Highly specific constraints: ‘Match’ constraints……………... 264 2.2.3 Headed Spans…………………………………………………. 272 3 Opacity……………………………………………………….…………… 280 3.1 Classical OT………………………………………………………….. 281 3.2 Targeted Constraints (Bakovic & Wilson 2001; Wilson 2001, 2003)…………………………………………………………………. 282 3.3 Sympathy (McCarthy 1999, 2003)…………………………………... 290 3.4 OT with Candidate Chains (McCarthy 2006a, forthcoming 2006b). 295 3.5 Turbidity (Goldrick 2000)…………………………………………… 304 3.6 Stratal OT (Kiparsky 2000; Bermudez-Otero 1999)………………… 310 4 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….. 314 Bibliography………………………………………………………………. 318 viii Acknowledgments Many thanks to the members of my committee, Jay Jasanoff, Andrew Nevins, Jeremy Rau and Donca Steriade. They are the pillars on which this edifice rests. I am especially indebted to Andrew Nevins and Donca Steriade, my two co-chairs. Their unbounded curiosity for what may lie ahead keeps me slashing forward to this day. I have more to learn from them than they have already taught me. I also thank my wife, Emily Standen. They ask me, “how can you be so calm?” I am calm because I am happy; I am happy because of you. Je remercie également mes parents. De mon père, je sais que les langues servent à se réinventer: L’acteur change de masque; l’identité est accessoire. De ma mère, je sais que la réussite est inévitable- rien sauf le travail nous sépare d’elle, et le travail est un ami. Merci également à tous les locuteurs dont la parole fait l’intérêt de cette étude. Vous vous reconnaîtrez. Enfin, un merci lointain à Charles Gauthier et Mario Gagné. Grâce à eux, j’ai appris qu’il y avait des savants et des linguistes. ix À Jean-Marc Poliquin, mon grand-père, mon compagnon. x 今迄は罪もあたらぬ昼寝哉 -