Investigating the hidden structure of phonological systems (original) (raw)
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From UPSID to PRUPSID A Phonetic Reanalysis of the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database
ANTWERP PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, 2002
Human language only uses a subset of sounds that are physiologically possible. Within this subset there is a core of widely recurring sounds. The structure and frequency of these speech sounds is extensively described in UPSID -the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (Maddieson 1984), a landmark publication in comparative phonology and point of departure for PRUPSID , a Phonetic Reanalysis of UPSID data.
2008
List of contributors List of abbreviations 1. Introduction: the phonetic bases of phonological Markedness Bruce Hayes and Donca Steriade 2. A review of perceptual cues and cue robustness Richard Wright 3. Place assimilation Jongho Jun 4. The typology of rounding harmony Abigail R. Kaun 5. The evolution of metathesis Juliette Blevins and Andrew Garrett 6. The role of contrast-specific and language-specific phonetics in contour tone distribution Jie Zhang 7. Vowel reduction Katherine M. Crosswhite 8. Contrast and perceptual distinctiveness Edward Flemming 9. Syllable weight Matthew Gordon 10. Consonant lenition Robert Kirchner 11. Language processing and segmental OCP effects Stefan A. Frisch Index.
Phonology, 2012
Goldsmith's (1995) Handbook of phonological theory provided an influential overview of the field in the mid-90s, earning a well-deserved place on the shelf of practising phonologists. The volume under review is not the first to attempt to update this classic work. Two other recent handbooks of comparable length and scope are the second edition of Goldsmith (Goldsmith et al. 2011), and de Lacy's (2007) well-received Cambridge handbook of phonology. Besides evaluating how well the current work meets the general expectations that readers have for a handbook, this review must necessarily also address the inevitable questions : why yet another handbook of phonology just now ? ; how does this volume distinguish itself from its competitors ? ; does this work fill a gap that is not met by the other handbooks ? The names of the editors and authors provide the first clue to what makes this volume distinctive. Almost all contributors work and/or received their PhDs in Europe, whereas North American phonologists dominate the other handbooks. The European perspective is felt in several of the core chapters in the second and longest part of the volume, ' Research issues ', which discuss certain approaches-such as Element Theory, Government Phonology and CV theory-that tend to be less well known in North America. The chapter by Botma, Kula & Nasukawa on ' Features' has a comprehensive discussion of the phonetic motivation for different feature theories in early generative phonology, followed by a clear introduction to Element Theory. One of the distinctive properties of Element Theory is that the same feature can have different phonetic realisations, depending on the featural configuration (in particular, which other feature is the head of the configuration). The advantages of representing voicing and nasality with a single feature are exemplified with a detailed analysis of alternations involving nasal prefixes in Zoque. Péter Szigetvári's chapter on ' Syllables ' follows a critical historical survey of motivations for syllable structure with an exceptionally clear introduction to CV theory, a theory which essentially dispenses with the syllable as a constituent. As someone who was not trained in this approach, I read the chapter with scepticism. However, by the end of it I felt I had an appreciative understanding of how strict CV licensing can account for classic problems like restrictions on consonant and vowel clusters which are usually considered motivations for syllable structure. Both this chapter and the one on features will be read with interest by phonologists wishing to understand the highlighted theories better. They will surely be recommended to students as useful introductory chapters by phonologists working in the theories presented. However, as the focus in these chapters is on the particular theories under discussion, they are not intended to provide a useful guide to current research and issues in other frameworks.
Phonetic data and phonological analyses
Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 2012
This paper is basically concerned with the relationship between phonetic data and phonological analyses. I) It will be shown that phonological analyses based on unverified phonetic data tend to accommodate ad hoc, unmotivated, and even phonetically implausible phonological rules. On the other hand, it will be demonstrated that a phonological analysis (of the same phenomenon), based on verified phonetic data, accounts for these data in an acceptable, natural and credible manner. Examples will be taken from the phenomenon of labialization in Sesotho 2) to illustrate the point that it is absolutely necessary to make a clearcut distinction between "data" and "facts" in generative phonological descriptions. Attention will first be given to different types of phonetic data: impressionistic phonetic data of Tucker (1929) and of Kunene (i961) will be discussed, after which some experimental phonetic data on the phenomenon of labialization in Sesotho will be presented. A phonological analysis of Ponelis (1974) based on unverified phonetic data will then be examined, after which finally, a phonological analysis based on verified data will be considered.