Clàudia Pons-Moll (2014). Morphologically driven underapplication, lexical exceptions, loanword phonology and foreign language acquisition/speech. Which is their lowest common denominator? (original) (raw)
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In: Michael Kenstowicz, Teresa Cabré (ed.), Catalan Journal of Linguistics. On loanword phonology, vol. 11. Bellaterra: Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana. pàg. 127-166.
In this paper we provide a formal account for underapplication of vowel reduction to schwa in Majorcan Catalan loanwords and learned words. On the basis of the comparison of these data with those concerning productive derivation and verbal inflection, which show analogous patterns, in this paper we also explore the existing -and not yet acknowledged-correlation between those processes that exhibit a particular behaviour in the loanword phonology with respect to the native phonology of the language, those processes that show lexical exceptions and those processes that underapply due to morphological reasons. In light of the analysis of the very same data and taking into account the aforementioned correlation, we show how there might exist a natural diachronic relation between two kinds of Optimality Theory constraints which are commonly used but, in principle, mutually exclusive: positional faithfulness and contextual markedness constraints. Overall, phonological productivity is proven to be crucial in three respects: first, as a context of the grammar, given that «underapplication» is systematically found in what we call the productive phonology of the dialect (including loanwords, learned words, productive derivation and verbal inflection); second, as a trigger or blocker of processes, in that the productivity or the lack of productivity of a specific process or constraint in the language is what explains whether it is challenged or not in any of the depicted situations, and, third, as a guiding principle which can explain the transition from the historical to the synchronic phonology of a linguistic variety.
This dissertation deals with the constraints that phonology imposes on the exponence of gender. In particular, it explores the interaction between epenthesis and nominal inflection in Pallarese Catalan clitics. Since inflection is located word-finally in Pallarese, I argue that right-edge epenthesis is avoided in order to maintain a strict correspondence between morphological and phonological structure. Inflectional vowels may be used for syllabification purposes in word-final position instead. It is assumed in this thesis that every syntactic functional head projects a postsyntactic theme position (Oltra-Massuet, 1999) where gender is realized. A key aspect of the proposal is the idea that the exponents of gender are floating features, and thus inflection proceeds in two steps. First, the theme position is spelled out with an underspecified vowel (i.e., Th ↔ V) and, subsequently, the floating features associated with gender ([+fem] ↔ [+low], i.e., -[a]; [–fem] ↔ [+labial,–high], i.e., -[o]) are attached to the V-slot of the theme position. Couched within Optimality Theory, I argue that the constraint ranking determines whether the featural gender exponents surface or not. The feminine is always realized due to a constraint that favors parsing [+low] (which implies adding association lines that are absent in the input), whereas in the masculine the insertion of new association lines in the output is dispreferred and the features associated with [–fem] are not parsed, which accounts for default masculine -[Ø] exponence. If gender is part of the morphosyntatic composition of a clitic, as in the 3rd person singular masculine accusative clitic, these floating features can nevertheless be attached to the V-slot of the theme position to improve syllabic structure under certain phonotactic conditions. This ‘morphological solution’ is less costly than (regular) word-initial epenthesis because it does not need to create a new skeletal position or insert new features. Impoverishment (Bonet, 1991) deletes gender features in the 3rd person plural accusative clitic, and thus the corresponding phonological features associated with gender cannot be used for syllabification purposes. The theme position with the V-slot is maintained, though, and the default epenthetic features of Pallarese are inserted when required by phonotactics, which forces a thematic interpretation of this vowel. This solution is preferred over word-initial epenthesis because the theme position already provides a skeletal slot. The same procedure applies to other clitics that do not bear gender features either. Even though Pallarese shows a complex morphophonological intertwining regarding gender exponence, the OT analysis presented in this dissertation makes exclusive reference to phonological objects. The morphosyntactic structure of the nominal system constrains epenthesis, but strict modularity can be maintained. Furthermore, the use of floating features in the input can dispense with gender allomorphy (cf. Bonet et al. 2007). As for nouns and adjectives, the general process that spells out an underspecified vowel in the theme position, on the one hand, and floating place features for gender values, on the other, is only valid for default endings. That is, vowels other than -a (feminine) and -o (masculine) —when it surfaces— cannot be considered gender markers and need to be fully specified in the theme position of lexical entries instead. Therefore, nouns with non-regular endings are stored as complex representations and phonologically realized in one single step. This supports theories that assume that one exponent (or set of exponents) can spell out whole morphosyntactic structures (e.g., Siddiqi 2009, Caha 2009 or Bermúdez-Otero 2012).
Phonotactics refers to the principles according to which lan- guages allow sound combinations and segment sequencing to form larger units such as syllables and words. In the study of phono- tactics, we are faced with a series of apparent contradictions and empirical problems that require critical comparisons of alternative explanatory models and, most often, an investigation of the ‘inter- faces’ between phonotactics and other levels of linguistic organiza- tion, particularly phonetics and morphology. One problematic aspect is due to the fact that phonotactics is part of the phonological gram- mar of a language, and at the same time it is regulated by a number of non-categorical, probabilistic constraints and preferences. It is thus not surprising that the awareness among linguists regarding the role of probability, so crucial in accounting for changes and vari- ations across languages and historical stages (Bod et al. 2003), has developed early in connection with observations on the variability in the ‘phonotactic grammar’ of speakers (e.g. Scholes 1966) and on the changing degrees of ‘acceptability’ of word-sized strings (later called ‘wordlikeness’ – a term that explicitly presupposes a probabilistic view of the phonology). A second challenging issue related to phono- tactics has to do with the universal versus language-specific nature of phonotactic rules and preferences. Asking what is common to all linguistic systems and what, by contrast, is implemented in individ- ual phonologies under specific conditions has promoted the adoption of a variety of empirical methodologies ranging from the survey of big samples of languages to the psycholinguistic study of how pho- notactic structures are processed and acquired, and from probability computations to the investigation of how consonantal and vocalic sequences are produced and perceived.
University of New Mexico Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 1
1993
environments in which they occur, much as syntax was only studied in the rarefied environment of made-up sentences. Very little study has been devoted to the distribution of phonological elements in texts. I will argue below that the text frequency of segments affects their phonetic shape and evolution. Consider subphonemic detail and variation conditioned lexically, morphologically and socially. Generative phonology, like its predecessor, phonemic theory, chose to ignore low-level phonetic detail'. Like the detail of actual language use that has enriched functionalist syntactic theory, the study of detail in phonology will reveal important facts that bear on our understanding of how language is really processed and what structures have empirical validity. Attend to exceptions and marginal cases, for they can be valuable sources of information about the nature of processing and representation. As I will argue below, marginal 'phonemes' are particularly interesting in their consequences for phonological theory. Reconsider what Langacker 1987 calls the 'rule-list fallacy' (see also Bybee 1988). Our thinking and analyses need not be restricted to only two options-either an elements occurs in a list or it is generated by rule. I propose below that lexical elements (words or phrases) consist of actual phonetic content that is modified as these elements are used. While phonetic 'rules' may exist as articulatory patterns for the realization of words, generalizations at other levels may be better thought of as emergent generalizations over lexical representations. 5 Altaic dialects, in Eskimo-Aleut [1330iuca and Mowrey 1987b]). Or consider the changes undergone by Proto-Bantu voiceless stops (Tucker and Bryan 1957, Pagliuca and Mowrey 1987h):
2007
In his introduction, E. explains that he had considered adding the subtitle 'A View from Left Field' to the book (p. xiii) because this baseball metaphor suggests something that ''.. . belongs to heterodox, unconventional, nontraditional ideas located far from the mainstream. . .'' (p. xiii). To be sure, E.'s approach to Spanish phonology and morphology is unorthodox, at least in some circles. E.'s methodology is quantitative and experimental. What is distinctive about E.'s approach is his focus on how actual Spanish speakers process language in real time (p. xv) in a field long dominated by generative-based theory with its emphasis on an ideal speaker-hearer and mechanics and formalism (p. xiv). E. begins his first chapter ('The psychological status of linguistic analyses', pp. 1-21), an earlier version of which appeared as Eddington (1996b), with a brief review of the vast literature on the psychological status of linguistic analyses, a frequently debated topic in the 1970s. The author notes that since that original interest in this issue, only philosophers of language and the occasional experimental linguist have written about it. Rather than continue to try to resolve the matter, E. notes that linguists have more or less ignored it, instead, devoting their time and effort to the many new linguistic theories that have emerged in the past quarter century (p. 1). After a review of linguistics since Leonard Bloomfield's behaviorism and Noam Chomsky's rationalism, the author addresses important issues such as empiricality, falsifiability, methodology (autonomous versus non-autonomous), the evidence base, and the relationship between formal and empirical analyses. After his review of the literature on the psychological reality of phonological theories, E. notes that their psychological reality has been questioned on several grounds (pp. 20-21): (1) truth versus reality, i.e., there is no way to distinguish between theories that possess psychological validity and those that are mere notational constructs; (2) most contemporary linguistic analyses are non-empirical, hence, they are not falsifiable; (3) many theories are established with little or no recourse to the speakers of the language; and (4) most theories derive from a very
Recent developments in phonological theory
Lingua, 1979
H.'s book (a revised and expanded version of her UCLA dissertation (IULC 1973)) presents and elaborates a phonological theory which has been developed mainly by Vennemann in a number of articles published since 1972. The book is divided into two parts. The first part (Concreteness in Morphophonology) deals with "the formal constraints on the theory", i.e. it concentrates on the abstractness and actual form of underlying reprefientations (henceforth UR's), rule types, cyclic application, rule order and phonological change. It includes several illustrations from Spanish. Part two (Natural Phonological Structure) deals with "substantive phonological issues" and contains a discussion of the distinction between morpheme structure rules vs. phonetic-phonological rules (the so-called duplication problem) and especially of the role and formal treatment of the syllable.
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