Optimality Theory and Optional Voicing Assimilation in Modern Hebrew Verbs (original) (raw)
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This paper examines the realization of inflectional paradigms in the Semitic root-and pattern morphological system of Modern Hebrew. In the first part of the paper, a system of realizational statements is proposed, in the spirit of the framework of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993). Two different, independent positions V1 and V2 are identified and defined relative to a basic discontinuous set of elements, the root. Employing the notion of default status, which is accorded to the vocalization of Type I verbs in the past, this move allows for an optimally economic set of rules for the realization of all active and passive verbs. In the second part of the paper, the account is extended to roots with a final underlying glide /j/. Within the verbal system, such roots give rise to a set of mostly vowel-final verbal stems. It is claimed that the traditional analysis, according to which the different realizations are synchronically the phonological reflex of this final /j/, is untenable, and especially so because these verbs have almost exactly the same realization in all Types. Realization rules are then formalized with the conditioning environment being this underlying final /j/, with [j] as the default realization of this element. Thus, a third element /j/ is both a class-marker-it gives rise to a set of phonologically-arbitrary realizationsand a simple phoneme.
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This paper has greatly benefited from the help of many people. Junko Ito, Armin Mester, and Jaye Padgett have provided comments on numerous drafts, and I wish to offer them my sincere gratitude and appreciation for their helpful suggestions. Many thanks also to Judith Aissen for her detailed comments on a previous draft of this paper. In addition, I would like to thank Gene Buckley, Edit Doron, Sharon Rose, Donca Steriade, Bernard Tranel, Rachel Walker, and Andrew Wedel, who have all provided very thoughtful questions, discussions and suggestions with respect to the issues under consideration here. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to the many native speakers I have worked with as informants in
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In this work I argue that there is an asymmetry in Hebrew between voiced and voiceless obstruents with respect to voicing assimilation. The argument is based on an acoustic study I conducted, which shows that regressive devoicing assimilation is significantly more common than regressive voicing assimilation. I provide a preliminary, formal analysis within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993a, 1997), suggesting directions for theoretical exploration.
Homophony, Allomorphy and non-concatenative realization in the verbal system of Modern Hebrew
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This study focuses on data from the verbal system of Modern Hebrew. A full analysis of stress and syncope is given. In Hebrew verbs, some but not all unstressed vowels are subject to deletion. The study identifies the conditions for this deletion and its limitations. It also describes cases in which syncope creates an illicit three consonant cluster that is broken by epenthesis. In these forms stress shifts to the ultimate syllable and the penultimate vowel changes to e: tixtó v-i ! tixteví. It is argued that this seemingly serial interaction between phonological processes can be adequately analyzed within a parallel model of phonology, i.e. the non-derivational version of Optimality Theory.
On the Applicability of Two Level Morphology to the Inflection of Hebrew Verbs
1988
Hebrew, as other ~emitic languages, has a rich morpl1ology, observable in part by the complexity of verb inflections. The primary base of verbs in Hebrew is the past third singular form of tlfe verb. From this base, some twenty eight different inflected forms can be created according to tense, per~on, gender and number. Traditionally, inflection tables were used to describe the various inflected forms derived from the verb 'base. Research done by Oman has managed to describe the verb inflection process using the principles of Generative Grammar. In' this approach, inflCfted verb forms are viewed as constructs of the form preftx+base+sufftx. Verb inflection is described as a s~ries of sequentialpperations. The first stage converts the primary verb base to a secondary'base, when the secondary base is not the same as the primary base. Secondly, the appropriate prefix and/or suffix are concatenated to the base. Thirdly, several morpho-phonemic changes due to the affix concat...
Surface Faithfulness Phenomena and the Consonantal Root in the Modern Hebrew Verb System
Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:This paper argues that from the point of view of speakers Modern Hebrew must be described as a hybrid system, possessing elements of both templatic and concatenative morphology, and that more generally, templaticity and concatenativity are not absolute, binarily opposed categories, but stand for bundles of morphological characteristics, of which a given language may possess a combination and which are subject to piecemeal diachronic change.