Phonology-Morphology interface Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

"Fonologia catalana" is a comprehensive classical account of the phonology of Catalan, written in the 1990s within the tennets of the standard generative phonology theory, with some additional information cast in autosegmental theory.... more

"Fonologia catalana" is a comprehensive classical account of the phonology of Catalan, written in the 1990s within the tennets of the standard generative phonology theory, with some additional information cast in autosegmental theory. The book includes chapters on vowel phenomena, syllable structure, consonant word-final phenomena, assimilatory and other consonantal contact phenomena, pronominal clitics, and suprasegmentals. Each chapter includes some exercises.

We ilustrate the complexity and interest of English phonology and morphology through two case studies: the phonological and morphological behavior of sibilant suffixes, and the aspiration of voiceless obstruents. We focus on documenting... more

We ilustrate the complexity and interest of English phonology and morphology through two case studies: the phonological and morphological behavior of sibilant suffixes, and the aspiration of voiceless obstruents. We focus on documenting individual variation in these areas and examining theoretical proposals that have been advanced to account for the attested range of variation that is found, highlighting cases where the data connect to larger issues in phonological and morphological theory.

This paper describes the process of studying the notoriously complex verbal tone systems of Bantu languages through the elicitation of systematic, paradigmatic data. The main thrust of this paper is the delineation of the factors known to... more

This paper describes the process of studying the notoriously complex verbal tone systems of Bantu languages through the elicitation of systematic, paradigmatic data. The main thrust of this paper is the delineation of the factors known to influence tonal outputs in Bantu languages, providing background on the micro-typology of Bantu verbal tone systems, with discussion of how these considerations impact the data-gathering process.

This thesis shows that the variability observed in hypocoristic truncation and reduplication in Spanish is predictable and, therefore, grammatical. It argues that the output structure of truncates and reduplicants is a compromise between... more

This thesis shows that the variability observed in hypocoristic truncation and reduplication in Spanish is predictable and, therefore, grammatical. It argues that the output structure of truncates and reduplicants is a compromise between phonological markedness and faithfulness, and that the two Prosodic Morphological processes under discussion do not differ from concatenative morphological processes in this respect. By adopting a transderivational approach, idiolectal variation can be explained through a fixed hierarchy of markedness constraints in which certain constraints regarding different faithfulness relations are indexed (e.g., input-truncate, base-truncate and truncate-reduplicant relations). Some constraints on faithfulness relations are placed in a lower level in the hierarchy with respect to others, thus giving rise to different degrees of Emergence of the Unmarked effects. While the unmarked structure of the prosodic word and the syllable is explained by means of constraints grounded on the Prosodic Hierarchy, the unmarked structure of the the segment is accounted for by constraints grounded on the particular Contrastive Hierarchy of the language.

Natural Language Processing is a programmed approach to analyze text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. This forum aims to bring together researchers who have designed and build software that will analyze,... more

Natural Language Processing is a programmed approach to analyze text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. This forum aims to bring together researchers who have designed and build software that will analyze, understand, and generate languages that humans use naturally to address computers.

With the application of the Contrastive Hierarchy Theory, the contrastive features of preliterary Scandinavian vowels are here inferred from the interaction between targets and triggers for metaphonic fronting, rounding and breaking. One... more

With the application of the Contrastive Hierarchy Theory, the contrastive features of preliterary Scandinavian vowels are here inferred from the interaction between targets and triggers for metaphonic fronting, rounding and breaking. One Proto-Scandinavian feature hierarchy is reconstructed for prominent syllables and another for non-prominent ones. The former hierarchy sustained contrasts that differed from the latter, including contrast for rounding and a preserved distinction between Pre-Germanic */i/ and */e/. A prominence system is reconstructed that predicts both the outcome of syncope and the distribution of the two vowel systems between syllables. The analysis neatly accounts for many notorious cruxes of umlaut and breaking that correlate with the prosodic position of the trigger, including the frequent absence of i-umlaut in light syllables.

To date, no analysis has adequately accounted for the attested distribution of front umlaut in Old Scandinavian. In this study attention is paid to unexpected outcomes that defy the generally accepted rules. In particular, the... more

To date, no analysis has adequately accounted for the attested distribution of front umlaut in Old Scandinavian. In this study attention is paid to unexpected outcomes that defy the generally accepted rules. In particular, the complications posed by ir-umlaut are refined into an acid test against which existing hypotheses fail. A genuinely novel proposal is developed, based on the assumption that in prominent syllables contrast well into the umlaut period was upheld between descendants of Pre-Germanic (PreGmc) */e/ and */i/ respectively, even upon the Pre-Scandinavian raising of *e. Upon such raising the descendants of PreGmc */e/ had in all oral contexts evolved into a markedly fronted coronal vowel, whereas in prominent syllables descendants of PreGmc */i/ had by default, with few exceptions, in a chain shift evolved into a non-umlauting dorsal vowel. Given the assumption that a light second syllable within a main stressed bisyllabic foot was prominent,
the two vowels, active and inert as triggers for front umlaut respectively,
could both have occurred in this position.

Natural Language Processing is a programmed approach to analyze text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. This forum aims to bring together researchers who have designed and build software that will analyze,... more

Natural Language Processing is a programmed approach to analyze text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. This forum aims to bring together researchers who have designed and build software that will analyze, understand, and generate languages that humans use naturally to address computers.

Though derived from the combination of a monosyllabic root morpheme and a suffix morpheme Er(儿), the pronunciation of an Er(儿)-suffixed word can also influence that of the root morpheme. With the connections between the citation forms of... more

Though derived from the combination of a monosyllabic root morpheme and a suffix morpheme Er(儿), the pronunciation of an Er(儿)-suffixed word can also influence that of the root
morpheme. With the connections between the citation forms of the suffix morpheme Er(儿), the Er(儿) suffixed word and the monosyllabic root morpheme, such a distinctive feature as “retroflex” of the Er(儿) suffix
can not only cause a retroflexed derived form of the root morpheme in its rhyme and initial, but also make it likely for the retroflexed derived form to become the new base form. Evidence from the dialects of Qi(淇) and
Hui(辉) County indicates that we may explain the rise of retroflex initials in the pure phonology of a dialect, represented by the citation forms of the mono-syllabic root morphemes, by referring to the influence of such morpho-phonological interface facts as Er(儿)-related retroflex suffixations.
Key words: Retroflexed Er(儿)-suffixed words; Monosyllabic root morphemes; Hui(辉) County; Qi(淇) County

"Since at least Kruszewski (1881) it has been taken as an important task to sort out the alternations that involve morphology from those that are purely phonological. This dichotomy is largely followed by Natural Phonology (NP, cf.... more

"Since at least Kruszewski (1881) it has been taken as an important task to sort out the alternations that involve morphology from those that are purely phonological.
This dichotomy is largely followed by Natural Phonology (NP, cf. Donegan and Stampe 2009 for example), and by Generative Phonotactics (Singh 1987). Both these approaches insist on a strict delimitation (not a gradient one) between phonological and morphological phenomena.
In this paper, I will first re-examine the problem of domain delimitation (Singh 1991) within NP by bringing in a more systematic use of the criterion of semioticity, which is not as often cited (but see Dressler 1980, Zwicky 1982, Ford and Singh 1983) but deserves attention. In order to do this, it will help to look at a case that is universally deemed to be clear: Final Devoicing in German. Because the delimitation of phonology from morphology is essential both for synchrony and diachrony (to classify alternations and to understand their transitions from one module to the other), I will then turn to diachrony for additional support for the criterion of semioticity as well as spell out how it can help us understand the phenomenon of morphologization."

The aim of this paper is to investigate verbal stem reduplication in several Tupi-Guarani languages. Tupi-Guarani languages in general display both a monosyllabic and a disyllabic reduplication pattern. The paper presents first the... more

The aim of this paper is to investigate verbal stem reduplication in several Tupi-Guarani languages. Tupi-Guarani languages in general display both a monosyllabic and a disyllabic reduplication pattern. The paper presents first the semantics of the two patterns, then the phonological description of the reduplication patterns, both for Tupi-Guarani languages in general and for Emerillon in particular. On the semantic level, in most Tupi-Guarani languages, monosyllabic reduplication expresses “event-internal” plurality, while disyllabic reduplication conveys “event-external” plurality in an iconic way. In Emerillon, “event-internal” plurality may also be expressed by disyllabic reduplication. On the phonological level, while in other Tupi-Guarani languages the patterns copy the final syllables of the stem, in Emerillon the reduplication clearly affects the initial syllables. Diachronic observations explain why in some Tupi-Guarani languages, “event-internal” plurality may also be expressed by disyllabic reduplication : since monosyllabic reduplication has disappeared as a productive phenomenon from many Tupi-Guarani languages, disyllabic reduplication took on its meaning of “event-internal” plurality.

As codified by Baker's (1985) "Mirror Principle", the linear order of morphemes within a morphologically complex word generally correlates with hierarchical syntactic structure (see also Muysken 1981). Broadly speaking, morphological... more

As codified by Baker's (1985) "Mirror Principle", the linear order of morphemes within a morphologically complex word generally correlates with hierarchical syntactic structure (see also Muysken 1981). Broadly speaking, morphological derivations must directly reflect syntactic derivations. While Baker uses morphological ordering as a means of demonstrating the inseparability of syntax and morphology, he does not explore in great detail the question of the formal means by which compliance with the Mirror Principle is enacted in the grammar, tacitly assuming a cyclic morphological concatenation-based system. This paper develops a new framework for morpheme ordering that derives the Mirror Principle while avoiding some of the shortcomings of cyclic morphological concatenation. The core of the proposal is an algorithm that applies at the morphology-phonology interface, called the Mirror Alignment Principle (MAP). The MAP is an algorithm that takes the hierarchical structure of morphosyntactic terminals (in the form of asymmetric c-command relations) generated by the syntax-and potentially operated on by the morphology-and dynamically translates it into a ranking of Alignment constraints (McCarthy & Prince 1993a, Prince & Smolensky [1993] 2004) in con in the phonological component. All possible morpheme orders (and phonological modifications thereof) are generated by gen, and the optimal surface order is selected by eval. Even though morpheme order in this system is computed in the phonology, the driving force behind this order resides in the syntax/morphology. This link between grammatical components generates Mirror Principle-compliant surface morpheme orders. This paper explores two case studies of classical morpheme ordering problems, demonstrating how the MAP is consistent with each case and provides new insights into various aspects of these problems. First, it will show how the MAP is consistent with the complex interaction between Mirror Principle-satisfaction and the so-called "CARP template" in the Bantu languages (Hyman 2003). Second, it will show that the MAP framework can explain ordering alternations within Arabic's nonconcatenative verbal system. This will demonstrate that Mirror Principle-behavior can indeed be identified even in nonconcatenative morphology. Lastly, the paper situates the MAP proposal within the broader debates surrounding the phonology-morphology interface, with special attention to the MAP's ramifications for the theory and typology of infixation.

One major research question in Optimality Theory (OT) that directly tackles phenomena at the interface of phonology and morphology is whether the model should allow intermediate levels of representation or not. This chapter takes on this... more

One major research question in Optimality Theory (OT) that directly tackles phenomena at the interface of phonology and morphology is whether the model should allow intermediate levels of representation or not. This chapter takes on this discussion by presenting phenomena from Romance languages that challenge the parallel version of OT, in order to contrast the additional mechanisms proposed to maintain parallelism (especially, output-to-output constraints of several kinds and alignment constraints) with the analyses provided within different serial (stratal, derivational or cyclic) versions of OT. A further issue discussed under the light of parallel and serial versions of OT is the mechanism for phonologically conditioned allomorph selection. The data include, among others, French adjectival liaison, definite article allomorphy in Galician and Italian, Spanish diphthongization, vowel reduction and epenthesis in Catalan, and palatalization in Romanian.

This chapter discusses Optimality Theory (OT) and its applicability to contemporary linguistic studies. The chapter makes a brief review of precursor theories to OT as well as the main proponents of OT itself. Also included is the history... more

This chapter discusses Optimality Theory (OT) and its applicability to contemporary linguistic studies. The chapter makes a brief review of precursor theories to OT as well as the main proponents of OT itself. Also included is the history of the evolution of the theory from its inception in 1993 till current times. Readers are introduced to the rudiments of the theory – the three universal components and the basic concepts of OT - using the analogy of the African marriage system to enhance the understanding of the average scholar interested in the theory. This helps to lay the foundation for a formal explanation of the fundamentals of OT. The concept of constraints is explained; the various types and classifications of constraints are also examined. Additionally, the weaknesses of the theory are also reviewed. Finally, the theory was applied to a study on spoken Nigerian English, which was conducted using samples taken from six state-owned universities in the south-western states of Nigeria. The study borders on word stress analysis; hence, ten word stress related constraints adapted from Kager (1999), de Lacy (2002) and McCarthy (2007) were employed in the analysis. The analysis of the data produced three findings, while the contributions to knowledge are also presented.

This paper examines nominal compounds in Igbo Ibeme with the view to analyzing the morpho-phonological processes that underlie nominal compound formation as well as explain these processes from a constraint –based perspective. It adopts... more

This paper examines nominal compounds in Igbo Ibeme with the view to analyzing the morpho-phonological processes that underlie nominal compound formation as well as explain these processes from a constraint –based perspective. It adopts the optimality theory (a constraint ranking theory) in accounting for the interactions between morphology and phonology in the realization of nominal compounds. The investigation adopted the descriptive design and the use of oral interviews involving a wordlist in data collection. Introspection also featured as a native speaker of the lect. Findings reveal that nominal compounds have two forms in Ibeme Igbo: phonologically sensitive and insensitive compounds. While the sensitive class show high ranking of phonological constraints over morphological constraints, the reverse is the case for insensitive class. It concludes that nominal compounds in Ibeme Igbo and indeed Igbo are better not phonologically identified (but better semantically identified), giving that nominal compounds which fulfill SBC (tagged 'real' nominal compounds) are phonologically immune and as such have least ranking of phonological constraints in line with the principle of OT that constraints are language universal but their ranking is language specific.

The doctoral dissertation, accepted to be defended on 11 September 2018, contains five papers published on different forums. Some of the main findings, notably those concerning umlaut and the history of preserved contrast in the vowel... more

The doctoral dissertation, accepted to be defended on 11 September 2018, contains five papers published on different forums. Some of the main findings, notably those concerning umlaut and the history of preserved contrast in the vowel system, have implications for Germanic historical phonology beyond the study of Scandinavian. In this respect the scrutiny has, during the research process, grown beyond the original scope of the research plan. The topics of the five papers are diverse, but they all relate to preliterary eastern Scandinavian sound systems during the millennium between the third and the thirteenth century CE. They all critically examine methodological issues involved in using diverse and imperfect evidence to verify etymologies or to pursue improved phonological reconstruction and analysis. The papers also all address, albeit to a quite varying degree and in different ways, sound substitutions in borrowings between Finnic and eastern Scandinavian vernacular.

This paper investigates the relationship between syllable weight and secondary stress in a corpus of 1450 English suffixal derivatives. In order to do so, two definitions of syllable weight have been used to code the data and we evaluated... more

This paper investigates the relationship between syllable weight and secondary stress in a corpus of
1450 English suffixal derivatives. In order to do so, two definitions of syllable weight have been
used to code the data and we evaluated whether syllable weight had any impact on stress
preservation, as proposed by Pater (1995; 2000). The results indicate that syllable weight has no
influence whatsoever on stress preservation, in both definitions of syllable weight under
examination.

During more than a century of investigation, northwestern Karaim has been labelled as being consonant-, vowel- and syllable-harmonical. The present paper attempts at summarizing the debate and drawing some conclusions from it. Views of 36... more

During more than a century of investigation, northwestern Karaim has been labelled as being consonant-, vowel- and syllable-harmonical. The present paper attempts at summarizing the debate and drawing some conclusions from it. Views of 36 researchers are presented chronologically together with a commentary and information on their impact on our discussion.

It is argued in the paper that the analogical extension of the aorist ending -ուց of causative verbs to certain irregular verbs in some Armenian dialects (cf. the aorist forms դըրուց, տըվուց, բէրուց, թողուց) can be accounted for by the... more

It is argued in the paper that the analogical extension of the aorist ending -ուց of causative verbs to certain irregular verbs in some Armenian dialects (cf. the aorist forms դըրուց, տըվուց, բէրուց, թողուց) can be accounted for by the principle of family resemblance. Specifically, the aorist stem of the verb դընել due to its phonotactic structure being highly similar to that of the final (suffixal) part of causative verbs (cf. դըր-ի, դըր-իր… and հաս-ցըր-ի, հաս-ցըր-իր…), has played a pivotal role in the formation of this class of irregular verbs, thereby serving as the prototype within the group. In the subdialect of Lori both the monosyllabicity and phonotactic structure CVC of the aorist stem have been conceived of as two equally important criterial features by speakers in determining the class membership. That is why the verbs անիլ/անել and ասիլ/ասել, as having phonotactic structure VC, have failed to join the class and acquire the ending ուց. However, the class has been expanded further in the subdialects of Shamshadin-Dilijan and Ashtarak due to the fact that the phonotactic structure VC also became permittable (cf. the aorist forms ար-ի, ար -իր, ար-ուց…).

The paper describes three verbal reduplication paradoxes in Malawian Tonga, a southern Bantu language spoken in the northern part of Malawi. The reduplicant (RED) is either total or partial and is either prefixed or suffixed to the base.... more

The paper describes three verbal reduplication paradoxes in Malawian Tonga, a southern Bantu language spoken in the northern part of Malawi. The reduplicant (RED) is either total or partial and is either prefixed or suffixed to the base. The problem of whether the relevant level of prosodic (reduplicative) stem analysis is the syllable or the mora and thus whether the minimal size of RED should be two syllables or two moras is considered. The paper argues that this language offers three possibilities for reduplication, namely partial prefixal reduplication, total suffixal reduplication, and partial suffixal reduplication. Thus, reduplication in the language is optionally prefixal or suffixal, although the latter appears to be the default. The paper also argues that the relevant unit of prosodic stem analysis is typically the syllable and that reduplicative prosodic stems, like the base stem, are therefore required to be minimally bisyllabic, as in many other Bantu languages.

Natural Language Processing is a programmed approach to analyze text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. This forum aims to bring together researchers who have designed and build software that will analyze,... more

Natural Language Processing is a programmed approach to analyze text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. This forum aims to bring together researchers who have designed and build software that will analyze, understand, and generate languages that humans use naturally to address computers.

The present study aims to explain the phonology-morphology interface and phonological processes without referring to extra-phonological objects. We develop a new model of constituent structure based on templates, by which specific... more

The present study aims to explain the phonology-morphology interface and phonological processes without referring to extra-phonological objects. We develop a new model of constituent structure based on templates, by which specific morphological categories such as base (root/stem), prefix and suffix become visible in the phonology component: a base is recognizable by its unique constituent structure and is thereby distinguishable from a suffix and/or prefix, each having its own specific constituent structure in phonology. These unique constituent structures are called templates, thanks to which phonological processes and the phonology-morphology interface are non-arbitrarily explainable. The New Template Model works with licensing mechanisms and the parameters/sub-parameters occurring under the Parametric Hierarchical System. The model explains the phonology-morphology interface in the case of Turkish, which provides a rich data source regarding phonological processes as it is an agglutinative language with a high degree of suffixation, and also in other languages. This book is of interest to phonologists and morphologists interested in Turkish phonology and in the way in which phonology and morphology interact in languages of the world.

This introduction gives an overview of a workshop on vowel reduction and loss held at SLE 2017 and the resulting papers collected here. It also discusses the present state of research on vowel reduction and loss in a number of... more

This introduction gives an overview of a workshop on vowel reduction and loss held at SLE 2017 and the resulting papers collected here. It also discusses the present state of research on vowel reduction and loss in a number of perspectives and outlines the main themes dealt with throughout the course of this special issue.

e-Governance and Web based online commercial multilingual applications has given utmost importance to the task of translation and transliteration. The Named Entities and Technical Terms occur in the source language of translation are... more

e-Governance and Web based online commercial multilingual applications has given utmost importance to
the task of translation and transliteration. The Named Entities and Technical Terms occur in the source
language of translation are called out of vocabulary words as they are not available in the multilingual
corpus or dictionary used to support translation process. These Named Entities and Technical Terms need
to be transliterated from source language to target language without losing their phonetic properties. The
fundamental problem in India is that there is no set of rules available to write the spellings in English for
Indian languages according to the linguistics. People are writing different spellings for the same name at
different places. This fact certainly affects the Top-1 accuracy of the transliteration and in turn the
translation process. Major issue noticed by us is the transliteration of named entities consisting three
syllables or three phonetic units in Hindi and Marathi languages where people use mixed approach to
write the spelling either by orthographical approach or by phonological approach. In this paper authors
have provided their opinion through experimentation about appropriateness of either approach

Traditionally, it has been assumed that the Old Armenian augment ե- e- is selected by the aorist indicative forms which would without it end up as monosyllables; cf., բերէք ber-ē 'ye carried' vs. եբեր e-ber '(s)he carried'. The following... more

Traditionally, it has been assumed that the Old Armenian augment ե- e- is selected by the aorist indicative forms which would without it end up as monosyllables; cf., բերէք ber-ē 'ye carried' vs. եբեր e-ber '(s)he carried'. The following constraint-based analysis (Prince & Smolensky 2004) argues that the aorist augment is a morphological prefix which is present underlyingly in all aorist indicative forms (cf. Vaux 1998:123f). The apparent reference to syllable-count is in this pattern epiphenomenal since the surface realization of the augment may be explained in terms of morpho-phonological optimization. The overt realization of the aorist prefix ե- e- (REALIZE MORPH) is subject to phonological principles enforcing wellformedness of the prosodic structure—specifically, the metrical principles which enforce the preference for binary footing (FTBIN), distant-sensitive alignment of syllable heads with the right edge of prosodic words (ALL-HEADS-RIGHT), and the dispreference for stressed final syllables (NONFINALITY).

This paper explores the morpho-phonology of affixal allomorphy in the context of the prosodic shape of morphemes being restricted to maintain regularity and non-variance in the inflectional paradigm. We observe that this allomorphy is... more

This paper explores the morpho-phonology of affixal allomorphy in the context of the prosodic shape of morphemes being restricted to maintain regularity and non-variance in the inflectional paradigm. We observe that this allomorphy is restricted to morpho- phonological contexts where the morphological and phonological well-formedness requirements of the language are interacting with one another. Thus, the context for allomorphy in Meiteilon, a language with paradigm uniformity is found to be restricted to the particular phonological situation where the lateral phoneme is being avoided in the surface representation.