Segmental loss and phonological representation

2017 ◽  
pp. 216-230
Author(s):  
Thais Cristófaro Silva ◽  
Maria Cantoni ◽  
Nívia Oliveira ◽  
Izabel Miranda
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representation

Morpheme contiguity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representation

One new constraint family argued for in this book are constraints ensuring a ‘morph-contiguous’ projection of prosodic nodes. It is argued that the phonological representation of a morpheme strives to be contiguous across different tiers, i.e. phonological elements affiliated with one morpheme avoid being dominated by a phonological element that is affiliated with another morpheme. It is shown how different patterns of phonologically predictable allomorphy involving MLM follow from such a preference. This constraint type also allows the solution of a general opacity problem that OT-accounts assuming floating prosodic nodes face. The relevant constraint demanding morph-contiguous mora licensing ensures that an epenthetic mora is inserted in contexts where a vowel would otherwise only be dominated by a mora with a different morphological affiliation. This constraint predicts an interesting typology of languages where all or only some vowels undergo morphological lengthening. As is shown with several examples, this typology is indeed borne out.

Vowel raising in Basaa: a synchronic chain shift

Phonology ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Schlindwein Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Equatorial Africa ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Vowel Raising

Like many of the zone A Bantu languages of western equatorial Africa, Basaa, which is spoken over a large area to the north-east and east of Douala, Cameroon, shows an inventory of seven surface vowels (Guthrie 1953). The Basaa forms cited in this article, all of which are found in the comprehensive Dictionnaire Basaa-Français (Lemb & de Gastines 1973), are transcribed using the vowel symbols in (1):These vowel symbols differ from those used by Guthrie only in that the hooks are eliminated from underneath his [i] and [u] and the dots are eliminated from underneath his [???] and [???]. I assume for these vowels the characteristics indicated in (1), where non-parenthesised feature specifications are a property of surface phonological representation and parenthesised feature specifications are default phonetic values. Following Hyman's (1988) analysis of Esimbi, another Cameroonian language containing these vowels in its inventory, I take [E] and [ɔ] to be low.The verb roots in (2) contain instances of each of the seven surface vowels of Basaa:Though bare verb roots may surface unsuffixed, suffixal extensions may also be added to give applied, passive, habitual, direct causative, indirect causative, simultaneous, associative, possessive, reversive, reflexive, stative and nominalised forms. Of interest to us is the vowel raising induced within the verb root when certain of these suffixal extensions are added. In (3) we see the CVC verb forms of (2) along with their corresponding applied and indirect causative forms:Other suffixal extensions that induce raising are the passive, direct causative, simultaneous, reversive and stative extensions. For example, these other suffixal extensions attach to /ten/, one of the verb roots in (3), to give [tina], [tinis], [tinha], [tinil] and [tiní], respectively.

The influence of spelling on the production and storage of words with allophonic variants of /h/ in Korean

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEONG-IM HAN ◽  
TAE-HWAN CHOI
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Recall Task ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Auditory Input ◽  
The Third ◽  
Korean Speakers ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Naming Tasks

ABSTRACTThis study examined the role of orthography in the production and storage of spoken words. Korean speakers learned novel Korean words with potential variants of /h/, including [ɦ] and ø. They were provided with the same auditory stimuli but with varying exposure to spelling. One group was presented with the letter for ø (<ㅇ>), the second group, the letter for [ɦ] (<ㅎ>), and the third group, auditory input only. In picture-naming tasks, the participants presented with <ㅇ> produced fewer words with [ɦ] than those presented with <ㅎ>. In a spelling recall task, the participants who were not exposed to spelling displayed various types of spellings for variants, but after exposure to spelling, they began to produce spellings as provided in the task. These results suggest that orthographic information influences the production of words via an offline restructuring of the phonological representation.

scholarly journals Language and Learner Specific Influences on the Emergence of Consonantal Place and Manner Features

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvan Rose ◽  
Natalie Penney
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Distributional Properties ◽  
Phonological Categories ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
The Way

This article focuses on the emergence of consonantal place and manner feature categories in the speech of first language learners. Starting with an overview of current representational approaches to phonology, we take the position that only models that allow for the emergence of phonological categories at all levels of phonological representation (from sub-segmental properties of speech sounds all the way to word forms represented within the child’s lexicon) can account for the data. We begin with a cross-linguistic survey of the acquisition of rhotic consonants. We show that the types of substitutions affecting different rhotics cross-linguistically can be predicted from two main observations: the phonetic characteristics of these rhotics and the larger system of categories displayed by each language. We then turn to a peculiar pattern of labial substitution for coronal continuants in the speech of a German learner. Building on previous literature on the topic, we attribute the emergence of this pattern to distributional properties of the child’s developing lexicon. Together, these observations suggest that our understanding of phonological emergence must involve a consideration of multiple, potentially interacting levels of phonetic and phonological representation.

scholarly journals Asymmetrical cross-language phonetic interaction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
The Asymmetry ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Two acoustic studies were carried out with L1 Polish learners of English. One study examined L1 phonetic drift, comparing learners of L2 English who were undergoing intensive L2 phonetic training with quasi-monolingual Polish speakers. The other study looked at L2 acquisition, comparing learners at two different levels of proficiency. Unlike most previous studies of Polish-English bilinguals, VOT data of both voiced and voiceless consonants were analyzed. In both experiments, an asymmetry was observed by which voiced stops were more susceptible to cross-language phonetic influence (CLI) than voiceless stops. These results build on evidence of a similar asymmetry observed in a number of other L1–L2 pairings. Predictions of competing phonological models are evaluated with regard to equivalence classification and phonetic CLI. It is shown that both traditional approaches to the phonological representation of voice contrasts fail to predict the observed asymmetry. An alternative theory, which predicts the asymmetry, is discussed.

Phonological Representation in American Sign Language

Language ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Brentari ◽  
Wendy Sandler
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
American Sign

The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

2019 ◽  
pp. 361-379
Author(s):  
John Rothgerber
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Pronunciation Instruction ◽  
Primary Focus

This chapter will provide the language teacher with an introduction to the theory behind the challenges and problems that learners from a variety of language backgrounds face as they learn to pronounce the sounds of English. The primary focus will be on the influence of the first language in second language phonological acquisition. This will include an overview of the role of perception of non-native sounds, as well as a consideration of phonological representation in the mental lexicon and articulatory constraints, all of which can have an effect on difficulties that learners encounter as they learn to pronounce English sounds. Attention will be given to the various components that make up the phonological system, including segmentals, suprasegmentals, phonotactics, and phonological processes. This theoretical understanding will then be applied to pronunciation instruction within the classroom by addressing what teachers can do to maximize the effectiveness of instruction.

Articulatory gestures as phonological units

Phonology ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine P. Browman ◽  
Louis Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Movement Data ◽  
Language Patterns ◽  
Feature Geometry ◽  
Task Oriented ◽  
Tube Geometry ◽  
Phonological Units

We have argued that dynamically defined articulatory gestures are the appropriate units to serve as the atoms of phonological representation. Gestures are a natural unit, not only because they involve task-oriented movements of the articulators, but because they arguably emerge as prelinguistic discrete units of action in infants. The use of gestures, rather than constellations of gestures as in Root nodes, as basic units of description makes it possible to characterise a variety of language patterns in which gestural organisation varies. Such patterns range from the misorderings of disordered speech through phonological rules involving gestural overlap and deletion to historical changes in which the overlap of gestures provides a crucial explanatory element.Gestures can participate in language patterns involving overlap because they are spatiotemporal in nature and therefore have internal duration. In addition, gestures differ from current theories of feature geometry by including the constriction degree as an inherent part of the gesture. Since the gestural constrictions occur in the vocal tract, which can be charactensed in terms of tube geometry, all the levels of the vocal tract will be constricted, leading to a constriction degree hierarchy. The values of the constriction degree at each higher level node in the hierarchy can be predicted on the basis of the percolation principles and tube geometry. In this way, the use of gestures as atoms can be reconciled with the use of Constriction degree at various levels in the vocal tract (or feature geometry) hierarchy.The phonological notation developed for the gestural approach might usefully be incorporated, in whole or in part, into other phonologies. Five components of the notation were discussed, all derived from the basic premise that gestures are the primitive phonological unit, organised into gestural scores. These components include (1) constriction degree as a subordinate of the articulator node and (2) stiffness (duration) as a subordinate of the articulator node. That is, both CD and duration are inherent to the gesture. The gestures are arranged in gestural scores using (3) articulatory tiers, with (4) the relevant geometry (articulatory, tube or feature) indicated to the left of the score and (5) structural information above the score, if desired. Association lines can also be used to indicate how the gestures are combined into phonological units. Thus, gestures can serve both as characterisations of articulatory movement data and as the atoms of phonological representation.

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