Exceptionality and derived environment effects: a comparison of Korean and Turkish

Morphologically derived environment effects (MDEEs) are well-known examples where phonotactic patterns in the lexicon mismatch with what is allowed at morphological boundaries – alternations. Analyses of MDEEs usually assume that the alternation is morphologically general, and that the sequences ‘repaired’ across morpheme boundaries are phonotactically well-formed in the lexicon. This paper examines the phonotactic patterns in the lexicon of two languages with MDEEs: Korean palatalisation and Turkish velar deletion. I show that Korean heteromorphemic sequences that undergo palatalisation are underattested in the lexicon. A computational learner learns a markedness constraint that drives palatalisation, suggesting a pattern of exceptional non-undergoing. This contrasts with Turkish, where the relevant constraint motivating velar deletion at the morpheme boundary is unavailable from phonotactic learning, and where the alternation is an example of exceptional triggering. These results indicate that MDEEs are not a unitary phenomenon, highlighting the need to examine these patterns in closer quantitative detail.

Asymmetry of Kazakh velar and uvular consonants

Little descriptive work has been done on the place and voicing restrictions of the asymmetrical velar and uvular consonant inventory in Kazakh. In Kazakh, velar and uvular consonants are restricted depending on their neighbouring vowel. Velars appear in front vowel environments and uvulars appear in back vowel environments (place restriction). Voiced and voiceless velars and uvulars are restricted depending on their position in the word. At the morpheme boundary, velars and uvulars are voiceless in the word-final position and voiced in the stem-final position, when followed by a vowel-initial suffix (voicing restriction). The results from elicitation-based production experiments with six native Kazakh speakers reveal that the place restriction is not productive from real words to nonce words but the voicing restriction is. The data suggests a derived-environment effect where the resulting voicing process is conditioned morphologically. A theoretical analysis within Optimality Theory captures the voicing pattern using an indexed-markedness constraint and Local Conjunction.

Interactions between prosody and morphosyntax in Fuzhou VO phrases

This study examines how tone sandhi domains (TSDs) are determined in Fuzhou. The data include: (i) regular verb-object phrases (VOs) where the verb takes a direct bare noun object; and (ii) non-canonical VOs where the verb takes an adverbial expression as a surface object. Several observations are made. First, a three-way sandhi exists within every TSD. All antepenultimate syllables neutralize to low tones. A penultimate syllable’s sandhi tone is dependent on the final syllable’s citation tone, which remains unchanged. Second, in regular VOs, a monosyllabic verb consistently forms a single TSD with its direct bare noun object, but a disyllabic verb and its object are separated into two TSDs. Third, in non-canonical VOs, a monosyllabic verb never forms a single TSD with its adverbial object. Three questions are raised. First, what is the nature of each TSD? Second, why does the number of syllables in a verb determine the distinct TSDs formed in regular VOs? Third, how can we account for the different patterns of TSD formation in two types of VOs? We propose that each TSD equals to a prosodic word (PrWd). OT analyses are provided to show how PrWds are derived. The analysis of regular VOs relies on the ranking of a prosodic markedness constraint ft bin above the word-level interface correspondence constraints. The contrast between two types of VOs is explained by applying the model of Multiple Spell-Out and a cyclic interaction of morphosyntax and prosody. This approach is new in explaining the TSDs that are constrained by morphosyntax.

Interacting processes in phonological theory

This article introduces basic principles of a generative theory of phonology that unifies aspects of parallel constraint-based theories and serial rule-based theories. In the core of the grammar are phonological processes that consist of a markedness constraint and a repair. Processes are universal, but every language activates a different set, and applies them in different orders. Phonological processes may be in bleeding or feeding relations. These two basic relations are sufficient to define more complicated interactions, such as blocking, derived and non-derived environment effects, chain shifts and allophony.

The role of prosodic structure in the L2 acquisition of Spanish stop lenition

This study tests the hypothesis that late first-language English / second-language Spanish learners (L1 English / L2 Spanish learners) acquire spirantization in stages according to the prosodic hierarchy (Zampini, 1997, 1998). In Spanish, voiced stops [b d g] surface after a pause or nasal stop, and continuants [β̞ ð̞ ɣ̞] surface postvocalically, among other contexts. We adopt an Optimality Theoretic analysis of the phenomenon that assumes that postvocalic continuants surface due to the ranking of prosodic positional faithfulness constraints below a markedness constraint that prohibits stops in postvocalic position. L1 English speakers are presumed to start with a ranking in which prosodic positional faithfulness outranks the markedness constraint. In line with the Gradual Learning Algorithm (Boersma and Hayes, 2001), gradual demotion of the relevant faithfulness constraints is predicted in L2 Spanish, extending the prosodic domain until continuants surface postvocalically across domains. A cross-section of 44 L1 English / L2 Spanish learners and a control group ( n = 5) completed a recitation task, and data were analysed acoustically for manner of articulation and degree of constriction. Results partially align with Zampini’s impressionistic data: Learners first produce underlying stops as postvocalic approximants at the onset of the syllable (word-medial position), followed by the onset of the prosodic word (word-initial position). Unlike Zampini’s findings, there is no evidence for an intermediate stage of acquisition across the boundary of a word and its clitic. Advanced L2 learners produce continuants in postvocalic position at all applicable prosodic levels, which we take to indicate acquisition of the target ranking. We also examined whether learners’ postvocalic continuants are lenited to the same degree as the control group, and whether degree of lenition changes across development. The difference in degree of lenition between controls and learners lessens at higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy as acquisition progresses, and several advanced learners produce target-like segments across prosodic levels.

Nasal-lateral assimilations: typology and structure

In this work, I show that assimilatory nasalization and lateralization in sequences of nasals and laterals (NL and LN) are driven neither by sonority nor by feature sharing, but by a markedness constraint penalizing non-identical but phonologically similar adjacent segments – which I formalize here in an asymmetric implementation of Agreement by Correspondence (ABC; Walker 2000, 2001; Hansson 2001; Rose & Walker 2004). Typological evidence from a survey of 46 languages provides consistent implicational generalizations regarding the distribution of targets of assimilation; penalties on similarity correctly predect the relative lack of assimilation in heterorganic (ML, LM) sequences and in stop-lateral (TL) sequences. I further show that implementions of ABC in which correspondence is symmetric do not predict the observed preference for NL assimilation over LN assimilation; implementing the correspondence relation asymmetrically solves this problem. Analyses predicated on other considerations do not correctly predict the typology.

*NT revisited again: An approach to postnasal laryngeal alternations with perceptual Cue constraints

Phonological alternations in homorganic nasal–stop sequences provide a continuing topic of investigation for phonologists and phoneticians alike. Surveys like Herbert (1986), Rosenthal (1989), Steriade (1993) and Hyman (2001) demonstrate that cross-linguistically the most common process is for the postnasal stop to become voiced, as captured by Pater’s (1999) markedness constraint *NT. However, as observed since Hyman (2001), *NT alone does not account for all postnasal patterns of laryngeal alternation. In this paper, we focus on three problematic patterns. First, in some languages with a two-way laryngeal contrast, voiceless stops are aspirated postnasally, i.e. the contrast between NT and ND is enhanced, not neutralized. Second, in some languages with a three-way laryngeal contrast, the voicing contrast is maintained postnasally, while the aspiration contrast neutralizes in favour of aspiration. Third, in other languages with a three-way laryngeal contrast we find the opposite postnasal aspiration neutralization: aspiration is lost. We argue that an analysis based on perceptual cues provides the best account for this range of alternations. It demonstrates the crucial role of perceptual cues and laryngeal contrasts in a particular language while fitting the range of patterns into an Optimality Theoretic factorial typology that covers a wider range of postnasal laryngeal alternations than previous analyses.

Moraic Affixes and Morphological Colors in Dinka

Dinka has two patterns of vowel-lengthening morphology: lengthening by one mora and imposition of a bimoraic template. Flack (2007) claims that these data provide conclusive evidence for morphemespecific indexed markedness constraints. In this article, I reanalyze the Dinka data in Colored Containment Theory ( van Oostendorp 2006 ), effectively showing that the Dinka data are consistent with a more restrictive approach to the morphology-phonology interface: a markedness constraint may not refer to specific morphemes; rather, it may refer only to morphological colors (i.e., whether two phonological objects are part of the same morpheme or not).

Sisterhood in prosodic branching

This article discusses the syntax–prosody interface, drawing on evidence from Stockholm Swedish. It is shown that a Swedish main clause containing an embedded clause has three prosodic correlates, two of which are non-isomorphic to the syntactic bracketing. However, two coordinated clauses have only one – isomorphic – prosodic correlate. Optimality-theoretic constraints (Prince & Smolensky 1993) are used to derive this variation. A new markedness constraint, EqualSisters, is argued to be responsible for a preference for flat prosodic structures. This constraint requires that sister nodes in prosodic structure belong to the same prosodic category, and therefore sometimes conflicts with match constraints, which call for syntax–prosody correspondence (Selkirk 2009, 2011). When high-ranked, EqualSisters forces syntax–prosody non-isomorphism if the input syntactic structure contains embedding, whereas full isomorphism is predicted in coordinated structures. The previously suggested markedness constraints Non-recursivity and Exhaustivity (Selkirk 1996) cannot replace EqualSisters, and in the present account are rendered redundant.

A Realization Optimality Theory approach to blocking and extended morphological exponence

Blocking in inflection occurs when a morphological exponent prevents the application of another exponent expressing the same feature value, thus barring the occurrence of multiple exponents of a single morphosyntactic feature value. In instances of extended exponence, more than one exponent in the same word realizes the same feature value. We provide a unified account of blocking and extended exponence that combines a realizational approach to inflection with Optimality Theory (Realization Optimality Theory), encoding morphological realization rules as ranked violable constraints. The markedness constraint *Feature Split bars the realization of any morphosyntactic feature value by more than one exponent. If *Feature Split ranks lower than two or more realization constraints expressing the same feature value, then we observe extended exponence. Otherwise, we find blocking of lower-ranked exponents. We show that Realization Optimality Theory is superior to various alternative approaches to blocking and extended morphological exponence.