scholarly journals Markedness in Urban East Norwegian tonal accent

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gjert Kristoffersen
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
High Ranking

A new formal analysis of the tonal accent contrast in Urban East Norwegian (UEN) is developed in this paper, based on Optimality Theory. Contrary to the widespread assumption that the contrast is based on privativity, this paper represents a return to the position that the contrast derives from different timing of a common underlying melody. Surface privativity, i.e. the absence vs. the presence of an H that can be observed in the contrast between accent 1 and 2 in UEN is analysed as the result of marked (accent 1) vs. unmarked (accent 2) association of a common tonal input. The marked status of accent 1 follows from lexical pre-linking, protected by high-ranking faithfulness, which overrides (unmarked) association driven by the markedness constraints alone.

Derived Imperfective Tensing in Kurpian

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Rubach
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Formal Analysis

AbstractThis article discusses phonological generalizations concerning derived imperfectives in Kurpian, a dialect of Polish spoken in northern Mazovia. It is argued that, unlike Standard Polish, Kurpian has a live process that turns lax vowels into tense vowels in derived imperfectives. DI Tensing interacts with other rules of Kurpian, leading, in some cases, to Duke of York derivations. The paper is based 100% on the original fieldwork. A formal analysis of the descriptive generalizations is conducted in the framework of Optimality Theory.

The structure of /s/-sequences: evidence from a disordered system

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
JESSICA A. BARLOW
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Disordered System ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Male Age

This study considers the much-debated markedness and structural status of word-initial /s/-sequences in English by examining the development of KR (male, age 3;6) who has a phonological disorder. Three points in time are discussed: (1) when all initial consonant sequences are reduced to singletons; (2) when only initial /s/-sequences surface correctly; and (3) when all initial consonant sequences surface correctly. While these production patterns are common across developing systems, few accounts have addressed them in terms of structure or markedness. Toward that end, it is argued that KR's /s/-sequences surface as ADJUNCTS, rather than complex onsets. This is explained within optimality theory, whereby high-ranking markedness constraints prevent complex onsets but not adjuncts. The account offers an explanation for consonant sequence asymmetries within and across grammars, allowing for differing representations for /s/-sequences across speakers and for variation exhibited in children's productions. A typology of possible grammars is therefore offered, and clinical implications are considered.

The Phonology-Morphology Interface in Judeo-Spanish Diminutive Formation: A Lexical Ordering and Subcategorization Approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis G. Bradley ◽  
Jason Smith
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Formal Analysis

AbstractIn this article we examine diminutive formation in Judeo-Spanish, which has not been treated before in the generative literature. The distribution of diminutive suffixes is shown to be predictable based on an interaction of morphological and phonological properties, which is a recognized hallmark of diminutive formation in Spanish more generally. Judeo-Spanish also presents some interesting twists not commonly found in other varieties of Spanish. A formal analysis is developed in Optimality Theory that builds upon recent work on allomorph selection involving lexical ordering and subcategorization. A comparison with previous analyses of other Spanish varieties shows that our approach can account for the behavior of nominal class markers in diminutivization, as well as the alternation of diminutive allomorphs, while avoiding the proliferation of language- and morpheme-specific constraints. Furthermore, our account sheds new light on the moraic status of glides in rising and falling diphthongs and of the trill in word-medial intervocalic position.

Idempotency in Optimality Theory

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIORGIO MAGRI
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Formal Condition ◽  
Chain Shifts

Anidempotentphonological grammar maps phonotactically licit forms faithfully to themselves. This paper establishes tight sufficient conditions for idempotency in (classical) Optimality Theory. Building on Tesar (2013), these conditions are derived in two steps. First, idempotency is shown to follow from a general formal condition on the faithfulness constraints. Second, this condition is shown to hold for a variety of faithfulness constraints which naturally arise within McCarthy & Prince’s (1995) Correspondence Theory of faithfulness. This formal analysis provides an exhaustive toolkit for modelingchain shifts, which have proven recalcitrant to a constraint-based treatment.

scholarly journals FINAL-NASAL DELETION IN AKAN (ASANTE TWI) REDUPLICATION

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Kwasi Adomako
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Final Position ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Underlying Representation ◽  
Theory Framework

In this paper, I examine the phenomenon of reduplicant-nasal deletion observed in some reduplicative prefixes of Akan (a Niger-Congo, Kwa language). In the Akan phonology, nasals are among non-vowel sonorants that are permitted syllable or word-finally (Dolphyne 1988, Abakah 2005). However, it is observed that these nasals, particularly [m], are sometimes deleted in some reduplicants final position. In this paper, I show that verb bases of CVN or CVVN structures are of two different morphemic structures in the underlying representation; monomorphemic verb base and bimorphemic verb base. The latter structure, on which this paper focuses, has the composition: morpheme1 + morpheme2. It is observed that while the former preserve their ‘final’ nasals in the reduplicants, the latter lose them in their reduplicants.  We analyse this phonological phenomenon as resulting from the language’s desire to satisfy a high-ranking template satisfaction constraint (after McCarthy and Prince 1994a) within the Optimality Theory framework. Keywords: Nasal deletion, Akan, reduplication, Optimality Theory, phonology.

Phonologically conditioned allomorphy in the morphology of Surmiran (Rumantsch)

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Morphological Properties ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Extended Sense ◽  
Phonological Rule

Alternations between allomorphs that are not directly related by phonological rule, but whose selection is governed by phonological properties of the environment, have attracted the sporadic attention of phonologists and morphologists. Such phenomena are commonly limited to rather small corners of a language's structure, however, and as a result have not been a major theoretical focus. This paper examines a set of alternations in Surmiran, a Swiss Rumantsch language, that have this character and that pervade the entire system of the language. It is shown that the alternations in question, best attested in the verbal system, are not conditioned by any coherent set of morphological properties (either straightforwardly or in the extended sense of ‘morphomes’ explored in other Romance languages by Maiden). These alternations are, however, straightforwardly aligned with the location of stress in words, and an analysis is proposed within the general framework of Optimality Theory to express this. The resulting system of phonologically conditioned allomorphy turns out to include the great majority of patterning which one might be tempted to treat as productive phonology, but which has been rendered opaque (and subsequently morphologized) as a result of the working of historical change.

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