scholarly journals Sonority Sequencing Violations and Prosodic Structure in Latin and Other Indo-European Languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jessica DeLisi
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Special Consideration ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Difficult Cases

Attention has been paid of late to syllable structure in ancient Indo-European languages, e.g. Sanskrit (Kobayashi, 2004), Latin (Marotta, 1999), Greek (Zukoff, 2012), Anatolian (Kavitskaya, 2001), and general Indo-European (Byrd, 2010; Keydana, 2012). There is little agreement in the field about some of the more difficult cases, most of which involve both word-initial and medial clusters that violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), particularly sibilant-stop clusters. Because sibilants are more sonorous than stops, [STV-] σ onsets to roots such as *steh2- require special consideration. I will argue that there are three types of evidence we can and should employ in attempting to diagnose syllable structure in ancient languages: metrical, phonological, and morphological. I will apply all three to Latin forms, showing that in Pre-Literary Latin, sibilant-stop clusters formed true onsets, as Byrd (2010) has argued for Proto-Indo-European, but that by the Classical period these SSP-violating clusters were no longer licensed as onsets. In such sequences, Classical Latin allowed only [t] in the onset, while the [s] formed a coda in medial position and was housed extraprosodically in word-initial position. The various treatments of ST-sequences in Latin and other Indo-European languages, especially PIE, Sanskrit, and Gothic, will be modeled in Optimality Theory using constraints on phonotactics and extraprosodicity.

Phonology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmood Bijankhan
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Feature Geometry ◽  
Natural Classes ◽  
Phonological Rules

This chapter reviews the organization of sounds in the contemporary Persian language and discusses the issues in phoneme inventory, syllable structure, distinctive features, phonological rules, rule interaction, and prosodic structure according to the framework of the derivational phonology. Laryngeal states responsible for contrast in pairs of homorganic stops and fricatives are different in Persian. Phonological status of continuancy is controversial for the uvular obstruent. Glottal stop is distinctive at the beginning of loan-words while not at the beginning of the original Persian words. Phonotactic constraints within the codas of the syllables violate the sonority sequencing principle. Glottals are moraic in the coda position. Feature geometry is posited on the sound distinctions and patterns within phonological processes. Eleven phonological rules are explained to suggest natural classes. Interaction of some rules is derived. Laryngeal conspiracy, syllable structure, and intersegmental processes are analysed according to interaction of ranked violable constraints of optimality theory.

World Englishes and Phonological Theory

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Uffmann
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Point Contact ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Active Constraints ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Constraint Hierarchies ◽  
Substrate Constraint

The relationship between phonological theory and World Englishes is generally characterized by a mutual lack of interest. This chapter argues for a greater engagement of both fields with each other, looking at constraint-based theories of phonology, especially Optimality Theory (OT), as a case in point. Contact varieties of English provide strong evidence for synchronically active constraints, as it is substrate or L1 constraints that are regularly transferred to the contact variety, not rules. Additionally, contact varieties that have properties that are in some way ‘in between’ the substrate and superstrate systems provide evidence for constraint hierarchies or implicational relationships between constraints, illustrated here primarily with examples from syllable structure. Conversely, for a scholar working on the description of World Englishes, OT can offer an explanation of where the patterns found in a contact variety come from, namely from the transfer of substrate constraint rankings (and subsequent gradual constraint demotion).

Licensed Segments and Safe Paths

1993 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junko Itô ◽  
R. Armin Mester
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
The Core ◽  
Privileged Status

The following pages sketch a system of constraints intended to sharpen and organize a number of current assumptions surrounding the concept of “prosodic licensing”, as proposed in Itô (1988) and further developed in later work (Bagemihl 1991; Charette 1990; Goldsmith 1990; Inkelas 1991; Itô and Mester 1991; Kaye 1990; Lombardi 1991; Piggott 1991; Zec 1988; and others). The proposal to be developed below draws on Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993); one of the goals is to explicate the notion of the coda as a “secondary licenser” (Goldsmith 1990) and to clarify the privileged status of geminate and partial geminate clusters (Prince 1984) with respect to syllabification. After laying out some background assumptions (Section 1), we present the definitions and constraints that form the core of our theory of licensing (Section 2). We illustrate the approach with an analysis of the syllable structure of Japanese (Section 3) and conclude the paper with a discussion of remaining issues and problems relating to the general typology of syllabification systems (Section 4).

Prosodic strengthening in reference to the lexical pitch accent system in South Kyungsang Korean

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-115
Author(s):  
Taehong Cho ◽  
Dong Jin Kim ◽  
Sahyang Kim
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Strengthening Effect ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Phonological Contrast ◽  
Structural Modulation ◽  
Low Tone ◽  
Phonetic Realization

Abstract Theories of the phonetics-prosody interface suggest that prosodic strengthening that arises with prosodic structuring is not simply a low-level phonetic phenomenon, but it serves as a phonetic hallmark of a higher-order prosodic structure in reference to linguistic (phonological) contrast. The present study builds on this theoretical premise by examining acoustic realization of the phonological tonal contrast in the lexical pitch accent system of South Kyungsang (SK) Korean. Results showed that phonetic realization of F0 and the degree of glottalization (as reflected in spectral tilt measures such as H1-A1c and H1-A3c) of vowels in vowel-initial words were systematically modulated by the higher-order prosodic structure, and that the prosodic-structural modulation gave rise to distinct prosodic strengthening effects as a function of the source of prosodic strengthening. In particular, the prominence-induced strengthening (due to focus) entailed a phonetic polarizing effect on the F0 contrast in a way that enhances the phonological High vs. Low tone contrast. The boundary-induced strengthening effect, on the other hand, could be better understood as enhancing the phonetic clarity of prosodic junctures. The distinct prosodic strengthening effects were further evident in the way that glottalization was fine-tuned according to prosodic structure and phonological (tonal) contrast. Prosodic strengthening effects were also found to interact with intrinsic vowel height, implying that the low-level phonetic effect may be under speaker control in reference to higher-order prosodic and phonological contrast systems of the language. Finally, the results informed a theoretical debate regarding whether the Low tone that contrasts with the High tone in word-initial position should be considered lexically specified vs. post-lexical assigned.

A propos de ‘uerbum primo loco’: essai de synthèse

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Spevak
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Functional Point

SiunmaryThe V(erb)-S(ubject) order in Latin is traditionally considered as 'deviant' or 'abnormal'. However, VS ordering is due to various pragmatic functions. An analysis from a functional point of view shows that we can speak about 'emphatic' verb only if it carries the function of focus (contrastive, verumfocus...). Moreover, a sample of texts from the classical period shows that the verb occupies normally the initial position in the clause when the sentence serves to introduce a Future Topic, a new entity that will be further developed in the subsequent sentence. Introducing a Future Topic concerns especially existential and locative sentences containing the verb

Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?

2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-158
Author(s):  
Charles M. Barrack ◽  
Daniel R. McCloy ◽  
Richard A. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
European Languages

Abstract The reconstructed stop consonants of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) present something of an anomaly from the perspective of linguistic typology. Whereas murmured (breathy-voiced) stops are cross-linguistically rare (indeed, they are non-existent in nine of the ten historic branches of the Indo-European languages), they are more widespread in the lexicon of PIE than their plain-voiced counterparts. In this paper we present statistical evidence to establish that the preponderance of murmured stops in PIE is atypical, and propose a novel explanation for their distribution: namely, that murmur - already present in pre-Proto-Indo- European - was in the process of spreading through the PIE lexicon to the plainvoiced stops especially in initial position. We suggest some possible phonetic mechanisms that may have given rise to the spread of murmur.

scholarly journals Some Characteristics of Syllable Structure in Qassimi Arabic (QA): An Optimality Theoretic Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Metab Alhoody ◽  
Mohammad Aljutaily
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Central Region ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
North Central Region ◽  
North Central ◽  
The North ◽  
Najdi Arabic

The paper investigates the syllable structures of Qassimi Arabic (QA), which is a sub-dialect of Najdi Arabic (NA) and is spoken in the north-central region of Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Qassim Region. Within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), we show how the well-formed syllable is derived from the interaction of constraints. We show how the OT captures some of the major processes for structuring the syllables of QA, such as syncope, epenthesis, and geminate. The analysis revealed that onsetless syllables are prohibited in QA. The dialect allows word-initial consonant clusters, which is a result of the syncope process. Coda clusters also occur in QA that must obey the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP); otherwise, epenthesis presents to repair the violation. As for the geminates, QA permits geminates medially and finally, but not initially. The data revealed that QA demonstrates seven fundamental syllable structures grouped into three categories: light syllables, as in CV; heavy syllables, as in CVV and CVC; and super heavy syllables, as in CVVC, CVCC, CCVVC and CVVCC.

Domain modelling in Optimality Theory: Morphophonological cyclicity vs. stepwise prosodic parsing

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-43
Author(s):  
KAROLINA BROŚ
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Input String ◽  
Domain Specificity ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
Harmonic Serialism ◽  
Chilean Spanish ◽  
Insight Into

This paper examines opaque examples of phrase-level phonology taken from Chilean Spanish under the framework of Stratal Optimality Theory (OT) (Rubach 1997; Bermúdez-Otero 2003, 2019) and Harmonic Serialism (HS) (McCarthy 2008a, b, 2016). The data show an interesting double repair of the coda /s/ taking place at word edges. It is argued that Stratal OT is superior in modelling phonological processes that take place at the interface between morphology and phonology because it embraces cyclicity. Under this model, prosodic structure is built serially, level by level, and in accordance with the morphological structure of the input string. In this way, opacity at constituent edges can be solved. Stratal OT also provides insight into word-internal morphological structure and the domain-specificity of phonological processes. It is demonstrated that a distinction in this model is necessary between the word and the phrase levels, and between the stem and the word levels. As illustrated by the behaviour of Spanish nouns, affixation and the resultant alternations inform us about the domains to which both morphological and phonological processes should be assigned. Against this background, Harmonic Serialism embraces an apparently simpler recursive mechanism in which stepwise prosodic parsing can be incorporated. What is more, it offers insight into the nature of operations in OT, as well as into such problematic issues as structure building and directionality. Nevertheless, despite the model’s ability to solve various cases of opacity, the need to distinguish between two competing repairs makes HS fail when confronted with the Chilean data under examination.

Syllable structure and complex onsets in Modern Hebrew

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-95
Author(s):  
Daniel Asherov ◽  
Outi Bat-El
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Modern Hebrew

Abstract Modern Hebrew allows for a diverse variety of syllable structures, allowing syllables with codas, onsetless syllables, and complex syllable margins. Syllables with a complex onset are found in word initial position, mostly in nouns, and syllables with a complex coda are less common. In this paper, we provide the distribution of syllable types in Modern Hebrew, noting differences between verbs and nouns, native words and loanwords, as well as differences among positions within the word. Special attention is given to word initial complex onsets, with details regarding the restrictions governing consonant combinations.

scholarly journals On the acquisition of syllabic structure in Greek

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Kappa
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Morphological Development ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Syllabic Structure ◽  
Is Development

AbstractThis study presents the results of an investigation into the acquisition of phonology of Greek by one child, between the ages 1;10–2;10. Our claim is that these results are relevant to the study of prosodic structure, specifically to syllable structure. We provide evidence that at the early stage of acquisition the child has only the unmarked CV-syllables and that codas are acquired at a later stage in interaction with morphological development. We will also provide an example of constraints that are fully satisfied in child language becoming minimally violable later in development, that is development as constraint reranking.

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