scholarly journals Ungeneralizable minimality in Ndebele

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-58
Author(s):  
Laura J. Downing
Keyword(s):  
Minimality Condition ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Prosodic Morphology ◽  
Striking Finding ◽  
Maximal Size ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Size Constraints ◽  
Morphological Processes

A body of work in Prosodic Morphology clearly establishes the importance of prosodic constituents like the foot as templates conditioning morpheme size. A striking finding of this research is that morphological footing is independent of metrical footing in many languages, as the footing required for particular morphological processes is often not identical to that required for phonological processes like stress assignment. However, recent OT research on Prosodic Morphology has made the opposite claim. Within this theory, the Generalized Template Hypothesis (GTH) proposes that no morpheme-particular templates defining minimal and maximal size are necessary. Instead, templates are always derivable from general principles of the grammar, like independently motivated metrical footing. This paper presents evidence from Ndebele showing that the GTH is too strong. In Ndebele, several different verb forms are subject to a minimality condition. In some cases, the minimality condition can be derived through independent metrical footing, as the GTH predicts. However, in several cases it cannot, showing that morpheme-particular size constraints are still a necessary part of the grammar.

The phonological and grammatical status of Murui ‘word’

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-146
Author(s):  
Katarzyna I. Wojtylak
Keyword(s):  
Vowel Length ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Segmental Phonology ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
Nominal Compounds ◽  
Fixed Order ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Key Indicators

Different sorts of phonological and grammatical criteria can be used to identify wordhood in Murui, a Witotoan language from Northwest Amazonia. A phonological word is determined on entirely phonological principles. Its key indicators include prosody (stress) and segmental phonology (vowel length). A phonological word is further produced by applying relevant phonological processes within it and not across its word boundaries. The further criterion is moraicity which requires that the minimal phonological word contains at least two moras. A grammatical word, determined entirely on grammatical principles, consists of one lexical root to which morphological processes (affixation, cliticization, and reduplication) are applied. The components of a grammatical word are cohesive and occur in a relatively fixed order. Although Murui grammatical and phonological words mostly coincide, the ‘mismatches’ include nominal compounds (that is, one phonological word consisting of two grammatical words), verbal root reduplication (one grammatical but two phonological words), and clitics.

The Minimality Condition in phonology

1989 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monik Charette
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
The Other ◽  
Minimality Condition ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Phonological Form ◽  
Principles And Parameters

With a few honourable exceptions, phonologists have, until recently, generally assumed the phonological component to be organized along completely different lines from the other components of the grammar. Phonological phenomena were mainly viewed as accidental, language specific, and unprincipled. Whereas some theoretical parallels between syntax and phonology have been drawn (cf. the role of the cycle in both domains and the extensive literature on ordering), there have been few attempts to see if principles of Universal Grammar could be found in phonology as well as in syntax and semantics. Increasingly, however, phonology is now being regarded as a system of principles along with parameters defining the class of human phonological Systems. In such a framework there are no rules of the sort: A → B/C→D. Phonological phenomena result from principles and parameters governing phonological representations and structures present in a particular language. Along these lines, recent work in phonology has suggested that Phonological Form (PF), like the other components of the grammar, is subject to certain fundamental principles. For example, it was proposed by Andersen and Jones in the early 1970s (and pursued by Ewen, Durand and others) that the relations of dependency that determine how syntactic constituents are organized, also determine how segments are grouped together in a given structure. For their part Lowenstamm & Kaye (1982) proposed that a theory of government could account for certain phonological processes such as vowel shortening in closed syllables. Stephen Anderson (1982) and Levin (1985) have proposed that X-bar principles govern the representation of syllables. Specifically, they have proposed that the Rhyme and the syllable as a whole are projections of the syllabic head, the Nucleus.

The Phonology of Chichewa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Downing ◽  
Al Mtenje
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
High Tone ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Prosodic Morphology ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Place Assimilation ◽  
Core Issues

Bantu languages have played and continue to play an important role as a source of data illustrating core phonological processes—vowel harmony, nasal place assimilation, postnasal laryngeal alternations, tonal phenomena such as high tone spread and the OCP, prosodic morphology, and the phonology–syntax interface. Chichewa, in particular, has been a key language in the development of theoretical approaches to these phonological phenomena. This book provides thorough descriptive coverage, presented in a clear, atheoretical manner, of the full range of phonological phenomena of Chichewa. Less well-studied topics—such as positional asymmetries in the distribution of segments, the phonetics of tone, and intonation—are also included. The book surveys, where relevant, important recent theoretical approaches to phonological problems—such as vowel harmony, the phonology–syntax interface, focus prosody, and reduplication—where Chichewa data is routinely referred to in the theoretical literature. The book will therefore serve as a resource for phonologists—at all levels and working in different theoretical frameworks—who are interested in the processes discussed. Because many of the phonological processes in Chichewa are conditioned by particular morphological or syntactic contexts, the book should also be of interest to linguists working on the interfaces. As there are almost no other monographs on the phonology of Bantu languages available, this book serves as an excellent introduction to core issues in the phonology of Bantu languages.

scholarly journals Prosodic Word and Morphological Derivation in Brazilian Portuguese

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Carlos Schwindt
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Word Boundaries

<p>In this paper, I discuss the prosodic status of words formed by morphological derivation in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Considering three types of prosodization - composition, adjunction and incorporation (Booij, 1996; Ito &amp; Mester, 2008; Vigário, 2011) -, I propose that prefixes in BP are subject to all of them, whereas suffixes are subject only to incorporation and composition, not to adjunction. The main argument to support this analysis comes from the diagnostic of stress assignment. In addition, I examine other phonological processes that occur within words in contrast to processes that occur at word boundaries, as well as the morphosyntactic behavior of the affixes involved. In addition, based on this description, I seek to problematize some consequences of this typology for the organization of the prosodic hierarchy and its effects on morphological transparency.</p>

scholarly journals Learning Strictly Local Subsequential Functions

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Chandlee ◽  
Rémi Eyraud ◽  
Jeffrey Heinz
Keyword(s):  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Positive Data ◽  
Strict Locality ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Theoretic Characterization ◽  
Future Work

We define two proper subclasses of subsequential functions based on the concept of Strict Locality (McNaughton and Papert, 1971; Rogers and Pullum, 2011; Rogers et al., 2013) for formal languages. They are called Input and Output Strictly Local (ISL and OSL). We provide an automata-theoretic characterization of the ISL class and theorems establishing how the classes are related to each other and to Strictly Local languages. We give evidence that local phonological and morphological processes belong to these classes. Finally we provide a learning algorithm which provably identifies the class of ISL functions in the limit from positive data in polynomial time and data. We demonstrate this learning result on appropriately synthesized artificial corpora. We leave a similar learning result for OSL functions for future work and suggest future directions for addressing non-local phonological processes.

scholarly journals Modeling Vowel Quantity Scales in Q Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karee Garvin ◽  
Myriam Lapierre ◽  
Martha Schwarz ◽  
Sharon Inkelas
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Underlying Representation ◽  
Q Theory ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Phonological Feature ◽  
As Stress ◽  
Vowel Quantity

A growing body of research suggests that vowels vary in degree of strength. These strength differences are borne out in the degree to which these segments undergo or trigger phonological processes such as stress assignment or harmony. Traditionally, this variability has been accounted for through binary differences in phonological representations, such as presence or absence of a segment in the underlying representation, presence or absence of a phonological feature, and moraicity or non-moraicity of the relevant segment. While distinctions in underlying status and moraic structure are an effective tool for capturing some of the observed differences in vowel strength, they do not capture all attested differences. In this paper, we offer evidence supporting a four-point strength scale to which faithfulness and markedness constraints can refer. This model allows for strength differences among underlying and inserted vowels, and within monomoraic and bimoraic vowels as well, subject to scalar implications.  We argue that Q-Theoretic representations offer the necessary representational tool to capture the full range of vowel strength.

scholarly journals A Constraint-based Analysis of Morphological Processes in the Ibibio Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 242
Author(s):  
Louisa Louis Michael ◽  
Ndubuisi Ogbonna Ahamefula ◽  
Olusanmi Olasunkanmi Babarinde
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Cross Language

This paper is on a constraint-based analysis of morphological processes in Ibibio (Lower cross language of Niger Congo: Nigeria). The study seeks to determine the phonological processes that condition and restrict the position of an affix while specifying where an affix may appear in a string of affixes; examine the influence of a morphological form on the phonological conditions that regulates affix placement in the Ibibio language, as well as determine the constraints that account for the appropriate placement of affixes on reduplicative forms. Leaning on the optimality framework, it was revealed that nouns in Ibibio accept only vowel prefixes which provides an enabling environment for vowel processes to occur in compounding and affixation. We observed that certain phonological forms, like the productive suffix –ke which has differing phonological realisations depending on the structure of the verb in Ibibio, are influenced by the morphological structure of a word while others are not. Certain constraints like the intervocalic constraint, the *[CC] constraint and the harmony constraint are some of the constraints that account for full reduplication in Ibibio. Also, partial reduplication in the Ibibio language adheres to the *complexons and the NO CODA constraint.

scholarly journals MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL EFFECTS IN GIKUYU LANGUAGE REDUPLICATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Njuki Muriithi
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Morphological Process ◽  
New Words ◽  
Prosodic Morphology ◽  
Word Categorization ◽  
Word Classification ◽  
Linguistic Units

This research is indispensable as it basically studies how Gikuyu language reduplication patterns can be explained using Prosodic Morphology Theory. It looks at the various types of reduplication in Gikuyu language and seeks to establish if reduplication in Gikuyu is considered morphological reduplication or phonological copying. Word classification as well as the Gikuyu vowels and consonants have extensively been discussed in this paper as a foundation for the reduplication discussion. The study tries to find out the logic worth of reduplication, how reduplication interconnect with morphological and phonological processes, linguistic units associated with this concept and draws conclusion that reduplication in Gikuyu is considered both morphological doubling and phonological copying. The study adopts Prosodic Morphology theoretical approach in reduplication patterns analysis. Gikuyu phonemic catalogue on vowels and consonants as well as the word categorization, that is, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives has been discussed as a foundation for the research. Reduplication is a morphological process in which there is repetition of a stem or a root of a word in Linguistics. Reduplication is important since it acts as a declension to bring out semantic roles such as lexical derivation, authentication and reinforcement to form new words. Qualitative sampling was done on the word categories and an outcome was established. There were various reduplication patterns in Gikuyu, several semantic patterns associated with it were listed, set out and reviewed. The findings have been scrutinized and analyzed for further recommendations. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0778/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Moraic onsets in Arrernte

Phonology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Topintzi ◽  
Andrew Nevins
Keyword(s):  
Language Game ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Prosodic Morphology ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Directions

The Australian language Arrernte has been argued by Breen & Pensalfini (1999) and Evans & Levinson (2009) to present a case of VC syllabification with coda maximisation, rather than CV syllabification with onset maximisation. In this paper we demonstrate that greater insights into a number of phenomena are achieved when they are analysed with CV syllabification and onset consonants that are moraic, a possibility independently proposed for a wide range of languages by Topintzi (2010). We review a range of evidence from phonetic studies, acquisition and musicology that points towards CV syllabification in Arrernte, and analyse allomorphy, stress assignment, reduplication and the transpositional language game ‘Rabbit Talk’ in terms of reference to moraic structure. The results lend themselves to new directions in the analysis of Arrernte, and provide further evidence for moraic onsets in prosodic morphology.

scholarly journals The Phonological Word and Stress Shift in Northern Kurmanji Kurdish

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (26) ◽  
pp. 370
Author(s):  
Aveen Mohammed Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Rule Violation ◽  
Recursive Structure ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Assignment Rule ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Rule Application ◽  
Prosodic Phonology ◽  
Vowel Deletion ◽  
Stress Patterns

It is generally believed that stress in Kurdish is word-final. However, closer examination reveals several kinds of exceptions. This study proposes a unified analysis of regular and irregular stress patterns in Northern Kurmanji. It analyses the stress-assignment rule on the basis of a framework of prosodic phonology that divides the representation of speech into hierarchically organised units. It proposes the phonological word as the domain of stress rule and a number of other phonological processes such as glide insertion, resyllabification, vowel deletion, vowel shortening. Additionally, it proposes the cyclic analysis as the method of the rule application. Cases of stress rule violation are considered as instances of stress-shift which are conditioned by different phonological and syntactical factors or they can be accounted for by using recursive structure and phrase stress rule.

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