scholarly journals Reconciling CV phonotactics and high vowel deletion in Japanese

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Whang
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Testable Prediction ◽  
Productive Process ◽  
Vowel Deletion ◽  
Vowel Devoicing ◽  
Apparent Conflict

High vowel devoicing is a productive process in Japanese, where /i, u/ become unphonated between voiceless obstruents. Recent studies have shown that the vowels can completely delete as a result of the process, resulting in surface consonant clusters. This seemingly conflicts with the strong CV phonotactic preference that has repeatedly been shown in both phonological and psycholinguistic studies of Japanese. This paper proposes that the apparent conflict can be resolved by having phonotactic repairs and high vowel devoicing apply at different phonological levels, adopting a more sophisticated phonological representation than simple /underlying/ vs. [surface] forms. The proposed framework also makes an empirically testable prediction regarding syllabification of clusters that result from high vowel deletion.

Now you hear it, now you don't: Vowel devoicing in Japanese infant-directed speech

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAUREL FAIS ◽  
SACHIYO KAJIKAWA ◽  
SHIGEAKI AMANO ◽  
JANET F. WERKER
Keyword(s):  
Native Language ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Word Structure ◽  
Mature Form ◽  
Adult Form ◽  
Structure Pattern ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Vowel Devoicing

ABSTRACTIn this work, we examine a context in which a conflict arises between two roles that infant-directed speech (IDS) plays: making language structure salient and modeling the adult form of a language. Vowel devoicing in fluent adult Japanese creates violations of the canonical Japanese consonant–vowel word structure pattern by systematically devoicing particular vowels, yielding surface consonant clusters. We measured vowel devoicing rates in a corpus of infant- and adult-directed Japanese speech, for both read and spontaneous speech, and found that the mothers in our study preserve the fluent adult form of the language and mask underlying phonological structure by devoicing vowels in infant-directed speech at virtually the same rates as those for adult-directed speech. The results highlight the complex interrelationships among the modifications to adult speech that comprise infant-directed speech, and that form the input from which infants begin to build the eventual mature form of their native language.

scholarly journals Consequences of High Vowel Deletion for Syllabification in Japanese

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Anthony Shaw ◽  
Shigeto Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Electromagnetic Articulography ◽  
Syllable Onset ◽  
Competing Hypotheses ◽  
Vowel Deletion ◽  
High Vowels

High vowels in Japanese devoice between two voiceless consonants; recent work has shown that devoiced /u/ in this environment is also variably deleted. This paper investigates the syllabification of consonant clusters resulting from vowel deletion. We consider two competing hypotheses from the literature: (H1) that consonant clusters are parsed tautosyllabically into a complex syllable onset and (H2) that consonant clusters are parsed heterosyllabically, with the consonant preceding the deleted vowel becoming a syllabic consonant. We bring both phonological and phonetic evidence bear on evaluating these hypotheses. The phonological evidence draws on patterns sensitive to syllable structure including pitch accent placement, loanword truncation, hypocoristic formation, and mimetics. The phonetic evidence comes from patterns of temporal stability in articulatory data collected with ElectroMagnetic Articulography. Both types of evidence provide converging support for H2. 

Polygonal profiles of ferritin molecules

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 600-601
Author(s):  
William H. Massover
Keyword(s):  
Axial Ratio ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Rhombic Dodecahedron ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Iron Storage ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Hexagonal Shape ◽  
Axes Of Symmetry ◽  
Apparent Conflict ◽  
Iron Storage Protein

The molecular structure of the iron-storage protein, ferritin, is becoming known in ever finer detail. The 24 apoferritin subunits (MW ca. 20,000) have a 2:1 axial ratio and are polymerized with 4:3:2 symmetry to form an outer shell surrounding a variable amount of microcrystalline iron, Recent x-ray diffraction results indicate that the projected outline of the native molecule has a quasi-hexagonal shape when viewed down the 3-fold axes of symmetry, and a quasi-square shape when looking down the 4-fold axes. To date, no electron microscope study has reported observing anything other than circular profiles, which would indicate that ferritin is strictly spherical. The apparent conflict between the "hollow sphere" of electron microscopy (E.M.) and the "truncated rhombic dodecahedron" of x-ray diffraction could reflect the poorer effective resolution of E.M. coming from radiation damage, staining, drying, etc. The present study investigates the detailed shape of individual ferritin molecules in order to search for the predicted aspherical profiles and to interpret the nature of this apparent contradiction.

American Dream and Public Schools

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Hochschild ◽  
Nathan Scovronick
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Ability Grouping ◽  
American Dream ◽  
School Funding ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Ideology ◽  
Individual Success ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Apparent Conflict

Why is education policy so contentious? Do conflicts over specific issues in schooling have anything in common? Are there general principles that can help us resolve these disputes? In this book the authors find the source of many debates over schooling in the multiple goals and internal contradictions of the national ideology we call the American dream. They also propose a framework for helping Americans get past acrimonious debates in order to help all children learn. The American Dream and the Public Schools examines issues that have excited and divided Americans for years, including desegregation, school funding, testing, vouchers, bilingual education, multicultural education, and ability grouping. These seem to be separate problems, but much of the contention over them comes down to the same thing--an apparent conflict, rooted in the American dream, between policies designed to promote each student's ability to pursue success and those designed to insure the good of all students or the nation as a whole. The authors show how policies to promote individual success too often benefit only those already privileged by race or class, and too often conflict, unnecessarily, with policies that are intended to benefit everyone. The book also examines issues such as creationism and Afrocentrism, where the disputes lie between those who attack the validity of the American dream and those who believe that such a challenge has no place in the public schools. At the end of the book, the authors examine the impact of our nation's rapid racial and ethnic transformation on the pursuit of all of these goals, and they propose ways to make public education work better to help all children succeed and become the citizens we need.

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.

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