Tree pruning in the structural approach to vowel reduction and lenition

The article scrutinises several vowel reduction and lenition phenomena by employing a model of syntax-like structural representations, i.e. Government Phonology 2.0. In contrast to the standard GP model, whereby lenition and vowel reduction can be viewed as shortening, element suppression or status switching, the structural approach employs the procedure of tree pruning with a heavily limited role of melodic annotation. This paper will take a closer look at node removal with special attention to its trajectory. In particular, two basic directionalities are considered: top-down and bottom-up. The former has been proposed to account for vowel reduction whereby the highest positions are deleted retaining the head and potentially its sister. The acquisition of plosives and fricatives points to the latter trajectory, which disposes of nodes closer to the head. However, the choice of positions that are targeted in weak contexts might be also related to the inherently encoded hierarchy of terminal nodes within the constituents in question.

Morphology made (too) simple? Phonological problems with and a solution to the analytic/non-analytic distinction

This article addresses some shortcomings in the standard theory of the phonology-morphology interface within Government Phonology, which is built on the dichotomy of analytic/non-analytic morphology. I argue that many cases which had previously been thought to be analytic and therefore to require a cyclic application of phonology should be reinterpreted without: Many constructions that seemed to consist of domains inside domains are better understood without that internal structure. This alternative avoids some contradictory results of the standard model, which incorrectly precludes certain kinds of interactions between the nested domains. The reinterpretation also makes better sense of the phonological shape of (allegedly analytic) affixes by taking into account phonotactic possibilities of clusters with more than three consonants, which had so no far not received a satisfactory analysis in the Government Phonology literature.

English Loanwords in the Irish of Iorras Aithneach – New Vowels in a Government and Licensing Analysis

The Irish of Iorras Aithneach differs somewhat from the other varieties of Irish. Among other things, this regional variety is slightly irregular as regards the treatment of loanwords from English. For example, in Iorras Aithneach an epenthetic vowel [e] is regularly inserted in certain clusters, but irregularly in other consonant groups (Ó Curnáin 2007). New vowels may also precede certain initial sounds and follow some final consonants in English loanwords. Since Ó Curnáin's (2007) book is the most recent and most extensive study of any Irish dialect ever undertaken, it seems a very appropriate source of information and analysis. The issues addressed in this paper are as follows. First, what are the reasons for epenthesis in loanwords in the Irish of Iorras Aithneach? Second, why is Iorras Aithneach epenthesis in borrowings from English irregular? Third, and marginal, what is the reason for prosthetic vowels on both word edges in Iorras Aithneach? The phonological model used in this paper is Government Phonology in its recent version.

question of syllable structure: contextual acquisition of English /p/ and /k/ in a laboratory setting

Using a laboratory approach, this study investigates the acquisition of the stops /p k/ by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of English in three contexts: in word-medial position before (1) /t/ or (2) /n/ and (3) in word-final position. Because BP allows only /S r l N/ in these positions, learners tend to resort to a process of i-epenthesis (e.g., cha[pi]ter, te[ki]nique, magi[ki]). While /p k/ clearly syllabify as onsets after i-epenthesis, there is no consensus on their syllabic ailiation in the target contexts. Three views can be distinguished. According to orthodox phonology, /p k/ syllabify as codas in all three locations. From the Government Phonology view, however, /p k/ are codas only word-medially before /t/; in the other two contexts, they syllabify as onsets of empty nuclei. Finally, Strict CV proposes that /p k/ in all three cases are onsets of empty nuclei. In previous research, we established that /p k/ are acquired diferentially in medial position before /t/ and in final position, the latter being the more challenging context. This finding provides tentative support for the Government Phonology claim that /p k/ instantiate a diferent syllabification in these two contexts and hence constitute a distinct learning challenge. To explore the matter further, we include here the context of /p k/ in word-medial position before /n/. A set of non-word-learning tasks and pre/post production tests determine that this context patterns with word-final consonants, as the Government Phonology view predicts. Statistical results support the prediction.

Tense? (Re)lax!

This article looks at what is referred to as the tense/lax contrast in English and proposes that members of the two sets of vowel have the same basic structure but differ in how part of that structure is made use of by its neighbours. The proposal forms part of a general theory of the representation of vowel height within the framework of Government Phonology 2.0.

Representation-based models in the current landscape of phonological theory

We place the healthy diversity of current (i.e., early 21st-century) phonological theory under scrutiny, and identify the four fundamental approaches that make it up: Rule-Based Phonology, Representation-Based Phonology, Constraint-Based Phonology, and Usage-Based Phonology. We then focus on the key aspects of and recent developments in Representation-Based Phonology: we separate out hybrid models and purely representational ones, we identify Government Phonology (GP) as the most popular form of the latter (and show that it is even present in what we call ‘GP-friendly’ analyses), and finally, we discuss and illustrate recent innovations in both subsegmental and prosodic structure in the two strands that we identify as ‘hyperhierarchical’ (or ‘vertical’) and ‘flat’ (or ‘horizontal’).

Branching onsets 2.0

This paper proposes a novel representation of branching onsets within the framework of Government Phonology 2. They are argued to be complex onset phrases, where the second member is directly embedded within the first and controls its head. The system predicts that for fricatives, the ability to become the first member of a branching onset depends on their place of articulation. In particular, [s]-like fricatives (S) are predicted to lack this ability, thereby explaining Kaye’s (1992) empirical generalization that SC clusters are never branching onsets.

The complex link between length and lowering

In both Palestinian Arabic and Qaraqosh Neo-Aramaic, high vowels lower and lengthen in the _C# position. This paper analyzes this phenomenon in the framework of Government Phonology (Kaye et al. 1990) and Strict CV (Lowenstamm 1996, Scheer 2004). It is claimed that in both languages, phonological considerations require additional length to be realized in this position (under certain conditions). However, this length cannot be realized through vowel lengthening, and so an element A is inserted. The fusion of the high vowel with A produces the lowered quality. Lengthening and lowering are therefore related, possibly because lowered high vowels are more complex than high vowels.

Guttural Ghosts in Modern Hebrew

Many morphological paradigms in Modern Hebrew exhibit alternations between [a], zero, and a rare [ʔ] in positions where one expects to find a consonant. The letters symbolizing these alternations in the orthography were used to represent the guttural sounds [ʔ, ʕ, h] in stages of the language that had these sounds. Gutturals are largely absent from Modern Hebrew pronunciation, and yet their presence is still felt indirectly, through these alternations. Following Faust (2005) , we analyze these “guttural ghosts” as underlying /a/ vowels. The analysis is conducted within the theory of Government Phonology ( Kaye, Lowenstamm, and Vergnaud 1990 ) in its Strict CV offshoot ( Lowenstamm 1996 , Scheer 2004 ). Against the conclusions of previous accounts, we show that given standard assumptions in this theory, the phenomenon is strictly phonological. We also discuss a puzzle regarding the interaction of such guttural ghosts with epenthesis and reduplication, and we provide an Obligatory Contour Principle–based account that relies crucially on the vocalic identity of these entities.