April McMahon

Gestural representation and Lexical Phonology

Recent work on Articulatory Phonology (Browman & Goldstein 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992a, b) raises a number of questions, specifically involving the phonetics–phonology ‘interface’. One advantage of using Articulatory Phonology (henceforth ArtP), with its basic units of abstract gestures based on articulatory movements, is its ability to link phenomena previously seen as phonological to those which are conventionally described as allophonic, or even lower-level phonetic effects, since ‘gestures are... useful primitives for characterising phonological patterns as well as for analysing the activity of the vocal tract articulators’ (Browman & Goldstein 1991: 313). If both phonetics and phonology could ultimately be cast entirely in gestural terms, the phonetics–phonology interface might effectively cease to exist, at least in terms of units of analysis.

Lexical Phonology and Sound Change: The Case of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule.

The key assumption in the standard generative approach to historical linguistics (King, 1969) is that each sound change is incorporated directly into the native speakers grammar as the final phonological rule, moving up gradually into the grammar as further changes are implemented. Restructuring of underlying representations by later generations during acquisition is theoretically permitted, but infrequently invoked, with the result that the historical phonology of a language will be almost directly mirrored in the order of its phonological rules. The only extractable generalizations are then that the ‘highest’ rules will correspond to the oldest changes, and that a sound change and the rule into which it is converted will tend to be identical or at least show a high degree of similarity in formulation. This approach casts no light at all on the problem of the implementation of sound change.

Vowel shift, free rides and strict cyclicity

Abstract This paper uses the example of the Modern English Vowel Shift Rule to show that the constraints available in Lexical Phonology can combat potential problems of excessive abstractness. Separate tense-vowel and lax-vowel VSRs are formulated; both are ordered on cyclic stratum 1 of a two-level Lexical Phonology. The Strict Cyclicity Condition prohibits the application of either VSR in underived environments, while in derived environments tense-vowel VSR is fed by the tensing rules, and lax-vowel VSR by the laxing rules. This analysis solves the long-standing problem of free rides through Vowel Shift, and reveals a principled division in the class of Modern English strong verbs. Further related revisions, involving the status of English diphthongs and the derivation of [jū] in assume, cube , etc., are also proposed.

Keeping Contact in the Family: Approaches to Language Classification and Contact-induced Change

One of the cornerstones of nineteenth-century historical-comparative linguistics is the regularity hypothesis (see Morpurgo Davies, 1998). This idea that regular correspondences, of the kind observed by Grimm, Bopp and their contemporaries, reflect regular, exceptionless sound changes, underlies much of the progress made by the Neogrammarians and in the subsequent development of historical linguistics. Furthermore, it is a very good example of a kind of thinking that has been vital to linguistics more generally — that is, the notion that we can make progress by adopting strong methodological hypotheses. These may subsequently require modification; but adopting them in the first place can have unforeseen positive consequences in helping us to understand the way language works.