Diana Archangeli

Aspects of underspecification theory

An evaluation metric in Universal Grammar provides a means of selecting between possible grammars for a particular language. The evaluation metric as conceived in Chomsky & Halle (1968; henceforth SPE ) prefers the grammar in which only the idiosyncratic properties are lexically listed and predictable properties are derived. The essence of underspecification theory is to supply such predictable distinctive features or feature specifications by rule. Viewed in this way, the general idea of underspecification has always been a part of any theory of phonology that includes such an evaluation metric.

Kinande vowel harmony: domains, grounded conditions and one-sided alignment*

The canonical image of vowel harmony is of a particular feature distributed throughout a word, leading to symmetric constraints like A GREE or S PREAD . Examination of the distribution of tongue-root advancement in Kinande demonstrates that harmonic feature distribution is asymmetric. The data argue that a formal (yet asymmetric) constraint (like A LIGN ) is exactly half right: such a constraint correctly characterises the left edge of the harmonic domain. By contrast, the right edge is necessarily characterised by phonetically grounded restrictions on feature co-occurrence. Of further interest is the role of morphological domains: the interaction between domain restrictions on specific constraints and unrestricted constraints suggests a formal means of characterising the overwhelming similarity between constraint hierarchies at different morphological levels while at the same time characterising the distinctions between levels.

Syllabification and prosodic templates in Yawelmani

This article addresses the interaction of syllabification and templatic morphology in Yawelmani. The morphological templates (in CV terms, CVCC, CVVCC, and CVCVVC) do not parse directly into well-formed Yawelmani surface syllables (CV, CVV, CVC). Nonetheless, as argued here, these templates can be expressed in terms of legitimate prosodic units, thereby supporting the prosodic morphology hypothesis (McCarthy and Prince 1986, 1987, 1990). The basic idea is that segments map from left to right to the template, but if a template is too small, any leftover stem consonants simply undergo right to left syllabification. This analysis accounts for the general templatic mapping of verbs and nouns as well as the different kinds of reduplication in Yawelmani. It also provides a more explanatory account of the ‘ghost’ consonants — initial consonants of some of the suffixes which surface only when the stem is biconsonantal, but not if the stem is larger. The analysis not only provides support for the prosodic morphology hypothesis, it also argues in favor of a templatic view of syllabification (Itô 1986, 1989) and a rule of Weight-by-Position (Hayes 1989) operating independently of the general syllabification process.

Variability in American English s-retraction suggests a solution to the actuation problem

Although formulated by Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog in 1968, the actuation problem has remained an unsolved problem in understanding sound change: if sound change is conceived as the accumulation of coarticulation, and coarticulation is widespread, how can some speech communities resist phonetic pressure to change? We present data from American English s-retraction that suggest a partial solution. S-retraction is the phenomenon in which /s/ is realized as an [ʃ]-like sound, especially when it occurs in an /stɹ/ cluster (‘ street ’ pronounced more like [ʃtɹit] than like [stɹit]). The speech of English speakers judged not to exhibit s-retraction shows a large coarticulatory bias in the direction of retraction. Further, there is also substantial interspeaker variation in the extent of this bias. We propose that this interspeaker variation, coupled with the coarticulatory bias, facilitates the initiation of sound change. In this account, sound change begins when a listener accidentally interprets an extreme case of a phonetic effect as an articulatory target and then adjusts her own speech in response. This adoption of a new target requires phonetic variation that predates the change. Thus, sound change is predicted to be biased toward phonetic effects that exhibit interspeaker variability, and if sound change requires an accident that is rare, then sound change itself is correctly predicted to be rare as well.

The root CV-template as a property of the affix: Evidence from Yawelmani

ConclusionIn this article, I have provided support for a skeletal core independent of any phonemic material. This is not a new theoretical claim, but rather adds to a small but growing literature (McCarthy 1979, 1981, Halle and Vergnaud 1980, Harris 1980, Marantz 1982, Yip 1982). However, the analysis here is an important addition because the skeleta are added to the grammer in an unfamiliar manner: affixes may determine the skeletal template of a root; if not, a default template is supplied, determined by a lexical diacritic on each verb root. Interestingly, recent work on Norwegian tone by Withgott and Halvorsen (in prep) suggests that when a suffix bears tone in Norwegian, the suffixal tone pattern surfaces on the word. With no affixes or with a toneless suffix, the underlying (or default) tone of the word surfaces. This parallels in tone the example in templates that Yokuts provides.In section 3, a CV-template pool consisting of the three default templates of verbs in Yawelmani was established. Certain affixes supply templates from this pool, and the phonemic melody of the root associates with the selected template according to universal conventions and the rule of V Spread (43). The assumption of a pool containing only three templates accounts for the pairing of bi- and triconsonantal forms when a template is selected by an affix, that is the CVC–CVCC, CVVC–CVVCC, and CVCVV–CVCVVC pairings. The triconsonantal template is selected in all cases. With biconsonantal roots, the third C-slot of the template has no segment associated with it, and so cannot surface. This explanation is elegant and concise, but is not available without the existence of an independent skeletal tier.

Articulation of the Kagayanen interdental approximant: An ultrasound study

This paper documents the articulation of the interdental approximant, an unusual speech sound that occurs in several languages spoken in the Philippines and Western Australia. This sound is notable for the fact that the tongue protrudes from the mouth and contacts the lower lip, and it seems to have a lateral perceptual quality, but documentation of the other details of the sound have been sketchy. We use ultrasound imaging to study the sound produced by a speaker of Kagayanen. We show that the only constriction is interdental, that the degree of tongue protrusion is related to vowel context and focus, and that the sound does not involve tongue raising. Coronal section images indicate that the sound involves the lowering of at least one side of the tongue, making it articulatorily lateral. We also discuss the implications for theories of tongue movement.

Vowel insertion in Scottish Gaelic

Phonology / Volume 31 / Issue 01 / May 2014, pp 123 153 DOI: 10.1017/S0952675714000050, Published online: 20 May 2014 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0952675714000050 How to cite this article: Michael Hammond, Natasha Warner, Andréa Davis, Andrew Carnie, Diana Archangeli and Muriel Fisher (2014). Vowel insertion in Scottish Gaelic . Phonology, 31, pp 123-153 doi:10.1017/S0952675714000050 Request Permissions : Click here

Greater than noise: frequency effects in Bantu height harmony

A major concern of phonological theory is how complex phonological patterns can be acquired simply through exposure to imperfect language data. Central to this topic is the nature of the cognitive apparatus brought to bear on this problem of acquisition. The “nativist” extreme in this regard is to postulate a highly articulated Universal Grammar (UG), with a rich set of structures that are specific to language, hard-wired into the language-learning infant. The “nurture” extreme is to assume that there is very little cognitive infrastructure that is specific to language. Instead, general purpose learning mechanisms are applied to language data, resulting in an Emergent Grammar (EG) that develops from exposure to the patterns of an adult grammar. These two proposals make different predictions about the nature of sound patterns. In this study, our basic question is whether the distribution of sounds within languages with vowel harmony exhibits the patterns predicted by UG or those predicted by EG. To do so, we explore the frequency of words that violate height harmony rules, and as we will see, in several languages they are less frequent than would be expected by chance, but more frequent than would be expected on the basis of a categorical phonological rule, i.e., the robustness of the patterns is greater than the noise in the data, but less than exceptionless.

Phonology without universal grammar

The question of identifying the properties of language that are specific human linguistic abilities, i.e., Universal Grammar, lies at the center of linguistic research. This paper argues for a largely Emergent Grammar in phonology, taking as the starting point that memory, categorization, attention to frequency, and the creation of symbolic systems are all nonlinguistic characteristics of the human mind. The articulation patterns of American English rhotics illustrate categorization and systems; the distribution of vowels in Bantu vowel harmony uses frequencies of particular sequences to argue against Universal Grammar and in favor of Emergent Grammar; prefix allomorphy in Esimbi illustrates the Emergent symbolic system integrating phonological and morphological generalizations. The Esimbi case has been treated as an example of phonological opacity in a Universal Grammar account; the Emergent analysis resolves the pattern without opacity concerns.

AutoTrace: An automatic system for tracing tongue contours

Ultrasound imaging of the tongue is used for analyzing the articulatory features of speech sounds. In order to be able to study the movements of the tongue, the tongue surface contour has to be traced for each recorded image. In order to capture the details of the tongue’s movement during speech, the ultrasound video is generally recorded at the highest frame rate available. Detail comes at a price. The number of frames produced from even a single non-trivial experiment is often far too large to trace manually. The Arizona Phonological Imaging Lab (APIL) at the University of Arizona has developed a suite of tools to simplify the labeling and analysis of tongue contours. AutoTrace is a state-of-the-art automatic method for tracing tongue contours that is robust across speakers and languages and operates independently of frame order. The workshop will outline the software installation procedure, introduce the included tools for selecting and preparing training data, provide instructions for automated tracin...