Megan J. Crowhurst

Directional Footing, Degeneracy, and Alignment

This paper argues from an Optimality Theory (OT; Prince & Smolensky 1991, 1993; McCarthy & Prince 1993a,b, 1994) perspective that no one-to-one correspondence exists between directional footing effects and individual constraints. Rather, the requirements of a single prosodic alignment constraint may result either in left-to-right or right-to-left footing, depending on its position in a constraint hierarchy relative to constraints which require syllable-to-foot parsing and binary foot structure. We show, furthermore, that an OT approach predicts a dependency between direction of footing and the treatment of stray syllables not predicted under other accounts.

Diminutives and augmentatives in Mexican Spanish: a prosodic analysis

This paper argues for a prosodic constraint on the formation of diminutive and augmentative forms in Mexican Spanish. Specifically, the stem preceding diminutive (dim) and augmentative (aug) suffixes in this dialect must comprise an absolute minimum of two syllables. When a stem melody cannot satisfy the two-syllable minimum, an epenthetic vowel (V) [e] surfaces at the right edge of the stem (e.g. panesito ‘little bread’ ← pan ). In the analysis proposed here, a disyllabic template f [σ σ] is mapped to stems from left to right as part of dim/aug-formation. Whether or not a consonant (C)/s/ surfaces before the suffix will be analysed as a consequence of syllabification in some cases (e.g. koronita/koronota← korona ‘crown’ vs.

Foot extrametricality and template mapping in Cupeño

This paper reanalyses the Cupeño habilitative construction (Hill, 1970; McCarthy, 1984; McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990) as association to a disyllabic template under initial foot and final consonant extrametricality. An advantage of the reanalysis is that it does not require a trisyllabic template proposed as part of earlier analyses (McCarthy, 1984; McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990), thereby making possible a more constrained inventory of template types. Other theoretical contributions of the paper are that it exemplifies two as yet uninstantiated predictions of prosodic circumscription theory: (i) foot extrametricality resulting from a morphological (as opposed to a metrical) operation and (ii) template mapping as an operation on the residue of negative prosodic circumscription. An empirical contribution of the paper is a synchronic metrical analysis of Cupeño accented and unaccented forms.

Coda conditions and um infixation in Toba Batak

Abstract This paper examines the concatenative behaviour of the affix um in two varieties of Toba Batak and compares the Toba Batak case to its more familiar counterpart in Tagalog. Beyond the interest a comparison between Tagalog and Toba Batak holds for typology, the OT analysis proposed for Toba Batak contributes to the ongoing theoretical discussion of constraints and their evaluation. First, Toba Batak requires that several constraints be co-ranked. When constraints are co-ranked, their violations count equally in the evaluation of candidates, as though the co-ranked constraints inhabited the same cell of the OT tableau. Second, an OT analysis which captures the behaviour of the cognate morpheme um in both Tagalog and Toba Batak by simply re-ranking a few constraints compels an approach in which, for the cases examined, the work of NoCoda is performed by the combined activity of the two independently motivated constraints *Geminate and a CodaCond constraint targeting root nodes. The theoretical interest of this approach is that it suggests that NoCoda, the absolute suppression of phonological content in coda position, could be reconciled with a class of relativised CodaCond constraints, which individually result in the suppression of specific features or structural nodes.

Comparative markedness and identity effects in reduplication

Abstract In “Comparative Markedness” (henceforth CM), McCarthy (this volume) proposes that the markedness family of constraints should be divided into parallel sets of constraints distinguishing ‘old’ and ‘new’ violations. Whether a markedness violation is ‘old’ or ‘new’ is determined by comparing the candidate under evaluation with a ‘fully faithful candidate’ (FFC), defined in reference to a relation of correspondence. (In the case of input-output, or IO correspondence, the FFC is the candidate that is fully faithful to all properties of the input governed by IO faithfulness constraints, and that optimally satisfies markedness constraints that compel no faithfulness violations.) An ‘old’ markedness violation is shared by the candidate under evaluation and the FFC, and thus, is inherited from the input. A ‘new’ markedness violation is not shared with the FFC, and therefore results from a faithfulness violation at the same locus. CM proposes a significant revision of OT doctrine, as the model increases the access of markedness constraints to inputs albeit indirectly, through the FFC. In this first pass through CM, McCarthy shows that a number of knotty problems that have until now resisted straightforward solutions in optimality theory can be analysed employing the new approach.

The influence of vowel laryngealisation and duration on the rhythmic grouping preferences of Zapotec speakers

Abstract Some studies of human rhythmic grouping biases (RGBs) have found that listeners tend to perceive greater duration as marking group endings, a “long-last” RGB that has been related to preboundary lengthening in languages. Accumulating evidence from adult and infant studies now suggests that duration-based RGBs are variable, learned, and sensitive to language input. If RGBs can be influenced by language background, then phonologically important features other than duration should be associated with RGBs. In this rhythmic grouping study, native speakers of Betaza Zapotec segmented sequences of syllables in which vowel duration and laryngealised phonation were varied. Results indicated a long-last RGB in all conditions in which duration was varied and a laryngeal-first bias when phonation was varied singly. When duration and phonation were co-varied in the same sequences, duration was the dominant predictor. However, when duration and phonation cues were opposed by alternating modal long and laryngealised short syllables, fewer long-last groupings suggested that in this context, listeners perceived laryngealised phonation as signalling finality. It is argued that in segmenting varied-phonation sequences, listeners were using knowledge of surface phonetic characteristics as opposed to knowledge of the lexical and phonological distribution of laryngealised vowels.

Weight sensitivity and syllable codas in Srinagar Koshur 1

This paper describes and analyses the pattern of word stress found in the standard dialect of Koshur (Kashmiri) spoken in Srinagar. The significance of Koshur for studies of stress lies in that taken together, its pattern of stress assignment and a pervasive pattern of syncope conspire to produce a four-way syllable weight distinction that has sometimes been expressed as the scale CVːC>CVː>CVC>CV. The interesting feature of this type of scale is that closed syllables, CVːC and CVC are preferred as stress peaks over open syllables with vowels of the same length. Other researchers have noted that in languages with this scale, or the abbreviated ternary version CVː>CVC>CV, CVC syllables behave ambiguously with respect to stress. They seem to be heavy in relation to CV when CVː syllables are absent. In a stress clash context however, CVC defers to CVː. ‘Mora-only’ accounts of other languages with this scale have interpreted the ambiguous behaviour of CVC as evidence that CVC syllables are bimoraic where their behaviour seems to group them with CVː but monomoraic elsewhere (e.g. Rosenthall & van der Hulst 1999 , Moren 2000 ). To account for the CVːC>CVː effect, mora-only accounts have been forced to assume that CVːC are trimoraic. We show that a mora-only analysis does not offer a satisfying account of the Koshur facts, and we argue instead that the origin of the CVC>CV and CVːC>CVː effects is the presence of a coda that branches from the final mora of a syllable, making the closed syllables more harmonic as prosodic heads. Under this view, branchingness emerges as another dimension of the mora, along with moraic quantity and the quality of segments linked to moras, which contributes to syllable prominence.

Bolivia: Language Situation

Bolivias linguistic landscape is highly diverse, as approximately 40 indigenous languages representing four Amerindian stocks are spoken here. In addition to Spanish, a second European language, Plautdietsch (Low German) is spoken by significant numbers of Mennonites residing primarily in the Oriente and Chaco regions. Of Bolivias indigenous languages, Quechua and Aymara, Andean languages with millions of speakers in Bolivia and elsewhere, are highly stable. However, the majority of Bolivias indigenous languages, spoken in the Tierras Bajas, are endangered, either because their heritage communities face the risk of population collapse or because, in the case of both small and large communities, the heritage language is being displaced by Spanish.

The influence of varying vowel phonation and duration on rhythmic grouping biases among Spanish and English speakers

Abstract Native Mexican Spanish and American English speakers were presented with streams of alternating syllables in which vowel duration and/or creaky phonation were rhythmically varied. Participants’ grouping biases were measured as a function of their behaviour in segmenting sequences into recurrent bisyllabic units. Results indicated a creak-last grouping bias in both language groups. Duration varied singly was associated with a weak long-first grouping bias for Spanish and no consistent trend for English. When long creaky and short modal syllables were alternated, there was a significant creak-last bias and again no effect of duration in the English group. However, in the Spanish group, the long-first trend observed for duration varied singly was reversed and the effects of duration and creak were additive. Finally, when short creaky and long modal syllables were alternated, duration effects were highly significant in both language groups (fewer creak-last, more long-last groupings). Creak has been associated with final positions in higher-order prosodic domains in English, and less prevalently in Spanish. The current results show that both English and Spanish speakers can use this cue to segment rhythmic sequences into smaller, foot or word-sized units. This study is the first to establish that creak is perceptually salient for Spanish speakers and to demonstrate that the percept associated with duration can differ depending on whether it is varied singly or together with creak. More generally, the current findings show that grouping effects extend beyond intensity, pitch and duration, the features most often manipulated in rhythmic grouping studies inspired by the Iambic-Trochaic Law.