Randall Gess

Focusing on Phonology To Teach Morphological Form in French.

Much recent research in language pedagogy has advocated a form–focused approach, noting that input can be tailored to promote acquisition of specific phenomena (R. Ellis, 1990; Harley, 1993; Herschensohn, 1990; Lee & Valdman, 2000; Leeman, Arteagoitia, Fridman, & Doughty, 1995; VanPatten, 1996). In this article, we argue for the importance of phonological form in the second language (L2) classroom, proposing that a thorough grounding in L2 phonological patterns is essential for language learners; we use as evidence for our position the importance of phonological information for the auditory detection of morphological form in French. We offer a pedagogical means by which the morphological rule of gender agreement for adjectives, which involves final consonant alternation, can be imitated in a L2 context through a context–based focus on phonological form. We present empirical evidence that such a focus produces statistically significant results in a classroom experiment that tests listening discrimination of gender alternation in adjectives. Our results also have implications for the effectiveness of an explicit, meaning–oriented focus on form for listening comprehension, inasmuch as the auditory discrimination of contrasts contributes to that process.

Compensatory lengthening and structure preservation revisited

In de Chene & Andersons (1979) article on compensatory lengthening, the authors make two strong claims as to the universal nature of compensatory lengthening. These claims are: (i) that compensatory lengthening occurs in two stages, involving the weakening of a consonant to a glide and the subsequent merger of the resulting diphthong; and (ii) that compensatory lengthening can only occur when there is a pre-existing vowel-length contrast in the language in question. Both of these claims have received considerable attention in the literature. The first claim has never gained widespread acceptance, and has been challenged in several studies. Challenges have come from, for example, Hock (1986), Poser (1986), Sezer (1986) and more recently Gildea (1995). Each of these scholars provides a strong case against the view that compensatory lengthening is always decomposable into two distinct stages. The ensemble of their arguments renders this claim simply untenable.

Old French NoCoda effects from constraint interaction

This article treats the fairly well known process of syllable-final consonant loss in Old French from an Optimality Theoretic perspective. I show that the Old French NoCoda effects are best seen as derived from the interaction of a constraint militating in favor ofbimoraic syllables, a sonority-based constraint on moraicityy and PARSEFeatures. The OT account developed here allows straightforwardly for the grouping together of the sonorant consonants and /S/, as well as for the maintenance of certain features in two of the specific changes. This account is preferable to one in terms ofOTs NoCoda constraint in that it is able to account for the compensatory lengthening which accompanied the change, as well as the fact that the change stopped short of M in many dialects.

More on (distinctive!) vowel length in historical French

While rejecting a claim for the disappearance of distinctive vowel length in historical French as ‘counterfactual’ (Picard, 2004: 3), Picards own arguments in support of the existence of vowel length do not rise to the level of fact. Picard fails to differentiate between derived versus underlying (hence distinctive) features. Further, his assumptions regarding vowel length from the Middle French period on are ill founded. Regarding the truly minor vocalic contrasts that do exist in Canadian French mid and low vowels, Picard makes several unmotivated assumptions and unsupported assertions that preclude consideration of other, plausible scenarios for their existence. Minor vocalic contrasts such as these, with little to no functional load, can be modeled in phonological grammars without an unnecessary proliferation of phonological categories.

Compensatory Lengthening in Historical French: The Role of the Speaker

This chapter highlights the synchronic role of the speaker in compensatory lengthening (CL), through an in-depth exploration of two major types seen in Old French. In the context of a typological survey of approaches to CL, I put forth a model that complements the strictly listener-oriented account of Kavitskaya (Compensatory lengthening. Phonetics, phonology, diachrony. Routledge, New York/London, 2002), and assumes the speaker/innovator as the ultimate source of CL. CL is gradual, as intermediate forms become, through the speaker’s postlexical reductions, more and more similar to (confusable with) forms with long vowels. CL has taken place diachronically once the listener has taken the speaker’s ultimately highly misperceivable output and done just that – misperceived it. The central aspect of this more comprehensive view of CL is that the speaker, through innovative reductive articulations, crucially feeds listener misperceptions. Speaker innovations are constrained by a principle of isochrony and by articulatory gesture preservation constraints (Gess R. J French Lang Stud 18:175–187, 2008) projected from a static perceptual knowledge source containing statements on the relative perceptibility of various phonetic cues across different phonological contexts (Steriade D. Directional asymmetries in place assimilation: A perceptual account. In: Hume E, Johnson K (eds) The role of speech perception in phonology. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 219–250, 2001).

Iggy Roca and Wyn Johnson (1999). A course in phonology . Oxford & Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers. Pp. xxi+725.

Roca & Johnson (R & J) are ambitious in their goals for A course in phonology ( CP ), now in its second printing. I would like to thank Dirk Elzinga and Sharon Hargus for helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this review. I would also like to thank Iggy Roca for his thorough commentary on that earlier draft, although I realise that he will likely remain unsatisfied with the present version. The book, intended for beginners (p. xv), covers what the authors see as the outcome of 30 years of work in mainstream generative phonology, including the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), and strives to do so in a pedagogically sound fashion. CP contains 20 chapters, divided into three parts: Phonetics and phonology, Suprasegmental structure and Advanced theory . There is, in addition, an accompanying workbook by the same authors and publisher, A workbook in phonology ( WP ) (pp. x+144), which is designed to be employable with other textbooks or on its own.