Law of Limitation

The ‘Law of Limitation’ refers to a phonological process that limits how far from the end of a word an accent may be located: if the word-final syllable is light, the accent may be located as far from the end of the word as the antepenult, e.g. εὑρήματα[heu̯ rέːmata] ‘discoveries (nom./acc. neuter plural)’, ἐβούλευε [ebóːleu̯ u̯ e] ‘(s)he was deliberating (impf. 3 sg.)’; if the word-final syllable is heavy, the accent may be located as far from word-end as the penult, e.g. εὑρημάτων [heu̯ rεːmátɔːn] ‘discoveries (gen. n. pl.)’, βουλεύω [boːléu̯ u̯ ɔː] ‘I am deliberating (pres. 1 sg.)’ (Göttling 1835:21–28; Steriade 1988:273–275). For the Law of Limitation, a single word-final consonant does not affect weight. Final syllables ending in a short vowel (-V#) and those ending in a short vowel followed by a single consonant (-VC#) both count as light, e.g. βασίλεια [basílei̯ i̯ a] ‘queen (nom. sg.)’, βασίλειαν [basílei̯ i̯ an] ‘queen (acc.)’. All other syllable rhymes count as heavy, e.g. -VCC# in ἀστύτριψ [astútrips] ‘always living in the city’. Wordfinal diphthongs pose a slight complication. As for the Sotera Rule, word-final -οι [-oi̯ ] and -αι [- ai̯ ] are treated as light rhymes in -VC#, e.g. φιλόσοφοι [philósophoi̯ ] ‘philosophers’ like φιλόσοφος [philósophos] ‘philosopher’, βασίλειαι [basílei̯ i̯ ai̯ ] ‘queens (nom. pl.)’ like βασίλειαν [basílei̯ i̯ an], with the exception of 3 sg. opt. act. -οι [-oi̯ ] and -αι [-ai̯ ], which are treated together with all other word-final long vowels and diphthongs as heavy -VV# rhymes, e.g. παιδεύοι [pai̯ déu̯ u̯ oi̯ ], παιδεύσαι [paidéu̯ sai̯ ] like παιδεύω [pai̯ déu̯ u̯ ɔː] ‘I am educating’. Note that the -οι [- oi̯ ] of locatival adverbs such as οἴκοι [ói̯ koi̯ ] ‘at home’ are also treated as -VV# rhymes, but the evidence comes from the non-application of the Sotera Rule, not the Law of Limitation

Accentuation

The accent marks in modern editions of Ancient Greek texts primarily reflect the accentual system of an educated register of the Koine of the early 2nd c. BCE. In this system, phonological, morphological, and lexical factors conspire to associate a pitch accent with one syllable of each lexical word. The phonology of the language permits limited contrasts in accentual position (λιθοβόλος vs. λιθόβολος = lithobólos vs. lithóbolos) and type (ἰσθμοί vs. ἰσθμοῖ = isthmói ̯ vs. isthmôi)̯; in the latter case, the syllable marked with an acute accent hosts a High tone, and that marked with a circumflex hosts a High-Low falling contour tone. In any given form, the maximum number of phonologically licit accentual contrasts is three. Within the bounds set by the phonology, morphological, and lexical factors, e.g. the inherent accentual properties of particular suffixes, further determine the accentuation of a word. Comparison with related Indo-European languages, especially Vedic, shows that the Greek system developed from an earlier system that likely lacked a contrast in accent type but permitted more positional contrasts; Greek accentuation is more dependent on the rhythmic structure of the language

Musical Evidence for Low Boundary Tones in Ancient Greek

Several scholars have suggested that in ancient Greek there was a low boundary tone at the end of a relatively small prosodic constituent such as a clitic group or maximal prosodic word. The boundary tone may phonologically motivate some puzzling pitch-accentual phenomena in the language. One is the diachronic pitch-peak retraction that led to the circumflex pitch accent (HL) on penultimate syllables (the “sōtêra rule”). Another is the intonational phrase-internal downstepping or deletion of a word-final acute accent (H); that conversion of an acute to a grave accent is known as “lulling” or “koímēsis”. If such a low boundary tone existed, its effects should still be audible in ancient Greek non-strophic vocal music, where there is a significant correlation between the pitch movement of the text and the movement of the melody to which it is set, i.e. between tone and tune. Specifically, proponents of such a low boundary tone would predict that the turning point between falling and rising melody, the “musical trough”, should center around the word-final mora or syllable. The present study provides the first full description of troughs in the Delphic Hymns and finds that they are indeed closely aligned with word-end. Furthermore, once other factors that could lead to word-final troughs are set aside, i.e. once potential confounds are controlled for, the association of the trough with word-end remains strong, suggesting that we should in fact reconstruct the low boundary tone

Greek Meter : An Approach Using Metrical Grids and Maxent

Standard presentations of ancient Greek poetic meter typically focus on identifying and classifying the repeatable syllable-weight-based patterns found in Greek poetry. This dissertation, by contrast, seeks to understand why selected Greek poets arranged their words in just those patterns instead of some others. Counter to the prevailing approach in classics, which defines meters as strings of short and long positions, meters are here viewed as abstract rhythmic patterns, made concrete by the phonological representations of verses. A main goal is to explicitly characterize the well-formedness conditions on the correspondences between these abstract patterns and actual lines. The study is couched in the framework of generative metrics. Chapter 1 sets the scope and context of the study and provides a brief rationale for the proposed approach by comparing it with traditional Greek metrics and demonstrating the built-in limitations of the latter in explaining the metrical choices of Greek poets. In addition, the chapter examines some basic features of Greek meter from the perspective of comparative metrics. Chapter 2 discusses the key background assumptions about the structure of meter and defends the view that poetic meters are musical objects rather than purely phonological ones, as some scholars have suggested. Chapter 3 presents the statistical method used in the dissertation to model the metrical intuitions of poets (maximum entropy density estimation). The chapter also introduces a new method for examining the extent to which the inherent rhythms of the relevant language explain the regularities observed in verses. Chapters 4-6 contain the main contributions to the study of Greek meter and the theory of metrics. Chapter 4 presents statistical analyses of four different meters (trochaic tetrameter, archaic and tragic iambic trimeter, comic iambic trimeter, and anapestic dimeter). According to the analyses, the quantitative patterns in these meters can be plausibly described using hierarchical metrical grids and natural metrical constraints. Chapter 5 examines the rhythmically more complex verses of Sappho and Alcaeus in the light of Paul Kiparsky’s recent proposal that the rhythmic aperiodicity that characterizes much early Greek verse is due to syncopation. It is shown that Kiparsky's theory, with some revisions, can be applied to the analysis of the metrical forms used by Sappho and Alcaeus. Chapter 6 argues against the theory of “Prosodic metrics”, which seeks to analyze Greek meters (and those of other languages) by using phonological markedness constraints alone. Chapter 7 summarizes the main results of the dissertation, places them in the context of the recent history of metrical scholarship, and considers directions for further research.Antiikin kreikkalaisen metriikan yleisesitykset tyypillisesti keskittyvät teksteissä esiintyvien rytmikuvioiden tunnistamiseen ja luokitteluun. Tämä väitöskirja pyrkii sen sijaan ymmärtämään, miksi eräät kreikkalaiset runoilijat käyttivät juuri näitä kuvioita joidenkin toisten asemesta. Vastoin antiikintutkimuksessa vallitsevaa lähestymistapaa, jossa runomittoja kuvaillaan lyhyiden ja pitkien tavupositioiden muodostamina jonoina, tässä väitöskirjassa mittoja tarkastellaan abstrakteina rytmisinä skeemoina, joita runoilijat konkretisoivat kielen sommitelmilla. Työn päätavoite on kuvata täsmällisesti tällaisten mitta-säe-vastaavuusparien hyvinmuodostuneisuutta koskevia ehtoja. Tutkimus nivoutuu generatiiivisen metriikan tutkimustraditioon. Väitöskirja koostuu seitsemästä luvusta. Luvussa 1 määritellään työn tausta ja tavoitteet sekä motivoidaan valittu lähestymistapa vertaamalla sitä traditionaaliseen metriikkaan ja osoittamalla jälkimmäisen lähestymistavan sisäänrakennetut rajoitteet säemuotojen valikoitumisen selittämisessä. Lisäksi luvussa kuvaillaan joitakin kreikkalaisen metriikan peruspiirteitä komparatiivisen metriikan näkökulmasta. Luvussa 2 tarkastellaan työn keskeisiä taustaoletuksia mittojen rakenteesta ja puolustetaan näkemystä, että runomitat ovat musiikillisia eivätkä puhtaasti fonologisia konstruktioita, kuten eräät tutkijat ovat esittäneet. Luvussa 3 esitellään tilastollinen menetelmä, jota työssä sovelletaan runoilijoiden mitallisten intuitioiden mallintamiseen (ns. suurimman uskottavuuden estimointi). Luvussa myös esitellään uusi menetelmä sen tutkimiseen, miltä osin kielen ominaisrytmit selittävät säkeissä havaittavia säännönmukaisuuksia. Luvut 4-6 sisältävät työn keskeisen kotribuution kreikan metriikan ja metriikan teorian tutkimukseen. Luvussa 4 esitetään tilastollinen analyysi neljästä eri runomitasta (trokeinen tetrametri, arkaainen ja traaginen jambinen trimetri, koominen jambinen trimetri ja anapestinen dimetri). Analyysien mukaan näissä mitoissa sommiteltua kielenainesta voidaan uskottavasti kuvailla hierarkkisten metristen kaavojen ja yksinkertaisten mittarajoitteiden avulla. Luvussa 5 tarkastellaan Sapfon ja Alkaioksen rytmisesti monimutkaisempia säkeitä analysoiden niitä Paul Kiparskyn viimeaikaisen ehdotuksen näkökulmasta, jonka mukaan kreikan varhaisten säemuotojen näennäinen aperiodisuus johtuu yksinkertaisen perussykkeen synkopoinnista. Luvussa osoitetaan, että Kiparskyn teoriaa voidaan muutamin muutoksin soveltaa myös Sapfon ja Alkaioksen käyttämien runomittojen analysointiin. Luvussa 6 argumentoidaan näkemystä vastaan, jonka mukaan kreikan (ja muiden kielten) mittoja voidaan uskottavasti kuvata pelkkien fonologisten tunnusmerkkirajoitteiden avulla. Luvussa 7 esitetään yhteenveto väitöskirjan tärkeimmistä tuloksista, kontekstualisoidaan niitä suhteessa metriikan tutkimuksen lähihistoriaan sekä hahmotellaan suuntaviivoja jatkotutkimukselle

Second-position clitics and the syntax-phonology interface: The case of ancient Greek

In this paper we discuss second position clitics in ancient Greek, which show a remarkable ability to break up syntactic constituents. We argue against attempts to capture such data in terms of a mismatch between c-structure yield and surface string and instead propose to enrich c-structure by using a multiple context free grammar with explicit yield functions rather than an ordinary CFG

No Stress System Requires Recursive Feet

A recursive foot is one in which a foot is embedded inside another foot of the same type: e.g., iambic (iaσ(iaσσ́)) or trochaic (tr(trσ́σ)σ). Recent work has used such feet to model stress systems with full or partial ternary rhythm, in which stress falls on every third syllable or mora. I show here that no stress system requires recursive feet, that phonological processes in such languages likely don't either, and that the notion of recursive foot is theoretically suspect.Un peu mètric recursiu és aquell que està incrustat dins d'un altre peu del mateix tipus: p. ex., un peu recursiu iàmbic (iaσ(iaσσ́)) o un peu recursiu trocaic (tr(trσ́σ)σ). Alguns treballs recents han fet servir aquest tipus de peu per modelar sistemes accentuals amb ritme ternari total o parcial, en què l'accent recau sobre cada tercera síl·laba o mora. En aquest article mostro que cap sistema accentual requereix peus recursius, que els processos fonològics d'aquestes suposades llengües no hi fan referència, i que la noció de peu recursiu és sospitosa des d'un punt de vista teòric

Hebrew stress: Back to the future

The paper addresses historical changes in the stress system of Hebrew, attending to the difference between Biblical Hebrew (script-based) and contemporary Hebrew (attested), and predicting the system of post-Hebrew; on the basis of experimental evidence and words from the periphery of the lexicon, it is predicted that the stress system of post-Hebrew will be similar to that of Biblical Hebrew. The predicted change from contemporary Hebrew to post-Hebrew is attributed to a combination of two factors: the inconsistency of the present system, and its incompliance with universal principles. The changes are addressed in terms of constraint reranking within the framework of Optimality Theory

THE TYPOLOGY AND ORIGIN OF ACCENTUAL VERSE

THE TYPOLOGY AND ORIGIN OF ACCENTUAL VERS

Onsets Contribute to Syllable Weight: Statistical Evidence from Stress and Meter

While some accounts of syllable weight deny a role for onsets, onset-sensitive weight criteria have received renewed attention in recent years (e.g. Gordon 2005, Topintzi 2010). This article presents new evidence supporting onsets as factors in weight. First, in complex stress systems such as those of English and Russian, onset length is a significant attractor of stress both in the lexicon and in nonce probes. This effect is highly systematic and unlikely, it is argued, to be driven by analogy alone. Second, in flexible quantitative meters (e.g. in Sanskrit), poets preferentially align longer onsets with heavier metrical positions, all else being equal. A theory of syllable weight is proposed in which the domain of weight begins not with the rime but with the p-center (perceptual center) of the syllable, which is perturbed by properties of the onset. While onset effects are apparently universal in gradient weight systems, they are weak enough to be usually eclipsed by the structure of the rime under categorization. This proposal therefore motivates both the existence of onset weight effects and the subordination of the onset to the rime with respect to weight.Linguistic