Compensatory lengthening and structure preservation revisited yet again

In their seminal paper, deChene (1979) make a strong claim that pre-existing vowel length contrast is a necessary condition for the phonologization of vowel length through compensatory lengthening. Compensatory lengthening is thus predicted to be always a structure-preserving change. Since that time, the claim has been challenged in numerous works (Gess 1998, Hock1986, Morin 1992), among others). A closer examination of the cited counterexamples to de Chene and Anderson's claim reveals certain generalizations. Some apparent counterexamples, such as Samothraki Greek (Kiparsky 2011), involve the full vocalization stage of the consonant with the subsequent coalescence of that consonant with the preceding vowel. In other cases, such as Old French (Gess 1998) and Komi Ižma (Hausenberg 1998), heterosyllabic or heteromorphemic identical vowel sequences are attested elsewhere in the language. The former cases involve the reanalysis of vowel length before weakened consonants that is indeed strengthened by the independent existence of the vowel length contrast in the languages in question, in support of de Chene and Anderson's claim. The former cases are not truly compensatory, and phonemic vowel length is introduced into the language through coalescence

Opacity in Crimean Tatar: The Interaction of Vowel Harmony and Syncope

BLS 38: General Session and Thematic Session on Language Contac

Stratal OT and Underspecification: Evidence from Tundra Nenets

Tundra Nenets exhibits many consonantal alternations, such as cluster simplification, place loss, lenition, and a variety of NC-effects, which combine transparent and opaque interactions within the same phrasal domain of application. To reconcile the Tundra Nenets data within Stratal OT, we assume abstract autosegmental representations, relying on underspecification and hierarchical organization of features. The analysis incorporates the proposal of McCarthy (2008) that consonant cluster simplification starts with place loss. Apparent opaque deletion mappings are reanalyzed as coalescence within the correspondence theory (McCarthy and Prince 1995; 1999). The analysis unifies Tundra Nenets consonant cluster alternations and assumes only one surface glottal stop

Compensatory Lengthening Without Moras: A Study in Phonologization

Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Aspect (2000

Phonetic Analogy and Schwa Deletion in French

in the classic Lexical Phonology model of cyclicity, only lexical processes are held to be cyclic. Postlexical processes, operating on elements of subphonemic detail, should not display this characteristic. If it can be shown that they in fact do, this would be a challenge not only to the division of processes into lexical and postlexical, but also to the notion of any meaningful split between phonology and phonetics

Pokémonikers: A study of sound symbolism and Pokémon names

Sound symbolism flouts the core assumption of the arbitrariness of the sign in human language. The cross-linguistic prevalence of sound symbolism raises key questions about the universality versus language-specificity of sound symbolic correspondences. One challenge to studying cross-linguistic sound symbolic patterns is the difficulty of holding constant real-world referents across cultures. In this study, we address the challenge of cross-linguistic comparison by utilising a rich, cross-linguistic dataset drawn from the Pokémon game franchise. Within this controlled universe, we compare the sound symbolisms of Japanese and English Pokémon names (pokemonikers). Our results show a tendency in both languages to encode the same attributes with sound symbolism, but also reveal key differences rooted in language-specific structural and lexical constraints

On looking into words (and beyond): Structures, Relations, Analyses

On Looking into Words is a wide-ranging volume spanning current research into word structure and morphology, with a focus on historical linguistics and linguistic theory. The papers are offered as a tribute to Stephen R. Anderson, the Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics at Yale, who is retiring at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. The contributors are friends, colleagues, and former students of Professor Anderson, all important contributors to linguistics in their own right. As is typical for such volumes, the contributions span a variety of topics relating to the interests of the honorand. In this case, the central contributions that Anderson has made to so many areas of linguistics and cognitive science, drawing on synchronic and diachronic phenomena in diverse linguistic systems, are represented through the papers in the volume. The 26 papers that constitute this volume are unified by their discussion of the interplay between synchrony and diachrony, theory and empirical results, and the role of diachronic evidence in understanding the nature of language. Central concerns of the volume include morphological gaps, learnability, increases and declines in productivity, and the interaction of different components of the grammar. The papers deal with a range of linked synchronic and diachronic topics in phonology, morphology, and syntax (in particular, cliticization), and their implications for linguistic theory

On looking into words (and beyond): Structures, Relations, Analyses

On Looking into Words is a wide-ranging volume spanning current research into word structure and morphology, with a focus on historical linguistics and linguistic theory. The papers are offered as a tribute to Stephen R. Anderson, the Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics at Yale, who is retiring at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. The contributors are friends, colleagues, and former students of Professor Anderson, all important contributors to linguistics in their own right. As is typical for such volumes, the contributions span a variety of topics relating to the interests of the honorand. In this case, the central contributions that Anderson has made to so many areas of linguistics and cognitive science, drawing on synchronic and diachronic phenomena in diverse linguistic systems, are represented through the papers in the volume. The 26 papers that constitute this volume are unified by their discussion of the interplay between synchrony and diachrony, theory and empirical results, and the role of diachronic evidence in understanding the nature of language. Central concerns of the volume include morphological gaps, learnability, increases and declines in productivity, and the interaction of different components of the grammar. The papers deal with a range of linked synchronic and diachronic topics in phonology, morphology, and syntax (in particular, cliticization), and their implications for linguistic theory

On looking into words (and beyond): Structures, Relations, Analyses

On Looking into Words is a wide-ranging volume spanning current research into word structure and morphology, with a focus on historical linguistics and linguistic theory. The papers are offered as a tribute to Stephen R. Anderson, the Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics at Yale, who is retiring at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. The contributors are friends, colleagues, and former students of Professor Anderson, all important contributors to linguistics in their own right. As is typical for such volumes, the contributions span a variety of topics relating to the interests of the honorand. In this case, the central contributions that Anderson has made to so many areas of linguistics and cognitive science, drawing on synchronic and diachronic phenomena in diverse linguistic systems, are represented through the papers in the volume. The 26 papers that constitute this volume are unified by their discussion of the interplay between synchrony and diachrony, theory and empirical results, and the role of diachronic evidence in understanding the nature of language. Central concerns of the volume include morphological gaps, learnability, increases and declines in productivity, and the interaction of different components of the grammar. The papers deal with a range of linked synchronic and diachronic topics in phonology, morphology, and syntax (in particular, cliticization), and their implications for linguistic theory

On looking into words (and beyond): Structures, Relations, Analyses

On Looking into Words is a wide-ranging volume spanning current research into word structure and morphology, with a focus on historical linguistics and linguistic theory. The papers are offered as a tribute to Stephen R. Anderson, the Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics at Yale, who is retiring at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. The contributors are friends, colleagues, and former students of Professor Anderson, all important contributors to linguistics in their own right. As is typical for such volumes, the contributions span a variety of topics relating to the interests of the honorand. In this case, the central contributions that Anderson has made to so many areas of linguistics and cognitive science, drawing on synchronic and diachronic phenomena in diverse linguistic systems, are represented through the papers in the volume. The 26 papers that constitute this volume are unified by their discussion of the interplay between synchrony and diachrony, theory and empirical results, and the role of diachronic evidence in understanding the nature of language. Central concerns of the volume include morphological gaps, learnability, increases and declines in productivity, and the interaction of different components of the grammar. The papers deal with a range of linked synchronic and diachronic topics in phonology, morphology, and syntax (in particular, cliticization), and their implications for linguistic theory