Emergent phonology

To what extent do complex phonological patterns require the postulation of universal mechanisms specific to language? In this volume, we explore the Emergent Hypothesis, that the innate language-specific faculty driving the shape of adult grammars is minimal, with grammar development relying instead on cognitive capacities of a general nature. Generalisations about sounds, and about the way sounds are organised into meaningful units, are constructed in a bottom-up fashion: As such, phonology is emergent. We present arguments for considering the Emergent Hypothesis, both conceptually and by working through an extended example in order to demonstrate how an adult grammar might emerge from the input encountered by a learner. Developing a concrete, data-driven approach, we argue that the conventional, abstract notion of unique underlying representations is unmotivated; such underlying representations would require some innate principle to ensure their postulation by a learner. We review the history of the concept and show that such postulated forms result in undesirable phonological consequences. We work through several case studies to illustrate how various types of phonological patterns might be accounted for in the proposed framework. The case studies illustrate patterns of allophony, of productive and unproductive patterns of alternation, and cases where the surface manifestation of a feature does not seem to correspond to its morphological source. We consider cases where a phonetic distinction that is binary seems to manifest itself in a way that is morphologically ternary, and we consider cases where underlying representations of considerable abstractness have been posited in previous frameworks. We also consider cases of opacity, where observed phonological properties do not neatly map onto the phonological generalisations governing patterns of alternation

Harmony Drivers: No Disagreement Allowed

'Harmony' is a widely attested pattern in natural language, a configuration where within some domain all eligible anchors for some feature bear the same feature value. Typically, a harmony system exhibits a choice between two feature values. Either all anchors within some domain D bear the feature value F or all anchors within D bear the opposite value G. Depending on the theory of features and harmony, both harmonic values may be overtly specified or one may be indicated by the absence of featural specification. In exploring here the option of deriving harmony by prohibiting feature disharmony, the functional motivation is that the resetting of articulatory targets costs the grammar

Tone in lexical phonology

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1983.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIESBibliography: leaves 357-365.by Douglas George Pulleyblank.Ph.D

Two Rules or One…or None? [ATR] in Yoruba

Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Semantic Typology and Semantic Universals (1993

Editors' Note

This note provides some information and statistics about the AMP 2015 conference from which these papers originated, and acknowledges the support and funding received by the conference organizers and editors of this volume

Linguistics

Contains report on one research project and abstracts for seven theses

Rime length, stress, and association domains

Every regular Chinese syllable has a syllable tone (the tone we get when the syllable is read in isolation). In some Chinese languages, the tonal pattern of a multisyllabic expression is basically a concatenation of the syllable tones. In other Chinese languages, the tonal pattern of a multisyllabic expression is determined solely by the initial syllable. I call the former M -languages (represented by Mandarin) and the latter S -languages (represented by Shanghai). I argue that there is an additional difference in rime structures between the two language groups. In S-languages, all rimes are simple, i.e., there are no underlying diphthongs or codas. In M-languages, all regular rimes are heavy. I further argue that a syllable keeps its underlying tones only if it has stress. Independent metrical evidence tells us that heavy rimes may carry inherent stress. Thus, in M-languages, all regular syllables are stressed and retain their underlying tones (which may or may not undergo further changes). In contrast, in S-languages, regular rimes do not carry inherent stress; instead, only those syllables that are assigned stress by rule can keep their underlying tones and hence head a multisyllabic tonal domain.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42998/1/10831_2005_Article_BF01440582.pd