Vowel/Glide Alternation in a Theory of Constraint Interaction

This dissertation examines the distribution of high vowels and glides using Prince and Smolensky's Optimality Theory, which proposes that phonological constraints are violable and hierarchically ranked. The distribution of high vowels and glides is shown to be a consequence of simultaneously comparing moraic and nonmoraic syllabifications of high vowels for satisfaction of phonological constraints. In brief, a high vowel surfaces when the moraic parse best satisfies the constraints and a glide surfaces when the nonmoraic parse best satisfies the constraints. This dissertation investigates three main phenomena associated with the distribution of high vowels and glides.First, it treats the syllabification of vowel sequences in a number of languages with only surface monophthongal vowels. In Etsako, Luganda,Kimatuumbi, and Ilokano, high vocoids are syllabified as vowels when followed by a consonant, but they are syllabified as their nonmoraic counterparts when followed by another vowel. Furthermore, the syllabification of non high vowels varies across these languages. The syllabification of vowel sequences is shown to follow from the interaction of syllable structure constraints that ensure the surface vowel is a monophthong. The interlinguistic variation in syllabification is shown to follow from different rankings of the same set of syllable structure constraints. Second, stress can influence the distribution of high vowels. In Lenakel and Spanish, the generalization is that a high vocoid adjacent to a non high vowel is a vowel when stressed; otherwise it is a glide. This generalization implies that stress placement must be known prior to syllabification, which is problematic in procedural approaches to constituent construction, where syllabification must precede metrification. In the Optimality-Theoretic approach, the distribution of high vowels is determined by simultaneously best satisfying the metrical and the syllable structure constraints. Third, the distribution of high vowels and glides cannot always be attributed to an alternation between underlying vowels and glides. In a language like Berber, glides must be present underlyingly, and these underlying glides can alternate with high vowels. This is often called glide vocalization. The alternation between underlying glides and high vowels in Berber is also shown to be the result of constraint interaction. In this case, moraic and nonmoraic syllabifications of the underlying glide are compared for constraint satisfaction.Ph.D

The phonology of nasal-obstruent sequences /

This thesis presents an analysis of the phonological processes that affect contiguous nasal and obstruent segments. These phonological processes include voice, manner and place assimilation as well as deletion and coalescence. The goal of this thesis is to account for these seemingly disparate processes by introducing universal constraints on the representation of segments in non-linear phonology. Deriving these processes from the principles of a theory of representation is beneficial because such an analysis is not possible in a theory that appeals only to rules. The result is a theory of phonology with greater explanatory adequacy than a theory that relies on rules.Chapter 1 contains a review of the history of the representation of segments and the representation of assimilation as well as a discussion of the theoretical assumptions used throughout the thesis. Chapter 2 contains a discussion of the phonological processes as they occur during the formation of prenasalized consonants. These processes are shown to be triggered by the representation of prenasalized consonants and a theory of underspecification. Chapter 3 proposes an analysis of the universal characteristics of nasal-obstruent place assimilation which is then extended to explain some universal properties of consonantal assimilation in general