A Theory of Consonantal Interaction

Abstract

Co-occurrence restrictions on word-initial consonant clusters are traditionally viewed as a consequence of the relative sonority of both members of the CC. In the first part of this paper, I aim to show that the reasoning underlying this approach is circular. The observation that sonority does increase in word-initial clusters is relabelled explanation in saying that sonority must increase. Since the crucial part of this circular argumentation is expressed by a constraint (sonority must increase within word-initial clusters), I address the more general issue of constraints in linguistic theory. In the second part of the paper, I propose a constraint-free theory where restrictions on word-initial clusters follow from the interaction of more general principles. The main principles I draw on are Government-Licensing (Charette 1990), segmental complexity (Harris 1990) and a strict CVCV syllable-structure (Lowenstamm 1996). None of these devices makes special reference to word-initial consonant clusters. Since word-initial restrictions crucially depend on idiosyncratic properties of the consonants involved, I also investigate the internal structure of consonants. In the representations I introduce, the set of observations commonly subsumed under the label sonority is assigned no phonological status. Rather, it is shown to be a function of known phonological primitives. Finally, a theory of consonantal interaction built on the consonantal identities developed and the principles mentioned is presented. This theory cannot possibly do with the reverse phenomenology, predicting that word-initial RT-clusters (where 'T'=obstruent, 'R' = sonorant) are impossible in languages of the Indo-European (IE) type. In 1, the traditional way of handling word-initial clusters is examined. 2 investigates the theoretical status of constraints. The way to proceed in order to build a constraint-free theory is outlined in 3 and 4. In 5, conson