Creating boundaries and stops in German: An analysis in Universal Boundary Theory

Samuel Andersson

doi:10.3765/plsa.v5i1.4724

Abstract

This paper discusses the nature of prosodic representations, focusing on a case study from the phonology of Standard High German. This language displays devoicing, previously argued to be sensitive to syllables, and glottal stop epenthesis, previously argued to be sensitive to feet. This seems to require at least two prosodic constituents, the syllable and the foot. However, I show that the data can be analyzed straightforwardly in Universal Boundary Theory (UBT), a non-hierarchical theory of prosodic representations using only a single boundary symbol |. I introduce the central assumptions of UBT, and show that the theory can handle the syllable- and foot-level phonology of German, including affix-specific behavior and phase-based interactions between the syntax and phonology. I argue that UBT provides a better account of devoicing than a class of earlier analyses based on syllables. Moving beyond German, UBT predicts the existence of a new prosodic universal which cannot be captured by a traditional prosodic hierarchy: phonological processes apply top-down, from larger to smaller prosodic units. Future typological work will shed light on the crosslinguistic validity of this prediction.

Highlights

Prosodic representations are often taken to be hierarchically organized into units like moras, syllables, feet, words, and phrases (Selkirk 1981, Nespor and Vogel 1986)
Why exactly does a single boundary symbol suffice for two processes applying in different environments? How come the boundaries used for glottal stop insertion do not get in the way of the boundaries used for devoicing? This section provides an answer, and discusses the conditions under which boundary symbols can co-exist in the same grammar without interfering with other boundary symbols
This paper has analyzed the prosodic phonology of German, focusing on glottal stop insertion and devoicing. These phenomena are usually described in terms of feet and syllables, I have shown that an analysis is possible in Universal Boundary Theory (UBT), which has no such prosodic units and only a single boundary symbol to represent prosodic edges

Summary

Introduction

Prosodic representations are often taken to be hierarchically organized into units like moras, syllables, feet, words, and phrases (Selkirk 1981, Nespor and Vogel 1986). This includes flat models of phonotactics (Steriade 1999, Heinz 2007), stress (Scheer and Szigetvári 2005, Faust and Ulfsbjorninn 2018), and vowel harmony (Mailhot and Reiss 2007, Samuels 2009), to mention a few examples If these phenomena can be handled without hierarchical prosodic representations, exploring a non-hierarchical approach like Universal Boundary Theory seems to be well worth our time. Since the word begins with a boundary and a vowel, the glottal stop insertion rule will apply and produce the correct surface form [|ʔatóm|] ‘atom’. Glottal stops are predictable in this hiatus environment, and so we can write a simple phonological rule to insert boundaries in the right places:. The derivation table below shows that we derive the correct outputs, with voiceless obstruents and glottal stops in all and only the right places, for all of the data we have seen:

Discussion and consequences

Conclusions