Nonlinear Phonology Research Articles

Nonlinear Phonology

The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce a recent advance in phonological theory, "nonlinear phonology," which differs fundamentally from previous theories by focusing on the hierarchical nature of relationships among phonological units. We first introduce the basic concepts and assumptions of nonlinear phonological theory and then demonstrate clinical applications of the theory for assessment and intervention. Data from a child with a severe phonological disorder are used to illustrate aspects of nonlinear theory. The data are first analyzed in terms of phonological processes in order to provide the readers with a familiar starting point for comprehension and comparison. The nonlinear frameworks are shown to provide a deeper analysis of the child's phonological system than the phonological process analyses and to lead to a more clearly defined intervention plan.

Phonological Deviations in Norwegian Conduction Aphasia: Testing a Model of Non-linear Phonology

The present study is an analysis of phonologically deviant words in the speech of a group of Norwegin patients suffering from conduction aphasia. The analysis shows that these deviations are not randomly distributed. Their distribution is such that it supports phonological thories which posit hierarchiacal structures both below and above the level of the segment. The deviations can be accounted for within a phonological theory which assumes that a word's lexical phonological representation contains a phonemic level where each phoneme consists of a set of articulatory features which are hierarchically organized with respect to each other, and which also assumes that the phonological representation contains information about the syllable structure of the word.

Tone Sandhi and vowel deletion in Margi

Within the theoretical framework of nonlinear phonology, this paper proposes an account of tone sandhi and vowel deletion in Margi, a Chadic language spoken in Northern Nigeria. The database is Hoffman's Grammar of the Margi Language. Language-specific tonal processes in Margi are shown to originate in tone trapping, i.e., the impossibility for a tone to anchor to a skeletal slot by a universal mechanism. The paper identifies the circumstances leading to tone trapping (e.g., Vowel Elision) and formalizes the various tone-rescue processes available both word-internally and across words. Whereas trapped high tones are always saved (either taking over low-tone vowel positions or giving rise to contour tones), trapped low tones may remain trapped throughout a derivation and thus receive no phonetic realization (by universal convention).

Generative and Nonlinear Phonology

Generative and Nonlinear Phonology

Ghost Segments in Nonlinear Phonology: Polish Yers

Nonlinear phonology has proposed several new approaches to the issue of 'ghost segments'-segments which have phonological effects of various kinds, but which either never surface or surface only under special circumstances. Mobile vowels in Polish, traditionally known as yers, fall into this category. They have recently been analyzed in terms of syllable-driven epenthesis, as empty vowels, and as floating vocalic matrices. The present paper examines these proposals, points to their problematic aspects, and offers a novel feature-geometric interpretation of yers. They are viewed as empty root nodes whose vocalization, determined by syllable structure, permits the full prosodification of consonants.*

The Representation of Features in Non-Linear Phonology: The Articulator Node Hierarchy

The Representation of Features in Non-Linear Phonology: The Articulator Node Hierarchy

Developmental implications of nonlinear phonological theory

For the past 20 years the field of linguistics has provided a basis for assessment and treatment methods for speech and language disorders. Since Goldsmiths (1976) dissertation showing tone as an independently functioning autosegment, new and robust phonological frameworks have become available, i.e. nonlinear phonological frameworks. This paper outlines major aspects of nonlinear phonology and its developmental implications. Based in generative phonology, nonlinear frameworks adhere to many of the tenets of the generative grammar tradition, such as markedness and autonomy of linguistic components. The major difference between classical and nonlinear generative phonology is the latters emphasis on representation rather than on rules or processes. This enriched representation is hierarchical and multitiered, rather than being strictly sequential as in classical generative phonology, and includes syllabic structure and segmental information. Phonological rules or processes result from, and are constrained by, principles of association between the various autonomous levels. If a child comes to the language-learning situation with a representional framework, a set of universal 'templates' are then available to utilize for decoding and encoding. The incorporation of both syllabic (prosodic level) and segmental information in representation suggests that the child will come to the language-learning process primed with expected syllable structure bases as well as with an expected segmental 'feature inventory'. The concept of autonomy implies possible independent learning for information on the various tiers, e.g. between the prosodic and segmental levels. The concept of hierarchy suggests that prominent system units in tree structure may have developmental precedence over deeply embedded units. These and other concepts are developed in the following pages.

Applying linguistic theory to speech–language pathology: the case for nonlinear phonology

Application of knowledge from many related fields benefits the practice of speech-language pathology. In the past 20 years, linguistic theory has provided a rich knowledge base for application. Phonological theories have provided frameworks for the description of the speech of unintelligible children in terms of coherent phonological systems, thus facilitating logical goal-setting for intervention. In this paper we suggest some of the possible implications of current nonlinear phonological frameworks for developmental phonology, and give an example of clinical application.

The application of nonlinear phonological theory to intervention with one phonologically disordered child

Speech-language pathologists gain opportunities to search for more effective assessment and intervention methodologies by deriving implications of significant developments within linguistics. This paper describes the application of some tenets of nonlinear phonology to the planning and execution of a phonological intervention programme with one child. The nonlinear analyses provided independent phonological therapy goals for both segmental and syllable structure (prosodic tier structure) development. Higher and lower level features in the feature hierarchy were contrasted in intervention. Prosodic constituents derived from moraic and onset-rime syllable theories were contrasted as facilitators in the attainment of syllable structure goals. A detailed analysis of the changes in the childs speech over two 6-week intervention blocks shows that the goals derived from the nonlinear analyses were logical and attainable. The data demonstrate a faster rate of acquisition for syllable structure (prosodic) goals in the first time block, some predictability for acquisition based on the feature hierarchy, and similarity of effectiveness of the use of different types of prosodic constituent stimuli.

Generative and non-linear phonology By Jacques Durand (review)

REVIEWS363 Zubizarreta, Maria Luisa. 1982. The formal interaction of harmony and accent: The tone pattern of Japanese. The structure of phonological representations, ed. by Harry van der Hülst and Norval Smith, Part 11:159-212. Dordrecht: Foris. Department of Linguistics[Received 30 July 1990.] University of California Berkeley. CA 94720 Generative and non-linear phonology. By Jacques Durand. London & New York: Longman, 1990. Pp. xiii, 337. Reviewed by David Odden, Ohio State University Writing an introductory text in a field such as phonology, with its diverse approaches, must be a difficult and unenviable task. In GNLP Durand seeks to provide a broad perspective on issues in linear and nonlinear generative phonology, but two problems detract significantly from its usefulness as a textbook . First, the focus is on presenting theories, with little attention to developing the student's appreciation for good analysis and argumentation. There are no problem sets, and no extended analytic exemplars in the fashion of the Kenstowicz & Kisseberth text (1979). Arguments are often superficial and seriously flawed, and D does not provide the kind ofthorough and incisive argumentation that students need to model their own research on. For instance, the case against the linear treatment of contour tones in Ch. 7 is largely based on one weak argument that linear phonology does not explain the naturalness of certain assimilations. We are not given the stronger argument that the linear treatment is so powerful that it allows the formulation of legions of unattested rules, whose nonexistence is explained on principled grounds in the autosegmental theory. The second problem is the coverage of topics. Although D covers both linear and nonlinear phonology, only one third ofthe book is concerned with nonlinear theories, including Dependency Phonology (DP). Despite this, the coverage of nonlinear phonology almost turns out to be better than the coverage of linear phonology. The central technical issues of linear phonology are ignored, or treated only in passing. The linear theory of notation is never given a systematic treatment. Little is said of the rule ordering debate, iterative versus simultaneous rules, exception features, the cycle, or absolute neutralization. Ch. 1 provides an introduction and argues for using features in rules, with English aspiration given to show the superiority of features. The argument is bolstered with an analysis of onset clusters in English. Here it is noted that CCC clusters are of the form s - {p,t,k} - {l,r,y,w}. Again, {p,t,k} function as a natural class—this rule is stated with symbols, not features. The next step is to explain why y does not appear postconsonantally, contrary to the prediction of our rule; this motivates a condition against (C)CyV. But D does not point out that, if such conditions are stated in terms of symbols, we can eliminate the negative condition by removing y from the list of consonants in the third position: under closer scrutiny an argument for features becomes an argument against features. 364 LANGUAGE. VOLUME 67. NUMBER 2 (1991) The second chapter covers distinctive features. Having made a case for stating rules with features, we consider whether features might be abstract, lacking intrinsic phonetic content. It is stated that this is unsatisfactory, since the mapping between phonological and phonetic features becomes arbitrary. This is as far as the argument goes; we never consider why this is undesirable. The argument should be fleshed out: a theory in which phonological features are arbitrarily mapped onto phonetic features is more powerful than one in which phonological and phonetic features are the same, since the former theory properly includes the latter. D then provides a sketch of features. In the discussion of the features for glides there is a typo (45)—y and w are assigned the value [ + ant]. The assignment of [ + low] to the laryngeals h and ? is a repetition from SPE (Chomsky & Halle 1968:307), and certainly contradicts the definition of [low]. This anomaly goes unnoticed. Ch. 3 touches on the question of binary versus scalar or unary features, markedness, and the theory of 'gestures' in DP. D argues against a theory of privative features which assumes features like 'voice', 'voiceless', etc. The strongest argument for binarity is based on place assimilation of preconsonantal...

Generative and Non-Linear Phonology

Part 1 Introduction: scope of this book from classical phonemics to generative phonology phonemes or features? levels of representation aspects of a standard generative analysis of Midi French phonology within the model of grammar. Part 2 The theory of distinctive features: some general assumptions the phonetic features and their articulatory correlates universalism revisited the acoustic/auditory basis of DFs invariance and distinctive features. Part 3 Binarism, full and partial specification, markedness and gestures: binarism multivalued features contrastivity, archiphonemes and redundancy rules markedness theory gestures. Part 4 The derivational issue - aspects of the abstractness-concreteness debate: aspects of the segmental phonology of English objections to the vowel shift and velar softening natural generative phonology (NGP) in defence of the vowel shift. Part 5 Underspecification theory and lexical phonology: underspecification theory (UT) Yawelmani vowels and underspecification lexical phonology. Part 6 Metrical structures: syllable structure stress and prominence. Part 7 Autosegmental and multidimensional phonology: tone in the SPE framework the skeletal tier further geometrical extensions universal phonology and the no rule approach. Part 8 An outline of dependency phonology: suprasegmental representations infrasegmental representations back unrounded vowels. Appendix: phonetic symbols.

The Null Subject Parameter Edited by Osvaldo Jaeggli and Kenneth J. Safir. (review)

REVIEWS367 Kiparsky, Paul. 1968. How abstract is phonology? Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club. Sagey, Elisabeth. 1986. The representation of features and relations in non-linear phonology . Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation. Department of Linguistics[Received 5 September 1990.] 204 Cunz Hall Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210 The Null Subject Parameter. Edited by Osvaldo Jaegglit and Kenneth J. Safir. (Studies in natural language and linguistic theory, 15.) Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989. Pp. 320. Cloth $89.00. Reviewed by Raffaella Zanuttini, University of Pennsylvania The subject-predicate relation has long been assumed by grammarians to be a basic structural feature of all languages. From the point of view of comparative syntax, however, it is a striking fact that in some languages every sentence must have a subject, while in others it is systematically possible for subjects not to occur. Moreover, this dichotomy is not the result of genetic developments , as closely-related languages differ on this point (e.g. Bani-Hassan Arabic and Levantine Arabic), while members of clearly unrelated families (e.g. Italian and Chinese) behave alike with respect to the obligatoriness of subjects. Given the linguistic importance of subjects, their possible absence is interesting on many levels, and one might expect a variety of perspectives to be relevant, perhaps including pragmatics, discourse processing or parsing concerns , phonological deletion, and even free variation. The present volume represents a body of work in the syntactic framework of Government and Binding (GB) theory which convincingly employs a strictly syntactic approach to determine what sort of grammar allows, or does not allow, null subjects. The problem of licensing null subjects within a Chomskyan framework is at least as old as GB itself, and is still current in the more recent parametric approach; both theories have developed and changed considerably since the early 1980s. The Null Subject Parameter (NSP) is the canonical example of a parameter, and its development—as presented in this book—reflects to a large extent the development of both parametric theory and GB. The original idea of parameters was simple, strong and attractive: (i) the apparent complexity of syntactic variation across languages can be reduced to a necessarily limited set of universal parameters, each of which has (at least) two options, or settings (e.g. 'subjects obligatory' versus 'subjects optional'), (ii) The consequences of a particular setting are a cluster of related properties; it is thus no accident, according to parametric theory, that Italian allows both null subjects and postverbal subjects, while English allows neither, (iii) The simplicity and universality of the parameters facilitates learning: positive data from a single 368LANGUAGE. VOLUME 67. NUMBER 2 (1991) construction trigger a parameter setting; the choice of alternatives in related constructions (i.e. those relevant to the parameter's cluster of properties) then follows automatically. (For further discussion of parametric theory, see Jaeggli & Safir's introductory discussion.) Because it distinguishes minimal differences between grammars and proceeds by identifying properties that correlate both within and across languages, parametric theory has encouraged a comparative approach to syntax, and has begun to bring together dialectologists and theoretical syntacticians. The contributions collected in this volume reflect this positive change, considering seriously a wide range of data from different dialects, languages, and language families, among them Trentino, Walloon, Chamorro, Chinese, Germanic, and Semitic. Most solutions to the problem rely on an old intuition correlating the richness of inflectional morphology (primarily subject-verb agreement) with the possibility of null subjects, which appears to be confirmed—and, in fact, made more precise—for a number of languages. It is clear, though, that agreement inflection cannot be the only factor that accounts for the possibility of null subjects across languages; this possibility is variously sensitive to the thematic properties of the subject, the form of the verb, and the type of clause, among other factors. The majority of contributors to this volume implement some version of the agreement solution, but the partial nature of this solution is also demonstrated , and most authors appeal to other factors as well. The editors themselves offer a comprehensive and ambitious synthesis which attempts both to unite the various analyses and to reconcile the data. While one may legitimately conclude that there is no single straightforward account for the...

NON-LINEAR PHONOLOGY AND ELIZABETHAN PROSODY

In this paper I argue that the dating and extent of the ‘quantitative movement’ in English metres (c.1550 to c. 1603) is no mere literary accident, but is connected with changes that had taken, or were taking, place in the stress phonology of English. Chief among these changes was the extensive replacement of the native, ‘left-strong’ system of English stress by a Latinate, ‘right-strong’ system. This replacement has further consequences: a particular kind of relationship between English syllable structure and stress is established, and many secondary-stressed syllables at the right edges of English words are reduced. Both these consequences are germane to the structure of English quantitative verses of the period, as the paper explicates. The paper therefore explores, using non-linear formalism, what links may exist between the stress phonology of English and instances of English poetic form.

Methods and Goals of Speech Production Research

A personal view of current issues in speech production research is presented with some historical comments. Particular emphasis is placed on issues directly concerned with the relation between abstract phonological representations and speech signals, using a model of speech organization in reference to articulatory movement patterns. Experimental methods to support such linguistic research efforts, including some instrumental methods for recording articulatory data, are also reviewed from this particular point of view. Preparatory sections review the physical process and some physiological studies. The discussion focuses on the temporal organization of speech, deviating from the classical segmental concatenation and coarticulation principles, and discussing new possibilities about phonetic implementation in conjunction with an abstract representation framework of nonlinear phonology.

Insights into Tagalog: Reduplication, Infixation, and Stress from Nonlinear Phonology

Insights into Tagalog: Reduplication, Infixation, and Stress from Nonlinear Phonology

Insights into Tagalog: Reduplication, infixation, and stress from nonlinear phonology By Koleen Matsuda French (review)

Insights into Tagalog: Reduplication, infixation, and stress from nonlinear phonology By Koleen Matsuda French (review)

Phonologica 1984: Proceedings of the Fifth International Phonology Meeting, Eisenstadt, 25-28 June 1984

This volume presents the edited proceedings of the Fifth International Phonology meeting held in July 1984. The topics covered include Prosody and non-linear phonology, Morphology and phonology, Sentence phonology and sentence phonetics, and Substantive evidence in phonology.

Asynchronous parallelism in human behaviour: a cognitive science perspective on human-computer interaction

Abstract Abstract The paper first presents a discussion of non-linearities in human sequential behaviour-in terms of interleaving-and then introduces the concepts which underlie non-linear phonology. The paper does not provide a full treatment of the theory of non-linear phonology, nor of its generalization to cover non-speech activities-these can be found elsewhere in the literature. The significance of the formalism of non-linear phonology for researchers and designers in human-computer interaction is revealed through the discussion of several examples, ranging from general behaviour with a multi-tasking interface, via interleaved activities in the use of a note-taking aid, to programming itself.

Review of Durand (1986): Dependency and non-linear phonology

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French schwa and nonlinear phonology

French schwa and nonlinear phonology