Phonological Restrictions Research Articles

Aspectual reduplication in Sign Language of the Netherlands: reconsidering phonological constraints and aspectual distinctions

Abstract This study investigates the use of predicate reduplication to express aspectual meaning in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). The study focuses on three aspect types that have been found to be encoded by reduplication across sign languages – habitual, continuative, and iterative – and addresses potential phonological restrictions. Naturalistic corpus data and data elicited from six deaf NGT signers were taken into account. The results suggest that (i) predicate reduplication can express all three aspect types, but it is optional; (ii) reduplication expressing habitual and continuative aspect appears to be phonologically constrained; and (iii) such phonological constraints do not apply to iterative reduplication, whose form is different from the other two aspects, in that the reduplication cycles are separated by pauses. Since there is no formal difference between habituals and continuatives in the data, it is suggested that this semantic distinction may not be grammaticalized in the language, and that, possibly, the inflectional system of NGT instead more broadly distinguishes imperfective/perfective viewpoint. While this latter suggestion is in line with findings reported for many spoken languages, the results are different from what has previously been described for NGT as well as for other sign languages. Potential explanations for these differences can be found in both methodological and sociolinguistic factors.

‘아/어 동사 연결 구성’에 대한 분석

This paper aims to examine that a structure of ‘V1-a V2’ is separated by focus particles. The categories of verb linking constructions which combine focus particles are the same in terms of the morphological identity, but not the syntactic-semantical identity. In addition, it violates the Lexical Island Constraint and causes a contradiction between form and meaning when focus particles are combined with compound verbs. It seems to be induced by the specificity of each category of the ‘V1-a V2’ and the application of variable semantic domains of focus particles. Therefore, this paper argues the phenomenon mentioned above based on Copy Theory. As a result, the higher copy of the focus particles is not realized in the PF layer due to phonological restrictions while the copies of the focus particles are realized differently depending on the discourse semantic situation in the LF layer.

Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data

Abstract This study focuses on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). The aim is to offer a comprehensive description of nominal pluralization processes in the language, based on both corpus data and elicited data, taking into account potential phonological restrictions. The results reveal that NGT nouns can undergo several pluralization processes, the main ones being simple reduplication (i.e., repeating the noun sign at one location) and sideward reduplication (i.e., repeating the noun sign while moving the hand sideward). The choice of pluralization process depends on phonological properties of the base noun: (i) nouns that are body-anchored or involve a complex movement undergo simple reduplication; (ii) nouns articulated at the lateral side of the signing space undergo sideward reduplication; (iii) nouns articulated on the midsagittal plane can undergo both simple and sideward reduplication. Strikingly, the data show considerable variation, and all types of nouns can be zero-marked, that is, plural marking on the noun is not obligatory. The results further suggest that all nouns can undergo at least one type of reduplication. Thus, while phonological properties of the base noun influence the type of reduplication, they do not block reduplication altogether. Plural reduplication in NGT is therefore less constrained than has been reported for other sign languages, where certain noun types cannot undergo reduplication. This shows that reduplication – despite being iconically motivated – is subject to language-specific grammatical constraints.

Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data

Abstract This study focuses on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). The aim is to offer a comprehensive description of nominal pluralization processes in the language, based on both corpus data and elicited data, taking into account potential phonological restrictions. The results reveal that NGT nouns can undergo several pluralization processes, the main ones being simple reduplication (i.e., repeating the noun sign at one location) and sideward reduplication (i.e., repeating the noun sign while moving the hand sideward). The choice of pluralization process depends on phonological properties of the base noun: (i) nouns that are body-anchored or involve a complex movement undergo simple reduplication; (ii) nouns articulated at the lateral side of the signing space undergo sideward reduplication; (iii) nouns articulated on the midsagittal plane can undergo both simple and sideward reduplication. Strikingly, the data show considerable variation, and all types of nouns can be zero-marked, that is, plural marking on the noun is not obligatory. The results further suggest that all nouns can undergo at least one type of reduplication. Thus, while phonological properties of the base noun influence the type of reduplication, they do not block reduplication altogether. Plural reduplication in NGT is therefore less constrained than has been reported for other sign languages, where certain noun types cannot undergo reduplication. This shows that reduplication – despite being iconically motivated – is subject to language-specific grammatical constraints.

Harmonic Uniformity and Hungarian front/back harmony

AbstractIn the paper we argue against the traditional assumption about the relationship between morphology and harmony in Hungarian according to which monomorphemic and polymorphemic (suffixed) forms behave in the same way harmonically within the domain of harmony. We show that the harmonic properties of the root are inherited by morphologically complex forms based on the root and this can override the phonological restrictions on harmony. We propose an Optimality Theory analysis of the interaction between the phonological constraints on harmony and the paradigm uniformity constraint Harmonic Uniformity.

Phonological Adaptation of Hokkien Loanwords in Indonesian

Abstract. The Chinese loan words in Indonesian mainly come from the Hokkien. Many scholars have studied the Hokkien loanwords in Indonesian, but they analyzed from the perspective of semantics and culture, and there is still little research on phonological adaptation. This research attempts to answer three questions, namely, what phonological adaptation do the Hokkien loanwords in Indonesian have in the process of being accepted? Are there sound correspondences between Hokkien loanwords in Indonesian? What are the phonological rules for phonological adaptation of Hokkien loanwords in Indonesian? This research is mainly based on the literature method and comparative research method. Data were collected through literature search and recording. The collected data were processed for natural hearing, a comparative analysis of two Indonesian Hokkien speakers' sound production, and four Indonesian speakers' sound production is conducted. The sound production of the speakers are segmented and coded manually using Praat Version 6.0 (Boersma & Weenink, 2015) focused on the measurements of the acoustic parameters of the sounds produced differently by the two groups of informants and, finally, summed up. Since Indonesian has a more uncomplicated vowel system and a different consonant inventory, when we look at the Hokkien loanwords in Indonesian, we will observe many substitution rules. To maintain the Indonesian syllable structure and phonological restrictions, the Indonesian phonological rules that appear in certain environments are considered to apply to Hokkien loanwords.Keywords: Language contact, Hokkien loanwords, Phonological adaptation

The Morphophonology of Intraword Codeswitching: Representation and Processing

This paper serves as a critical discussion of the phenomenon of intraword code-switching (ICS), or the combining of elements (e.g. a root and an affix) from different languages within a single word. Extensive research over the last four decades (Poplack, 1988; MacSwan, 2014; Myers-Scotton, 2000) has revealed CS to be a rule-governed speech practice. While interword CS is widely attested, intraword code-switching has been argued to be impossible (Bandi-Rao & DenDikken, 2014; MacSwan & Colina, 2014; Poplack, 1980).However, ICS has recently been documented in language pairs ranging from English/Norwegian (Alexiadou, Lohndal, Afarli & Grimstad, 2015) to Nahuatl/Spanish (MacSwan, 1999) to Greek/German (Alexiadou, 2017), and is a robust phenomenon.We review the foundational research on ICS, followed by an examination of the phenomenon from the perspectives of knowledge and skill. First, we examine intraword CS as part of a bilingual’s I-language to determine the morphological and phonological restrictions on the phenomenon. We operationalize these restrictions within a Distributed Morphology (DM) framework (e.g., Halle & Marantz, 1994) in which the traditional lexicon is split into three lists. List 1 contains lexical roots and grammatical features or feature bundles, while Lists 2 and 3 detail instructions for phonological realization (i.e., rules for Vocabulary Insertion) and semantic interpretation, respectively. Here we probe the question of whether words which have morphological mixing also have phonological mixing. Second, building on the DM machinery, we present an account for intraword CS in performance via the modular cognitive performance framework of MOGUL (Truscott & Sharwood Smith, 2014). This modular architecture assumes a) that lexical items are constituted by chains of representations and b) that extra-linguistic cognitive mechanisms (e.g. goals, executive control) play a role in ICS (Green & Abutalebi, 2013). ICS is licensed by a bilingual mode of communication (following Grosjean, 1998) where the act of CS itself serves an illocutionary goal; it is the real-world context which triggers the complex CS system. Thus, viewing intraword CS as an I-language and an E-language phenomenon provides an explanatory model of the dynamic knowing that and knowing how which is manifest in the phenomenon of ICS.

Duplicity in possessive merger: evidence from Spanish alienable possessive constructions

AbstractIn this paper, I argue that Spanish prenominal and postnominal possessives target different external merge positions focusing on alienable possessive constructions. The analysis is developed alongside a proposal on the organization of DPs, according to which articles are merged as a DP-internal category between the domains assigned to direct and indirect modifiers. Prenominal possessives are determiners reanalyzed from direct modification adjectives whereas postnominal possessives are indirect modification adjectives that arise as predicates of reduced relative clauses. This analysis provides a principled explanation on the behavior of Spanish possessives that is lacking in the generalized idea that they are pronouns with a unique merge position. Arguments are also presented showing that syntax-driven phonological restrictions condition the derivation of DPs. The account successfully derives the core properties of word order variation and related issues within possessive constructions.

Hipercorreções na escrita como evidência da gramática fonológica da criança

O trabalho apresenta uma análise da escrita inicial, buscando identificar evidências da influência de processos fonológicos do português brasileiro no processo de aquisição do código escrito. O foco do trabalho é identificar, na escrita das crianças, indícios de hipercorreção baseada em três fenômenos fonológicos presentes na fala: a harmonia vocálica, o alçamento vocálico e a semivocalização da líquida lateral em posição pós-vocálica. O trabalho parte da seguinte questão: será que no momento em que a criança se depara com o código escrito e percebe que as letras nem sempre apresentam uma relação direta com a forma como são pronunciadas (ou seja, um ‘i’ falado nem sempre será um ‘i’ na escrita), além de corrigir seus erros ortográficos iniciais, elas passam a hipercorrigir suas produções escritas? Além disso, o trabalho busca evidências empíricas de como a gramática fonológica da criança atua na aquisição da escrita ao se esperar que as hipercorreções sejam regidas por restrições da fonologia da língua. A fim de abordarmos essas questões, analisamos dados de escrita inicial de um banco de dados organizado pelo Projeto Aspa da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, o E-labore (Laboratório Eletrônico de Oralidade e Escrita) (CRISTÓFARO-SILVA et al., 2009). Os resultados nos mostram que há, sim, hipercorreções relacionadas aos processos fonológicos da língua na aquisição do código escrito e que estas são majoritariamente regidas por restrições fonológicas do português brasileiro.

Nepali Verbs: Some Properties

Nepali verb stems end with i, a, o and ʌ vowels, and voiced and voiceless consonants. From transitivity perspective, they are intransitive and transitive/ditransitive. The verbs are monosyllabic and polysyllabic from syllabicity point of view. Another feature that Nepali verbs have is sound [a] whose presence and absence has direct impact on causative stem formation. The causative stem formation is regular with some phonological restrictions; however, the passive stem formation is very productive. Negativization occurs from both prefixation and suffixation processes. On the basis of features and morphological processes, four types of stems, namely, base stem, passive stem, causative stem and causative passive stem are found.

THE ROLE OF L1 PHONOLOGY IN L2 MORPHOLOGICAL PRODUCTION

AbstractThis study considers the role of L1 phonological influence in L2 English past tense morphology production by native speakers of Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese. While these L1s share similar phonological restrictions on consonant cluster formation needed for English past tense morphology, differences arise in L1 syntax (only Mandarin lacks syntactic past) and L1 prosodic structure (only Japanese has English-equivalent structure). Aggregate analyses indicate that an L1 English control group outperforms all L2 groups in oral suppliance of past tense morphology. Results therefore reveal that having the syntactic feature for past in the L1 does not translate into targetlike performance and that L1 phonological restrictions alone cannot fully explain nontargetlike performance. Considering previous and the current data sets, we argue that evidence from production of L2 English past tense cannot be used to adjudicate between representational deficit approaches and full access approaches, contrary to what has been argued previously.

Reduction of the nasal diphthong in the word ‘não’ and the initial position of the intonational syntagma

In this paper, we analyze the different oral productions of the adverb não ‘no’ in two Brazilian Portuguese varieties. On the initial boundary of the intonational phrase, the nasal diphthong of the negation adverb can be reduced, which may lead to a phonological cliticization process. This process can be explained through phonological restrictions, as well the acoustic correlates of accent in Portuguese. The statistical, perceptive and auditory results indicate different phonological status for both functional words on the first position of the intonational phrase.

Phonological restrictions on lenition in Scottish Gaelic

There has been extraordinary attention devoted to the Celtic mutations over the years, with various authors arguing for phonological, morphological, or lexical treatments (and various blends thereof). Strikingly, this literature is virtually bereft of any mention of the phonological restrictions that can sometimes limit the applicability of mutation. In this article, we provide a detailed experimental and corpus-based investigation of the phonological restrictions on Scottish Gaelic mutation. Using both techniques, we show that the phonological restrictions are alive yet are in a state of flux. The continued productivity of these phonological aspects of the mutation system argues that any analysis of mutation must attend to them.

Phonotactic Adaptation in Loanwords: Insertion vs. Deletion

The goal of this paper is to investigate what repair strategies can be employed when an illegitimate cluster is adapted into a language which lacks complex margins and how a typology can be dealt with within the framework of the Optimality Theory. Vowel insertion is cross-linguistically preferable over consonant deletion. This tendency is well supported by TCRS (Paradis & LaCharite 1997), but if more than one repair is necessary, deletion inevitably happens depending on perceptual salience and similarity. Concerning the position of vowel insertion, three types are all observed in loanword adaptation: only prothesis, only anaptyxis, and a mixed pattern. For the OT analysis, the ranking permutation between SYLLCON and CONTIGUITY can account for such an asymmetrical typology, in combination with some markedness constraints to comply with phonological restrictions.

French loanwords in Vietnamese: the role of input language phonotactics and contrast in loanword adaptation

This study examines the adaptation of French vowels in Vietnamese focusing on adaptation patterns that seem to defy a straightforward analysis based on native phonotactic restrictions or comparison of phonetic input-output similarity. A proper analysis requires reference to knowledge of the input language phonology. In the first case study, we observe that Vietnamese adapters extend the French phonotactic tendencies, i.e., Loi de Position, to loan adaptation productively. Such “intrusion” of L2 phonology knowledge may arise when phonetics underdetermines the adaptation and the adapters look to their knowledge of L2 phonology to arrive at adaptation. It is also notable that the L2 knowledge employed in adaptation is not native-like as the adaptation is not always isomorphic to the French input. In the second case study, the contrast of L2 phonology (/ʁ/ vs. /k/) is neutralized due to an L1 phonological restriction (i.e., no /ʁ/ in Vietnamese coda) but the Vietnamese adaptation systematically retains the contrast in the quality and length difference in the preceding vowel. There is plausible phonetic motivation for this adaptation pattern, but phonetically faithful mapping underdetermines the attested adaptation pattern, and reference to knowledge of L2 phonological contrasts is necessary. These findings illustrate the complexity of the loanword adaptation process, where a variety of different factors including L1 phonological restrictions, phonetic similarity, and L2 phonological knowledge, interact to affect adaptation.

Complex linguistic rules modulate early auditory brain responses

During speech perception, listeners compensate for phonological rules of their language. For instance, English place assimilation causes green boat to be typically pronounced as greem boat; English listeners, however, perceptually compensate for this rule and retrieve the intended sound (n). Previous research using EEG has focused on rules with clear phonetic underpinnings, showing that perceptual compensation occurs at an early stage of speech perception. We tested whether this early mechanism also accounts for the compensation for more complex rules. We examined compensation for French voicing assimilation, a rule with abstract phonological restrictions on the contexts in which it applies. Our results reveal that perceptual compensation for this rule by French listeners modulates an early ERP component. This is evidence that early stages of speech sound categorization are sensitive to complex phonological rules of the native language.

Universal Restrictions on Syllable Structure: Evidence From Mandarin Chinese.

Across languages, certain onset clusters are systematically preferred (e.g., [Formula: see text], "[Formula: see text]" indicates preference), and speakers extend these preferences even to onsets that are unattested in their language. All such demonstrations, however, come from cluster-rich languages, so the observed preferences could reflect not universal linguistic restrictions but lexical analogy. To address this possibility, here, we turn to Mandarin Chinese-a cluster-poor language. We reasoned that, if people are sensitive to the onset hierarchy, then they should repair ill-formed onsets as better-formed ones [Formula: see text]-the worse formed the onset, the more likely its repair, hence, its misidentification. Results were consistent with this hypothesis, and they obtained irrespective of participants' experience with their second language (English). Nonetheless, the effect of syllable structure was strongly modulated by phonetic cues and task demands. These findings suggest that speakers might share broad phonological restrictions, but phonetic factors play a major role in their detection.

Hemodynamic response in a geographical word naming verbal fluency test.

Functional hemodynamic response was studied in a new Verbal Fluency Task (VFT) that demanded the production of geographical words while fMRI data was obtained. Participants completed 7 trials with a total duration of 2 min. 20 s. Four simple arithmetic subtraction trials were alternated with 3 geographical naming trials. Each trial had a duration of 20 s. Brain activity was contrasted between both conditions and significant differences (p < .05, Family Wise Error correction) were observed in the prefrontal medial gyrus, typically associated with word retrieval and phonological awareness, and in the parahippocampal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex and lingual gyrus, areas related to spatial cognition. These results indicate that geographic VFT could be incorporated into a browser of cognitive processes using VFT considering its specific relationship with spatial cognition. Further investigations are proposed, taking special interest in the gender variable and eliminating phonological restrictions, because the evoked Argentinean cities and towns ended in a consonant letter.

Phonological reduction in the first part of noun compounds

Regular plural nouns rarely appear as the first member of a compound noun in English under any circumstances, while irregular plurals are more likely under certain conditions. One explanation holds that this is a consequence of the fundamentally different ways in which regular and irregular plurals are stored and processed, while an alternative explanation suggests that it may be rooted in phonological differences between regular and irregular forms. If the first part of a compound is phonologically restricted, the restrictions may interact with lexical access in a way that disfavors regular plurals (especially given that plurals of any sort are of low frequency in the first part of a compound, so processing is far from ceiling). This paper provides evidence from a case study of one child that the first part of a compound can be phonologically restricted compared to nouns when they appear as independent words. The data address compounds whose first elements are monomorphemic nouns, rather than plurals, but document the existence of phonological restrictions within compounds for at least one child This existence proof strengthens the hypothesis that differences between regular and irregular forms may derive partly from differences in phonological structure.

Phonological generalizations in dyslexia: The phonological grammar may not be impaired

Dyslexia is commonly attributed to a phonological deficit, but whether it effectively compromises the phonological grammar or lower level systems is rarely explored. To address this question, we gauge the sensitivity of dyslexics to grammatical phonological restrictions on spoken onset clusters (e.g., bl in block). Across languages, certain onsets are preferred to others (e.g., blif ≻ bnif ≻ bdif, where ≻ indicates a preference). Here, we show that dyslexic participants (adult native speakers of Hebrew) are fully sensitive to these phonological restrictions, and they extend them irrespective of whether the onsets are attested in their language (e.g., bnif vs. bdif) or unattested (e.g., mlif vs. mdif). Dyslexics, however, showed reduced sensitivity to phonetic contrasts (e.g., blif vs. belif; ba vs. pa). Together, these results suggest that the known difficulties of dyslexics in speech processing could emanate not from the phonological grammar, but rather from lower level impairments to acoustic/phonetic encoding, lexical storage, and retrieval.