Phonological Theory Research Articles

Эволюция фонологической теории Д. Джоунза в современной английской фонологии

The paper aims to reveal continuity of D. Jones’s phonological theory provisions in development of theoretical base of the modern English phonetics. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the researchers for the first time provide a comprehensive analysis of D. Jones’s phonological views which were further developed in the British phonologists’ works. The research findings are as follows: the authors identify the core principles of the phonetic system functioning and development discovered by D. Jones and clarified in his followers’ works.

Correlation of internal strain and size with electrical and magnetic properties of Ce3+-doped manganese ferrimagnetic nanoparticles

In the present work we made an attempt to found the correlation between the internal strain and size effect on the structural electrical and magnetic properties of influence of Ce3+-doped manganese ferrite nanoparticles. The XRD results showed that the Ce3+-doped Mn2+ ferrite nanoparticles exhibit spinel cubic structure with an average crystallite size varying from 15 to 10 nm and it was calculated by using Williamson–Hall (W–H) and Scherrer method. The intrinsic strain is estimated from the XRD peak broadening analysis. The TEM micrographs confirm the spherical nature of the samples and particle sizes vary from 15 to 6 nm. Further the particle size decreases with increasing ce3+ content as a result this internal strain increases. The dielectric constant increases with increase in the frequency; this phenomenon is explained on the basis of Koop’s phonological theory. The AC conductivity was explained by hopping mechanism. The temperature-dependent susceptibility measured at 100 Oe and the irreversibility temperature vary with Ce3+ concentration. The hysteresis curves of all samples reveal the ferromagnetic behavior. This study allowed us to understand potentiality of cerium-doped Manganese ferrite nanoparticles in current temporary magnetic technology.

An acoustic study of quasi-phonemic vowels in Ampenan Sasak

ABSTRACTIn a variety of Sasak called Ampenan Sasak in this paper, traditional documentation and analytical methods based on auditory perception reveal allophonic patterns in alternations of height among mid-vowels. High mid-vowels occur in final syllables ending in [ʔ] or no-coda (e.g. [tokoʔ] ‘fish species native to Lombok’) while low mid-vowels occur in final syllables ending in all other consonants (e.g. [tɔkɔl] ‘to sit’). However, words deviate from these patterns in several minimal pairs (e.g. [bəɾəmbok] ‘to discuss’ and [bəɾəmbɔk] ‘to breathe’) and in some borrowings (e.g. [agostos] ‘August’), suggesting a quasi-phonemic status for back mid-vowels; they behave like both phonemes and allophones. This study analyzes the phonetic properties of mid-vowels through an acoustic analysis of the F1 and F2 of 2,448 vowel tokens. Results suggest that mid-vowels are largely predictable among non-borrowed vocabulary. In final syllables, syllable openness serves as a predictor for the height of mid-vowels. In pre-final syllables, syllable openness has no effect on the height of the vowel. Rather, the height of pre-final mid-vowels is predictable based on the height of the final-syllable vowel. In consideration of both elicitation and acoustic evidence, this paper adopts a descriptive approach by stating that Ampenan Sasak back mid-vowels are largely predictable, with some exceptions. Further, the paper questions whether all sounds must be identified as a ‘phoneme’ or an ‘allophone’ and argues that quasi-phonemic segments are a valuable intermediate descriptor for both phonological theory and language documentation.

Constraint summation in phonological theory

The classical constraints used in phonological theory apply to a single candidate at a time. Yet, some proposals in the phonological literature have enriched the classical constraint toolkit with constraints that instead apply to multiple candidates simultaneously. For instance, Dispersion Theory (Flemming 2002, 2004, 2008) adopts distinctiveness constraints that penalize pairs of surface forms which are not sufficiently dispersed. Also, some approaches to paradigm uniformity effects (Kenstowicz 1997; McCarthy 2005) adopt Optimal Paradigm faithfulness constraints that penalize pairs of stems in a paradigm which are not sufficiently similar. As a consequence, these approaches need to “lift” the classical constraints from a single candidate to multiple candidates by summing constraint violations across multiple candidates.Is this assumption of constraint summation typologically innocuous? Or do the classical constraints make different typological predictions when they are summed, independently of the presence of distinctiveness or optimal paradigm faithfulness constraints? The answer depends on the underlying model of constraint optimization, namely on how the profiles of constraint violations are ordered to determine the smallest one. Extending an independent result by Prince (2015), this paper characterizes those orderings for which the assumption of constraint summation is typologically innocuous. As a corollary, the typological innocuousness of constraint summation is established within both Optimality Theory and Harmonic Grammar.

Formal intonative analysis

There is a general consensus among scholars that one same sentence can be said in different ways. This consensus, however, falls apart when the issues are discussed related to the efficiency of prosody in allowing us to say the very same sequence of segments with different meanings. According to Hirst (1987) e t’Hartet. al. (1990) the difficulties of transcribing prosody overcome the difficulties of transcribing the segmental. They argue that in order to investigate how the melody contributes to the overall understanding of an enunciation a metalanguage was required through which the phenomenon can be discussed. The vocabulary of this metalanguage must consist of appropriate descriptive units through which it is possible to speak of entities and structures at various levels of observation. The semi-automatic analysis, by means of the programs MOMEL and INTSINT, was used in the description of some intonational languages such as: French (di Cristo, 2011), British English (Auran, Bouzon and Hirst, 2004; Brierley, 2011) and analysis of the Brazilian Portuguese rhythm by means of manual INTSINT (Gonçalves, 2000). The present study aims to determine if the program of semi-automatic intonational analysis - INTSINT - is capable of reproduce melodic variation trends of the Brazilian Portuguese. In our proposal, the effectiveness of the program to differentiate between declarative and interrogative forms during reading was evaluated. The following hypotheses were raised: (I) the analysis of intonation with the program INTSINT allows the choice of different phonological theories regarding the use of entonative units;(II) it is possible to distinguish between declarative and interrogative forms by means of coded target points to Brazilian Portuguese. An explanatory analysis of the codification performed by MOMELINTSINT was performed. The corpus of this study consists of 10 short texts, with approximately five sentences that were read by 10 people of the female sex, aged 20-30 years. The acoustic analysis of the data was performed using the program Praatversion 4.4.27, available at www.praat.org (Weenink and Boersma, 1997 ,i contains the necessary extensions for the implementation of the programs MOMEL / INTSINT. These last ones are freely available on the site http://aune.lpl.univaix.fr/~auran/english/ressources.html. The high beginning was common for the declarative and interrogative modalities. This fact was represented by the first target point, coded as T, or the second target point, coded as M; but followed by H, T or U. Nevertheless, they differ at the end of the unit: in interrogative sentences, a sharp increase represented by the symbols T and H can be observed just before the final fall. In declarative sentences it is possible to perceive a rise is followed by a downfall, but not as much and not as systematically as in the interrogative sentences. Far from closing the discussion on intonation units and in the chosen modalities for this study,our initial goal of evaluating the behavior of the program INTSINT against pitch variations was reached. We conclude that the program INTSINT is able to transmit trends and also the general melodic pattern of F0 curve.

Editorial

Our team is glad to offer to the scientific community this first issue of the Journal of Speech Sciences (JoSS). JoSS is an open access journal which follows the principles of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), meaning that its readers can freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of any article electronically published in the journal. JoSS covers experimental aspects that deal with scientific aspects of speech, language and linguistic communication processes. Experimental approaches are emphasized in the journal in order to stimulate the development of new methodologies, of new annotated corpora, of new techniques aiming at fully testing current theories of speech production, perception, as well as phonetic and phonological theories and their interfaces...

Alice Turk and Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel (2020). Speech timing: implications for theories of phonology, phonetics, and speech motor control. (Oxford Studies in Phonology and Phonetics 5.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xv + 370.

Alice Turk and Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel (2020). Speech timing: implications for theories of phonology, phonetics, and speech motor control. (Oxford Studies in Phonology and Phonetics 5.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xv + 370. - Volume 38 Issue 1

Stem similarity modulates infants' acquisition of phonological alternations

Phonemes have variant pronunciations depending on context. For instance, in American English, the [t] in pat [pæt] and the [d] in pad [pæd] are both realized with a tap [ɾ] when the –ing suffix is attached, [pæɾɪŋ]. We show that despite greater distributional and acoustic support for the [t]-tap alternation, 12-month-olds successfully relate taps to stems with a perceptually-similar final [d], not the dissimilar final-[t]. Thus, distributional learning of phonological alternations is constrained by infants' preference for the alternation of perceptually-similar segments. Further, the ability to relate variant surface forms emerges between 8- and 12-months. Our findings of biased learning provide further empirical support for a role for perceptual similarity in the acquisition of linguistically-relevant categories. We discuss the implications of our findings for phonological theory, language acquisition and models of the mental lexicon.

A critical review of phonological theories

This is a critical review of two major phonological theories: linear natural phonology and the nonlinear optimality theory. Natural phonological theory asserts that phonological processes are phonetically based. Phonological error patterns help organize treatment targets and assess generalization. However, the natural phonology’s explanation of speech sound learning in children does not attain the status of a scientific theory. Process proliferation and poor definitions are other limitations. Optimality theory proposes that speech sounds may be marked (complex, more difficulty to produce, etc.) or unmarked (simple, easier to produce, etc.). Optimality replaces rules with markedness and faithfulness constraints. Constraints are common to all languages, but their ranking are unique to each language. Speakers can violate constraints ranked lower, but not those ranked higher in their language. When speech is imminent, GEN the generator generates a variety of output (response) options and EVAL the evaluator selects an optimal output that is faithful to the higher-ranked constraints. There is no independent evidence for the existence of universal and innate constraints, specific language-based rankings, and the operation of GEN or EVAL. Assumptions of universality of phonological rules and even the existence of such rules are speculative. That children have innate phonological knowledge is an untenable assumption. Most generative phonological theories have little or no empirical validity. Investigations of child-directed speech, statistical learning, implicit learning, sociolinguistics, usage- and exemplar-based phonology and behavior analysis have all supported the view that children master their speech sounds (and language structures) through social interactions.

Three Puzzles for Phonological Theory in Philippine Minority Languages

This squib describes three theoretically challenging phonological processes found in the Manide, Inagta Alabat, and Umiray Dumaget languages spoken on the large northern Philippine island of Luzon. These three well-documented processes do not conform to current theoretical expectations about what is a likely or even a possible diachronic process, although each is part of a larger, complex context of sound change which does conform to theoretical expectation. A brief background survey of vocalic changes triggered by voiced stops is given, followed by the puzzling changes that depart from this more general pattern.

Three Puzzles for Phonological Theory in Philippine Minority Languages

Three Puzzles for Phonological Theory in Philippine Minority Languages

Production of Vowel /ə/ in Sundanese by Japanese Native Speakers in First Exposure

The research described native Japanese speakers’ perception of Sundanese vowel /ə/ after the first exposure to a controlled naturalistic input of conversation. The research worked in respect of Brown’s model of L2 speech perception and L1 feature geometry, which sought to relate theories of segmental phonology to L2 speech perception and the first exposure treatment. Some Sundanese native speakers conducted a conversation that contained the /ə/ vowel in front of five Japanese native speakers with no prior exposure to Sundanese. Therefore, the researchers had collected speech data from five L1 Japanese native speakers (three males, two females, Mage = 22, SD = 2,1). The Japanese were asked to listen to the short conversation and imitate vowel /ə/, which did not exist in the Japanese language vowel inventory. The observation confirmed Brown’s hypothesis that L2 perception of /ə/ vowel was constrained by the L1 feature geometry. L1 Japanese language phonological properties worked as a perceptual filter to Sundanese L2 input, causing the Japanese L2 learners to perceive only the vowel discriminated by phonological features presented in Sundanese. The data show that the Japanese native speakers are able to overcome the perceptual filters so they can produce various frequencies of vowel /ə/, which are statistically similar to the frequency produced by Sundanese native speakers. The research implies that the possibility of learning new sounds from an entirely new language is wide open when the learner is able to pass through the L1 perceptual filter.

Nasality triggered by /ɲ/ in two portuguese varieties of Sao Tome and Principe

This study describes and analyzes the nasality triggered by /ɲ/ in the Portuguese spoken in São Tomé (PST) and in the Portuguese spoken in Príncipe (PP). PST and PP are Portuguese varieties from São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) that present particular linguistic characteristics. Considering the context of linguistic contact into which PST and PP are inserted, we aim to (i) propose a phonological analysis of nasality triggered by /ɲ/ in PST and PP, and (ii) investigate the presence of ambisyllabic structures. Based on Autosegmental Phonology (Goldsmith 1976; 1990) as the phonological theory and laboratory phonology (Ohala, 1995) as the methodology and considering the phonotactic analysis of vowels, we observed that nasality can be triggered by /ɲ/, a nasal consonant that occupies an ambisyllabic structure. Thus, the palatal nasal nasalizes left contiguous vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables. This nasalization process is possible because /ɲ/ is in coda, resulting in a CVN syllable structure and triggering tautosyllabic nasality. Even though it is optional, the nasality triggered by /ɲ/ occurs independently of the vowel quality and the word stress, as described for BP (Wetzels, 1997).

Tracing the roots of phonetic variation in East Asian Englishes through loan phonology

One key aspect of Englishes in the Kachruvian Expanding Circle concerns phonetic features as they commonly bear traits of speakers native languages. This article explores language contact phenomena that are likely to cause L1L2 phonological transfer, which underlies the phonetic specificity of English in East Asia. Drawing on the general theory of loan phonology, the author treats phonographic adaptation of English loanwords in East Asian languages compared to Russian, as a reliable source of data that supports research on the nature of phonetic variation in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Russian Englishes. The data were obtained through comparative analysis of English loanwords (200 for each language) selected from dictionary sources and speech samples from the Russian-Asian Corpus of English which was collected in earlier research. The findings confirm typological correlation of phonological transfer in loanword phonographic adaptation and in foreign language phonology. In both linguistic contexts, a crucial role is played by syllabic constraints, because being the fundamental unit of any phonological system, a syllable serves a domain of its segmental and suprasegmental features. Consequently, various resyllabification phenomena occur in English borrowings in the languages of East Asia whose phonological typology is distant from that of English; as a demonstration of this same conflict, the syllabic and, hence, rhythmic organization of East Asian Englishes tends to exhibit similar code-copying variation. The greater typological proximity of English and Russian syllable regulations leads to fewer manifestations of syllabic and rhythmic restructuring in both loanword adaptations and English spoken by native speakers of Russian.

Development of the voiceless sibilant fricative contrast in three-year-olds: an ultrasound and acoustic study.

The study analysed spectral and tongue shape dynamics of voiceless alveolar and postalveolar fricatives produced by ten children learning Scottish English. Synchronised ultrasound tongue imaging data and acoustic data were used to characterise children's productions of the phonemic contrast. Six children had consistently accurate productions of both fricative targets, with some cross-consonant phonetic differences in the direction previously demonstrated for older children and adults, as well as some immature acoustic and articulatory dynamic patterns. Instrumental analyses made it possible to describe tongue shape for phonemic errors and phonetically distorted realisations. There was some evidence of articulatory contrast in production preceding contrast in perception. The observed patterns can be explained by the complex articulatory demands on the fricative production, in combination with the developing control of articulators. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the results for phonological theory and for speech therapy practice.

Notes on the Phonetics, Phonology and Prosody of the Čakavian Dialect of Susak

Summary The paper deals with synchrony and diachrony of phonetics, phonology and prosody of the Čakavian dialect of Susak (Croatia) based on the author’s fieldwork in 2018. The data is compared to previous studies of the Susak dialect. The local dialect exhibits a number of interesting phonological features – e. g. a complex (“Tsakavian”) opposition of postalveolars (/č, ž, š/) to dentals/alveolars (/c, z, s/), centralization of short /i/ and /o/ (in connection to vowel quantity opposition), complex allophonic realizations of the diphthong /i̯e/, etc. – which may be interesting from the perspective of wider phonological theory.

Fonologia em Perspectivas: Modelos Gerativos, Fonologia Prosódica e Modelo de Exemplares

A presente resenha parte da mesa redonda composta pelas professoras doutoras Carmen Matzenauer, Luciani Tenani e Christina Abreu Gomes, coordenada por José Magalhães e promovida pelo evento Abralin Ao Vivo. A mesa versa sobre diferentes perspectivas da Fonologia, em homenagem à ilustre linguista Leda Bisol. Inicia-se, então, com a fala da professora Carmen Matzenauer, sobre Fonologia Gerativa e seus aspectos principais, como níveis de representação, regras e traços. A professora apresenta dados de aquisição da linguagem, além de desdobramentos dessa Fonologia em Fonologias Não Lineares. A seguir, a professora Luciani Tenani faz uma interessantíssima apresentação quanto ao sândi vocálico, sob a perspectiva da Fonologia Prosódica no domínio da Fonologia Gerativa. Para finalizar, a professora Christina Abreu Gomes apresenta uma proposta baseada no Modelo de Exemplares, discorrendo sobre o conceito de não separação entre léxico e gramática e sobre os efeitos de frequência de types e tokens no uso da língua.

Syllable Structure and Nasalization Change in Makassar Language

The research discussed two points of phonological process related to changes in the syllable structure and nasalization in Makassar language. The data were analyzed by distributional and identity methods using a direct sorting technique. The affixes that form the verb of Makassar language were sorted by the type of prefix. Researchers also used the direct sorting form of phonetic articulation. The steps of analyzing data used Sudaryanto’s theory. The affixes that discussed in the research were /ak-/ and /an-/. The phonological process was described by using the theory of generative phonology of Schane. The result shows the types of sound and syllabic changing. They are; (a) sound changing of [ak-] becomes [ʔ] named glottalization; (b) sounds changing of [ak-] becomes nasalization; (c) gemination of [ak-] and [an-]; (d) sound changing of / an-/ becomes [aŋ-]; (e) sound release and insertion of prefix /an-/; (f) sound change and nasalization. The distinctive feature is used to explain the rules of the phonological process.

Do morphophonological exchange rules exist? A reply to DiCanio et al. (2020)

DiCanio et al. (2020) (this volume) argue that San Martín Itunyoso Triqui has a morphophonological exchange (also called ‘polarity’), where morphemes are realized by switching feature values: e.g. the bare root [anĩɦ] ‘get dirty’ is realized as [anĩː] in the 1s, while the root [aniː] ‘stop’ is 1s [anĩɦ]. In this Reply, I seek to clarify how the descriptive use of ‘exchange’ relates to and differs from its meaning in phonological theories. I also show that the issue of whether exchanges exist is highly theory-dependent. For SPE, Lexical Phonology and Morphology, and single-level parallelist OT with opacity mechanisms, the IT forms do not provide evidence for exchange mechanisms. In contrast, a version of OT that lacks opacity mechanisms probably cannot generate the IT forms without an exchange mechanism. Issues facing the analyst, such as how to prove that exchanges exist, and which apparent exchanges one should expect to observe, are also discussed.

Epenthetic prefixation in Alawa and Marra

ABSTRACT Languages adopt a number of strategies to avoid dispreferred phonotactic structures. The general pattern is that such strategies involve minimum departure from the input form. One of these strategies is epenthesis. With epenthesis, the minimum departure from the input form is usually the addition of a singleton consonant or a singleton vowel. We show that Alawa and Marra have epenthetic CV syllables in prefix complexes, and that this epenthesis of a syllable is not motivated in phonological theory. We provide evidence that these prefixal structures did not originate in epenthesis, but rather were by-products of reduction processes targeting prefixed article paradigms. We propose that the synchronically epenthetic prefixes are remnants of old article roots.