Rule-based Phonology Research Articles

The Effect of Prefixation on Syllable Structure in Najdi Arabic

This study investigates the effect of prefixation on the syllable and syllabification in Najdi Arabic. It mainly addresses the role of prefixation on the syllable in this variety of Arabic, providing a prosodic representation of it within the context of rule-based phonology. The paper provides a review of the phonological processes that deal with prefixation phenomena in Najdi Arabic, whose domains of application are somewhat subject to syllabification processes and the syllable structure. To achieve this, the paper discusses the three types of prefixation in Najdi Arabic: (a) nominal prefixes, i.e., the definite article /ʔal/ and prepositional prefixes (predominantly fi- ‘in’, and bi- ‘in/at’), (b) the agreement-related prefixes, i.e., verbal prefixes and (c) the adverbial prefix /ʔib-/ ‘with’, which is prefixed to the host noun and changes its grammatical category to an adverb. The results show that each type of prefixation has its own functions, which are essentially related to the type of the host it attaches to. For instance, the prefix /ʔib-/, which is the Najdi Arabic adverbial marker, is a stress-bearing morpheme, given that it is a heavy syllable on its own, which attaches to the initial position at the very beginning of its nominal host.

Neoclassicism in Bangla Word Formation Processes

In this paper, I examine the notion of neoclassical word formation in Bangla and attempt to account for all the morpho-phonological interactions of both neoclassical and native Bangla word formation processes under the framework of Rule-based Phonology. The paper has both descriptive and theoretical goals. Bangla has a vast lexicon and a rich morphological system. The abundance of the classical Sanskrit language entities makes it interesting to explore the word formation processes and observe the morphophonological interactions in light of Neoclassicism. The words and affixes in Bangla have been divided into: a) Tadbhava and b) Tatsama c) Deshi (Native) and d) Videshi (Foreign). I study the different word formation processes in Bangla affixes. A rule-based account has been given to account for the morphophonological changes and bring out the essence of Neoclassicism in the Bangla lexicon and contribute towards the study of Bangla phonology and morphology.

A conditional learnability argument for constraints on underlying representations

We explore the implications of a particular approach to learning for an architectural question in phonology. The learning approach follows the principle of Minimum Description Length (MDL), which has recently been used for learning in both constraint-based and rule-based phonology. The architectural question on which we focus is whether the grammar allows language-specific statements to be made at the level of the lexicon, as was assumed in early generative phonology, or whether such statements are prohibited, as is commonly assumed within more recent work. We show that under MDL, the architectural question has real empirical implications: across a range of seemingly natural representational schemes, an ability to make language-specific statements about the lexicon is needed to ensure the learnability of an important aspect of phonological knowledge.

Representation-based models in the current landscape of phonological theory

AbstractWe place the healthy diversity of current (i.e., early 21st-century) phonological theory under scrutiny, and identify the four fundamental approaches that make it up: Rule-Based Phonology, Representation-Based Phonology, Constraint-Based Phonology, and Usage-Based Phonology. We then focus on the key aspects of and recent developments in Representation-Based Phonology: we separate out hybrid models and purely representational ones, we identify Government Phonology (GP) as the most popular form of the latter (and show that it is even present in what we call ‘GP-friendly’ analyses), and finally, we discuss and illustrate recent innovations in both subsegmental and prosodic structure in the two strands that we identify as ‘hyperhierarchical’ (or ‘vertical’) and ‘flat’ (or ‘horizontal’).

Phonotactics, prophylaxis, acquisitionism and change: *Rime-xxŋ and ash-tensing in the history of English

This article revisits, extends and interrogates the position advocated in Honeybone (2019) — that phonotactic constraints are psychologically real phonological entities (namely: constraints on output-like forms), which have a diachrony of their own, and which can also interfere with diachronic segmental change by inhibiting otherwise regular innovations. I focus in the latter part of the article on the role of one phonotactic constraint in the history of English: *Rime-xxŋ. I argue that we need to investigate the emergence of such constraints in the history of languages and I show how this particular constraint, once innovated (which occurs through constraint scattering), can be understood to have inhibited the patterning of ash-tensing in certain varieties of American English (and also that it may now have been lost in some varieties). To do this, I adopt a phonological model which combines aspects of Rule-Based Phonology and aspects of Constraint-Based Phonology, and which is firmly rooted in the variation that exists when changes are innovated. Finally, I evaluate the extent to which the type of phonotactically-driven process-inhibition that I propose here involves prophylaxis in phonological change (I show that it doesn't), and I consider the interaction of these ideas with the proposal that all change occurs in language acquisition (‘acquisitionism’).

The Import of the Syllable in Phonological Analysis: Epenthesis and Deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic

The study at hand explores the crucial position that the syllable holds in phonological analysis and theorizing by highlighting the analytical issues that might follow the exclusion of the syllable from phonological study. Effectively, the present study attempts to answer three main research questions, namely 1. Can rule-based phonology provide a satisfactory account of non-assimilatory processes such as epenthesis and deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic? 2. Can a syllable-devoid account of epenthesis and deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic be satisfactory? 3. Is the syllable indispensable in accounting for epenthesis and deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic? Indeed, the present study demonstrates that a syllable-devoid analysis provides unsatisfactory accounts of certain phonological epenthesis and deletion. In order to attain the aim of this study, instances of epenthesis and deletion in the Mostaganem spoken variety of Algerian Arabic are analysed. Such instances of epenthesis and deletion were obtained from the recorded speech of a randomly selected sample of fifty native speakers of Mostaganem Spoken Arabic. The findings of this study reveal the indispensability of the syllable in describing and explaining epenthesis and deletion in MTG by comparing a syllable-devoid account and a syllable-based account of such processes. Effectively, syllable-devoid account pertaining to The Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky&Halle, 1968) tradition proved short of explanations as to why epenthesis and deletion take place in Mostaganem spoken Arabic as contrasted to a syllable-based account which provides adequate and convincing explanations of those processes.

The Import of the Syllable in Phonological Analysis: Epenthesis and Deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic

The study at hand explores the crucial position that the syllable holds in phonological analysis and theorizing by highlighting the analytical issues that might follow the exclusion of the syllable from phonological study. Effectively, the present study attempts to answer three main research questions, namely 1. Can rule-based phonology provide a satisfactory account of non-assimilatory processes such as epenthesis and deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic? 2. Can a syllable-devoid account of epenthesis and deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic be satisfactory? 3. Is the syllable indispensable in accounting for epenthesis and deletion in Mostaganem Spoken Arabic? Indeed, the present study demonstrates that a syllable-devoid analysis provides unsatisfactory accounts of certain phonological epenthesis and deletion. In order to attain the aim of this study, instances of epenthesis and deletion in the Mostaganem spoken variety of Algerian Arabic are analysed. Such instances of epenthesis and deletion were obtained from the recorded speech of a randomly selected sample of fifty native speakers of Mostaganem Spoken Arabic. The findings of this study reveal the indispensability of the syllable in describing and explaining epenthesis and deletion in MTG by comparing a syllable-devoid account and a syllable-based account of such processes. Effectively, syllable-devoid account pertaining to The Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky&Halle, 1968) tradition proved short of explanations as to why epenthesis and deletion take place in Mostaganem spoken Arabic as contrasted to a syllable-based account which provides adequate and convincing explanations of those processes.

Neutralization in Aztec Phonology – The Case of Classical Nahuatl Nasals

This article investigates nasal assimilation in Classical Nahuatl. The distribution of nasal consonants is shown to be the result of coda neutralization. It is argued that generalizations made for root and word level are disproportionate and cannot be explained through the means of rule-based phonology. It is shown that the process responsible for nasal distribution can only be accounted for by introducing derivational levels in Optimality Theory.

A Rule-ordering Theory of Blocking in Nonderived Environments

In Nonderived Environment Blocking (NDEB), a phonological process applies across morpheme boundaries or morpheme-internally when fed by another phonological process but is otherwise blocked from applying. NDEB poses a challenge to both rule-based phonology and Optimality Theory: if P is a process that is blocked in nonderived environments, the challenge in both frameworks is to partition the set of environments of application of P into two subsets – corresponding to derived and nonderived environments – and block the application of the process precisely in nonderived environments. My goal in this paper is to show that NDEB can be reduced to rule ordering. I will do so by presenting a rule-ordering theory of NDEB that uses morpheme structure rules. Every rule P that is blocked in nonderived environments will be ordered after a morpheme structure rule R that removes P’s environments of application. Since morpheme structure rules apply to URs of individual morphemes (which correspond to nonderived environments), R will prevent P from applying precisely in nonderived environments.

Hiatus resolution and opacity in Seoul Korean verbal paradigm

The present study explores hiatus resolution patterns in Seoul Korean verbal paradigm. I provide an analysis of the data of hiatus resolution, focusing on phonological opacity and variation. In so doing, I compare rule-based phonology and OT-CC which are expected to explain phonological opacity equally well. It will be shown that rulebased phonology equipped with rule ordering and optionality fails to provide an adequate analysis of the data with variation. In contrast, the same data can be properly analyzed within the framework of OT-CC.

Hidden generalizations: Phonological opacity in optimality theory

Reviewed by: Hidden generalizations: Phonological opacity in optimality theory Martin Krämer Hidden generalizations: Phonological opacity in optimality theory. By John J. McCarthy. (Advances in optimality theory.) London: Equinox, 2007. Pp. viii, 244. ISBN 9781845530525. $39.95. This is the first volume in the series ‘Advances in optimality theory’, edited by Ellen Woolford and Armin Mester. On the one hand, it can be considered a very good start for the series to have one of the eminent scholars in optimality theory (OT) contributing the first volume. Furthermore, McCarthy promises to tackle one of OT’s big problems: phonological opacity. On the other hand, this could also be considered a particularly difficult start since at first glance, the proposal made in the book looks very much like OT filing for bankruptcy. The main point of M’s proposal is to modify OT’s central tenet of parallelism by using parallel evaluation in a serial fashion. While acknowledging the scale of this move, M points out that the framework nevertheless has assets that make it superior to other conceptions of grammar like rule-based phonology: the advantages of the new approach include its elegant way of explaining conspiracies, markedness, typological variation, language change, and acquisition. The book is very pedagogical. With the instructions of how to use the book at the end of Ch.1, M takes the reader by the hand and approaches the topic step by step. Besides this nice gesture, [End Page 969] Ch.1, ‘Overview of the issues and the results’, explains what phonological opacity is and why it is a problem for OT, and briefly outlines the solution to the problem that is proposed in Ch. 3. In Ch. 2, ‘Opacity, derivations, and optimality theory’, M recapitulates the history of analyses of opacity: first, derivational theories as in SPE (Chomsky & Halle 1968) and lexical phonology, and then OT. Before going into the various proposals, he sketches the basics of the theory, that is, the concept of various levels of representation and of linking them via derivation. This outline serves as a preface to the discussion of derivational analyses. M further lays out the basic assumptions of ‘classic’ OT as a prelude to the discussion of approaches to opacity within OT, pointing out which aspects of opacity pose problems for parallelism (i.e. parallel evaluation of candidates). M concludes in this overview that the crucial element shared by more successful approaches to opacity is the reference to a third representation besides the underlying and the surface forms. In serial rule-based phonology, these are the representations between the applications of rules; in lexical phonology and in stratal OT, which assume the three levels of evaluation, the output of one level serves as the input to the next. Other OT-internal proposals make reference to some failed candidate (sympathy theory, targeted constraints) or an abstract notion of a fully faithful candidate (comparative markedness). M criticizes those OT approaches without a third level of representation for losing sight of the trademark feature of opacity, which is that the opacified process has to be independently active in the language. This results in overgeneration. In Ch. 3, ‘Candidate chains and phonological opacity’, Mintroduces his proposal, starting with candidate chains (CCs) and well-formedness conditions on them. He then establishes the new family of precedence constraints (Prec-constraints). I discuss this in more detail shortly. The introduction of the new theory is followed by a short discussion of learnability/acquisition. An important question is whether Prec-constraints are universal or whether a learner has to construct them when faced with opaque data. It would be instructive here to have a look at spontaneous opacity, as it emerges in child language. M does not discuss this issue, however, even though he wonders whether there are ‘special circumstances, invisible to learners, where even unlearnable and therefore unlearned Prec-constraints are visibly active’ (119; see Tihonova 2009 for an insightful analysis of spontaneous opacity in child language within OT-CC). At the end of the chapter M comes back to previous approaches and compares the new theory with the earlier attempts one by one. The last chapter before the postscript, ‘Two case studies...

Lexical Phonology and the History of English (review)

Reviewed by: Lexical phonology and the history of English by April McMahon Mike Maxwell Lexical phonology and the history of English. By April McMahon. (Cambridge studies in linguistics 91.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xi, 309. $64.95. Despite the current optimism about purely constraint-based theories, rule-based phonology lives on. This book is an example, but it is not an argument against pure constraint theories. Rather, McMahon for the most part assumes a version of lexical phonology and asks what light historical change and dialectal differences can throw on that theory. [End Page 387] The data are from English, primarily American and British dialects; Scottish and nonrhotic dialects are singled out for the light they shed on theoretical issues. Ch. 1, ‘The role of history’, is about history in two senses: what diachronic developments can tell us about synchronic theory (M feels diachronic evidence has been undervalued) and the history of generative phonology. The history of lexical phonology is further explored in Ch. 2, ‘Constraining the model: Current controversies in lexical phonology’. As one might guess from that title, there are no arguments for a derivational theory as opposed to a constraint-based theory, nor in favor of lexical phonology over other rule-based approaches. Rather, the argumentation concerns analyses within lexical phonology and, within that theory, the role of constraints in blocking excessive abstractness, in particular, the elsewhere condition, the strict cyclicity condition, structure preservation, and the derived environment constraint. (This last constraint blocks stratum one rules from applying in nonderived environments.) Analyses by Morris Halle and K. P. Mohanan serve as foils. But M reintroduces a certain kind of abstractness by claiming that certain bracketing configurations can block phonological rules. It is not clear how well her claims would translate into a tree-based view of the same structures. Ch. 3, ‘Applying the constraints: The Modern English vowel shift’, illustrates M’s claims with a concrete analysis. The derived environment constraint prevents many abstract analyses, but there is a price: ‘The strict imposition of constraints inevitably prohibits a maximally simple phonology, if simplicity means a minimal number of rules used maximally … the optimal phonology will no longer be the one with the most simple and elegant analysis’ (138). M is not afraid to split vowel shift into two synchronic rules, for tense and lax vowels respectively. Ch. 4, ‘Synchrony, diachrony and lexical phonology: The Scottish vowel length rule’, is a detailed historical analysis of how Scottish dialects of English underwent rule inversion, winding up with rather different underlying forms from other English dialects. Certain neutralization rules turn out to be exceptions to a pure version of the derived environment constraint. Ch. 5, ‘Dialect differentiation in lexical phonology: The unwelcome effects of underspecification’, underscores the fact that different dialects may have strikingly different underlying representations of lexemes and different inventories of phonemes—a point which might seem obvious but for the fact that some phonologists seem to have implicitly assumed otherwise. Likewise for the oft implicit ‘preference for computation over storage’ (218), in the form of underspecified underlying representations; M argues that underspecification allows sidestepping otherwise motivated constraints and should therefore be disallowed. The final chapter, ‘English /r/’, examines several nonrhotic dialects. M argues for an r-insertion analysis (as opposed to a deletion analysis or both insertion and deletion). Because the process was originally one of deletion (rule inversion, again), the environment after which r-insertion takes place is now an arbitrary set of vowels. This is an important point, deserving greater discussion than M gives it (and than I can give it here). For if phonological rules can have synchronically arbitrary sets of segments in their environments, then the argument used by early generative phonologists against the curly braces of their structuralist predecessors is lost. Moreover, the segment which is inserted is itself arbitrary (/r/ is not an unmarked vowel or consonant of English), again as a result of rule inversion, again undercutting that mode of argumentation which assumes a phonological analysis must be maximally natural. M quotes Wolfgang Wurzel as saying, ‘given a purely synchronic approach, many grammatical facts defy explanation which, from a historical point of view, are quite explainable’ (283). This...

Sympathy and phonological opacity

A central idea in rule-based phonology is the serial derivation (Chomsky & Halle 1968). In a serial derivation, an underlying form passes through a number of intermediate representations on its way to the surface:[Scheme here]Implementational details can differ: the order of rules might be stipulated or it might be derived from universal principles; the steps might be called ‘rules’, ‘cycles’ or ‘levels’; the steps might involve applying rules or enforcing constraints. But, details aside, the defining characteristic of a serial derivation, in the sense I will employ here, is the pre-eminence of the chronological metaphor: the underlying form is transformed into a succession of distinct, accessible intermediate representations on its way to the surface. I will call any theory with this property ‘serialism’.