Sandhi Phenomena Research Articles

Zu Sandhi-Erscheinungen im älteren Ägyptisch. Überlegungen zum Vorkommen in funerären Texten

“Regarding Sandhi Phenomena in Earlier Egyptian. Considerations on the Occurrence in funerary Texts” - The term Sandhi is used in linguistics to cover sound changes which occur between two words or morphemes. Sandhi phenomena appear in many languages and are to some degree well attested in the Earlier Egyptian language, especially in funerary texts. The nature of those phenomena is explored and some already proposed Sandhis are reviewed. Especially the pronoun wi seems often to be subject of Sandhi phenomena: After suffix pronouns ending with -n it can become nwi, after n.tt it can become twi. In both cases the ending consonant of the first word, which was dropped out over time, is preserved by the Sandhi. Although both phenomena are known for more than hundred years, but only the first one was already analyzed as Sandhi. While nwi became a new form in “Égyptien de tradition”, combining the function of the dependent and the independent pronoun, twi was grammaticalized and from Late Egyptian on used as proclitic pronoun tw=i in adverbial (or durative) clauses. Thus the research on pronominal Sandhi phenomena can provide important insights not only in phonology, but in the history of the Egyptian language and grammaticalization processes too.

Emergência de sândi consonântico em Português Europeu: uma abordagem prosódica

In European Portuguese, the domain for sandhi phenomena is the intonational phrase. Unlike the intonational phrase, the phonological phrase has been shown to be only relevant for rhythm and prominence-related phenomena (Frota, 2000, 2014). Fricative voicing between words (casa[ʒb]rancas, casa[ʃp]retas) and ressylabification before vowel-initial words (casa[zɐ]marelas) occur within the intonational phrase. In this study, we considered spontaneous productions of a Portuguese child (Luma), aged 2;04-4;00, to examine the acquisition of external consonantal sandhi. The data show that sandhi production varies according to the segmental (C#C, C#V, CFric, CVib, CLat) and prosodic context (clitic, prosodic word, position in prosodic structure). The data further confirm that sandhi occurs within the intonational phrase, supporting the analysis proposed for the adult grammar. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the acquisition of the prosodic structure and the acquisition of sandhi phenomena.

The Neural Substrates Underlying the Implementation of Phonological Rule in Lexical Tone Production: An fMRI Study of the Tone 3 Sandhi Phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese.

This study examined the neural substrates underlying the implementation of phonological rule in lexical tone by the Tone 3 sandhi phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese. Tone 3 sandhi is traditionally described as the substitution of Tone 3 with Tone 2 when followed by another Tone 3 (33 →23) during speech production. Tone 3 sandhi enables the examination of tone processing in the phonological level with the least involvement of segments. Using the fMRI technique, we measured brain activations corresponding to the monosyllable and disyllable sequences of the four Chinese lexical tones, while manipulating the requirement on overt oral response. The application of Tone 3 sandhi to disyllable sequence of Tone 3 was confirmed by our behavioral results. Larger brain responses to overtly produced disyllable Tone 3 (33 > 11, 22, and 44) were found in right posterior IFG by both whole-brain and ROI analyses. We suggest that the right IFG was responsible for the processing of Tone 3 sandhi. Intense temporo-frontal interaction is needed in speech production for self-monitoring. The involvement of the right IFG in tone production might result from its interaction with the right auditory cortex, which is known to specialize in pitch. Future studies using tools with better temporal resolutions are needed to illuminate the dynamic interaction between the right inferior frontal regions and the left-lateralized language network in tone languages.

Contextual phonological errors and omission of obligatory liaison as a window into a reduced span of phonological encoding

ABSTRACTBackground: The question of how much speakers plan ahead before they start articulating their message is essential to understand how fluency is ensured during speech production. This question has been largely investigated in healthy speakers. Surprisingly, this remains unexplored for brain-damaged speakers, even though a reduced span of encoding might account for the fact that those impaired speakers often produce scattered speech.Aims: In this study, we examine whether the span of encoding is reduced in some left hemisphere brain-damaged speakers by taking advantage of two linguistic phenomena which provide an insight into ahead phonological planning.Methods and procedures: First, we elicit the production of French sequences involving obligatory liaisons (e.g., /mõ/ and /ami/ produced /mõ.nami/), for which the correct production requires ahead planning, at least up to the first phoneme of the following word of the utterance. Second, we use tongue-twister-like sequences in order to elicit contextual phonological errors, as phoneme anticipation errors (e.g., bureau vert—green desk—produced /vyRo.vER/) suggest that the speaker has planned ahead before articulating. If brain-damaged speakers do present a reduced span of encoding, they should both produce a high rate of liaison consonant omissions and a low rate of anticipation contextual phonological errors.Outcome and results: The results on a group of 13 speakers with aphasia and/or apraxia of speech overall show few contextual (syntagmatic) errors despite a high rate of segmental errors, whereas the majority of phonological errors produced on the same utterances by healthy speakers were syntagmatic. The speech/language impaired participants also presented a high rate of obligatory liaison consonants omission. Crucially, a negative correlation was observed between the rate of phoneme anticipation errors and the rate of liaison consonant omission.Conclusion: These results suggest that some brain-damaged speakers present a span of phonological encoding limited to single words and that the use of inter-word sandhi phenomena, such as French liaison and the analysis of phoneme anticipation errors, are valid linguistic tools to inform on the span of encoding.

Loanword-specific grammar in Japanese adaptations of Korean words and phrases

This paper documents present-day Japanese loanwords from Korean and contributes to the debate on input structure in loanword phonology. It argues that loanword patterns may be shaped by loanword-specific grammars. Present-day Korean-to-Japanese phrase adaptation of obstruents provides evidence for the existence of a loanword-specific grammar. In adaptations of Korean names and other phrases, an allophonic alternation in Korean, namely the intersonorant voicing of lenis stops, appears at the word boundary. Comparisons with other word sandhi phenomena reveal that voicing of a lenis in this position is not due to faithful rendition of Korean phonetic inputs but rather to a special rule of Japanese loanword phonology. The point is stressed by another analogous fact that the Korean coda behaves differently from codas of western languages in loanword adaptations, also requiring grammatical explanation for Korean word adaptation.

‘To err is human: The case for neorhoticity in White South African English

While neorhoticity in acrolectal black South African English has been investigated and confirmed by Hartmann and Zerbian (2009), and while a few commentators (including Bailey 1984, Da Silva 2008 and Bekker 2009) have briefly mentioned the possibility of a re-emergence of rhoticity in white South African English (SAfE), the phenomenon has not been investigated closely. The research reported on in this article is the first attempt to do so, focusing as it does on the speech produced in a range of styles by eight young, female speakers of the local standard of SAfE, that is, General SAfE. The research shows, furthermore, and in agreement with the existing literature on neorhoticity in modern English accents, that the re-emergence of rhoticity in General SAfE is both phonologically and sociolinguistically constrained: it appears almost exclusively in the most formal styles and is particularly prevalent when following /ɜː/, as in nurse, purse, etc. More surprisingly, there does not appear to be any evidence for an increase in the /r/-sandhi phenomena alongside the re-emergence of rhoticity.

Contextual Phonological Errors and Sandhi Phenomena as an Index of Ahead Phonological Planning in Aphasia

Contextual Phonological Errors and Sandhi Phenomena as an Index of Ahead Phonological Planning in Aphasia

Liaison acquisition: debates, critical issues, future research

Liaison is a sandhi phenomenon in French. Over the last four decades, it has given rise to many different models illustrating the whole range of phonological theories. More recently, new studies have documented its acquisition in French-speaking children as well as adult learners of French as a second language. These studies have resulted in the elaboration of two models of the acquisition process: (1) the constructionist model (Chevrot et al., 2009; Nicoladis and Paradis, 2011) developed within the framework of the usage-based theories; (2) the phonological model (Wauquier, 2009) which represents the framework of nonlinear phonology. Our aim is to re-examine the usage-based model in the light of the criticisms and suggestions made by Wauquier (2009). We shall first present the two models and then examine the issues under discussion. After that, we shall present longitudinal data testing a prediction made by the phonological model with regard to the generalization process in L1 and L2 acquisition. To conclude, we shall identify the points that remain to be clarified for each of the models and the directions which future research should take.

CONSTRUCTION SENSITIVITY IN PINGYAO TONE SANDHI

This paper investigates tone sandhi phenomena in Pingyao, a Jin dialect spoken in Shanxi province in China. Pingyao tone sandhi is special in that tone sandhi in bi-syllabic strings is construction sensitive, but tone sandhi in tri-syllabic strings is not fully conditioned by construction types. Based on Optimality Theory (OT), this paper proposes analyses for bi-tonal and tri-tonal sandhi in Pingyao. We show that while bi-tonal sandhi can be accounted for by assuming that there are different grammars associated with different construction types, the lack of construction sensitivity in certain tri-syllabic strings suggests that the association between construction types and phonological grammars can be sacrificed to comply with a higher demand. In Pingyao, the higher demand is to avoid having a tri-tonal string with marked tone sandhi domain from being associated with conflicting grammars.

Contraction of EST in Latin

AbstractThe paper analyses the contraction of est (‐st). This phenomenon is generally known as ‘prodelision’ or ‘aphaeresis’ and is considered a metrical sandhi phenomenon, graphically expressed only in early Latin texts. After the introduction (1), the paper presents the first systematic collection of the evidence for this form (2), followed by a phonological discussion (3), and by the conclusions (4), which aim to show that this was a more complex and widespread phenomenon than is normally believed, and to introduce its significance for other general linguistic topics such as cliticisation, the semantics of sum, and the position of the Latin verb in the clause.1

Special Tonal Alternations in Dongshi Hakka Reduplication

This paper investigates the special tone sandhi phenomena in the reduplication patterns of AB(C)AB(C), AAA, and AAAA in Dongshi Hakka. These patterns are notable in that they involve tone sandhi patterns that are different from those found in non-reduplications. Within the constraint-based theory of OT, this paper shows that although the tonal alternations observed in the different reduplication patterns are distinct from one another, they are all accompanied with a floating high tone which contributes greatly to the special patterns associated with tone sandhi. In addition to the existence of a floating high tone, AAA reduplication and AAAA reduplication also surface with fixed tonal melodies. It is shown that the fixed tonal melodies in the two patterns of reduplication actually resemble the common phenomena of fixed segmentism in reduplication and are driven by markedness requirements.

Phonological change and grammaticalization in HPSG: The case of French final consonants

This paper explores the use of HPSG for modeling historical phonological change and grammaticalization, focusing on the evolution of the pronunciation of word-final consonants in Modern French. The diachronic evidence is presented in detail, and interpreted as two main transitions, first from Old French to Middle French, then from Middle French to the modern language. The data show how the loss of final consonants, originally a phonological development in Middle French, gave rise to the grammaticalized external sandhi phenomenon known as consonant liaison in modern French. The stages of development are analyzed formally as a succession of HPSG lexical schemas in which phonological representations are determined by reference to the immediately following phonological context.

Variable directional applications in Tianjin tone sandhi

This paper investigates tone sandhi phenomena in the Chinese dialect of Tianjin, which are noteworthy for the rule application directionalities observed in tri-tonal strings. The rule application directionalities appear to be ungoverned, as none of the principles proposed to date that may contribute to determining directionalities can account for them. Based on the constraint-based theory of OT, this paper shows that the rule operation directionalities in Tianjin are by no means ungoverned. Normally tone sandhi applies from left to right for identity reasons. This is captured by the OO-faithfulness constraint Ident-BOT, which requires identity between prosodically related outputs. The left-to-right directionality is sacrificed only when it would result in output forms that involve marked sequences or toneme deletion at the prominent edge of a tone, which are forbidden by the markedness constraint OCP-T and the positional IO-faithfulness constraint Max-IO-t-R, respectively. Thus the rule application directionalities in Tianjin are naturally predicted by the interaction of Ident-BOt, OCP-T, and Max-IO-t-R, where Ident-BOt must be dominated by the latter two constraints.

Identity Preservation in Hakha-Lai Tone Sandhi

This paper examines the tone sandhi phenomenon in the Tibeto-Berman language of Hakha-Lai, which is special for the complex interactions among its elementary rules. The rule interactions in Hakha-Lai lead to both left-to-right and right-to-left rule directionalities in sequences of three or more tones. The rule application directionalities, however, appear to be ungoverned, as none of the principles proposed to date that may contribute to determining directionalities can account for them. In this paper, I argue that the tone sandhi operation directionalities in Hakha-Lai are by no means ungoverned. Normally tone sandhi operates from right to left for identity reasons. This is forced by the IDENT-BOT constraint. The right-to-left direction is sacrificed only when such direction would result in output forms that contain marked sequences or tonal changes at the prominent position, which are forbidden by U[AGREE-t and IDENT-IO-T-L respectively. Thus, the directionalities of tone sandhi operation in Hakha-Lai are naturally predicted by the interaction of the IDENT-BOT constraint, the U[AGREE-t constraint, and the IDENT-IO-T-L constraint, where IDENT-BOT must be dominated by the latter two constraints.

IP-raising, Tone Sandhi and the Creation of S-final Particles: Evidence for Cyclic Spell-Out

This paper examines how information provided by tone sandhi provides potential insights into processes of movement. The paper focuses on the Taiwanese element kong (Mandarin shuo) 'say' which is grammaticalizing as a complementizer-type particle in an unexpected sentence-final position. Evidence from tone sandhi phenomena indicates that this results from an operation of IP-raising in which the clausal complement of kong is raised to its left after the application of tone sandhi rules. The active grammaticalization patterning offers both a clear insight into the creation of clause/sentence-final particles in SVO languages and also provides strong evidence for the idea of 'cyclic Spell-Out'. It is also argued that a derivational rather than a purely representational model of grammar is required to accommodate the patterns found.

Verb serialization and object position

This paper discusses the phrase-structure configuration of resultative serial-verb constructions and the position of the object in these constructions. It is argued that the analysis involves a VP-shell configuration in which the second VP is an adjunct to the first VP (cf. Larson 1991). As such, serial-verb constructions are instances of pseudo-complementation, as defined in Seuren (1991). The object is part of the first predicate, and the argument-sharing effect is obtained through operator movement inside the second predicate. The evidence is based on a careful examination of sandhi phenomena, case-licensing mechanisms, extraction patterns (argument as well as adjunct), placement of ideophones, and the (un)availability of parasitic gaps. If serial-verb constructions do reduce to secondary-predication constructions, then the study of verb serialization can shed some new light on an old controversy of linguistic theory, namely the syntactic structure of secondary predication. It is argued that the analysis proposed in this paper can be extended to secondary-predication constructions in nonserializing languages.

The Slovene Dialect of Resia: San Giorgio

The study contains a synchronical description of the San Giorgio variety of the Slovene dialect spoken in the Resia valley (Val Resia/Rezijanska dolina) situated in north-eastern Italy. The following linguistic levels are analysed: phonology, morphonology and morphology. Apart from this some remarks on syntax and a lexicon have been included. The first chapter contains an overview of existing descriptive publications on Resian. Taking this overview as a starting point the choice of exactly the San Giorgio variety as the topic of this study is accounted for and the need for not only phonological, but also morphological analysis is made pointed out. The chapter further contains information on the native speakers whose speech is analysed and on the various methods used to obtain the dialect material. In the second chapter the phoneme inventory is presented, along with information on realisations, (optional) neutralisations and sandhi phenomena. Notwithstanding the considerable amount of phonetic detail given, the first and foremost aim of this chapter remains the quest for phonological oppositions and their functioning. In the third chapter the morphonological alternations that occur in the substantive, adjective and verb categories are being treated. Instead of dividing this information over the respective chapters on these categories, the alternations are presented together in a separate chapter, because some of the more frequent of them occur in all these word classes. However, through a classification by accent classes alternations concerning the location of stress are treated together with the word class they occur in. The third through seventh chapter inclusive contain the morphology of the substantive (chapter 4), the adjective (chapter 5), the pronoun, the numeral and the article (chapter 6) and the verb (chapter 7), respectively. In each chapter, together with an inventory of the attested desinences, an overview is given of rare desinences, of irregular declinations/conjugations and of the distribution of alternative desinences.

Depth of phonological recoding in short-term memory

In testing the hypothesis that surface phonetic form is included in short-term memory (STM) representation, the tone sandhi phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese was exploited, and, as a prerequisite, the hypothesis that tonal similarity affects STM of verbal material in a tone language was also tested. In Experiment 1, subjects recalled visually presented sequences of seven monosyllabic Chinese morphemes having either the same tone or different tones. More errors were made on the monotonal sequences than on the multitonal sequences, confirming the effect of tonal similarity on STM. In Experiment 2, subjects recalled visually presented sequences of disyllabic nonsense words. The sequences were designed in such a way that half of them were subject to the tone sandhi rule in Mandarin Chinese, whereas the other half were not. The consequence of applying the tone sandhi rule, as designed, was to make all the first characters in the sequences identical in pronunciation, thus creating potential phonological confusion. More errors, indeed, occurred on the sequences subject to the tone sandhi rule than on those not subject to it, indicating the existence of a surface phonetic representation in STM. The findings in this study provide further insight into the phonological mechanism of STM. Different accounts for this mechanism are also discussed in the light of the new findings.

Consonant Sandhi phenomena and syllable structure in Kabyle Berber

This paper discusses some peculiar alternations relative to the dental fricative sounds θ and ð when they occur across morpheme or word boundary in Kabyle Berber. Thus, the string /θ + θ/ is phonetically realized as tt, in some cases, and as θ t, in others. It will be shown that this seemingly aberrant behavior of /θ + θ/ finds an easy explanation if the position of these segments within the syllable is taken into consideration. Discussion of the string /ð + θ/, which surfaces as tt or θ, will reveal other sets of rules, some of which are dependent on syllable structure constraints. The analysis in the paper will also raise some interesting questions for the Obligatory Contour Principle as recently discussed in Schein and Steriade (1986) and Yip (1988). Whereas some data seem to confirm its stipulations, others appear to contradict them.

Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe

Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe