Strict CV Research Articles

Deriving sonority from the structure, not the other way round: A Strict CV approach to consonant clusters

AbstractThis paper aims to show that sonority-based generalizations on consonant phonotactics should directly follow from representations, not from stipulations on representations such as the commonly accepted licensing or government statements. The basic reason for this is that the second approach is both arbitrary and circular, as it entails a variable ranking of alleged well-formedness principles, if we want to explain, for example, why TR clusters are either tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic depending on the language. I argue instead for a representational alternative assuming that (i) consonants and vowels are universally segregated, and (ii) involve two parallel CVCV sequences – one on the C-plane, the other on the V-plane – (iii) which may differ in length. It is shown how the major sonority categories, and thereby the phonotactic constraints based on these categories, naturally result from how the two CVCV sequences are synchronized if the one on the C-plane is longer than the one on the V-plane. It will also be seen how the proposed structures naturally account for several processes such as liquid metathesis and deletion, vowel epenthesis, plosive fricativization, etc., while providing a means for measuring the relative likelihood of some of them on the basis of representational markedness.

Stress and final /n/ deletion in Catalan: Combining Strict CV and OT

In Catalan, /n/ deletes in word-final position when it is preceded by a stressed vowel. In this paper, we present an analysis that combines the representations of Strict CV and the violable constraints of Optimality Theory, two rarely combined but perfectly compatible analytical tools. We propose that final /n/ floats unassociated below its C position if it cannot be licensed by a following segment. In such circumstances, an entire CV unit is left unidentified at the right edge, a situation which is penalized by the system. Still, when stress is final, this rightmost CV unit is identified by the weak branch of a trochaic foot. As a result, the /n/ may remain afloat. However, when stress is not final, the final CV remains otherwise unidentified, and so /n/ must associate to it, even though it is unlicensed.

Consonant lenition inside and outside the “minimal foot”

English represents stress-sensitive consonant lenition systems, in which the onsets of stressed syllables (as well as word-initial consonants) tend to resist diachronic lenition, resulting in synchronic alternations between foot-initial and foot-internal variants. However, there is empirical evidence that a further distinction needs to be drawn between two subtypes of foot-internal positions: one which is weak proper, included within a bimoraic domain (corresponding to the “minimal foot” in prosodic approaches); and a less weak (“semi-weak”) position outside that minimal domain. Crucially, lenition outside the domain implies lenition within, and no cases of lenition in semi-weak only are on record. The paper uses the representations of Strict CV Phonology to capture the equivalence of two forms of the “minimal foot” (the CVCV sequence and the long-vowelled heavy syllable) and to connect this “bimoraicity” of the domain to the implications in consonant lenition, a benefit moraic theory does not offer. At the same time, it properly predicts the non-existence of the unattested lenition pattern.

Weak and Semiweak Phonological Positions in English

The paper argues that, besides the distinction between strong and weak phonological positions, a further dichotomy of weak and semiweak positions is justified in English, manifesting itself in consonant lenition as well as vowel reduction and syncope. Namely, a consonant/vowel immediately following the metrical head is more prone to lenite/reduce than a later consonant/vowel. An extensive discussion of the relevant data, taken from t-allophony and vowel reduction, as well as the introduction of the novel results of an investigation of schwa syncope in British English are provided. The analysis is set in a subbranch of Government Phonology called Strict CV (or CVCV) phonology, in which a licensed position is strong, a governed position is weak, and one which is both licensed and governed is semiweak. It is also shown that previous accounts of some of the data, making reference to foot adjunction structure, handle the observed facts inadequately either because they are unable to predict the observed patterning of strong vs. semiweak realisations, or because they allow for reduction where it is not on record.

A strict CV approach to consonant lenition: bidirectional government in English phonology

This paper develops the notion of licensed proper government in phonology and addresses the issue of why there is no consonant lenition word-initially in English and in a host of other languages. This task is carried out through a case study of the distribution of flapped versus aspirated /t/ in General American (GA). The focus is directed towards the structural aspects of lenition, and, in particular, those environments where there is an absence of lenition. I show how the machinery of bidirectional government allows us to draw a clear-cut distinction between governing relations established in the lexicon and those established post-lexically. In order to account for the distribution of flapped, glottal and aspirated allophones of /t/, I will make reference to two factors: lack of licence to govern, and the idea that a consonantal position cannot be licensed and governed simultaneously by the same vocalic position.

No initial empty CV in clusterless languages

From the inception of strict CV in Lowenstamm (1996) the question of how surface clusters are licensed in Government Phonology has been a contentious one. If constituent structure consists of a series of strictly alternating C and V positions, and empty positions are licensed by proper government, then all cluster types should be available to languages that license clusters. The initial empty CV, which though originally proposed to account for certain word-initial clitic alternations in Lowenstamm (1999), emerges as a possible solution to categorizing blatant distributional facts about clusters. Viewed as a morphological (boundary) marker imported from morphology to phonology, its presence accords with languages that show restrictions on cluster type in initial position, while its absence is consistent with languages that show free variation of clusters in initial position. In the midst of this, clusterless languages are assumed to pattern with the former group in requiring the highest restriction on clusters i.e. none at all. This paper argues that there is little ground for such an assumption and that in fact, clusterless languages have no initial empty CV, a fact that is shown to follow from the general ban on proper government in this language type. The paper proceeds as follows; §2 presents the motivations for an initial empty CV; §3 presents arguments for a parametric treatment of proper-government; §4 presents empirical evidence for the absence of an initial empty CV in clusterless languages; and §5 offers some concluding remarks.

The phonemicity of glides in Spanish:cambiavs.rocía

In the present article I will argue that there is no need to posit underlying glides in Spanish because the syllabicity of high vowels (i,u) is determined by the stress pattern of the word and the segmental environment of the vowels. I will also argue that non-alternating rising diphthongs and falling diphthongs can uniformly be accounted for in the framework of strict CV (Lowenstamm 1996).