Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology

Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology PDF Author: Eric Raimy
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026218270X
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The essays in this volume address foundational questions in phonology that cut across different schools of thought within the discipline.

Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology

Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology PDF Author: Eric Raimy
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026218270X
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The essays in this volume address foundational questions in phonology that cut across different schools of thought within the discipline.

Phonological Architecture

Phonological Architecture PDF Author: Bridget D. Samuels
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199694362
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Phonological Architecture bridges linguistic theory and the biological sciences, presenting a comprehensive view of phonology from a biological perspective. Its back-to-basics approach breaks phonology into primitive operations and representations and investigates their possible origins in cognitive abilities found throughout the animal kingdom. Bridget Samuels opens the discussion by considering the general properties of the externalisation system in a theory-neutral manner, using animal cognition studies to identify which components of phonology may not be unique to humans and/or to language. She demonstrates, on the basis of behavioural and physiological studies on primates, songbirds, and a wide variety of other species, that the cognitive abilities underlying human phonological representations and operations are present in creatures other than Homo sapiens (even if not to the same degree) and in domains other than phonology or, indeed, language proper. The second, more linguistically technical half of the book explores what is necessarily unique about phonology. The author discusses the properties of the phonological module which are dictated by the interface requirements of the syntactic module of Universal Grammar as well as different components of the human sensory-motor system (ie audition, vision, and motor control). She proposes a repertoire of phonological representations and operations which are consistent with Universal Grammar and human cognitive evolution. She illustrates the application of these operations with analyses of representative phonological data such as vowel harmony, reduplication, and tone spreading patterns. Finally, the author addresses the issue of cross-linguistic and inter-speaker variation.

A Guide to Morphosyntax-phonology Interface Theories

A Guide to Morphosyntax-phonology Interface Theories PDF Author: Tobias Scheer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110238624
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Book Description
This book reviews the history of the interface between morpho-syntax and phonology roughly since World War II. Structuralist and generative interface thinking is presented chronologically, but also theory by theory from the point of view of a historically interested observer who however in the last third of the book distills lessons in order to assess present-day interface theories, and to establish a catalogue of properties that a correct interface theory should or must not have. The book also introduces modularity, the rationalist theory of the (human) cognitive system that underlies the generative approach to language, from a Cognitive Science perspective. Modularity is used as a referee for interface theories in the book. Finally, the book locates the interface debate in the landscape of current minimalist syntax and phase theory and fosters intermodular argumentation: how can we use properties of morpho-syntactic theory in order to argue for or against competing theories of phonology (and vice-versa)?

A Theory of Phonological Features

A Theory of Phonological Features PDF Author: San Duanmu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191642843
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This book outlines a system of phonological features that is minimally sufficient to distinguish all consonants and vowels in the languages of the world. The extensive evidence is drawn from datasets with a combined total of about 1000 sound inventories. The interpretation of phonetic transcriptions from different languages is a long-standing problem. In this book, San Duanmu proposes a solution that relies on the notion of contrast: X and Y are different sounds if and only if they contrast in some language. He focuses on a simple procedure to interpret empirical data: for each phonetic dimension, all inventories are searched in order to determine the maximal number of contrasts required. In addition, every unusual feature or extra degree of contrast is re-examined to confirm its validity. The resulting feature system is surprisingly simple: fewer features are needed than previously proposed, and for each feature, a two-way contrast is sufficient. Nevertheless, the proposal is reliable in that the notion of contrast is uncontroversial, the procedure is explicit, and the result is repeatable. The book also offers discussion of non-contrastive differences between languages, sound classes, and complex sounds such as affricates, consonant-glide units, consonant-liquid units, contour tones, pre-nasalized stops, clicks, ejectives, and implosives.

Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and Register Analysis

Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and Register Analysis PDF Author: Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110372541
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
This volume aims to overcome sub-disciplinary boundaries in the study of linguistic variation - be it language-internal or cross-linguistic. Even though dialectologists, register analysts, typologists, and quantitative linguists all deal with linguistic variation, there is astonishingly little interaction across these fields. But the fourteen contributions in this volume show that these subdisciplines actually share many interests and methodological concerns in common. The chapters specifically converge in the following ways: First, they all seek to explore linguistic variation, within or across languages. Second, they are based on usage data, that is, on corpora of (more or less) authentic text or speech of different languages or language varieties. Third, all chapters are concerned with the joint analysis (also sometimes known as “aggregation” or “data synthesis”) of multiple phenomena, features, or measurements of some sort. And lastly, the contributors all marshal quantitative analysis techniques to analyse the data. In short, the volume explores the text-feature-aggregation pipeline in variation studies, demonstrating that there is much mutual inspiration to be had by thinking outside the disciplinary box.

The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics

The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics PDF Author: W. Leo Wetzels
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119096766
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 609

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Book Description
The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics presents a comprehensive overview of research within the Brazilian and European variants of the Portuguese language. It includes chapters focusing on the key areas of linguistic study, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, linguistic change, language variation and contact, and acquisition. Essential reference work for scholars of Portuguese linguistics and Romance languages Chapters written by an international team of research specialists highlight both the consensus and the controversies within the various subfields of Portuguese linguistics Examines Portuguese linguistics in relation to syntax, phonology, morphology, semantics/pragmatics, acquisition, and sociolinguistics Written in an accessible overview style and designed for advanced students and current scholars in the field alike Essential reference work for scholars of Portuguese linguistics and Romance languages

Complexity in Polish Phonotactics

Complexity in Polish Phonotactics PDF Author: Paula Orzechowska
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811372993
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This book provides a refreshing perspective on the description, study and representation of consonant clusters in Polish. What are the sources of phonotactic complexity? What properties or principles motivate the phonological structure of initial and final consonant clusters? In answering these questions, a necessary turning point consists in investigating sequences of consonants at their most basic level, namely in terms of phonological features. The analysis is exploratory: it leads to discovering prevalent feature patterns in clusters from which new phonotactic generalizations are derived. A recurring theme in the book is that phonological features vary in weight depending on (1) their distribution in a cluster, (2) their position in a word, and (3) language domain. Positional feature weight reflects the relative importance of place, manner and voice features (e.g. coronal, dorsal, strident, continuant) in constructing cluster inventories, minimizing cognitive effort, facilitating production and triggering specific casual speech processes. Feature weights give rise to previously unidentified positional preferences. Rankings of features and preferences are a testing ground for principles of sonority, contrast, clarity of perception and ease of articulation. This volume addresses practitioners in the field seeking new methods of phonotactic modelling and approaches to complexity, as well as students interested in an overview of current research directions in the study of consonant clusters. Sequences of consonants in Polish are certainly among the most remarkable ones that readers will ever encounter in their linguistic explorations. In this volume, they will come to realise that hundreds of unusually long, odd-looking, sonority-violating, morphologically complex and infrequent clusters are in fact well-motivated and structured according to well-defined tactic patterns of features.

The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory

The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory PDF Author: S.J. Hannahs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317382137
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 661

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory provides a comprehensive overview of the major contemporary approaches to phonology. Phonology is frequently defined as the systematic organisation of the sounds of human language. For some, this includes aspects of both the surface phonetics together with systematic structural properties of the sound system; for others, phonology is seen as distinct from, and autonomous from, phonetics. The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory surveys the differing ways in which phonology is viewed, with a focus on current approaches to phonology. Divided into two parts, this handbook: covers major conceptual frameworks within phonology, including: rule-based phonology; Optimality Theory; Government Phonology; Dependency Phonology; and connectionist approaches to generative phonology; explores the central issue of the relationship between phonetics and phonology; features 23 chapters written by leading academics from around the world. The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory is an authoritative survey of this key field in linguistics, and is essential reading for students studying phonology.

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study

Highly complex syllable structure: A typological and diachronic study PDF Author: Shelece Easterday
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961101949
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 616

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Book Description
The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language whose strongest cross-linguistic patterns are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure. Syllable patterns involving long sequences of consonants are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized, with few approaches treating these as natural or unproblematic structures. This book is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The two aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that they constitute a distinct linguistic type, and (ii) to identify possible diachronic paths and natural mechanisms by which these patterns come about in the history of a language. These issues are investigated in a diversified sample of 100 languages, 25 of which have highly complex syllable patterns. Languages with highly complex syllable structure are characterized by a number of phonetic, phonological, and morphological features which serve to set them apart from languages with simpler syllable patterns. These include specific segmental and suprasegmental properties, a higher prevalence of vowel reduction processes with extreme outcomes, and higher average morpheme/word ratios. The results suggest that highly complex syllable structure is a linguistic type distinct from but sharing some characteristics with other proposed holistic phonological types, including stress-timed and consonantal languages. The results point to word stress and specific patterns of gestural organization as playing important roles in the diachronic development of these patterns out of simpler syllable structures.

From Sounds to Structures

From Sounds to Structures PDF Author: Roberto Petrosino
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501506730
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
The term ‘Maya’, in Indian traditions, refers to our sensory perception of the world and, as such, to a superficial reality (or ‘un–reality’) that we must look beyond to find the inner reality of things. Applied to the study of language, we perceive sounds, a superficial reality, and then we seek structures, the underlying reality in what we call phonology, morphology, and syntax. This volume starts with an introduction by the editors, which shows how the various papers contained in the volume reflect the spectrum of research interests of Andrea Calabrese, as well as his influence on the work of colleagues and his students. Contributors, united in their search for the abstract structures that underlie the appearances of languages include linguists such as Adriana Belletti, Paola Benincà, Jonathan Bobaljik, Gugliemo Cinque, David Embick, Mirko Grimaldi, Harry van der Hulst, Michael Kenstowicz, Maria Rita Manzini, Andrew Nevins, Elizabeth Pyatt, Luigi Rizzi, Leonardo Savoia, Laura Vanelli, Bert Vaux, Susi Wurmbrand, as well as a few junior researchers including Mariachiara Berizzi, Giuliano Bocci, Stefano Canalis, Silvio Cruschina, Irina Monich, Beata Moskal, Diego Pescarini, Joseph Perry, Roberto Petrosino, and Kobey Schwayder.