1 AKAN VOWEL HARMONY IN OPTIMALITY THEORY By LEE WILSON BALLARD A THESIS ...

110 Pages·2010·0.9 MB·English

by  Lee Ballard

AKAN VOWEL HARMONY IN OPTIMALITY THEORY

By

LEE WILSON BALLARD

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2010
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© 2010 Lee Wilson Ballard

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To my family:
Mom, Dad, and Becky;
Grand’mère, Granddaddy, and Grandmommie

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This thesis is due in part to my own efforts, but largely to the efforts and generosity of
those who helped along the way. These people include professors, friends, and family.
Without the guidance, encouragement, and advice of my committee members, Caroline
Wiltshire and James Essegbey, this thesis would never have gotten off the ground, let alone have
been finished on time. Dr. Essegbey provided expert advice on Akan linguistics, pointed me to
fresh references, and was very helpful when I was transcribing fieldwork data, glossing it,
writing it in the Akan orthography, and translating it into English. Dr. Wiltshire helped the OT
components stay on course, and helped orient me to the world of phonology by explaining
difficult concepts clearly and by giving me references I would not have known to consult
otherwise. Both members provided me with a steady stream of detailed and valuable comments
concerning the data, formal analysis, argumentation, and overall organization of this thesis. All
mistakes are still mine, but this work improved greatly due to their influence.
Equaling my committee in my indebtedness to them are my patient and hospitable
consultants, K.S. and V.A., who speak Asante Twi. They graciously let me into their home to get
to know them and make recordings of them speaking. I hope this thesis allows them to contribute
to a wider appreciation of the beauty and complexity of the Akan language, African languages,
and appreciation for Africa in general.
I also acknowledge my family, to whom this thesis is dedicated, and my friends. It was my
family who supported me emotionally and financially from the beginning of my schooling until
now. They encouraged me to pursue the interests I had and to nurture the talents I displayed. My
friends have also played a big part. Paul, Matt, and Julie supported me from afar, and UF
students kept me upbeat as well. These include my friends from the Gator Wesley fellowship and
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praise band, orchestra, Stammtisch, Linguistics, and co-founders of FloridaLinguistics.com.
Some names that pop out off the top of my head are Dan, David, Geeta, Kellia, Alex, Alex,
Shawn, Laurie, Amanda, Jess, Matt, Marina, Allie, Tyler, Dong-yi, Joel, Khalsa, Suaad, Zoe,
Tim, Sarah, Jaffer, and Claudia, as well the first people I met in Gainesville, Andrew and
Julianne. Und danke an Teresa und Siggi aus meiner Zeit in Würzburg: ich hab’s geschafft!
Alan Dehmer, my seventh grade Social Studies teacher at Durham School of the Arts,
deserves an extra special mention. He was the first teacher to challenge my mind and heart with
the importance of social science, and it was in his classroom that my fascination for Africa was
born. Alan even planned a field trip to Ghana, but I didn’t get to go. I recently figured out it was
because I was selected at the last minute to play in the Disney Young Musicians Symphony
Orchestra. This thesis, possibly the last academic paper I write, could not be more deeply rooted;
the first academic research paper I wrote was in the seventh grade on Ghana.
I also acknowledge those who have contributed to my understanding of language by
teaching me linguistics over the years. These people include Dr. Wiltshire, Dr. Lee, Dr.
Henderson, Dr. Hardman, Dr. Kaan, Dr. Essegbey, and Dr. Thompson in Gainesville, Dr.
Hartmann, Dr. Kim, and Dr. Krämer-Neubert in Würzburg, and Donna Salisbury in Chapel Hill.
Dr. Botelho and Dr. Lerner were influential mentors of mine at Davidson College and taught me
not only about music but perhaps more importantly how to do an analysis.
Finally, I acknowledge the Graduate Editorial Office and Helpdesk for their help with
formatting, working with styles in Word, and meeting deadlines. I thank all those here
mentioned, as well as “tour guides along the way” during my time at the University of Florida
who must go unmentioned.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...............................................................................................................4

LIST OF CONSTRAINTS..............................................................................................................8

LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................10

LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................12

ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................13

CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................17

Foundational Questions..........................................................................................................18

What is Akan?.................................................................................................................18

What is Vowel Harmony?...............................................................................................18

What is ATR?..................................................................................................................19

What is Phonology?.........................................................................................................21

What is Optimality Theory?............................................................................................23

Literature Review...................................................................................................................27

Works on Vowel Harmony and Works on Akan Phonology..........................................27

Works on Akan Vowel Harmony in OT..........................................................................32

My Assumptions.....................................................................................................................33

Binary features.................................................................................................................33

The Low Vowel is not Opaque........................................................................................33

Underspecification...........................................................................................................33

Established Data.....................................................................................................................34

The Akan Vowel Inventory.............................................................................................34

Vowel Harmony Data......................................................................................................35

2 ALIGNMENT ANALYSIS....................................................................................................39

Overview of Autosegmental Phonology.................................................................................39

ALIGNMENT, IDENTITY, and SPECIFY Constraints...................................................................40

The Basic Harmonic Pattern...................................................................................................41

Exceptions to Vowel Harmony...............................................................................................47

Likely Candidates in Autosegmental Phonology...................................................................53

Fieldwork Data in Alignment.................................................................................................56

ATR Harmony with Reduplication.........................................................................................58

Alignment with Fully Specified Morphemes.........................................................................60

The Basic Harmonic Pattern in Specified AP.........................................................................61

Exceptions to Vowel Harmony...............................................................................................64

Conclusions.............................................................................................................................68

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3 OPTIMAL DOMAINS ANALYSIS......................................................................................69

Questioning Autosegmental Phonology.................................................................................69

Overview of Optimal Domains Theory..................................................................................71

Akan in ODT: Leftward and Bidirectional Harmony.............................................................76

Exceptions to Vowel Harmony in ODT.................................................................................82

Fieldwork Data in ODT..........................................................................................................85

Conclusions.............................................................................................................................87

4 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................89

Opacity....................................................................................................................................89

Binary Features.......................................................................................................................89

Underspecification and Morphology......................................................................................90

Chapters 2 and 3: Linear and Non-linear Analyses................................................................91

Beyond Phonology..................................................................................................................93

Final Words............................................................................................................................93

APPENDIX
A GUIDE TO USING THE APPENDIX...................................................................................95

B THE CONSULTANTS INTRODUCE THEMSELVES........................................................97

C THE CONSULTANTS DISCUSS A PHOTOGRAPH.......................................................101

LIST OF REFERENCES.............................................................................................................107

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.......................................................................................................110


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LIST OF CONSTRAINTS

*[–ATR][+dist][+low] Palatals are never preceded by retracted vowels. There are no
sequences of V C V .
[–ATR] [+dist] [+low]
*[–high] No vowels are [–high].
*CROSSLINES Autosegmental association lines do not cross.
*VoicedObstruents] no voicing of obstruents at the end of the prosodic word
PrWd
ALIGN-L (ATR, PrWd) There are no intervening ATRs between the left edge of an ATR and
the left edge of some prosodic word.
ALIGN-R (ATR, PrWd) There are no intervening ATRs between the right edge of an ATR and
the right edge of some prosodic word.
BA (–ATR) Sponsoring anchors of –ATR domains are aligned with some –ATR
domain on both edges. / Align (anchor sponsor L/R; –ATR domain,
L/R)
BA-LEFT (+ATR) Align the left edge of every sponsoring anchor with the left edge of
some +ATR domain. / Align (anchor-s, L; +ATR domain, L)
BA-RIGHT (+ATR) Align the right edge of every sponsoring anchor with the right edge of
some +ATR domain. / Align (anchor-s, R; +ATR domain, R)
DOMAINSTRUCTURE Abbreviates *OVERLAP, INCORPORATE, and SPECIFY
DOMCOR (+ATR) For every +ATR, there is a unique corresponding +ATR domain.
DOMCOR (–ATR) For every –ATR, there is a unique corresponding –ATR domain.
EXPRESS (+ATR) All vowels in an +ATR domain express +ATR.
IDENT-BR (back) Corresponding vowels in the base and reduplicant have identical
specifications for [back].
IDENT-BR (high) Corresponding vowels in the base and reduplicant have identical
specifications for [high].
IDENT-IO (ATR) Correspondent input and output vowels have identical specifications
for ATR.
IDENT-IO (voice) Correspondent input and output segments have identical voicing.
INCORPORATE The sponsoring anchor is inside the domain it sponsors.
LIKELY Abbreviates SPECIFY, *CROSSLINES, and NOGAP
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NOGAP A feature may link to any number of adjacent segments but does not
skip any in the middle.
NOOVERLAP The number of left and right parentheses is equal; no domains are
fully or partially inside other domains.
ROOT-IDENT-IO (ATR) Correspondent output vowels of input roots (√) have identical
specifications for ATR.
SPECIFY All segments are fully specified for features.
TRAILOFF Phrase-final vowels in the input have no correspondent in the output.
WSA-LEFT (+ATR) Align the left edge of every +ATR domain with the left edge of some
prosodic word. / Align (+ATR domain, L; PrWd, L)
WSA-RIGHT (+ATR) Align the right edge of every +ATR domain with the right edge of
some prosodic word. / Align (+ATR domain, R; PrWd, R)
WSA (–ATR) –ATR domains are aligned with the prosodic word on both edges.
/ Align (–ATR domain, L/R; PrWd, L/R)
WSA-L (+ATR, IP) The left edge of a +ATR domain is aligned to the left edge of an
intonational phrase. / Align (+ATR domain, L; IP, L)

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LIST OF TABLES
Table page

1-1 Two outputs A and B evaluated by Constraint X..............................................................24

1-2 Two outputs A and B evaluated by Constraint Y..............................................................24

1-3 How OT chooses the best output if X ≫ Y........................................................................25

1-4 How OT chooses the best output if Y ≫ X........................................................................25

1-5 Choosing the best pronunciation of ‘day’ in German........................................................26

1-6 Choosing the best pronunciation of ‘tag’ in English.........................................................26

1-7 Akan vowel inventory for vowel harmony........................................................................34

1-8 Akan vowel phonemes as binary feature bundles..............................................................35

1-9 Pronominal prefixes (adapted from Dolphyne 1988:15)...................................................35

1-10 Pronominal prefixes with ‘be called’ and ‘eat’ (adapted from Dolphyne 1988:15)..........36

1-11 Tense, aspect, and serial affixes (adapted from Dolphyne 1988:16).................................36

1-12 Tense, aspect, and serial affixes with ‘fights’ and ‘sees’ (Dolphyne 1988:16).................37

1-13 Reduplication (Kager 1999:209)........................................................................................37

1-14 Stems and prefixed forms (Lindau 1975:82).....................................................................37

2-1 [wu-di] 2.SG-eat ‘you eat’..................................................................................................42

2-2 [wu-di] 2.SG-eat ‘you eat’..................................................................................................43

2-3 [wu-di] 2.SG-eat ‘you eat’..................................................................................................44

2-4 [ɔ-kʊ-ɪ] 3.SG-fight-PST ‘she fought’...................................................................................46

2-5 [je-ko-bisa-ɪ] 1.PL-EGRESSIVE-ask-PST ‘we went and asked’.............................................48

2-6 [o-ɲinsɛn-ɪ:] 3.SG-be_pregnant-PST ‘she was pregnant’....................................................49

2-7 Generalizing the exceptions...............................................................................................50

2-8 [o‐ɲamɪ] ‘NOM-God’.........................................................................................................52

2-9 Constraints for assumptions of autosegmental phonology................................................54

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