Phonological Projection: A Theory of Feature Content and Prosodic Structure

408 Pages·2000·12.816 MB·English

by  Marc van Oostendorp

Phonological Projection
W
DE
G
Studies in Generative Grammar 47
Editors
Henk van Riemsdijk
Harry van der Hulst
Jan Köster
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Phonological Projection
A Theory of Feature Content and
Prosodic Structure
by
Marc van Oostendorp
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 2000
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.
The series Studies in Generative Grammar was formerly published by
Foris Publications Holland.
® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oostendorp, Marc van, 1967 —
Phonological projection : a theory of feature content and prosodic
structure I by Marc van Oostendorp.
p. cm. - (Studies in generative grammar ; 47)
Includes examples in Dutch, French, and Norwegian.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3 11 0154226 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Grammar, Comparative and general - Phonology. 2. Dutch
language - Phonology. I. Title. II. Series.
P217.058 1999
414-dc21 99-057775
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oostendorp, Marc van:
Phonological projection : a theory of feature content and prosodic
structure / by Marc van Oostendorp. - Berlin ; New York : Mouton
de Gruyter, 2000
(Studies in generative grammar ; 47)
ISBN 3-11-015422-6
© Copyright 2000 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Printing: Werner Hildebrand, Berlin.
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer GmbH, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1 The Headedness of syllables 1
1.1 The Headedness Hypothesis (HH) 4
2 Theoretical background 10
2.1 Syllable structure 10
2.2 Feature geometry 13
2.3 Specification and underspecification 16
2.4 Skeletal tier 17
2.5 Model of the grammar 18
2.6 Optimality Theory 19
3 Data 23
4 Organisation of the book 23
4.1 Chapter 2 24
4.2 Chapter 3 24
4.3 Chapter 4 25
4.4 Chapter 5 25
4.5 Chapter 6 26
4.6 Chapter 7 26
4.7 Chapter 8 27
4.8 Appendices 27
2 Vowel quality and rhyme structure in Dutch 29
1 Introduction 29
2 The Dutch vowel system 30
3 Tenseness versus length: The case of Dutch 32
3.1 The argument for length 32
3.2 The arguments against length 36
4 A theory based on the feature lax 44
5 [lax] and syllable structure in vowel harmony 46
5.1 Tenseness and branchingness in Dutch 53
5.2 Formalization in Optimality Theory 54
6 Some more arguments for the length of A-vowels 56
6.1 Tenseness cannot be defined in a satisfactory way
phonetically 56
vi Contents
6.2 Minimality requires branching 57
6.3 A-vowels form the domain of tonal contour in Lim-
burg Dutch 58
7 Richness of the base 60
8 Conclusion 63
9 Appendix: Historical overview 64
9.1 Dutch structuralism 65
9.2 Pre-generative literature 67
9.3 Early generative grammar 70
9.4 Bisegmental analyses in generative phonology . .. 71
3 Tilburg Dutch and Standard Dutch vowel length 77
1 Details in the Standard Dutch vowel system 77
1.1 Diphthongs 78
1.2 Ambisyllabicity 83
1.3 r-lengthening 85
1.4 The phonetic nature of the tensing feature 89
1.5 Extrasyllabicity and catalexis 94
2 A dialect with real length: Tilburg Dutch 101
2.1 The vowel system 102
2.2 Why only lax vowels can be long 107
2.3 Vowel shortening 108
2.4 Analysis 113
2.5 Long vowels in other Brabant dialects 122
2.6 The limited distribution of long vowels 123
2.7 Conclusion 125
3 Derivation of the Dutch vowel system 125
4 Conclusion 129
4 Derived schwa in Dutch 131
1 Introduction 131
2 Properties of r-schwa 135
2.1 Word-initial position 138
2.2 Word-final position 141
2.3 Vowel quality 144
2.4 Stress 147
2.5 Closed syllables 151
2.6 Style registers 152
Contents vii
3 Properties of e-schwa 155
3.1 The epenthetic vowel is schwa 155
3.2 E-schwa does not occur at the end of the word . .. 160
3.3 E-schwa only occurs in the last syllable of the word . 161
3.4 Word-internal contexts in which e-schwa does not occur 163
3.5 Style registers 166
4 Summary and conclusion 166
5 Dutch U-schwa 169
1 Introduction 169
2 Properties of u-schwa 170
2.1 Syllable weight 170
2.2 U-schwa does not occur word-initially 171
2.3 Some other segmental effects 173
2.4 The onset of schwa-syllables 175
2.5 The coda of schwa-headed syllables 177
2.6 Degenerate and schwa-headed syllables 183
2.7 Obligatory versus optional epenthesis 186
2.8 Again on complex onsets 187
2.9 Schwa surrounded by identical consonants 192
2.10 Schwa after ng 193
2.11 U-schwa and stress 195
2.12 Adjacency between schwa and full vowels 197
2.13 Complementary distribution of u-schwa and e-schwa 199
2.14 Schwa-deletion 200
2.15 Conclusion 203
3 Previous analyses of u-schwa 205
3.1 Reduction Theory 206
3.2 Epenthesis Theory 208
3.3 No-Syllable Theory 209
4 Remaining problems 218
4.1 Final Devoicing 218
4.2 Superheavy syllables before schwa 220
4.3 Post-lexical u-schwa 221
4.4 Umlaut 223
5 Conclusion 226
6 Table of properties 227
viii Contents
6 Schwa in French and Norwegian 229
1 Introduction 229
2 French 230
2.1 E-schwa is the epenthetic vowel 232
2.2 E-schwa does not occur at the end of the word . . . 234
2.3 U-schwa must occur in an open syllable 237
2.4 Laxing in the head of a foot 240
2.5 U-schwa does not occur at the beginning of the word 246
2.6 Consonant clusters before schwa cannot be possible
complex onsets 247
2.7 Schwa is stressless 248
2.8 Schwa cannot occur next to a vowel 249
2.9 Schwa deletion 252
2.10 A parameter 256
2.11 Conclusion plus a note on learnability 259
3 Norwegian 261
3.1 Schwa is the epenthetic vowel 262
3.2 Epenthetic schwa does not occur at the end of the
word 263
3.3 Schwa must occur in an open syllable 264
3.4 Schwa does not occur at the beginning of the word . 266
3.5 Consonant clusters before schwa cannot be possible
complex onsets 267
3.6 Alternation with degenerate syllables 270
3.7 Conclusion and another note on learnability 271
4 Conclusion 272
7 A vowel-glide alternation in Rotterdam Dutch 273
1 Introduction 273
2 The second person clitic 278
2.1 Hiatus 280
2.2 Hiatus after high vowels 283
2.3 After coronal stops 286
2.4 Third person singular clitic 297
3 The diminutive suffix 298
4 Sievers's Law 304
5 Other issues 308
5.1 Clitics and the diminutive in Standard Dutch . . .. 308
Contents ix
5.2 Lexical forms 310
5.3 The underlying form of 2S is not l\l 314
5.4 High vowel followed by schwa 316
5.5 1st person plural clitic 316
6 Conclusion 319
8 The projection constraint family 321
1 Introduction 321
2 Projection and weakness 322
3 The foot level 326
4 The Ν level 331
5 The rhyme 332
6 Nuclear level 333
7 Features 335
8 Constraints conflicting with projection and weakness . . .. 337
9 Conclusion 338
Appendices
A Constraints and families of constraints 341
1 Prosodic well-formedness 341
1.1 Syllable well-formedness 341
1.2 Foot well-formedness 343
1.3 Word well-formedness 345
2 Autosegmental representations 347
3 Feature cooccurrence and licensing 349
4 Parsing 349
5 Constraints against unnecessary structure 350
6 Ad hoc constraint 351
Β Arguments for ranking 353
1 Topology of the Dutch lexicon 353
2 Topology of the Dutch postlexical phonology 357
C Ranking schemes 359
1 Topology of the Standard Dutch lexicon 360
2 Topology of the Standard Dutch postlexical phonology . .. 361
χ Contents
3 Topology of the French phonology 362
4 Topology of the Rotterdam Dutch phonology 363
References 365
Language index 391
Subject index 393