<OT> New Posting: ROA-667

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 667-0604

Abstract Scales in Phonology

David Mortensen <dmort at socrates.berkeley.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=667


Abstract:
A wide variety of phonological phenomena appear to be scalar
in nature. These include chain shifts, 'bounce-back' effects,
and 'cline-effects'.  Although many such scales appear to
be grounded in some phonetically substantial dimension,
there are strongly scalar phenomena that cannot be economically
expressed in terms of grounded scales.  On these grounds,
this paper argues that constraints in the grammar may make
reference to abstract scales which act as a form of representatio
nal metadata (not replacing representations, but defining
structural relationships between then).  A formalization
of such scales is offered, as well as a proposal regarding
the class of constraints that make reference to these scales.
It is argued, based upon a survey of scalar phenomena from
a variety of languages, that a grammar without this mechanism,
or a mechanism of equal formal power, is descriptively inadequate
.  Furthermore, a historical and synchronic analysis of
the tone sandhi systems and coordinate compounding constructions
of Western Hmongic languages shows how abstract scales allow
the insightful analysis of unnatural and opaque phonological
alternations that are relatively intractable under more
conventional theoretical assumptions. These findings are
important to the continuing debate regarding naturalness
and abstraction in phonology.

Comments: 
Keywords: scales, chain shifts, circle shifts, toggles, opacity, cline effects, bounce-back, anti-faithfulness, naturalness, tone sandhi, coordinate compounds, ordering, Hmong, A-Hmao, Jingpho
Areas: Phonology,Morphology,Historical Linguistics
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=667