<OT> New Posting: ROA-712

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 712-0205

Predicting Varieties: Partial Orderings in English Stress Assignment

Hideki Zamma <zamma at inst.kobe-cufs.ac.jp>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=712


Abstract:
The goal of this paper is twofold: (1) to review various
behaviors of Class 1 suffixes with regard to stress assignment
in English; and (2) to argue that the partial ordering theory
-- a version of OT  proposed by Anttila (2002), etc. --
properly accounts for such abundance among suffixes, predicting
all and only the variation observed here. Each suffix turns
out to be classified as having one of five stress patterns,
all of which can be characterized by partial rankings of
five general constraints. No other patterns than these five
are predicted to arise because some of the constraint interaction
s do not produce any phonological consequence. A pilot survey
on actual frequency of each pattern among suffixes is also
conducted, and the result shows that the proportion of each
pattern roughly corresponds to the proportion predicted
by the present analysis, suggesting its appropriateness.

Comments: 
Keywords: English classhood, stress patterns of English suffixes, variation in the lexicon, Partial Ordering Theory
Areas: Phonology
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=712