<OT> New Posting: ROA-828

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ROA 828-0506

Mimetic gemination in Japanese: A challenge for Evolutionary Phonology

Shigeto Kawahara <kawahara at linguist.umass.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=828


Abstract:
Evolutionary Phonology suggests that, to avoid duplication
in linguistic theory, diachronic explanations must take
priority over synchronic explanations whenever possible.
As a corollary, linguistic theories should not encode phonetic
motivations for phonological patterns in a synchronic grammar.
This commentary argues, however, that there exists a synchronic
phonological pattern in Japanese which is constrained by
a phonetic factor. Japanese speakers prefer geminate stops
to geminate fricatives when they create emphatic forms,
even though both types of geminates are equally well attested
with comparable lexical frequencies in the Japanese lexicon.
I argue that the preference follows from a phonetically
natural constraint, and that none of the canonical diachronic
mechanisms provides a satisfactory account for the pattern,
contrary to the central premise of Evolutionary Phonology.

Comments: Commentary on "A theoretical synopsis of evolutionary phonology" by Juliette Blevins for Theoretical Linguistics. This is a prepublication version--the final published version will be somewhat different in details and will be the official form.
Keywords: phonetic naturalness in phonology, synchrony and diachrony, sound change, gemination, optimization
Areas: Phonology,Phonetics
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=828