<OT> New Posting: ROA-925

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ROA 925-0907

Minimal contrast and the phonology-phonetics interaction

Rebeka Campos-Astorkiza <campos-astorkiza.1 at osu.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=925


Abstract:
This dissertation investigates the role of minimal contrast
in phonetic patterns and phonological phenomena. Two sounds
are minimally contrastive when they differ in just one property.
The main findings are that (i) minimal contrast can influence
the outcome of phonetic effects and that (ii) phonological
processes may single out minimally contrastive elements.
A contrast-coindexing function is developed in order to
mark elements that are minimally contrastive for some property.


An experimental study is conducted to test the influence
of minimal length contrast on the phonetic voicing effect,
a pattern by which vowels are longer before voiced than
before voiceless obstruents, in Lithuanian. In Lithuanian,
only high and low vowels are minimally contrastive for length.
Mid vowels are always long. The experimental results indicate
that contextual modification of vowel duration is more limited
for those vowels that are minimally contrastive for length
than for those that are not. These results are argued to
stem from the functional requirement to maintain distinct
contrasts.


The experimental results show that phonetic patterns can
be sensitive to minimal contrast. Therefore, I argue that
the phonological representation must include information
about minimal contrast, which the phonetic component can
access. I formalize this contrast with a contrast-coindexing
function. Framed within Optimality Theory, contrast-coindexing
applies to minimally contrastive segments capable of distinguishi
ng pairs of words, adopting a systemic approach to contrast.
Under the contrast-coindexing analysis, length contrasts
are represented using the same mechanisms as for other contrasts.
This approach has implications for the moraic representation
of length contrasts, which fails to capture minimal length
contrast.


The proposal to incorporate minimal contrast into the phonologica
l representation predicts that this kind of contrast might
also be active in phonological phenomena. Evidence for this
prediction is presented from vowel height harmony in Lena
Asturian. In Lena, only vowels that are minimally contrastive
for height can trigger harmony. The typology of vowel harmony
illustrated by several varieties related to Lena lends further
support to the claim that minimal contrast is active in
the phonology. The contrast-coindexing proposal is extended
to other phonological patterns, in which minimally contrastive
elements are singled out.

Comments: 
Keywords: contrast, phonemic length, voicing effect, vowel harmony
Areas: Phonology
Type: PhD Dissertation

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=925