<OT> New Posting: ROA-1026

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 1026-0409

Compensatory lengthening in phonological representations: nature, constraints and typology

Jean-Marc Beltzung <beltjm at hotmail.com>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1026


Abstract:
This PhD dissertation deals with Compensatory Lengthening
(henceforth CL) and its formal expression in phonological
representations.


Compensatory lengthening is a fairly widespread process
across the world's languages in which a segment lengthens
to compensate for the deletion or migration of an adjacent
segment.


The most represented case, that is the 'classical' CL case,
is triggered by the loss of a consonant in the syllable
coda position and followed by the subsequent lengthening
of the preceding vowel (cf. chapter 1).


While classical CL is relatively frequent, CL triggered
by the loss of a consonant in the onset position is claimed
to be inexistent (cf. Hayes 1989 among other). Nevertheless,
chapter 2 provides some examples of various languages undergoing
CL after an onset consonant deletion, what I call 'exotic'
CL cases.


Chapter 3 states that moraic phonology (McCarthy & Prince
1986, Hayes 1989) fails to account for this kind of process
while, obviously, the segmental theories of the prosodic
tier (CV theory, X-slot) make correct predictions. In this
chapter, the CVCV theory (Lowenstamm 1996, Scheer 2004),
a lateral approach of syllabic constituents that comes from
Government Phonology, is also discussed.


Chapter 4 is intended to give a short introduction/basis
to Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993, McCarthy
& Prince 1995).


The chapter 5 examines several representations of compensatory
lengthening in Optimality Theory framework. There, I show
that an implementation of the moraic theory in a constraint-based
framework such as OT faces several problems (opacity is
one of them).


Finally, chapter 6 tries to solve these problems and introduces
three Optimality Theory based accounts of compensatory lengthenin
g. Among them, one deserves particular attention since it
assumes input moraicity revival (cf. Hyman 1985).

Comments: PhD dissertation at Université Paris 3 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle) [in French]
Keywords: Compensatory lengthening, onset deletion, coda deletion, onset weight, moraic theory, Optimality Theory
Areas: Phonology
Type: PhD Dissertation

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1026