<OT> New Posting: ROA-1029

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 1029-0409

Japanese mimetic palatalization revisited: implications for conflicting directionality

John Alderete <alderete at sfu.ca>
Alexei Kochetov <al.kochetov at utoronto.ca>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1029


Abstract:
This report reexamines 'conflicting directionality' in Japanese
mimetic words, a distributional fact in which palatalization
is preferentially realized on the rightmost of two coronal
consonants, but the leftmost consonant in a word without
coronals. Analysis of the original dictionary evidence given
in support of this generalization and an exhaustive search
of the Japanese mimetic stratum reveals both several counterexamp
les to conflicting directionality and the fact that the
datasets are far too small to support linguistic generalization.
The theoretical assumptions employed to account for Japanese
mimetic palatalization are thus reexamined, with a focus
on clarifying the predictions for future valid examples
of conflicting directionality.

Comments: Conditionally accepted for publication in Phonology
Keywords: palatalization, coronals, conflicting directionality, default-to-opposite stress, featural alignment
Areas: Phonology
Type: Journal Article

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=1029