Rhotic Metathesis Asymmetries in Romance: Formalizing the Effects of Articulation and Perception on Sound Change
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Eric Louis Russell
Abstract
Blevins & Garrett (1998, 2004) argue that rhotic metathesis occurs when listeners reinterpret an elongated [low F3] feature in a non-historical position. However, not all cases are amenable to this account, as no single phonetic property unifies the class of rhotics. We examine two cases involving intrasyllabic rhotic metathesis: rightward movement of /ʁ/ in French and leftward movement of /ɾ/ in Spanish. In Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), we formalize diachronic metathesis in terms of separate production and perception grammars, which account for the source of variance and the selection of innovative underlying forms, respectively. In production, gestural alignment constraints favor complete overlap of adjacent rhotic and vowel gestures, whose linear ordering is thereby rendered indeterminate. The output of the production grammar serves as input to the perception grammar, which maps surface forms to underlying forms in accordance with attested patterns of the language.
Abstract
Blevins & Garrett (1998, 2004) argue that rhotic metathesis occurs when listeners reinterpret an elongated [low F3] feature in a non-historical position. However, not all cases are amenable to this account, as no single phonetic property unifies the class of rhotics. We examine two cases involving intrasyllabic rhotic metathesis: rightward movement of /ʁ/ in French and leftward movement of /ɾ/ in Spanish. In Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), we formalize diachronic metathesis in terms of separate production and perception grammars, which account for the source of variance and the selection of innovative underlying forms, respectively. In production, gestural alignment constraints favor complete overlap of adjacent rhotic and vowel gestures, whose linear ordering is thereby rendered indeterminate. The output of the production grammar serves as input to the perception grammar, which maps surface forms to underlying forms in accordance with attested patterns of the language.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Null Expletives and Case: The View from Romance 1
- On the Existence of Null Complementizers in Old French 19
- On the Lack of Transparency Effects in French 37
- On the Syllabification of Prevocalic /w/ in Judeo-Spanish 51
- Word Order and Minimalism 69
- The Status of Old French Clitics in the 12th Century 89
- Towards a Unified Account of Positive and Negative Polarity: Evidence from Romanian 105
- Correlativization and Degree Quantification in Spanish 121
- Imperfect Variation and Class Marking in the Old Spanish Third Conjugation 143
- Licensing Negative Fragments and the Interpretation of Comparison 157
- Developing I-Language in L1 and L2 173
- Crypto-Variation in Italian Velar Palatalisation 193
- Antisymmetry and the Typology of Relative Clauses: Morphological Evidence from Romance 209
- Romance Paths as Cognate Complements: A Lexical-Syntactic Account 227
- Discriminating Pitch Accent Alignment in Spanish 243
- Proscriptions…Gaps…and Something in Between: An Experimental Examination of Spanish Phonotactics 261
- Romanian Palatalization: The Role of Place of Articulation in Perception 277
- Putting in Order the Spanish DP 291
- The Domain of Palatalization in Romanian 307
- Rhotic Metathesis Asymmetries in Romance: Formalizing the Effects of Articulation and Perception on Sound Change 321
- The Left Edge in the Spanish Clausal Structure 339
- Index 359
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Null Expletives and Case: The View from Romance 1
- On the Existence of Null Complementizers in Old French 19
- On the Lack of Transparency Effects in French 37
- On the Syllabification of Prevocalic /w/ in Judeo-Spanish 51
- Word Order and Minimalism 69
- The Status of Old French Clitics in the 12th Century 89
- Towards a Unified Account of Positive and Negative Polarity: Evidence from Romanian 105
- Correlativization and Degree Quantification in Spanish 121
- Imperfect Variation and Class Marking in the Old Spanish Third Conjugation 143
- Licensing Negative Fragments and the Interpretation of Comparison 157
- Developing I-Language in L1 and L2 173
- Crypto-Variation in Italian Velar Palatalisation 193
- Antisymmetry and the Typology of Relative Clauses: Morphological Evidence from Romance 209
- Romance Paths as Cognate Complements: A Lexical-Syntactic Account 227
- Discriminating Pitch Accent Alignment in Spanish 243
- Proscriptions…Gaps…and Something in Between: An Experimental Examination of Spanish Phonotactics 261
- Romanian Palatalization: The Role of Place of Articulation in Perception 277
- Putting in Order the Spanish DP 291
- The Domain of Palatalization in Romanian 307
- Rhotic Metathesis Asymmetries in Romance: Formalizing the Effects of Articulation and Perception on Sound Change 321
- The Left Edge in the Spanish Clausal Structure 339
- Index 359
