Proscriptions…Gaps…and Something in Between: An Experimental Examination of Spanish Phonotactics
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Michael Shelton
Abstract
This study tests, via the collection of online, behavioral data, native speaker reactions to two types of words that are absent from the Spanish lexicon. The experiment compares proscriptions, phonotactic sequences that are phonologically prohibited, historical gaps, forms that are synchronically licit but absent as a result of diachronic change, and fully-licit controls. In a word naming task, the patterning of production errors and reaction times proves statistically different across the three word types. The three-way split among proscriptions, historical gaps, and licit gaps challenges traditional approaches to quantity sensitivity which consider syllables binarily “light” or “heavy.” The results suggest a gradient sensitivity to varying degrees of syllable weight. In view of these findings, we argue in favor of a probabilistic conception of the lexicon in which the fine-grained subtlety of the patterns across the lexicon may be tracked statistically to form multiple levels of generalization in the phonological grammar.
Abstract
This study tests, via the collection of online, behavioral data, native speaker reactions to two types of words that are absent from the Spanish lexicon. The experiment compares proscriptions, phonotactic sequences that are phonologically prohibited, historical gaps, forms that are synchronically licit but absent as a result of diachronic change, and fully-licit controls. In a word naming task, the patterning of production errors and reaction times proves statistically different across the three word types. The three-way split among proscriptions, historical gaps, and licit gaps challenges traditional approaches to quantity sensitivity which consider syllables binarily “light” or “heavy.” The results suggest a gradient sensitivity to varying degrees of syllable weight. In view of these findings, we argue in favor of a probabilistic conception of the lexicon in which the fine-grained subtlety of the patterns across the lexicon may be tracked statistically to form multiple levels of generalization in the phonological grammar.
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
