How Much Phonology in ‘Laryngeal Phonology’?
Abstract
Phonetically observed voicing phenomena cannot be unambiguously and exhaustively identified with laryngeal phonology, in which phonetic properties such as voicedness or voicelessness are directly translated into phonological categories, and in which phenomena such as voicing assimilation are necessarily viewed as phonological spreading. This much became clear with the advent of privative representations, which cannot capture, for example, phonetically observable symmetrical voicing assimilations as symmetrical spreading. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the laryngeal phonology of Polish per se is very small and can be reduced to strictly privative representation with substance free categories and positional licensing as the only instance of phonological computation. This minimal phonological component allows us to understand a complex set of voicing phenomena in Polish, including positional and dialectal variation. What is required, however, is an increased role of the language specific phonetic knowledge in the process of acquisition and in phonetic interpretation. Additionally, the relation between phonetics and phonology must be viewed as arbitrary.
Abstract
Phonetically observed voicing phenomena cannot be unambiguously and exhaustively identified with laryngeal phonology, in which phonetic properties such as voicedness or voicelessness are directly translated into phonological categories, and in which phenomena such as voicing assimilation are necessarily viewed as phonological spreading. This much became clear with the advent of privative representations, which cannot capture, for example, phonetically observable symmetrical voicing assimilations as symmetrical spreading. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the laryngeal phonology of Polish per se is very small and can be reduced to strictly privative representation with substance free categories and positional licensing as the only instance of phonological computation. This minimal phonological component allows us to understand a complex set of voicing phenomena in Polish, including positional and dialectal variation. What is required, however, is an increased role of the language specific phonetic knowledge in the process of acquisition and in phonetic interpretation. Additionally, the relation between phonetics and phonology must be viewed as arbitrary.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface IX
- Contents XI
- Umlaut: From Common Germanic to Dutch 1
- Vowel Copy in Iraqw Verbal Derivation 17
- Hungarian Possessive Allomorphy in the Lexicon 33
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being High: Openness as Structure and the Consequences for Prosody 71
- [+ATR] Dominance in Chumburung 91
- Paradigmatically Conditioned Phonetic Detail in Hungarian Neutral Vowels 107
- Old English Breaking as Vowel Excrescence 133
- Diachronic Vowel Harmony: From Middle to Modern Korean 151
- How Much Phonology in ‘Laryngeal Phonology’? 165
- The Representation of Nasal + Stop + Obstruent Clusters in English: Stop Insertion or Stop Deletion? 187
- A Perfect Mess in Ancient Greek: The Story of -ka 201
- Prompted Self-Repairs in Two-Year-Old Children 227
- Deriving Variable Phonological Visibility from Word Structure 249
- Recursion in Phonology: Anatomy of a Misunderstanding 265
- Phases and Accent Assignment Domains 289
- A Phonosyntactic Representation of Hungarian ‘Lowering’ 307
- Zellig Harris, Phonological Boundaries, and Features 327
- Blends and Overlaps in Relational Morphology 347
- Language Index 359
- Subject Index 361
- Contents of Part II 363
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface IX
- Contents XI
- Umlaut: From Common Germanic to Dutch 1
- Vowel Copy in Iraqw Verbal Derivation 17
- Hungarian Possessive Allomorphy in the Lexicon 33
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being High: Openness as Structure and the Consequences for Prosody 71
- [+ATR] Dominance in Chumburung 91
- Paradigmatically Conditioned Phonetic Detail in Hungarian Neutral Vowels 107
- Old English Breaking as Vowel Excrescence 133
- Diachronic Vowel Harmony: From Middle to Modern Korean 151
- How Much Phonology in ‘Laryngeal Phonology’? 165
- The Representation of Nasal + Stop + Obstruent Clusters in English: Stop Insertion or Stop Deletion? 187
- A Perfect Mess in Ancient Greek: The Story of -ka 201
- Prompted Self-Repairs in Two-Year-Old Children 227
- Deriving Variable Phonological Visibility from Word Structure 249
- Recursion in Phonology: Anatomy of a Misunderstanding 265
- Phases and Accent Assignment Domains 289
- A Phonosyntactic Representation of Hungarian ‘Lowering’ 307
- Zellig Harris, Phonological Boundaries, and Features 327
- Blends and Overlaps in Relational Morphology 347
- Language Index 359
- Subject Index 361
- Contents of Part II 363
