Academic literature on the topic 'Grammar, Comparative and general – Vowel gradation'

Madurese, a Malayo-Polynesian language, is of particular interest to theories of vowel harmony and feature geometry because of the interaction of consonants with vowels, and the problem of representing both transparent and opaque segments within the same language. Vowels divide into two sets, occuring exclusively after each of two sets of consonants. Isolation of this process is somewhat complicated by loan words showing no alternation or containing non -native vowels or consonants. In this paper I will examine vowel- consonant interaction in native Madurese words. All data are from H.N. Kiliaan (1904), Madoereesch- Nederlandsch Woordenboek. and Stevens (1968), Madurese Phonology and Morphology, along with additional data from Stevens (1980), "Formative Boundary in Phonological Rules."

In this paper, I provide an analysis of vowel harmony in Izi, an Igbo language spoken in the East - Central State of Nigeria. Using data from Meier, Meier, and Samuel (1975; hereafter MMB), I argue that harmony in complex verbal structures in Izi is inadequately accounted for within a level ordered model of lexical phonology (Kiparsky 1982, Mohanan 1982, etc...), claiming instead that harmony facts are best accommodated within a non-level ordered approach (cf. Halle and Vergnaud 1987, Halle and Kenstowicz 1991; Halle, Harris, and Vergnaud 1991). In sections 1 and 2, I provide a description of the general pattern of the [ATR]-based vowel harmony system in Izi and motivate [+ATR] as the only value of the feature [ATR] present at the level of underlying representation. In section 3, data are presented demonstrating the inadequacy of a level -ordered treatment of vowel harmony in verbal structures. Finally, in section 4, I propose an alternative, non-level ordered analysis that derives the attested harmony facts via cyclic rule application at a single level. Crucially, particular morphemes in verbal structures are claimed to undergo a pass of the cyclic rules prior to concatenation, a phenomenon which I call selective cyclicity.

The goal of this paper is to develop a fully formalized, (i.e. generative) privative vowel-feature theory which is a viable alternative to conventional feature theory for vowels. To do this, certain revisions to the theory of Particle Phonology will be proposed.

In this dissertation I examine partial vowel assimilations, where more than one but less than all vowel features pattern together in a phonological rule. The result of this dissertation research is the 'Height Node Geometry'. The particular innovation this geometry makes is to group the height features ( (high) and (low)) under a separate Height Node, as opposed to having the height features report to the Dorsal Node or the Place Node. Motivation for the Height Node Geometry comes from analyses of several phonological processes. First, removing the height features from under the Dorsal Node and the Place Node facilitates a more natural explanation for reduplication in the Petit Diboum dialect of Fe?fe?-Bamileke. Second, placing the height features above the Place Node but still directly or indirectly under the Supralaryngeal Node provides an account for Tunica partial translaryngeal harmony. Finally, vowel harmony in Ewe involves spreading of (+high) and (+low) in the same environment, arguing for a simpler rule of node spread; hence, I propose that the height features stem from a separate Height Node, instead of directly to the Supralaryngeal Node.

Previous studies on tone-vowel interaction have centered on two issues. The first is the correlation between tone and vowel quality (Pilszczikowa-Chodak 1972, 1975, Newman 1975 for Hausa; Cheung 1973 for Omei dialect of Mandarin; Wang 1968, Maddieson 1976, Yip 1980, Chan 1985 for Fuzhou), and the second is the directionality of the influence between tone and vowel, namely, whether tone affects vowel quality change, or whether vowel quality gives rise to tonal change (Wang 1968, Maddieson 1976, Yip 1980 for Fuzhou; Gandour 1977 for Thai dialects; Yue 1976 for Cantonese, Lianzhou, and Taishan). There have been a number of experimental studies on the first issue. The principal finding among these studies is the correlation between fundamental frequency (F₀) and vowel height. In particular, a high vowel has higher F₀ and a low vowel has lower F₀ (Lehiste and Peterson 1961 for English; Petersen 1976 for Danish; Di Cristo and Chafcouloff 1976 for French; Kim 1968 for Korean; Chuang and Wang 1976, Tsay and Sawusch 1994 for Mandarin; and Sawusch and Tsay 1994 for Fuzhou; etc.). Since tone, defined as linguistic use of pitch, is also primarily identified in terms of F₀ (Gandour 1978), it is natural to ask whether this phonetic correlation between F0 and vowel height manifests itself phonologically in natural languages. In other words, the question is whether there is any empirical evidence suggesting a phonological correlation between tone and vowel height. The evidence for Hausa (an African language principally spoken in Nigeria), for example, is inconclusive. Data is offered both for (Pilszczikowa-Chodak 1972, 1975) and against (Newman 1975) this position. A highly controversial case is Fuzhou, (a Northern Min dialect spoken on the southern coast of China). In Fuzhou, a whole series of finals participate in vowel alternations in accordance with their tonal environment. It has been claimed, on the one hand, that in a tone sandhi environment, a vowel undergoes raising when the tone it occurs with increases its F₀ (Wang 1968). This is characterized as a tone -induced vowel raising process (Yip 1980). I refer to this claim as the "height-correlation" hypothesis. On the other hand, it has been argued that the vowel alternations in Fuzhou involve not only differences in height, but also differences along other dimensions, such as a front/back axis, monophthongs versus diphthongs, etc. (Maddieson 1976, Chan 1985). The "height- correlation" hypothesis, therefore, is not sufficient to explain all instances of tone -related vowel alternation. The implicit assumption behind this debate is that tonal features and vocalic features may interact directly. This yields a more fundamental question as to the nature of this interaction. In other words, whether the interaction between tone and vowels is direct (i.e. feature -to- feature) or indirect (i.e. mediated by something else). Although studies of the second issue are relatively rare, it has been shown that the influence of tones and vowels on each other is bi- directional cross -linguistically. For example, whereas Mandarin and Fuzhou have been cited as cases in which vowel alternations are conditioned by tonal environment (Wang 1969, Wang 1968, Yip 1980), the Yue dialects of Chinese, such as Cantonese, Taishan, and Lianzhou, illustrate the opposite direction of influence (Yue 1976). In Cantonese, for instance, the Yin "entering" tone historically splits into two tones according to their vocalic environment. It is realized with a higher register when the vowel is lax and short, and with a lower register when the vowel is tense and long (Yue 1976:49). A general question that relates to the first issue, then, is whether tone and vowel quality directly influence each other or whether this influence between them is mediated by something else. This article provides a unified account for all vowel distribution and alternation patterns corresponding to tonal environments in Fuzhou, focusing on the prosodic anchor mediating between tones and vowels. Tones and vowels will be claimed not to interact directly (i.e., feature -tofeature), and it will be seen that there is no height correlation between them. Instead, tone -vowel interaction in Fuzhou must be mediated by a prosodic anchor; in this case, the mora; and distinct moraic structures (monomoraic/bimoraic) required by the prelinking of the lexically specified number of tonal roots are what trigger the vowel alternations. The analysis is formulated within the constraint -based grammar of Optimality Theory (OT) (McCarthy and Prince 1993a, b; Prince and Smolensky 1993; Pulleyblank 1994, among others). Contrary to the rule -based approach, OT assumes that Universal Grammar (UG) contains two types of phonological representation: the input and the output. The function Gen freely generates a set of output candidates for each input. UG also contains a set of violable constraints that are ranked on a language- particular basis. The function Eval determines the optimal output, which either satisfies the higher ranked constraints, or has the least violations of the relevant constraints.

This paper presents an analysis of vowel harmony in Yawelmani and its interaction with vowel epenthesis and lowering, within the non -derivational, constraint -based model of Optimal Domains Theory (ODT). Kisseberth's (1969) analysis of the Yawelmani system, formulated within classical generative phonology, demonstrates an opaque rule interaction among the rules governing vocalic phonology, and was taken as an important piece of evidence for the notion of rule ordering in generative theory. The challenge in providing a non -derivational analysis of Yawelmani lies in accounting for conditions on vowel harmony which factor in phonological structure that is "inserted" in surface form, as well as structure that is "deleted" from underlying form. This paper presents a restricted means of bringing together information from underlying and surface representations in a theoretical framework that eschews intermediate representations, through the use of abstract (ie., unrealized) feature-domain structure. We discuss problems that arise under an alternative approach in which individual constraints are able to freely inspect structure at both underlying and surface levels of representation.