Coursebook in Feature Geometry

Course bo ok in Feature Geometry John Newman

UNCOM Coursebooks I in Linguistics 02

Coursebook in Feature Geometry John Newman

UNCOM Coursebooks in Linguistics 02

1997

LINCOM EUROPA Munchen - Newcastle

Published by LINCOM EUROPA, MOnchen, Newcastle, 1997. All correspondence concerning LINCOM Coursebooks in Linguistics should be addressed to: LINCOM EUROPA, P.O. Box 1316, D-85703 Unterschleissheim/Munchen, Germany. Email: [email protected], homepage & online catalogue: http://home.t-onIine.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA AH rights reserved, including the rights of translation into any foreign language. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way without the permission of the publisher. Printed in Great Britain

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Newman, John: Coursebook in feature geometry / John Newman. - MOnchen [i.e.] Unterschleissheim ; Newcastle : LINCOM EUROPA, 1997 (LINCOM coursebooks in linguistics ; 02) ISBN 3-89586-102-2 NE: GT British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed on chlorine-free paper

Contents Preface

iii

Chart of Selected Consonants

v

Chart of Selected Vowels

v

Summary of Feature Geometry Unit 1:

The Ingredients of Sounds

vi 1

Root, Supra, Laryngeal nodes

Unit 2:

The Place Node Labial, Coronal, Dorsal nodes

6

Unit 3:

The Laryngeal Node [voiced], [spread], [constricted glottis]

12

Unit 4:

The Soft Palate Node

17

[nasal] Unit 5:

Assimilation: Voicing

21

Unit 6:

Assimilation: Place of Articulation

28

Unit 7:

Nodes and Features

34

Unit 8:

Stops vs. Fricatives

39

[continuant]

Unit 9:

Affricates

Unit 10: More Places of Articulation

44 49

[strident]

Unit 11: Oh No! More Places of Articulation [anterior], [distributed]

54

Unit 12: Other Consonantal Features

59

C/V, [consonantal], [sonorant], [lateral]

Unit 13: Vowels: Coronal vs. Dorsal

64

Articulator node

Unit 14: Vowels: [high], [low], [ATR]

69

Tongue Position node

Unit 15: [round]

73

Unit 16: Palatalization

77

Unit 17: The Skeletal Tier

82

CV Tier, "x" units

Unit 18: The Tonal Tier

88

Unit 19: Syllables

93

Unit 20: Redundancy

97

Answers to Exercises

104

References

124

Ill

Preface

This book grew out of lecture notes for my course 72.331 Phonology at Massey University and is written as an undergraduate-level introduction to Feature Geometry. It assumes no more phonetics and phonology than what one encounters in most introductory textbooks in linguistics, such as the basics of articulatory phonetics, the phonemic vs. phonetic distinction, and some idea of phonological rules. The undergraduate nature of this course has helped to determine the scope and depth of the material. It seemed desirable to me to construct a course which is uniform in approach, consistent in its representations, and relatively free of theoretical controversies. In this way, students have a sense of accumulating knowledge and skills and so can develop some confidence in dealing with the theory. It must be recognized, of course, that there are many controversial aspects to Feature Geometry, just as there are controversies in every branch of theoretical linguistics. But it seems to me preferable to introduce the controversies after students have developed a feel for one version of the theory, rather than before. Feature Geometry is now a widely accepted approach to representing sounds and the phonological processes they enter into. Unfortunately, its popularity is not always reflected properly in introductory textbooks in phonology where a reader may be offered no more than a quick glimpse at Feature Geometry. In the present book, I have tried to provide a more substantial and sustained engagement with the ideas of Feature Geometry, leading to what I hope is a more satisfying encounter with the theory. Feature Geometry comes in many different brands, with each brand having its own special selling point. For the most part, this book follows Sagey (1990), an early but very solid and well-argued statement of the theory. However, I have also adopted the proposals of Lahiri and Evers (1991) concerning the representation of vowels. In particular, the front vs. back distinction is represented £s a difference between coronal and dorsal articulations, and height features and [+/- Advanced Tongue Root] are associated with a Tongue Position node. By and large, the geometry in this book is introduced without extensive argumentation, consistent with the undergraduate nature of the course. As a way of extending the present introduction in the direction of more serious theoretical discussion, I would strongly recommend Clements and Hume (1995). This is a succinct and elegantly written overview of Feature Geometry touching on all the main proposals which have been made and draws attention to the (many!) areas where further research is required. I use FG as an abbreviation for Feature Geometry and, as usual, SPE for The Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky and Halle 1968). Slant lines / . . . / are used for phonemic representation, e.g. the /p/ and /b/ phonemes of English. Square brackets [ . . . ] are used for narrow phonetic representation and for referring to sounds independently of any particular

iv language, e.g. a palatal stop [c]. Where numerous phonemic representations appear in a data set, separate from the text, the slant lines have been dispensed with. The material in this book has been used as the basis of a one-semester course in phonology, albeit supplemented with various other readings. It may strike others as too much or too little for this length of time. All I can say is that the material seems aboutright,in scope and depth, for the students I teach. I owe a debt of gratitude to past generations of 72.331 Phonology students at Massey University for their (unwitting) assistance in helping me to refine this course over the years. I am also very grateful to Juliette Blevins for commenting on an earlier version of this book in 1994. Naturally, I alone am responsible for any errors, misinformation, obscurities, oversimplifications, overgeneralizations, undergeneralizations etc. Finally, I would like to thank my Department and Massey University for providing me with the technical means to prepare this book for publication.

John Newman Department of Linguistics and Second Language Teaching Massey University Palmerston North New Zealand

*

f

P

V

c i

k g

?

5

X

h

i

Y

fi

s z

I

bv

ts dz

tj d3

«]

n

p

Laterals

1

/C

Approximants/glides

r

j

Affricates voiceless voiced

e5

pf m

Nasal stops

5

kx 9Y g

w

Chart of Selected Vowels •8

11

11

u(=y)

S j

11 i !

High

i

Lower High

i

Higher Mid

e

6(=0)

Y

O

Lower Mid

e

ce

A

3

Low

ae

O

D

VI

U

u

Glottal

Velar

Dental/alveol

Interdental

Q

-a

t d

P b

Fricatives voiceless voiced

1 Palatal

Oral stops voiceless voiced

Labiodental

Bilabial

Chart of Selected Consonants

VI

Summary of Feature Geometry Skeletal

[+/- consonantal [+/- sonorant] [+/- continuant] [+/- strident]

[+/- ATR]

Labia]

[+/- round] [+/- anterior] [+/- distributed] The tonal tier and syllable structure may be linked with either the skeletal tier or the root tier.

UNIT 1 The Ingredients of Sounds

Anyone who has used a dictionary of English will probably be familiar with the use of the letters of the alphabet to represent sounds. Some dictionaries make up their own system, others make use of the letters recommended by the Internationa] Phonetic Association. The idea is: one symbol for one phoneme, as illustrated in (1). (1)

if ju ds'said ts repro'zent saundz 'juzirj WAn 'simbl fs WAH 'faunim Ban ju end Ap wi6 a reprazen'teijn 'SAm8in laik 8is

The existence of alternative symbols for some phonemes, depending on which dictionary you buy, whether you follow European or North American traditions in using phonetic symbols, etc. can make this kind of phonetic writing confusing, but the principle is straightforward enough. As long as people can agree on the set of symbols being used, it is a fairly convenient way of representing sounds. What's more, once you have understood what the symbols stand for, you can fairly quickly do some basic transcription, as well as read phonetic transcription. It may take many hours to understand all the intricacies associated with phonetic transcription, but it does not take long to grasp the basic ideas. You don't have to know a lot about phonetics in order to use the symbols or read them. Dictionaries which use some kind of phonetic notation do not need to include a course in phonetics in the dictionary they just include a list of examples to show how the symbols are used. But there can be other ways of representing sounds. Why, you might ask, should anybody want to represent up sound as something other than /p/? Isn't the letter p perfectly easy to make? It sits nice and comfortably on the line, doesn't it? No one is disputing the fact that the letter p is harmless enough. The problem is that the letter p does not reveal anything about what goes into making the sound. Linguists would like to be able to see a representation of a sound and "read off' from that representation what the components of the sound are. It's like the difference between salt and NaCl. It's fine to use the word salt in everday life, we don't have to go around saying sodium chloride all the time. But when it comes to explaining chemical reactions involving salt, it is useful to represent salt as NaCl. This representation tells the scientist what it is made up of in a way that salt does not. So, we want to have a way of breaking down a sound like /p/ into its component parts, or as we call them in phonology, the distinctive features. These refer to certain phonetically based properties of sounds. Any phoneme of a language will consist of some combination of these distinctive features. Different phonemes in a language will have different combinations of features. The distinctive features are not just chosen at will from some long list of phonetic

2

Unit I

terms. There are hundreds of phonetic terms, but usually we try to work with no more than a couple of dozen distinctive features. A lot of effort has gone intofindingjust the right phonetic properties, and defining them in just the right way, so that at the end of the day we have a relatively small set of terms which do a lot of work in our representations. Some of the distinctive features we use are based on terms familiar from traditional phonetics, like nasal, lateral, continuant etc. But sometimes the features have to be understood in slightly different ways from how the terms are used traditionally and in any case some features are based on new ways of thinking about phonetic properties (e.g. the distinctive feature strident is not a term from traditional phonetics). So, isolating the components of sounds is not just a matter of selecting from me vocabulary of traditional phonetics. Another important point about the components of sounds is that the components of a sound should not be thought of as just a list of distinctive features. The components group together in natural ways and this should be reflected in the representation. I called this unit The Ingredients of Sounds and an analogy with cooking might help here. To help me make my point, I have consulted an old recipe book used in my family. Here's the recipe for Quiche Lorraine:

Quiche Lorraine Pastry 4 oz. butter 4 oz. cream cheese 1 cup plain flour Filling 6 oz. cheese 4 pieces of bacon 3 eggs 3/4 cup cream

1 onion 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg salt, pepper

Pastry Cream butter and cheese. Add sifted flour, blending with a fork. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll out to fit 8 or 9 in. pie plate. Refrigerate while preparing filling. Filling Slice cheese thinly, cut into 2 in. strips. Cut bacon into small pieces, fry until crisp, drain. Arrange alternate layers of bacon and cheese in the pie case; sprinkle with chopped onion. Beat eggs lightly, combine with cream and seasonings, pour over bacon and cheese. Bake in hot oven for 10 minutes, reduce heat to moderate, cook for further 30 minutes.

The Ingredients of Sounds 3 Note how the ingredients for the pastry part are separated out from the ingredients for the filling part. This is a useful way to subgroup the ingredients. Well, it's going to be similar for the distinctive features of a sound. There are natural ways to subgroup the features. This gives rise to a geometry of features. For example, whether the lips form a construction or not in the production of a sound (they do for /p/ but not HI), and whether the lips are rounded or not (they are for /u/ but not lit in English) is all information about the labial place of articulation, so all this information will be expressed together, as part of a "Labial node", in our representation. And what happens with the lips is anatomically quite independent of what happens with the tongue. The lips and the tongue are controlled by completely different muscles. So, just as you separate the Pastry ingredients from the Filling ingredients in a recipe, so it makes sense to separate out the labial part of the articulation from what the tongue is doing. In fact, not only do we separate out information relating to the lips from information relating to the tongue, we will also separate out information relating to the front part of the tongue from information relating to the back part of the tongue as well. A recipe like this also gives more information than just the ingredients, it tells you how to mix them. The distinctive features are like the ingredients part of the recipe, rather than the instructions on how to mix them. The kind of representation we are aiming for in phonology does not go so far as to include all the information about how we make a sound. Fine articulatory detail will not normally enter into the discussion. We deal rather with the components which help to distinguish sounds (phonemes) in a language - that is why the features we deal with are called distinctive features. To begin our study of Feature Geometry (FG), consider what happens at the larynx (the voice-box) and what happens above the larynx when we produce sounds. The larynx is where certain phonetic properties of a sound are determined, in particular a sound will be voiced or voiceless depending on the configuration of the vocal cords. A lot of things can happen above the larynx too, involving the soft palate, the tongue, the lips etc. In the production of a typical sound of a language, there will be features which relate to the state of the larynx (laryngeal features) and there will be features which relate to the state of the vocal tract above the larynx (you guessed it! - supralaryngeal features). Just as we separate out the ingredients for pastry and filling, so we will separate out laryngeal and supralaryngeal features. Diagramatically, we have to make a separation shown in (2):

4

Unit J

(2) A phoneme

/

\

Laryngeal Features

Supralaryngeal Features

(information about vocal cords etc.)

(information about soft palate, tongue, lips etc.)

This is an appropriate point to introduce some of the formalism which has become standard in FG. We think of the properties of a sound as being organized in a hierarchy of features. The features are directly or indirectly attached to a Root node, like the "S" in a Phrase Structure diagram in syntax. Each sound will have a Laryngeal node and a Supralaryngeal node (abbreviated "Supra") connected to the root node. The nodes are not themselves distinctive features, but refer to some part of the anatomy involved in speech production. Nodes are written as small circles. This is shown below. (3)

Supra

6

The different nodes are positioned as though they are located on different imaginary horizontal lines. When sequences of sounds are represented, like the phonemes of bet /bet/, it is useful to have me three Root nodes all on the same horizontal line. And the same for the Supra nodes and the Laryngeal nodes. One speaks of a "Root tier", which consists of just the Root nodes and only the Root nodes in a representation. Same for any of the nodes in a representation. There is nothing sacred about the direction and length of the lines otherwise. If we continue with the Quiche Lorraine analogy, one might say that the Root node is something like the mixing bowl which will hold all the ingredients together. It's a good idea to have the mixing bowl there on the counter when you start making your Quiche Lorraine. Same with the Root node. Start with that and add the other properties to it.

The Ingredients of Sounds 5 EXERCISES 1.1. All tbe phonological information about a sound will go under either the Laryngeal or the Supra node. Which node will be the relevant one for each of the following bits of information? a. The sound is made with the tongue touching the teeth. b. The sound is made with the vocal cords apart. c. The sound is made with the air passing around the teeth. d. The sound is made with vocal cords vibrating. e. The sound is made with friction behind the teeth. f. The sound is made with the lips in a rounded position. g. The sound is made with the vocal cords held firmly together and then released.

UNIT 2 The Place Node

When we consider what happens above the larynx in the production of speech sounds, we must recognize a basic division between what happens with the soft palate and what happens elsewhere. The soft palate can be raised or lowered, thereby producing oral or nasal sounds. The movement of the soft palate is quite independent of the other articulators (lips, tongue etc.) and we can have oral or nasal versions of sounds regardless of where they are articulated, [m] and [b], for example, are nasal and oral sounds made with the lips forming a complete closure. We will have more to say about nasal sounds in a later unit. But we may note at this point that the Supra node will have to split into two other nodes: the Soft Palate node (abbreviated Soft Pal) and the Place node. The former will contain information about what the soft palate is doing; the latter will contain the information about what the other articulators in the vocal tract are doing. Thus: (1)

Place

o

The Place node keeps together all the information relating to the place of articulation. In a full-blown feature geometry, one recognizes four major articulators defining four major places of articulation: the pharynx/tongue root, the back of the tongue, the front part of the tongue, and the lips. The pharynx is important in describing the articulation of certain consonants, such as [T], a voiced pharyngeal fricative, as in the Arabic word [Samm] 'uncle', though we won't be discussing pharyngeal sounds further in this course. The other three major places of articulation are indispensable, however. We will use the terms labial, coronal, and dorsal for these places of articulation. These terms are to be understood as follows: Labial: Sounds involving the lips as an active articulator. This term applies to bilabial and labiodental sounds. Coronal: Sounds involving the tongue front (including the blade and the tongue tip) as an active ariculator. This term applies to interdental, dental, alveolar,

The Place Node

7

palato-alveolar and palatal sounds. In this course, front vowels are also considered coronal. Dorsal: Sounds involving the tongue body as an active articulator. This term applies to velar and uvular consonants. Non-front vowels are also dorsal. Historical Excursus: the term coronal has an embarrassing history and most phonologists would prefer not to have to recount its early life. Chomsky and Halle (1968), abbreviated SPE, used the feature to refer to all the consonant types we include under "coronal", except palatals. Nowadays, coronal is taken to include palatals, even though the definition remains more or less the same. The change in the denotation of the term is annoying when you are trying to read up on the literature relating to distinctive features. These nodes appear as daughter nodes of the Place node. (In a fuller account Pharyngeal, or Tongue Root, could also appear as a daughter node of Place.) (2)

Supra

Supra

Place

Place

Place

Coronal

Dorsal

Labial

6

o

Supra

o

There are more places of articulation than just these three. We have bilabials as well as labiodentals, interdentals as well as dentals, palatals etc. All these distinctions will be reflected in our system, but they will be distinguished by one or more features, yet to be introduced. We won't be setting up additional nodes for each of these places of articulation, but we will be adding features to our FG diagrams to make additional distinctions in the places of articulation. Further discussion of these finer distinctions is delayed until later Units. In our approach, labial, coronal, and dorsal subclassify consonants into these three major groups (four if one counts pharyngeal). Obviously, there are many more places of articulation which could be distinguished: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular etc. Underlying the FG approach is the idea that the major subclassification of sounds is this tripartite division. Interesting evidence for this idea can be found in the phonotactics of various languages, as discussed in Yip (1989). The basic idea is that there are languages where there are restrictions on the types of consonants which can appear in morphemes. It turns out that the relevant classes needed for stating these restrictions are the classes of consonants we are here calling labial, coronal, and dorsal. Typically, what one finds in such

8

Unit 2

languages is restrictions along the lines of: there can not be two labial consonants in a morpheme, or there can not be two coronal consonants in a morpheme, or there can not be two dorsal consonants in a morpheme. Sometimes, one needs to qualify these statements, but this is the overall tendency. A particular example of this is the behaviour of stops in Kashaya Pomo (Amerindian). Pomo distinguishes six places of articulation in its stops: (3)

Traditional Label

Symbol

FG Place of Articulation

labial dental alveolar palatal velar uvular

p t t c k q

Labial Coronal Coronal Coronal Dorsal Dorsal

There is a class of morphemes in Pomo which have the shape CVC (consonant + vowel + consonant) .which are subject to certain constraints. If the two consonants in the morpheme are stops, then the two stops may not both be labial or coronal or dorsal. That is, the morphemes in question may contain a labial and a dental, or a palatal and a velar, but not, for example, a dental and an alveolar, or a velar and a uvular. The division into labial, coronal, and dorsal correctly subgroups the consonants into the classes of sounds relevant to stating the phonotactic constraints. I have illustrated parts of the feature geometry of sounds showing one place of articulation only, as though it is impossible to have more than one place node under Place. This is not so, however. Phonology is more interesting than that. Think about the lips and the tongue. They are quite independent articulators. You can close your lips at the same time as you raise the front part of your tongue to make contact with the roof of the mouth. So, it's not impossible, phonetically, to have a complex stop which is simultaneously a bilabial stop and a dental stop. Phonetically, this is written as [pjj. It is called a voiceless labiocoronal stop and it can function as a phoneme /pj/ in its own right. It is one of the phonemes of Margi, spoken in Northeast Nigeria. In fact, Margi has a voiced labiocoronal stop /bd/ as well. Other languages, especially African languages, • may have labiocoronal stops like these, not just Margi. Similarly, you can have labiovelar stops, as in the name of the African language written Igbo which contains the complex labiovelar stop /ab/, not a sequence l%l + /b/. (See the article by Maddieson and Ladefoged (1989) for some very detailed acoustic analysis of complex segments. They show that there is, in fact, a very slight difference in the timing of the two different closures which make up a complex segment. We consider this a matter of phonetic detail, not affecting the essential simultaneity of the two component stop gestures.) Sagey (1990: 51-61) presents a variety of evidence that these complex, "doubly articulated" stops must be considered as single segments and not clusters. There is evidence

The Place Node

9

from studies on the timing of these segments in actual speech. She studied the duration of Igbo /<jb/, compared with /g/ and /b/, and found that they were all of roughly equal duration: 90msecs. (1 msec. = .001 sec.) for/g/, HOmsecs. for/b/, and I12msecs. for/gb/. If/gb/were a sequence of /g/ and Ibl, we would expect the result to have a duration of about 220 msecs., rather than 112. There is some interesting phonological evidence for the single unit status of these complex stops as well. The phonological evidence has to do with the patterning of consonants in such languages. The idea is that the complex stops behave just like single consonants rather than consonant clusters with respect to some process. An example of this is a process of reduplication in Ewe (Ghana). In Ewe, present participle, adjectives and nouns can all be derived from verb stems by a process of reduplication. (An I-TOI suffix is also added in the case of present participles.) The rule reduplicates the initial single consonant of the verb stem along with the vowel of the initial syllable. (There are some qualifications to this rule, but this is basically what happens. See Sagey 1990: 56 for more details.) Consonant clusters like /fl/ do not reduplicate, only the initial consonant participates in the process. Compare: (4)

fo zo

'to beat' 'to walk'

fofo zozom

'beating' (Noun) 'walking' (Participle)

cf.

fie

'to buy'

fefle

'bought' (Adjective)

Now consider what happens in the case of derived words based on verbs which begin with the complex double articulations: (5)

kplo obla

'to lead' 'to exert oneself

kpokplo abagblam

'leading' (Adjective) 'exerting oneself (Participle)

As you can see, the complex segments pattern as if they were single segments, not consonant clusters. Apart from these complex stops, "click sounds" may also involve the coronal and dorsal parts of the tongue making contact with different parts of the roof of the mouth. The Zulu dental click, for example, is made with the tongue tip forming a closure with the teeth/alveolar ridge and, simultaneously, the back part of the tongue making contact with the velum. The release of these closure allows air to enter the mouth suddenly forming a dental click. See Ladefoged (1982: 124-125) for further discussion of the Zulu dental click. Complex consonantal segments will be represented in our system with more than one node under the Place node. Partial representations of labiocoronals and labiodorsals are shown in (6).

10

Unit 2

(6) Supra

Supra

Place

Place

o

Coronal Labial

6

Labiocoronals e.g. fpjj. [bd]

Dorsal Labial

6

Labiodorsals e-g- [kp. gb]

The nodes underneath Place are not ordered left toright.There is no ordering between Labial and Coronal or between Labial and Dorsal, reflecting the phonetic and phonological facts about such complex segments discussed above. However, they have to be written on the page in some way, so I have chosen Labial on the left in each case. This is just to reflect the linguistic convention of naming them labio+coronal and labio+dorsal (in English). It would be just as correct to reverse the positions of Labial and Coronal or the positions of Labial and Dorsal in these diagrams. Later, we will encounter sounds which are represented as sequences of properties under one Root node.

EXERCISES 2.1. In each of the following sets, one element differs from the others by having a different major place of articulation (in terms of labial, coronal, dorsal). Identify the odd member of the set in each case. (a) (b) (c)

s,J,c,x $, x, Y p,m,l,p\f

(d)

f,e,J,8

2.2. Which particular Place node in FG is needed for [c], an unaspirated palatal stop? Draw an FG diagram of [c] using the nodes discussed so far.

The Place Node

11

2.3. The glottal stop [?] and [h] do not belong in the labial, coronal, or dorsal groups of sounds. Why not? 2.4. In English, which place of articulation has the most consonant phonemes: labial, coronal, or dorsal?

UNIT 3 T h e Laryngeal Node

In a previous Unit, we mentioned the Laryngeal node without saying what appears under it. The main contribution which the larynx makes in the production of speech is to determine the voiced/voiceless contrast between sounds, such as /p/ versus Ibl. In a voiced sound, the vocal cords within the larynx vibrate in a regular way as air flows through. With voiceless sounds, the vocal cords are kept apart (more at one end, the "posterior" end, than the other), but not necessarily pulled as far apart as is possible. To incorporate the voicing information into a representation of a sound, we will use a different kind of system to that used so far. Up to now, we have been using nodes, which are also called "class nodes". Each node corresponds to some part of the anatomy actively involved in speech production (or some natural grouping of articulators, like Supra and Place). In die case of voicing, however, it is not die case that voicing describes some part of the anatomy. The term "laryngeal" does, and that is why we have a Laryngeal node. But voicing has to be thought of differently. Voicing is a property which can be present or not present within the larynx. A natural way to represent the presence or absence of voicing is widi the features [+ voiced] and [- voiced]. [+/- voiced] : [+ voiced] sounds are produced with the vocal cords vibrating; in the case of f- voiced] sounds there is no such vibration. [+ voiced] refers to the voiced sounds, such as [b, d, i, g v, 8, z, 3, y, d3, m, n, ji, rj, I, r, i, e, o, u, a]; [- voiced] refers to the voiceless sounds, such as [p, t, c, k, f, 6, s, J, x, tJJ. [+/- voiced] is a terminal feature. Terminal features refer to properties of sounds which are not themselves articulators but are present as part of a sound. Some terminal features are clearly associated with a particular articulator, but a number of terminal features are not associated with any particular articulator. [+/- voiced] is associated with the larynx - the voicing effect can not be produced by any other articulator. Consequently, the terminal feature [+/- voice] will appear under the Layngeal node in our representations. But we will encounter other terminal features like [+/- continuant] which are not associated with any one articulator and will be attached to the Root node because there is no one articulator node which it can naturally attach to. The terminal features are called "terminal" because they do not further expand into ower features. They terminate a path of the representation at that point. Class nodes, on the other hand, may or may not end a path of representation. The Labial node may not need to have anydiing more underneath it. Just by including the Labial node in the representation, we know that the sound is a labial, so nothing more about place of articulation needs to be said, if

The Laryngeal Node

13

we are describing a /p/, /b/, or Iral. The Laryngeal node, on the other hand, would normally need to be further elaborated. Just because the larynx is involved in the production of a sound, we can not tell whether the sound is voiced or voiceless. We observe the following condition on the use of terminal features (Sagey 1990:207): each terminal feature occurs under one and only one class node. Thus, [+/- voiced] will not appear under any other class node except Laryngeal. This seems qbvious in the case of this feature, but it is less obvious with some other terminal features yet to be considered. Voicing will be indicated by the appropriate +/- specification of the feature [voiced] under the Layngeal node, as in (1). (1) Root

Supra 6 Laryngeal

[+/- voiced] Representations of [p] and [d], using the formal apparatus we have developed so far, are shown in (2). (These representations are only partial and must be supplemented with more features, yet to be discussed.) (2b)

(2a) Root

9

Root

9

Supra 9

Place

[- voiced]

(i

[+ voiced] Coronal

14

Unit 3

One can find phonological processes which convert voiceless sounds into the corresponding voiced sounds and vice versa. In German, the voiced stops /b, d, g/become the corresponding voiceless stops /p, t, k/ in word-final position. So, for example, the word for "country", written in German as Land, is analyzed as ending in a lil underlyingly. In older German, the word did in fact end in a /d/, as it still does in English land, and as the .German spelling suggests. In German, the "underlying" lil does indeed show up, e.g. in the plural, as shown in (3). (3) cf.

/hat/ 'country' /bunt/ 'colourful'

/ISndar/ /buntar/

'countries' 'more colourful'

Notice that the Ixl of /bunt/ does not alternate with a lil in the same way. The N of /bunt/ is always Itl. There is no reason that one should think of the /tl as coming from an underlying lil. The /bunt/ example is included here to show that one could not argue that, in German, there is a voicing rule which makes a voiceless It/ a voiced lil after /n/ and before hi. If the rule worked in this direction, then /bunt/ should become /bundar/, which is not the case. The German rule can be expressed as: (4)

b,d,g -»

[-voiced] /

#

This says that /b, d, g/ change to [-voiced] at the end of a word. There is no particular advantage to expressing this rule in FG terms, but if one wanted to, one could write it as follows: (5) Word-final /b,d,g/ Laryngeal a 1

[+voiced]

[-voiced] Here, the broken line represents a new linkage to the Laryngeal node. The double lines over the [+ voiced] branch mean that the [+voiced] feature which had been associated with the Laryngeal node is cancelled out, or "delinked". Voicing is the main feature associated with the Laryngeal node, but there are two others which need to be mentioned:

The Laryngeal Node

15

(+/• spread]: [+ spread] sounds are produced with the vocal cords drawn wide apart; [- spread] sounds are produced without this gesture. [+ spread] sounds are aspirated consonants, "breathy" voiced consonants, voiceless vowels, voiceless glides. [- spread] are other sounds. [+/- constricted glottis], abbreviated [+/- constr]: [+ constr] sounds are ' produced with the vocal cords drawn tightly together; [- constr] sounds are . produced without such a gesture. [+ constr] refers to the glottal stop [?], ejectives, implosives [6], [d], [$f], glottalized or laiyngealized sounds; [- constr] refers to all other sounds. In Thai one has to distinguish three sets coronal stop phonemes: voiceless aspirated, voiceless unaspirated, and voiced. For example: (6)

t»i: ti: di:

(mid level tone) (mid level tone) (mid level tone)

'time' 'to hit' 'good'

To represent these coronal stops in Thai, we will need to use both [voiced] and [spread]. There is no contrast with glottalized or laryngealized phonemes in Thai, so we will not need to include [+/- constr] if we are just representing the minimal features needed for Thai stops. The three coronal stops are represented as: (7a)

(7b) Root

Root Laryngeal

Supra

p

V

Laryngeal Supra

$ \

[+ spread]

[- spread]

[- voiced]

Place

[- voiced]

Place

Coronal ^

Coronal ^

/th/

hi

16

Unit 3

(7c) Root Laryngeal Supra

\ [- spread] [+ voiced]

Place

Coronal

0

161

EXERCISES 3.1. In each of the following sets, one element differs from the others by having a different value of the feature [+/- voiced]. Identify the odd member of the set in each case. a. b. c. d.

b, 3. v, c J, g. x, 8, f, i, m, d, s, y f, 1, d, p\ 8

UNIT 4 The Soft Palate Node

A major component of any speech sound is the oral/nasal quality of the sound. Whether the sound is oral or nasal is determined by the configuration of the soft palate, or velum. The soft palate, or back part of the roof of the mouth, can be in a lowered or raised state. In the lowered state, air from the lungs can circulate in the nasal cavities and be expelled through the nose. This configuration gives rise to nasal sounds. When the soft palate is raised, it presses against the back wall of the pharynx, preventing air from the lungs from entering the nasal cavities. This is the configuration which produces oral sounds. Hence we recognize a Soft Palate node, abbreviated Soft Pal, and the feature [+/- nasal] will attach to this node. The feature is defined as follows: [+/- nasal]: [+ nasal] sounds are produced by lowering the soft palate and allowing the air to pass outward through the nose; [- nasal] sounds are produced with the soft palate raised to prevent the passage of air through the nose. [+ nasal] sounds are nasal stops and other nasalized sounds. [- nasal] sounds are all others, i.e. the oral sounds. The feature [+/- nasal] enters into our representation as shown in (1). (1) Supra

n

Place

i

\ \

Soft Pal

[+/- nasal] Some of the most common nasal sounds are the nasal stops, e.g. Iml, Inl and /n/ in English. It is important to note that these nasals can be classified as stops. Stops are to be thought of as sounds made with a complete closure in the oral tract. English /p/, /b/, and Iml all fit this description. One must not think of a stop in terms of a sound where the air stream from the lungs is "completely stopped". With /ml, the air stream is not "completely stopped", since air can escape through the nose. (If you squeeze your nostrils together tightly and close your lips tightly, you can not make an Iml sound. If you try to, you will feel like a football is being

18

Unit 4

inflated inside your mouth and sooner or later it will begin to feel like your mouth and throat will explode into thousands of tiny pieces of red flesh and muscle. Indeed, if you want to do this little experiment thoroughly, your mouth and throat will explode into thousands of tiny pieces of red flesh and muscle. Luckily, this is a course in phonology, the study of sound patterns and rules, rather than articulatory phonetics, which is full of nasty mouth and throat experiments.) In English we have pairs of voiced oral/nasal stops: (2)

Oral stops Ibl /d/ /g/

Nasal stops : : :

/m/ /n/ hj

There can be more nasals than just these three. The Yanuwa language (Australian, Northern Territory) has seven pairs of oral/nasal stops: bilabial, dental, alveolar, retroflex, palatoalveolar, palatal, velar. There are more than three nasal places of articulation in English, too, if one considers some of the phonetic detail of Iml and /n/. So, for example, Iml and /n/ have an optional labiodental variant [m] before /f/ and Ixl; Inl has an interdental variant [n] before 19/ and IQI. In these cases, the nasal has assimilated tothe place of articulation of the following consonant. This is illustrated in (3). (3)

nymph infant panther

[nimf] or [nimf] [mfant] or [urjfant] [pha;n63]

As long as we are concerned only with the properties and features which serve to distinguish phonemes from other phonemes in a language, we would not include the information about this low-level phonetic detail in our representations. Using all the formal apparatus developed so far, we may represent the English phonemes /k/, Igl, and /r/ as in (4):

The Soft Palate Node 4a)

(4b) Root Laryngeal

Root i Laryngeal [- voiced] Supra < Soft Pal

Supra

(4c) o o [+ voiced] 0^

Soft Pal

o [- nasal]

[- nasal] Place < >

Place

Dorsal , i

Dorsal £

/)


Place

o [+ nasal] >

Dorsal ^

V

Ai /

It is possible to have nasalized fricatives and lateral consonants, too, but it is not entirely clear whether the nasalization in such cases functions as a distinctive feature. It has been observed that nasalized consonants like these are nasalized only as the result of a low-level phonetic rule which nasalizes certain consonants when they are next to a nasal vowel (Ladefoged 1971: 33). Vowels can also be nasalized either through a low-level rule of phonetic detail, or distinctively as phonemes in their own right. The vowel in English man, for example, is nasalized and may be written as [£]. It is nasalized because it is flanked by nasal consonants. We do not recognize nasal vowels as distinct phonemes by themselves in English. In French, on the other hand, we have nasalized vowels which do indeed contrast with oral vowels. For example: (5)

paix [pe] beau [bo]

'peace' 'beautiful'

pain bon

m [bo]

'bread' 'good'

Phonologists work on the assumption that there are just two relevant states of the soft palate: raised or lowered. Which is to say, phonologists recognize only [+ nasal] and [- nasal]. There is no third, in-between value, like "partially nasal". Phonetically, it is certainly true that there are various degrees to which sounds are nasalized, but this is usually due to low-level phonetic differences. For example, high vowels are usually far less nasalized than low vowels. The important question for phonologists is whether or not there are languages where there is a three-way phonemic distinction between degrees of nasality. If so, we need to do something like what has happened with [voiced]. We would need to have a couple of features, like [+/- raised velum] and [+/- lowered velum] to give us more possibilities. "Partial nasality" might be represented then as [- raised velum, - lowered velum]. It has been claimed that there is at least one language which has a phonemic contrast between oral, lightly nasalized, and

20

Unit 4

heavily nasalized vowels. The language is Chinantec (Southern Mexico), which has the; contrasts in (6). In each case the tone is a high to mid glide. (6)

[ha] [ha] [ha]

an oral vowel a lightly nasalized vowel a heavily nasalized vowel

'so, such' '(he) spreads open' 'foam, froth'

Cases like this seem few and far between and have not caused phonologists to lose too much sleep. See Ladefoged (1971: 34-35) for some discussion on this point and how the Chinantec data might be handled without having to posit more features. The nasal stops [m], [n], etc aretypicallyvoiced, but voiceless nasals are possible, as in Burmese: (7)

ma na rji

'healthy' 'pain' 'fish'

: :

ma na

rja

'order' 'nostril' 'rent'

EXERCISES 4.1. Consider the following forms from Iban (Austronesian, Sarawak): 1. pansal 2. mansal

'to force* 'forces'

3. dilat 4. nilat

'to lick' iicks'

5. batak 6. matak

'to pull towards oneself 'pulls towards oneself

7. tiki? 8. niki?

'to climb' 'climbs'

9. gagai 10. rjagai

'to chase' 'chases'

ll.ksrohka 12. rjarohka

'to stir up sediment' 'stirs up sediment'

Note that /p/ alternates with Iml, written /p/ - Iml, as part of the morphology of Iban. What are the other alternations you can see in the data? Is it better to think of the nasal stop becoming an oral stop, or the oral stop becoming a nasal stop? (Data takenfromOmar 1981:49)

UNIT 5 Assimilation: Voicing

In this unit we introduce some formalism for representing phonological rules. In any overview of the different types of phonological rules in languages, one is likely to find many descriptive terms for phonological rules, e.g. nasal assimilation, palatalization, nasalization, umlaut etc. The various terms all have their place, but they suggest a diversity which in some ways is misleading. The terms I have just mentioned, for example, are all instances of one very special class of phonological rules, namely assimilation, meaning the change of one segment to be more like a neighbouring segment Assimilation is possibly the most pervasive of all types of rules. Certainly, it is far more common than dissimilation, by which neighbouring segments become more unlike each other. For this reason, we will concentrate on assimilation rules. Most of the examples of assimilation involve segments, which are adjoining, but it is also possible to have more distant assimilation. A vowel, for example, may assimilate to another vowel even when the vowels are separated by consonants. The development of the theory of FG is closely tied to the study of assimilation in languages. For one thing, one form of argument for a certain subgrouping of features within the representation of a sound takes the form: in such and such an assimilation process, the bundle of features X, Y, and Z all are transferred from one segment to an adjoining segment. Hence, the features X, Y, and Z should all be subgrouped under one class node. We will return to arguments like these later. Anorner way in which FG and assimilation rules are interrelated has to do with the desirability of having natural ways of representing assimilation. FG has developed hand in hand with a formalism for representing assimilation which claims the virtue of being a very natural, transparent representation of assimilation. Given the fundamental importance of assimilation rules in languages, it would indeed be a virtue if it allowed for a nice representation of assimilation. We will introduce the formalism for rules by considering rules of voicing assimilation. These are rules which change the voicing of a segment to make it identical with the voicing of an adjoining segment. A good example of this can be found within English. Consider the different phonemic realizations of the English plural suffix, which is sometimes referred to as "the plural s":

22

UnitS

0) cap cat

Jksep

caps

tack sniff

kaet task

cats tacks

smf

sniffs

tsks snifs

myth

mi6

myths

nu8s

cab pad

kaeb

cabs pads

kaebz pasdz

tags

tsegz

kasps kajts

tag

pxd teg

hive

haiv

hives

haivz

bin

bin

btnz

song

SOTj

bins songs

pill

p.l

pills

pilz

sea

si

seas

siz

day .

del

days

deiz

SDI)Z

Although it might be referred to as "plural s'\ the pronunciation varies between /s/ and Izl, as shown above. The transcription above represents a fairly careful and "well enunciated" style of English. In normal conversation, the /z/ ending may be considerably weakened, even to the point of becoming a voiceless Isl. But, in the careful style, one may observe progressive assimilation of the suffix, in voicing, to thefinalsegment of the singular word. Thus, the suffix is a voiceless Isl after voiceless segments, and it is a voiced Izl after voiced segments. We represent this as follows: (2)

The English plural suffix Root

/ y

Laryngeal

k

The two segments involved appear next to each other. Each will have its own extensive feature geometry, but we show only the relevant parts of the geometry. In this case, we need only show the Root and Laryngeal nodes of each segment, or, expressing ourselves slightly differently, the Root and Laryngeal tiers. The two slanting lines indicate that some linkage is cancelled, in this case the link between the Root node and the Laryngeal node of the second segment. This means that the original Laryngeal node and everything that was dependent on it,

Assimilation: Voicing 23 which is to say "beneath" it, are removed from the representation of the second segment. This is an example of delinking. At the sametime,a new link is established, by means of the broken line, between the Root node of the second segment and the Laryngeal node of the first segment. In general, assimilation will involve the delinking of some part of a segment's geometry and a new linking with some part of the geometry of an adjoining segment. Notice that there is no need to spell out whether we are linking the second segment to a [+ voiced] or [- voiced] feature. In fact we do not even specify for the first segment whether it is [+ voiced] or [- voiced]. We link the second segment to the Laryngeal, which means it is also linked to everything dependent on the Laryngeal node. If the left segment is [+ voiced], for example, then the second segment will be linked to that via the Laryngeal node. The advantage of having the articulator as a node is that one need only refer to this node in the rule of assimilation. It is like saying: the second segment has the same setting for the larynx as the first node. We see voicing assimilation in the Russian data below, though here the assimilation is regressive, i.e. the first segment assumes the Laryngeal properties of the second segment. (3a) bjegdt> davatJ

'run'

gotovjiti mjenjdti

'prepare' 'change' 'blame'

vjinjiti

'give'

izbjegati izdavati

'avoid'

izgotovjiti

'manufacture'

izmjenj£t> izvjinjiti

'betray' 'excuse'

'publish'

(3b) prdvjiti tjetj kupdti xodjiti tjjerpati

'correct' 'flow, run'

isprdvjiti istjetj

'correct, reform, mend' 'elapse, expire'

'give a bath to'

iskupati isxodjit)

'give a bath to' 'originate, proceed from'

istTj^rpati

'exhaust, use up'

'go' 'draw (water)'

I have illustrated the assimilation by showing an alternation between /s/ and Izl in a prefix which attaches to verbs. In point of fact, the kind of voicing assimilation which is illustrated here is much more general than this. It applies to an obstruent, not just Isl-lzl, followed by a consonant in many positions, including cases where the segments belong to different words, as in the Ifl-M. alternation of the Russian preposition meaning 'in, at': (4a)

fkjin6 f tfajje

'at the cinema' 'in the cup'

24 (4b)

UnitS v domje v mk&K

'in the house' 'in the hands'

The conditions governing the assimilation of the obstruents in Russians may vary a little depending on the sounds involved. Notice, for example, that the fpf does not assimilate to /b/in [pr£vjiti] 'correct' above, despite a following voiced consonant. Without attempting to document all the details, we can represent the basic facts about the Russian voicing assimilation as follows: (5) Obstruent Consonant Root v. Laryngeal

s

English and Russian voicing assimilation involve opposite directions in assimilation. It is possible to have both directions in one and the same language. Dutch is like this. In the sequence Obstruent + Stop, the obstruent assimilates in voicing to the following stop, whereas in the sequence Obstruent + Fricative, it is the fricative which assimilates in voicing to the preceding obstruent. Some examples of this are: (6a) Obstruent + Stop: huis [hAiis] + deur [doe:r] -> huisdeur 'front door' [hAtlzdoeir] Mazda [maz] + [da] -» [mazda] (6b) Obstruent + Fricative: huis [hAfls] + vuil [VAUI] badfbat] +zout[saui\

-» huisvuil 'garbage' [tutlsfAul] -» badzout 'bath salts' [batsaut]

Diagramatically, these facts can be represented as in (7):

Assimilation: Voicing 25 (7a)

(7b) Obstruent Root

Stop

Obstruent Fricative Root

O.

s

3-

N

y

N Laryngeal

6

/ A

Laryngeal

6

When the assimilation involves some phonetic properties passing from one segment to a preceding segment, then we speak of regressive assimilation. This process is also called anticipatory assimilation. It is as though the first segment is anticipating some articulatory gesture/setting of the second segment. The Russian voicing assimilation found with the prefix /is-/, repeated here as (8a), is an example of this. The voicing is passed from the second segment back to the first. One way of visualizing this is as in (8b). (8a)

is-pravjiti iz-bjegatf

'correct, reform, mend' 'avoid'

(8b) Consonant

/s/

1

Laryngeal setting is passed to the /s/

In FG terms, regressive assimilation involves delinking some node/feature in the first segment. A very general representation of regressive assimilation in FG is: (9)

N \ \

\ FG schema for regressive assimilation When the assimilation involves some phonetic property passmg from one segment to the following segment, we speak of progressive assimilation. This can also be called articulatory

26

UnitS

lag. Some articulatory setting carries over to thefollowingsegment. The voicing assimilatic found with the English plural suffix is an example of this. (10a) cap cab

kaep kaib

caps cabs

kaeps ksbz

(10b) Consonant

Plural/s/

Laryngeal setting is passed to the ?s/

t

In the FG framework, progressive assimilation involves the substructure shown in (11). (11) o /

/ /

'/

/ / FG schema for progressive assimilation

Assimilation: Voicing 27 EXERCISES 5.1. In French, there is a rule of phonetic detail which says that the word-final liquids ([1] and [r]) and nasals agree in voicing with the preceding consonant, illustrated below: 1. [matinal] 2. Di:r] 3. [film] 4. [tabl]

'morning'(adj.) 'to read' 'film' 'table'

5. [metr] 6. [tapl] 7. rjifr] 8. [riimatism]

'to put' 'temple' 'figure' 'rheumatism'

5.1a. Is this assimilation in place or manner of articulation? Is the assimilation progressive or regressive? 5.1b. Draw an FG diagram of the French liquid assimilation. Start with the following: Consonant o

Word-final liquids and nasals o

(Data from Katamba 1989: 89) 5.2. Look carefully at what happens with piefixation in the Perfect Tense of Kikuyu (tones omitted).

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Simple Tense

Perfect Tense

koma yora toma jkra cina kera

rjgomeete rjgoreete ndomeete mbureete jijineetE

rjgereete

'sleep' 'buy' 'send' 'lop off 'bum' 'cross'

5.2a. Describe the voicing assimilation evident in Kikuyu. 5.2b. Draw an FG diagram of the voicing assimilation in Kikuyu. (Data from Whitley 1978: 89)

UNIT 6 Assimilation: Place of Articulation

In this Unit, we consider another type of assimilation process, assimilation in place of articulation, abbreviated PoA. Since our feature geometry has been devised in a way which gives direct expression to the concept of a place of articulation (through the Place node), this type of assimilation is very naturally represented in our system as a delinking of the Place node of one segment and replacing it with a new association to the Place node of a contiguous segment. Consider, first, some PoA assimilations (listed below) which have been observed in English connected speech. These assimilations are fairly normal in colloquial speech, though one is not usually aware of them until they have been pointed out They are all optional, in the sense that speakers can always choose not to assimilate. Further examples and discussion can be found in Gimson (1970: 294 ff). (1)

l\l

-»

/p/

M

-*

W

/d/

-»

Ibl

IdJ

-»

Iql

M

—>

/m/

M

—»

/rj/

before/p. b, m/ e.g. that pen, that man

before/k,g/ e.g. that cup, that girl But: /p/ does not show similar changes before /t, d, n, k, g/, nor /k/ before /t, d, n, p, b, m/ before /p, b, m/ e.g. good pen, good boy, good man

before /k, g/ e.g. good concert, good girl But: M does not show similar changes before /t, d, n, k, g/, nor /g/ before /t, d, n, p, b, ml

before /p, b, ml e.g. ten players, ten boys, ten men

before/k,g/ e.g. ten cups, ten girls But: Ital does not show similar changes before /t, d, n, k, g/, nor /rj/ before It, d, n, p, b, m/

Assimilation: Place of Articulation

29

Summing this up, we may say that word-final coronal (oral and nasal) stops assimilate in PoA to a following (oral or nasal) stop. This is an example of regressive assimilation. It is interesting to note that it is the coronal stops which change their place of articulation in this way. Labial and dorsal stops do not undergo this kind of assimilation. So, for example, one does not say /bib boi/ for big boy. It has been found across languages that coronals are more prone to PoA assimilation than labials or dorsals. Indeed, a whole book has been written on the special status of coronals from this point of view, called, not surprisingly The Special Status of Coronals (Paradis and Prunet 1991). Diagrammatically, the English assimilation rules may be summed up as in (2) below. Notice that one does not spell out whether it is a Labial, Coronal, or Dorsal node on the right hand side. We just say that the left segment takes on the same value for the Place node as the right segment. We show the new association line linking the first segment to the Place node of the second segment and this means in turn that whatever node occurs under Place in the second segment is automatically associated with the first segment.

(2) Word-final oral/nasal stop Supra o. N N

N

Place

Coronal

Oral/nasal stop P

t>

English assimilation of stops The English data show stops assimilating in PoA. Sanskrit shows the same kind of process affecting a fricative hi, based on Sagey (1990: 32). In the phrases in (3), the underlying wordfinal /s/ changes in PoA to agree with the initial phoneme of the following word, hi changes to another fricative, just as the coronal stop in English changes to another stop. (Another rule of Sanskrit changes Isl to [h] in word-final position when there is no immediately following obstruent and the effects of this rule can also be seen in the data.)

30

Unit 6

(3)

I /indras curas/ /tassat/ /divas putras/ /nalas kamam/

[indrac ;urah] [tas sat] [diva$ putrah] [nalax kamam]

'the hero' 'those-Fem. six' 'god-Gen.Sg. son' 'at will'

•'§ | §

Although we have not yet discussed the features relevant to distinguishing some of these! places of articulation (such as retroflex, bilabials etc.), it remains true that the only thing! which is changing is the place of articulation and this basic fact will be captured in terms ofj our feature geometry similar to the English assimilation above. f (4) Word-final Isl

x Supra

N

Obstruent

X

Place Coronal Sanskrit Isl assimilation It is possible for more than one PoA assimilation process to apply in a language and it is possible for the direction of the assimilation to be different even within the one language. (This is comparable to what was observed about the two voicing assimilation rules in Dutch.) Yogad (Austronesian, Philippines) has a complex set of consonant changes which take place when a suffix is attached to a root morpheme. If we just focus on the following selection of changes, then PoA assimilation affects the first consonant or the second consonant, depending on the segments involved. + represents a morpheme boundary. (5a)

b+t d +1 g+t

-» -* -»

dt dt dt

(5b)

b+d d+d g+d

-» -> -»

bb dd gg

Assimilation: Place of Articulation 31 Diagrammatically: (6a)

(6b) /b, d, g/

Supra

/(/

?S

3-

/b, d, gf Supra

/d/ a

9

/

N

/

Place

Place

Coronal

Coronal

s

£

Yogad stop assimilation A very common type of PoA assimilation involves a nasal assimilating in PoA to a contiguous consonant. This is called nasal assimilation. A fine example of this is Tagalog, where the grammatical morpheme ang /arj/ undergoes nasal assimilation to a following consonant in casual speech. Ang introduces noun-phrases which function like the grammatical subject of a clause and attract a definite interpretation. (7) Slow and Careful Speech

Rapid and casual Speech

an padcr arjbaihai arj manga at) tattai arjdamit arjnamai arj suisi? an lapis arj rerina arjkalan angadarj arj rji:pin cf. arja:so

am pader am ba:hai am manga an tattai an damit an na:nai an su:si? an lapis an re:ina arjkalan arj ga:larj arj rjhpin cf. arj a:so

'the wall' 'the house' 'the mango' 'the father* 'the clothing 'the mother* 'the key' 'the pencil' 'the queen' 'the stove' 'the respect' 'the teeth' 'the dog'

32

Unit 6

Diagrammatically: (8) Nasal

Consonant

Supra

P

\

S

Place

Dorsal Tagalog nasal assimilation

I i

Tagalog ang shows regressive nasal assimilation. An example of a progressive nasalf assimilation can be found in German. Consider the alternative pronunciations of the following! infinitival forms in German: 1 (9) kipan

kipm

ha.'ban

ha:bm

bitsn

bitn

kndan

lo:dn

Jikan. lcgan

Jikrj le:grj

'to rum over' 'to have' 'to ask' 'to load' 'to send' 'to lay'

In these forms, the final [an], which is the infinitival ending, can be reduced to a syllabic nasal, written with a [,] underneath the symbol for the nasal. Accompanying this reduction there is an assimilation of the syllabic nasal to the preceding stop. Only preceding stops trigger the nasal assimilation. After fricatives, the syllabic nasal does not assimilate: hoffen 'to hope' is [hofan] or [hofn], not [hofrn]. We represent this as follows:

Assimilation: Place ofArticulation 33 (10) Stop Supra

Syllabic nasal

o

/ Place

6

Corona] German nasal assimilation

EXERCISES 6.1a. Identify the assimilation processes at work in the following informal pronunciations. Describe each assimilation process in terms of place/manner and regressive/progressive. went crazy sent packets

[werjk kreizi] [semp pskots]

6.1b. Write out two rules in FG notation. One will be t-Assimilation and the other will be Nasal Assimilation. 6.1c. Show the derivation of [semp pxksts] as a sequence of changes from an Underlying Representation to a Surface Representation: Underlying Representation

/sent pskats/

Surface Representation

[semp paeksts]

UNIT7 Nodes and Features Our representations of sounds employ class nodes (like Place) and terminal features (lil [+/- voiced]). We need to say something more about these entities and their justification. The class nodes and terminal features are the components of sounds which are relevan in describing the patterns of sounds in languages. Sometimes we need to refer to a quiti specific sound and sometimes we wish to refer to natural groups of sounds. In English, foi example, the class of coronal stops It, d, n/ assimilate to following stops under certain conditions, as discussed in an earlier Unit. So, we need terms like "stop" and "coronal" to help us express this fact. It is when we start looking at phonotactic patterns, historical changes, rules of assimilation and other phonological processes that we see a need for certain class terms. In other words, the terms which appear in our representations are ultimately justified by their relevance to the classes of sounds which appear in the statements of phonological processes. Our terms are of two types: class nodes (indicated by a small circle) and terminal features (indicated by square brackets). The distinction is in part motivated by articulatory facts. For the most part, the nodes represent the articulators which play a major role in the production of speech. It seems natural to incorporate the names of these articulators into our descriptions. Hence: Laryngeal, Soft Pal, Labial, Coronal, Dorsal. In addition, we posit other nodes which group together articulator nodes into natural classes : Supra, Place. Nodes are present in the representation if the articulators referred to are activated, otherwise they are absent. So, in the representation of a labial sound, the Labial node will appear, but Coronal and Dorsal nodes will not appear. The nodes are therefore "unary". They have only one value when they are used. The tenninal features are features which indicate something more about the production of a segment. When the feature is localized to a particular articulator, then it is shown as a dependent of that articulator, otherwise it will be made a dependent of the Root node. So, for example, the presence or absence of voicing is associated with the larynx and so the feature [+/- voiced] is made a dependent of the Laryngeal articulator node. Features are binary. When present, terminal features are specified + or -. Having nodes which dominate other information is a real advantage in FG, although it has been taken for granted in our discussion so far. The Place node, in particular, is an extremely convenient device for all sorts of information relating to the place of articulation. Consider the representation in (1) and what it implies. Such a representation, or one like it, forms part of many of the assimilation rules we have looked at.

Nodes and Features

35

(1) Supra 'e

\ Place

V.

Depending on the number of possible places of articulation relevant in a given language, this schema implies all the statements in (2): (2)

,-

a. If the second segment is labial, then the first segment is also labial; b. If the second segment is dental, then the first segment is dental; c. If the second segment is retroflex, then the first segment is retroflex; d. If the second segment is palato-alveolar, then the first segment is palato-alveolar; e. If the second segment is palatal, then the first segment is palatal; f. If the second segment is velar, then the first segment is velar; g. If the second segment is uvular, then the first segment is uvular, h. If the second segment is pharyngeal, then the first segment is pharyngeal; i. If the second segment is a labio-coronal complex segment, then the first segment is a labio-coronal complex segment; j . If the second segment is a labio-velar complex segment, then the first segment is a labio-velar complex segment; etc etc.

Obviously, we want to avoid having to express all these rules separately. We avoid this in ordinary English by saying that the first segment takes on the same place of articulation as the second segment. FG allows us to formalize this way of talking in a highly natural way. Other theories of phonology are not as attractive from this point of view. This is where the usefulness of the "geometry" idea comes in. It helps to organize information in a convenient way. One can distinguish phonological and phonetic functions of features and nodes. The phonological function of a feature/node has to do with the way it classifies sounds together which belong together for the purposes of some rule or distributional pattern of sounds. Using features/nodes as a way of expressing natural classes of sounds is important when we study patterns of co-occurrence of sounds (what sounds can occur at the beginning of a word, at the end of a word, in consonant clusters etc.), morphological alternations within a language, minimal pairs and the phonemic oppositions implied by the minimal pairs etc. The phonetic function of a feature/node, on the other hand, has to do with relating the feature to the articulatory movements and/or the acoustic properties. These are two different functions. Take for example the feature [+/- nasal]. In its phonological function, the feature serves to unite sounds into classes and oppose classes of sounds to other classes of sounds. The feature serves to group Iml, lid, and /rj/ together as a natural class of sounds, opposed to

36

Unit 7

all other sounds. In Mandarin, for example, only the [+ nasal] consonants are possible word-final consonants. We need the feature in languages which have nasal phonem contrasting with non-nasal phonemes. The contrast between /b/ and Iral is responsible for tl judgment that the forms bet and met are different words. The feature [+/- nasal] is tl phonological device for expressing the clear, categorial judgment that these two forms at different words and that the difference resides in the first segment. In these phonologica functions, it is perfectly appropriate to assign + or - as the value of a feature with respect to i particular sound. | In its phonetic function, [+ nasal] indicates that the soft palate is lowered as part of the) production of a segment. The feature itself says no more than this. But the phonetic reality is! more complex than this. The precise time at which the soft palate is lowered and the precis! extent to which the soft palate is lowered can vary depending on the context and the language involved. The soft palate may begin to lower a little bit in anticipation of a nasal consonant,: before the obstruction in the mouth (associated with nasal consonants) is formed. That is to; say, in its phonetic function, the feature of nasality is not a matter of + or -. Rather it is a} matter of degree. f Similar remarks hold for the unary nodes like Labial, Coronal etc. Phonologically,| they indicate whether a segment belongs to the labial class of sounds, the coronal class of] sounds etc. The nodes are present or not present for the purposes of stating phonological rules! of the language. Phonetically, it can be more complex. When a dorsal stop is followed by a coronal stop in words such as act, for example, the' dorsal [k] is accompanied by some coronal activity with the blade of the tongue positioning itself for a [t]. The features and (some of the) nodes have this dual aspect to them, then. When they are being used as relatively abstract classificatory devices, they are present or not (in the case of the nodes) or strictly binary, + or - (in the case of terminal features). When they are considered in terms of their phonetic function, they may be present in varying degrees, more appropriately measured in a scalar way. This course is about phonology more than phonetics, and we are particularly concerned with natural classes of sounds and ways of classifying sounds in ways which fit comfortably with the ways phonemes behave in languages. We are less concerned in this course with the phonetic details. Consequently, our nodes are present or not present and our features are + or -. There are no scalar features in this system.

EXERCISES 7.1a. Describe the assimilation process evident in the following data. Is it regressive or progressive assimilation? Is it assimilation in place of articulation or manner of articulation?

Nodes and Features 37

hope

haup disraub

hoped

disrobe

disrobed

hsupt drsraubd

cough dive

kDf daiv

coughed dived

kDft daivd

kiss

kis

kissed

kist

buzz

bAZ

buzzed

bAzd

look

luk

looked

lukt

sag

ssg

sagged

saegd

sin

sin

sinned

wrong

rorj

wronged

sind rorjd

beam

bim

beamed

bimd

7.1b. Draw an FG diagram representing the assimilation process described in 7.1a. Start with the following: Consonant

Verb suffix -ed

o

o

7,2. In the Philippine language Yogad, phonological changes occur at the boundaries between a stem and its suffix. The final consonant of the stem and the initial consonant of the suffix change as shown below.

p + d t + d k + d

-* -* -»

b d g

7.2a. Describe these changes in such a way that they involve assimilation in voicing. 7.2b. Draw FG representations of the assimilation process and the segment deletion observable in these changes. 7.2c. Now describe the same changes in such a way that they involve assimilation in place of articulation. 7.2d. Draw FG representations of the assimilation process and the segment deletion described in 7.2c. (Data from Healey 1958)

38

Unit 7

7.3. In Ahanta (a Volta-Comoe language of Ghana), there is a phonological rule which says "a voiced stem-initial consonant becomes nasal after a nasal consonant". Examples: baka di

'tree' 'eat'

mmaka nanni

'trees' 'I didn't eat'

Draw an FG diagram which expresses the assimilation underlying this rule. (Taken from Dolphyne and Kropp Dakubu 1988)

UNIT8 Stops vs. Fricatives

In this Unit, we will focus on the difference between stops and fricatives. The distinctive feature which is used to classify obstruents into these two classes is [+/- continuant]. Here is the SPE definition of this feature: r [+/- continuant]: In the production of [+ continuant] sounds, the primary constriction in the vowel tract is not narrowed to the point where the air flow past the constriction is blocked; in [- continuant] sounds, the air flow through the mouth is effectively blocked. [- continuant] sounds include the stops, nasal stops, and the glottal stop. [+ continuant] sounds are fricatives, glides, and vowels. It is an unfortunate definition in one way: [+ continuant] is defined as something that does not happen. The meaning is roughly this: with [+ continuant] sounds there is a relatively free flow of air through the mouth; with [- continuant] sounds, there is not. The most important work this feature does is to distinguish stops and fricatives. It is common for there to be distinctive stops and fricatives at the same place of articulation, e.g. hi versus Is/ in English, and the feature [continuant] is required to reflect this contrast. Sometimes, one needs to distinguish these two classes of sounds in the statement of the phonotactics of a language. Consider, for example, the type of consonant that one finds at the end of a word (or syllable) in Cantonese. The final consonant in a Cantonese word must be one of the following: /p, t, k, m, n, n/. These are all [- continuant]. There are fricatives in Cantonese, such as If, s/, but one does not find fricatives at the end of words. Remember that the nasals /m, n/ etc. are formed with a complete closure in the vocal tract and therefore qualify as [- continuant]. This may not be immediately obvious. Some people like to think they should be [+ continuant] because you can "continue" the sound, rather like a fricative. First of all, note that the term [+/- continuant] is defined as above. It is not something which is vaguely connected to continue or continuation. It is a linguistic term with a linguistic definition. One judges whether or not a sound is [+/- continuant] by considering the articulation of the sound compared with the linguistic definition. The nasals are made with a complete closure in the mouth and therefore qualify as [- continuant]. Secondly, it is true that one can "continue" holding on to a nasal like [m] and [n] for as long as one's breath holds out. In this respect it is like a fricative. But the reason one can hold on to the sound is not that the air is flowing through the mouth. Rather, the air is circulating through the nasal passages and out through the nostrils. The nasals share with vowels and some other

40

Unit 8

sounds the property of having the air flow in a relatively unimpeded way (the nasal cavity in the case of nasals, the oral cavity in the case of oral vowels). The term sonorant is used to describe this class of sounds. The Cantonese phonotactic restriction mentioned above is an example where the nasal stops function like the oral stops in a language. Another example where it is useful to be able to group together the oral and nasal stops is the Coronal Assimilation rule in English. In that rule, the coronal [- continuant] sounds A, d, n/ assimilate to the place of articulation of following [- continuant] sounds. Fricatives are not normally involved in this process. The question arises as to where the feature [+/- continuant] should be located in our feature geometry. Note that the feature is not associated with any single place of articulation. There can be [+ continuant] and [- continuant] versions of sounds at various places of articulations, compare: (1) [-continuant]

Labial p b

[+ continuant]

$ P

' v

Coronal t d 6 8

Dorsal k g

s z

x Y

Also, a glottal stop ft] is [- continuant] by virtue of the fact that the air flow through the mouth is effectively blocked. In other words, the blockage of air flow can be accomplished at various point in the vocal tract. Consequently, we do not want to plug the feature [+/- continuant] under just one Place node in our feature geometry. In cases like this, and there will be others, we associate the feature directly to the Root node, as in (2). This is also consistent with the condition on terminal features suggested by Sagey (1990: 207), stipulating that each terminal feature appears under one and only one node. (2) Root

o

[+/- continuant] Supra o Laryngeal

\ \

[+/- continuant] is shown as a terminal feature, and not as a class node. It does not represent a place of articulation and does not dominate any other nodes. Vowels and the glides fj] and [w] will be [+ continuant] since there is no blockage of air flow, but this is never a distinctive feature within the vowel system of a language. It is not

Stops vs. Fricatives 41 a simple matter to apply this feature to [1]- and [r]-type sounds and one can find a great variety in the ways in which these sounds are specified in different works. There is widespread agreement that "fricative varieties" of [r] should be treated like ordinary fricatives: they are [+continuant]. Thus, the voiced uvular fricative sound [«], as in the (Parisian) French pronunciation of rouge 'red' as [KU3], will be [+ continuant]. [r]-type sounds which are described as approximants, i.e. without the narrowing of the vocal tract we find with fricatives, are also described as [+ continuant]. The English [J], sometimes described as a "frictionless continuant", is [+ continuant]. In SPE, trilled [r] is understood as involving a narrowing of the vocal tract without actually blocking the air flow and hence is [+ continuant]. There is some controversy about taps and flaps. These are [r]-type sounds which involve momentary contact between the tip of the tongue and alveolar ridge or roof of the mouth. Catford (1988:70-71) distinguishes taps and flaps as follows: a tap [r] is where the tip of the tongue "flicks" against the alveolar ridge, as in the pronunciation of t and d inbetween vowels in varieties of English; a flap [r] or [D] involves the tip of the tongue making a momentary contact with the back of alveolarridgeand then flapping on to the floor of the mouth. A tap involves a flicking motion; a flap doesn't. In SPE, a tap [r] is regarded as [+ continuant], not involving any real interruption to the air flow. A flap [r] or [D], on the other hand, is regarded as being like a very quick version of a stop and is specified as [- continuant]. Not everyone makes this distinction between taps and flaps, however, and the terms and symbols are even used interchangeably. Ladefoged (1982: 153), for example, uses flap for both of these articulations. Hence there is some (i.e. total) confusion about what the feature specifications of taps and flaps should be. [1] sounds also present problems. Phonological patterning suggests that [1] sounds should be classed together with fricatives in some languages but stops in other languages. SPE (Chomsky and Halle 1968: 318) briefly mentions data from English dialects in Scotland (where [1] functions like stops, i.e. [- continuant]) and data from the Amerindian language Chipewyan (where [l]-type sounds pattern just like fricatives, hence [+ continuant]). SPE assign [+continuant] to English [I]. Halle and Clements (1983: 33) take [1] to be [- continuant]. The problems with [1]- and [r]-type sounds with respect to [+/- continuant] arise because the original definition of the feature, which is fine for distinguishing stops and fricatives, is not easily applicable to these other sounds. It is not very clear whether they should be [+ continuant] or [- continuant] (apart from fricative or approximant [J]). In such cases, one turns to the phonological patterning in languages to see what the most natural groupings of thse sounds are. Do they pattern like stops or like fricatives? For example, if one finds in many languages rules of the sort "Sound X becomes sound Y before /p, t, k, b, d, g/ and IV", then one would like to say that /l/ is [- continuant] and then we have a feature characterizing this natural class of sounds. If on the other hand we find rules of the sort "Sound X becomes sound Y before /f, s, f, v, z, 3/ and IV", then we would see /l/ as [+continuant]. In looking at evidence like this, we are thinking about the features as

42

Unit 8

classificatory devices, as explained in the preceding unit. If wefindevidence to classify [1] as, say, a stop, then we can proceed to revise the original definition of [+/- continuant] so that it is very clear that [I] has to be [- continuant]. SPE (Chomsky and Halle 1968: 318) in fact suggests this possibility and offers a revised definition of the feature. But, as SPE itself admits, the phonological evidence is ambiguous: in some languages [l]-type sounds function like stops, in other languages like fricatives. Hence we are left without any clear resolution to this problem and it would appear one must look to language-specific phonological facts in order to decide on the specification of [continuant] for [1] and some [r]-type sounds in a language.

EXERCISES 8.1. Here, again, is the Kikuyu data from Unit 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Simple Tense

Perfect Tense

koma yora toma pura cina kera

rjgomeete ngoreete ndomeete mbureete njineete rjgereete

'sleep' •buy' 'send' 'lop off 'bum' 'cross'

8.1a. Where is there a change in the feature [+/- continuant] in these verb stems? 8.1b. Express the change of the feature [+/- continuant] as assimilation. 8.1c. Draw an FG diagram of this change. (Data taken from Whitley 1978: 89) 8.2. Here is the inventory of segmental phonemes in Chatino (spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico): p m

t b

m

j e

uu 0o

n

d s n 1 r

"g

t 5

a 5

Stops vs. Fricatives 43 8.2a. Which phonemes can one definitely specify as [+ continuant], even without considering additional data from the language? 8.2b. Which phonemes can one definitely specify as [- continuant], even witiiout considering additional data from the language? 8.2c. Which phonemes pose problems for the [+/- continuant] specification? (Phoneme inventory from Ruhlen 1975:178)

UNIT 9 Affricates

We have distinguished stops and fricatives as distinct sounds, which is appropriate, since they may function as distinctive phonemes in languages. However, it has long been recognized mat there is a type of sound which combines these two manners of articulation, namely affricates. An affricate can be described as a sound which begins like a stop and ends like a fricative, made at approximately the same place of articulation. The term homorganic is used to mean "made at the same place of articulation". So, an affricate consists of a stop and a roughly homorganic fricative. Examples of affricates in English are: /tj/ as in chin, and /dy as in gin. Some other possible affricates are: /pf/, /bv/, Its/, 16x1, and fkx/. A diacritic such as (~] or [_ ]may be added to indicate affricate status, e.g. Ipff. Affricates in the palatal region, [tj] and [d3], are particularly common and there is a tradition of writing such sounds as single symbols with diacritics: [c] and fj]. The term affricate is not used to describe just any sequence of stop plus homorganic fricative. To qualify as an affricate, the sequence should function as a unit in the language being analyzed. This means, among other things, that the affricate occurs in more or less the same positions as do other consonants, like /p/, It/, Iff, Is/ etc. So, for example, the sequence l\l + III occurs in English at the beginning of single-morpheme ("monomorphemic") words (chin) and at the end of words (patch), just like /p/, hi, Ik/, IV, and 1st etc. in English. This is rather different to what we find with the sequence lt/+/sl'm English. This does not usually occur at the beginning of words in English. Here are all the words in the Macquarie Dictionary (1981) beginning with ts, which might be candidates for a IM + hi pronunciation, along with the pronunciations given in the dictionary: (1) tsar tsarevitch tsarevna tsarina tsarism tsarist tsaritsa tsetsefly tsunami

Izal /zaravitJV /zarevna/ fearing/ /zarizsm/ /zarast/ /zantsa/ /tsetsi flai/, /setsi flai/ /tsunami/

Affricates 45 A couple of other words with an initial Ixl + Is/ pronunciation can be found amongst the z's, as shown in (2). (2) Zeitgeist zizith zucchetto zwitterion

/tsaitgaist/ /tsitsis/, /tsitsit/ Asuketou/, /zuketou/ /tsvitaraian/

These words are generally felt to be loan-words, borrowed from other languages which have initial Ixl plus /s/ sequences. Even with these words, the dictionary acknowledges some variation. Word-initial Ixl + hi is a relatively alien combination for native English speakers. Word-finally, Ixl + Is/ is certainly possible in English: hats, cats, sits, licks, cots, packs etc. But notice that in these examples, the final Is/ is a morpheme in its own right, with the meaning of "plural" or "3rd singular present tense". This is the way the combination of Ixl + Isl usually comes about in English. When a sequence like this is only possible through consonants coming to stand next to each other at morpheme boundaries, then it is not considered an independent phoneme in its own right in that language. One can find Ixl + /s/ at the end of monomorphemic words in English, but the words are special in some way. For example, we have a person's first name Fritz or a surname Pitts or the hotel name Ritz, but we don't find the common words of the language ending in this sequence. Although the sequence Ixl + /s/ is not analyzed as an affricate in English for the reasons just given, it is analyzed as such in German. The distributional facts about this sequence in German are very different from the English facts. Word-initial Ixl + Is/ occurs in good, native German words, written as z in the orthography: zu 'to', Zahn 'tooth', Zeit 'time', Ziel 'goal, destination', Zimmer 'room' etc. Also, the same sequence can appear at the end of words written as tz, without any suffixes being present: Klotz 'block, blockhead', Protz 'snob', Putz 'ornaments, finery', stolz 'proud', Witz 'joke'. This is why the sequence is analyzed as an affricate in German, but not in English. In FG, there is a simple and natural way to accommodate affricates. We represent them as contour segments which contain an ordered sequence of features, in this case [- continuant] [+ continuant]. This is something we have not encountered in previous representations. Contour segments are distinct from the complex segments discussed earlier, which are segments like the labio-velar stop etc. Complex segments have more than one place of articulation node which are unordered with respect to each other. To restrict the number and types of ordering one can have within contour segments, Sagey (1990: 63) proposes the following "No Branching Class Nodes Hypothesis": (3)

Contour segments may branch for terminal features only. No branching class nodes are allowed.

46

Unit 9

This hypothesis allows us to have ordered sequences like [- nasal] [+ nasal], or [- continuant] [+ continuant], within a segment, but not, say, two instances of the Place node or two instances of the Supra node. Part of the representation of an affricate /pf7 is represented as follows: (4)

Root [- continuant]

[+ continuant]

Supra

Place

Labial The affricate/pf/ A representation like this predicts "edge effects". These are phonological facts which treat the affricate like a stop on its left side and a fricative on its right side. A rule of Voicing in Zoque (Southern Mexico) illustrates how affricates in that language behave exactly like stops on their left edge. In Zoque, oral stops are always voiced after a nasal (see Sagey 1990: 64-65): (5)

/min+pa/ /min+tam/ /pAn+kAsi/

-> -» -»

[minba] [mindanu] [pAngAsi]

'he comes' 'come! (pi.)' 'on a man'

On the other hand, fricatives are not voiced after a nasal, and so we find forms such as: (6)

[winsa?u] parjsis] [wo?msorj]

'he received' 'lips' 'quail'

The rule can be written as:

Affricates 47 (7)

Zoque Voicing:

[- continuant] -» [+ voiced] / [+ nasal]

Since an affricate has the feature [- continuant] on its left edge, we predict it will behave just like stops with respect to the rule of Voicing. That is, we predict it will become voiced after nasals. And this is exactly what happens: (8)

/pAn+tjAki/ -» /n+tjo?ngoja/ —»

[pAnd3Aki] 'figure of a man' [nd30?ngoja] 'my rabbit'

On the other hand, affricates are expected to behave like fricatives with respect to their right edge. An example of this is the English plural rule which inserts a schwa after sibilant fricatives, but not after stops. Compare: (9)

cap cab hat pad pack rag

caps cabs hats pads packs rags

bus guise dish

busses guises dishes

Here the insertion of the schwa vowel is sensitive to the right edge of the preceding consonant, which in the case of an affricate is [+ continuant]. Hence, we expect the affricates in English to behave just like the fricatives with respect to this rule and we therefore expect a schwa to be inserted. This is exactly what happens: (10)

church ditch hedge badge

churches ditches hedges badges

While there is plenty of evidence consistent with our way of representing affricates, it has been proposed that the ordering of [- continuant] [+ continuant] in an affricate is a fact about the phonetic realization of affricates, but may not be the best way to represent affricates in an underlying representation. One proposal suggests that affricates should be represented as

48

Unit 9

containing an unordered pair of feature specifications [- continuant] [+ continuant] in the underlying representations. This proposal is made in Lombardi (1990).

EXERCISES 9.1. Give FG representations of the affricate /kj/ and a sequence of phonemes /k/ and hU. 9.2. In some languages, such as Fijian, the sequence [nd] is analyzed as a single phoneme. What kind of evidence would you look for in support of such an analysis? Propose a way of representing a phoneme /nd/ in FG.

UNIT 10 More Places of Articulation

We have skirted around the problem of representing some places of articulation. Our nodes for places of articulation have been Labial, Coronal, and Dorsal and bur sounds have been assigned to one (or more) of these places. We know, however, that there are further distinctions to be made within these major categories. So, for example, the Labial and Coronal places of articulation each have a further subcategorization, as seen in the English phonemic inventory: (1) Coronal

Labial Bilabial

Labiodental

I

/ \ Interdental

Alveolar

e a

f v

One way to express these distinctions might be to recognize the teeth as an additional articulator, which we might label Dental. A node like Dental would be consistent with the general approach adopted in this course, which reflects the traditional phonetic terms for articulators with conesponding nodes. The four places of articulation described above would then be represented as: (2)

Place

Place Dental

Labial o Bilabial

K

Labial 6 Labiodental

Place SL Dental Coronal

Place

''

Coronal

6

o 6

Interdental

Alveolar

While this would be a fairly natural way to represent these four places of articulation, there are reasons not to proceed in this way. For one thing, a node like Dental does not have any relevance by itself. Notice above that Dental enters into the representations in conjunction

50

Unit 10

with Labial or Coronal. This is because the teeth are involved in the production of sounds only in conjunction with the lips (to give labiodentals) or the tongue tip (interdental and dental consonants). We do not have consonants made by simply blowing air through clenched or slightly clenched teeth. This suggests that the role of the teeth should be understood as a terminal feature which is relevant to more than one place of articulation, rather than a separate place of articulation. This is comparable to the way in which [+/- continuant] is relevant to more than one place of articulation. As with [+/- continuant], so here we will introduce a terminal feature [+/- strident] attached to the Root node and this feature will do the work of distinguishing the places of articulation we are talking about. [+/- strident]: Strident sounds are produced with a complex constriction creating turbulence in the air flow, producing high-intensity fricative noise; non-strident sounds are produced without such a constriction, [f, v, s, z, J, 3] are [+ strident], as are the uvulars, some liquid sounds, and the fricative components of the affricates [pf, bv, tf, ds]. All other sounds are [- strident]. This is not a happy definition, but it is the kind of definition which is currently appealed to. The real basis of the feature, which is more or less camouflaged in the above definition, is the acoustic reality that some sounds are "noisier" than others. The original way of introducing this feature is well and truly rooted in the analysis of sound waves: Sounds that have irregular waveforms are called strident. In the spectrogram such sounds are represented by a random distribution of black areas. They are opposed to sounds with more regular waveforms. These latter are called mellow and have spectrograms in which the black areas may form horizontal or vertical striations...While there are no clear formant regions observable in the spectrum of the strident hi, we can easily discern them in the mellow Nil. (Jakobson, Fant, and Halle 1972: 23-24) Jakobson, Fant, and Halle provide spectrograms which illustrate the points they make about the physical properties of sound waves. The same authors also provide a description of the production of such sounds: Strident sounds are primarily characterized by a noise which is due to turbulence . at the point of articulation. This strong turbulence, in its turn, is a consequence of a more complex impediment which distinguishes the strident from the corresponding mellow consonants: the labiodentals from the bilabials, the hissing and hushing sibilants from the non-sibilant dentals and palatals respectively, and the uvulars from the velars proper. A supplementary barrier

More Places ofArticulation 51 that offers greater resistance to the air stream is necessary in the case of stridents. (Jakobson, Fant, and Halle 1972: 24) The "supplementary barrier" is the teeth in the case of labial and coronal sounds. It is the rush of air against the teeth which produces the noisy component in sounds. Thus, [strident] is basically an acoustic feature which translates rather clumsily into articulatory terms. This is an interesting anomaly in FG since we aim to build on mainly articulatory concepts rather than acoustic concepts in this approach. Sagey (1990: 211) goes so far as to say: "...[strident] is clearly a feature referring to acoustic properties...and thus has no logical place in an articulatory hierarchy". Nevertheless, the tradition of using [strident] is well entrenched in phonology and its place seems secure for the time being. The main work done by [strident] can be appreciated in the following diagram. Remember: fricatives can be specified [+ strident], but not stops. (3)

[- strident] At the Labial PoA:

[+ strident]

p, b, m f,v

[- strident] At the Coronal PoA:

[+ strident]

t, d,n,

e,8

s, z,

C,J1

At the Dorsal PoA:

5

1,3

[- strident]

[+ strident]

k.g,n x,Y

X' K

[strident] successfully distinguishes bilabial and labiodentals, interdentals and alveolars, velars and uvulars (/%, »/)• K can be seen that [strident] is a very useful feature in the amount of work it does. It can happen that [+ strident] characterizes precisely the class of fricatives in a language. In French [+ strident] captures the fricatives, which are /f, v, s, z, J, y, while the corresponding stops /p, b, t, d, k, g/ are [- strident]. In French, then, the feature [+ strident] functions like an alternative to [+ continuant] in distinguishing two important classes of consonants. The feature also helps to capture a very important class of fricatives, commonly called sibilants, which a Dental node could not have done. Sibilants are the noisy hissing type

52

Unit 10

of sounds: s, z, ts, dz, J, 3, tj, d3. They are the {+ strident] consonants made at the Coronal place of articulation. In our representation: (4) Root [+ strident] Supra

Place

Coronal The class of sibilants Sibilants are relevant to the statement of the rule in English which accounts for when a schwa appears as part of the plural Isl suffix: When the singular noun ends in a sibilant, schwa is inserted. Thus, we have: (5)

no hi

With/a/

tap

taps

kiss

tab

tabs

gaze

Pfff

puffs

dove kit

doves kits

Fritz garage patch

kid

kids

badge

tick bag

ticks bags

kisses gazes (all the) Fritz's garages patches badges

Liquids may also be [+ strident]. Czech has a [+ strident] [r]-type sound, spelled f: rada 'row' versus rada 'council'. Some languages have [I] sounds which are (+strident]. Welsh, for example, has a voiceless lateral fricative symbolized by ft].

More Places ofArticulation 53 EXERCISES 10.1. Sometimes, the fricatives in a language are all [+ strident], as discussed above. Decide whether this is true for each of the following languages: 10.1a. Portuguese f s J v z 3 10.1b. Persian s f J z v 3 10.1c. Dutch s f J v z lO.ld. Masai s f J 10.1e. Tamil s f f

10.2. How would you specify an affricate /te/ for [+/- strident] in FG?

UNIT 11 Oh No! More Places of Articulation

The coronal place of articulation calls for some more discussion. There is a lot more we can do with the front part of our tongue than with any other articulator. And there are more contrastive sounds which can be formed at the coronal place of articulation than anywhere else. The first additional distinction we need to mention is that between coronal sounds made more in the hard palate region and sounds made more forward of the hard palate. The feature which separates out such sounds is [anterior]. [+/- anterior]: Anterior sounds are coronal sounds produced with a primary constriction at or in front of the alveolar ridge. Interdentals, dentals, alveolars .are [+ anterior]. Palato-alveolars (and alveolo-palatals!) and palatals are [- anterior]. A note for history buffs: There was a Dark Ages in the history of phonology when the places of articulation had to be expressed by means of combinations of [+/- coronal] and [+/- anterior]. The major places of articulation were expressed as: (1)

Labial Dental Palatal Velar

[+ anterior, - coronal] [+ anterior, + coronal] [- anterior, - coronal, - back] (Early Dark Ages) [- anterior, + coronal, - back] (Late Dark Ages) [- anterior, - coronal, + back]

In the Enlightened Age of FG, we have simple ways of referring to places of articulation like labia] and coronal and dorsal. We do not need bundles of features to refer to the basic places of articulation. Aren't you glad to be living in an Enlightened Age rather than the Dark Ages! Since the feature [anterior] is defined relative to the coronal place of articulation only, it will appear as a dependent of the Coronal node in FG:

Oh No! More Places of Articulation 55 (2) Place

Coronal [+/- anterior] In English [anterior] divides the coronal consonants up as follows: (3)

[+ anterior] t,d

[-ant

e, s, s,z

J-.3 tj,d 3

ts, dz 1, n, r

In Breton (Celtic, NW France), we find: (4)

[+ anterior] t,d s, z n

[- anterior] CJ J. 3 Jl

l,r Another feature of coronal articulations is that both the tip part of the tongue as well as the blade part may be used to create a constriction. When the tongue tip is used, we speak of apical sounds, and when the blade is involved we speak of laminal sounds. The feature which is used to capture this difference is [+/- distributed]. [+/- distributed]: [+ distributed] sounds are coronal sounds made with a constriction formed by the tongue front that extends for a considerable distance along the direction of air flow. [- distributed] sounds are coronal sounds made with a constriction formed by the tongue front that extends only for a short distance along the direction of air flow. [+ distributed] coronals are laminals, while [- distributed] coronals are apicals and the retroflex sounds. As with [anterior], [distributed] will appear under the Coronal node. The features [+/- anterior] and [+/- distributed] can be combined to capture a four-way distinction amongst Coronals, as shown below:

56 (S)

Unit 11 Apical Alveolar/Dental Stop

Latninal Alveolar/Dental Stop

Retroflex

+ anterior

+ anterior

- anterior

- anterior

- distributed

+ distributed

- distributed

+ distributed

Palatal Stop

Stops made with the tip of the tongue are [- distributed] and sounds made with the blade of the tongue are [+ distributed]. Usually, sounds made at the dental and alveolar places of articulation are made with different parts of the tongue (tip for one, blade for the other). Consequently, we may use the feature [+/- distributed] to capture the difference between places of articulation. It works fine in most cases, bat notice that we have problems if a language distinguished dental and alveolar places of articulation, both of which involved, say, the tip of the tongue. In this case, both dental and alveolar consonants should be [- distributed] and we are left without a way of distinguishing the sounds. It is claimed that the Dravidian language Malayalam is one such language. See Ladefoged (1971: 38-39) for discussion of this case. In the process of English Coronal Assimilation (Sagey 1990:96) It, d, n/ assimilate to a following coronal, which involves assimilating the values of [anterior] and [distributed]. (This is obligatory assimilation, unlike the assimilation of/t, d, n/ to non-coronal stops across words.) (6)

l\l

/d/

,/n/

~»

apical dental IM, i.e. [+ anterior, - distributed] before /6, 57, as in eighth, not that etc.

-»

lamina! palato-alveolar Ixl, i.e. [- anterior, + distributed] before /J, 3/, as in white shoes etc.

-»

apical dental IAI, i.e. [+ anterior, - distributed] before /G, 8/, as in hundredth etc.

-*

lamina! palato-alveolar /d/, i.e. [- anterior, + distributed] before /J, 3/, as in red shoes etc.

—»

apical dental M, i.e. [+ anterior, - distributed] before /0, 5/, as in tenth etc.

—>

laminal palato-alveolar /n/, i.e. [- anterior, + distributed] before /J, 3/, as in clean shoes etc.

Oh No! More Places ofArticulation 57 In FG terms, this is represented as in (7). (7) /t,d,n/ Root

Coronal Consonant

o