Logical and Substantive Scales in Phonology

نویسندگان

  • David Roland Mortensen
  • Larry M. Hyman
چکیده

This study addresses two assumptions that have accompanied generative phonology from its inception, namely the binarity and phonetic grounding of features. It argues, based on both theoretical and empirical grounds, for the existence of n-ary phonological relationships that are not necessarily grounded in a phonetic dimension or parameter. It presents, further, a model labelled Structural Optimality, which combines representations of this type with Optimality-Theoretic grammars. Four types of phenomena are presented as arguments for Structural Optimality: chain shifts, circle shifts (i.e. circular chain shifts), phonologically-driven ordering effects in coordinate compounds, and certain dissimilatory effects in reduplication. Each of these phenomena present problems for theories that are inseparably tied to binarity, strongly committed to phonetic grounding, or both. Chain shifts have conventionally been hard to capture as a single process and have presented difficulties to output-oriented phonological models like Optimality Theory. This study raises another difficulty: phonetically grounded chain shifts may become more and more arbitrary over time without loosing their original structure. Structural Optimality presents a solution to both of these problems by treating chain shifts as traversals of scales, the essential component of which is their logical structure rather than their phonetic manifestation. This is done my invoking a novel concept: directional anti-identity constraints, the class of constraints that require that elements be higher on a scale than the elements to which they correspond.

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تاریخ انتشار 2006