Syllables and Stress and Optimality Theory

A scale of sonority… Syllables are built with sonority peaks, onsets, and codas. Topics in Linguistics (1) q [–cons] 3 [+low] [–low] 3 [–high] [+high] Syllables and stress and Optimality Theory Crosslinguistic variation in syllable types V Hua Cayuvava Mazateco Mokilese Sedang Klamath Spanish Finnish Totonac English ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ CV ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ CVC CCV CCVC CVCC VCC CCVCC CVCCC ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ V… V…… ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ V……… ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ V 1 V2 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ V1 V2 V3 ✔ ✔ V1 V2 V3 V4 ✔ ✔ PrWd Ft σ σ σ µ µ µ µ p í s k %´ l a n p [+cons] qp [+son] [–son] qp [+cont] [–cont] 3 3 [+voice] [–voice] [+voice] [–voice] Some parameters in a syllable theory: Vowel length possibilities: V Cayuvava ✔ Yokuts ✔ El Paraiso Mixe ✔ Spanish ✔ Witoto ✔ Finnish ✔ Estonian ✔ Ft VC segment qp ‘it rains so hard that it is dark or hard to see’ (Passamaquoddy) Totonac Klamath English Nisqually Gilyak Finnish Tunica Tamazight Berber Sedang Cairene Spanish Dakota Italian Mokilese Thargari Cuna Arabela Siona Piraha Mazatecho Fijian Hua Cuyuvava Complex Nucleus ✔ ✔ ✔ Oblig. Onset ✔ ✔ ✔ Complex Onset ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Coda ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Complex Coda ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Edge effect F I F F F F I F F F IF F ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ So, a kid learning his/her language would need to set these parameters… I Re-ranking these constraints (24 possibilities) only yields 7 patterns: Syllabic segments allowed in a language. Kabardian Hawai’ian Sanskrit Lendu English Central Carrier Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ i r ✔ (✔) (✔) (✔) (✔) (✔) — (✔) (✔) (✔) — (✔) sonority l n — (✔) (✔) — (✔) s t — (✔) (✔) (✔) (✔) (✔) (✔) Grammar is a set of ordered constraints… (2) NO-EPENTHESIS NO-DELETION Faithfulness (3) ONSET: *[σ V… NO-CODA: *…V]σ Markedness Underlying representation: CV languages: ONSET, NO-CODA, NO-DEL >> NO-EP ONSET, NO-CODA, NO-EP > NO-DEL (better to add) (better to delete) (C)V languages: NO-CODA, NO-DEL >> NO-EP >> ONSET NO-CODA, NO-EP >> NO-DEL >> ONSET (better to add for coda, not for onset) (better to delete for coda, not onset) CV(C) languages: ONSET, NO-DEL >> NO-EP >> NO-CODA ONSET, NO-EP >> NO-DEL >> NO-CODA (better to add for onset, not coda) (better to delete for onset, not coda) (C)V(C) languages: NO-DEL, NO-EP >> NO-CODA, ONSET (reproduce underlying form faithfully) No re-ordering of the constraints would yield: V only V(C) only CVC only VC only View of universals from the perspective of OT: /kæt/ (4) “kæt” violates NO-CODA, satisfies ONSET, satisfies NO-EP and NO-DEL. “kæ” satisfies NO-CODA, ONSET, and NO-EP, but violates NO-DEL. “kæt\” satisfies NO-CODA, ONSET, and NO-DEL, but violates NO-EP. Constraints are universal (all languages have them—this is “UG”) Grammars differ only in the ranking of the constraints across languages. The child’s task during acquisition is to acquire the rankings. The idea of Optimality Theory: Which one you say is a function of which constraints are more important in your language. /kæt/ kæt kæ kæt\ NO-CODA * ✔ ✔ ONSET ✔ ✔ ✔ NO-DEL ✔ * ✔ NO-EP ✔ ✔ * /underlying form/
GEN
candidate1 candidate2 candidate3 candidate4 candidate5 candidate6 candidate7 … EVAL C1 C2 … * * … * ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ *
☞ candidate3 ✔ * * ✔ ✔ ✔ What’s the difference between an “onset” parameter and a high-ranked constraint? Why would we prefer one theory over another? (8) σ qgp C µ µ t 1 1 V V a a σ 3 C µ t 1 V a (9) σ qgp C µ µ t 1 1 V C a p σ 3 C µ t 3 V C a p One argument for OT: • Constraints are always active—never completely turned off. • Parameters are either on or off—once off, we don’t expect them to exhibit any influence. Kager (1995). The metrical theory of word stress. In Goldsmith, J. (ed.), Handbook of phonological theory. Oxford: Blackwell. (5) (6) word qp w s 3 3 s w s w A la bam a a. word 3 FS FW 1 1 σ σ cón tèst word 1 F 3 σ σ tém pest The intuition about stress in words is that it indicates groupings of syllables (the feet), each group having a prominent syllable (a head). Basic parameters of word stress: Boundedness:: Feet in a language can either be bounded (at most 2 syllables), or unbounded (any number of syllables). Foot dominance: The side of the foot where the head is (the strong element). So, there are (prosodic) words, feet, and syllables (so far). Bounded left-dominant feet are trochees (X .), bounded right-headed feed are iambs ( . X) There are also distinctions in syllable weight which are encoded by moras. Syllable weight often plays a role in stress assignment— often, stress is assigned preferentially to heavy syllables. Quantity sensitivity: Whether feet count moras separately or not. Q-insensitive (no difference between H and L) Q-sensitive (H can’t be in a weak position of a foot) Q-determined (every foot needs to dominate an H) But what counts as heavy differs a little bit from language to language: (7) CV CVC CVV VV light light or heavy heavy heavy The idea is that heavy syllables have two of something that light syllables only have one of. The unit of weight is the mora, and it is represented in the prosodic structures. All vowels have a distinct mora, onsets do not (the presence of onsets never seems to contribute to a syllable’s weight class), codas do sometimes: Iterativity Whether each word has one foot or repeating feet Directionality Whether the “first” foot is at the beginning or the end of the word. Hungarian: main stress initial, secondary stress on odd-numbered syllables. (10) bóldog bóldogsà:g bóldogtàlan bóldogtàlansà:g légešlègmegèngestèlhetètlenèbbeknèk a. b. c. d. e. Left-dominant, left-to right… ‘happy’ ‘happiness’ ‘unhappy’ ‘unhappiness’ ‘to the most irreconcilable ones’ Demuth (1995). Markedness and the development of prosodic structure. NELS 25. Warao: main stress penultimate, secondary on even syllables counting from end (11) yà.pu.rù.ki.tà.ne.há.se e.nà.ho.rò.a.hà.ku.tá.i (14) a. b. ‘verily to climb’ ‘one who caused him to eat’ Stage I: Stage II: Left-dominant, right-to-left.. Araucanian: main stress on the second syllable, secondary on following even (12) e.lú.a.è.new ki.mú.fa.lù.wu.lày a. b. Stage III: Stave IV: ‘he will give me’ ‘he pretended not to know’ Weri: (13) (Demuth does this with three constraints. NO-CODA, ALIGN-PRWD, NO-DEL). /o:li:fant/ Right-dominant, left-to-right… [fa] [«ho:ta] [faut] [«o:fa «fan] [«o:li: »fant] main stress on final syllable, secondary on preceding odd a. b. ulùamít àkunètepál ‘mist’ ‘times’ Right-dominant, right-to-left… We can also do this within OT; HEAD-LEFT The head of a foot is the left element HEAD-RIGHT The head of a foot is the right element ALIGN-FOOT-L The left edge of a foot lines up with the left edge of a word ALIGN-FOOT-R The right edge of a foot lines up with the right edge of a word. A foot contains at most two syllables FTBIN PARSE Every syllable must be in a foot. Left-dominant languages: Right-dominant languages: HEAD-LEFT >> Head-Right HEAD-RIGHT >> HEAD-LEFT Left-to-right languages: Right-to-left languages: ALIGN-FOOT-L >> ALIGN-FOOT-R ALIGN-ROOT-R >> ALIGN-FOOT-L One initial binary foot: ALIGN-FOOT-L >> FTBIN >> PARSE L-to-R binary feet: FTBIN >> PARSE >> ALIGN-FOOT-L One (initial) unbounded foot: ALIGN-FOOT-L >> PARSE >> FTBIN Core syllables: CV Minimal words/binary feet a. Core syllables: CVCV b. Closed syllables: CVC c. Vowel length distinction: CVV Prosodic words (larger than a binary foot) Prosodic words (target) (15) Stage I σ Stage I: Stage IIa: Stage IIb: Stage III Stage IV Stage IIa Ft/PrWd 1 σ I IIa IIb III IV Stage IIb,c Stage III Ft/PrWd 1 σ 1 µ PrWd 1 Ft 1 σ 1 µ NO-CODA >> ALIGN-PRWD … >> … NO-DEL NO-CODA, ALIGN-PRWD … >> … NO-DEL ALIGN-PRWD … >> … NO-DEL … >> … NO-CODA *COMPLEX … >> … NO-DEL, ALIGN-PRWD … >> … NO-CODA NO-DEL, ALIGN-PRWD … >> … NO-CODA, *COMPLEX