Feature Geometry

24.901 Feature Geometry [I] In the early generative model the distinctive features formed an unordered bundle; research in the 1980's suggested that the features were organized into a dependency tree with the root node at the top and many features as leaves at the terminal nodes. Various intermediary levels of organization were also postulated. A new format for the formalization of phonological rules was also proposed based on this notation. It was hoped that this "feature"geometry would help to restrict the range of possible rules. We follow here the model proposed by Halle (1992). [2] major pieces of the structure * root node is location of major class features [cons] and [sonorant] that partition sounds into vowels vs. consonants and obstruents vs. sonorants various terminal features are the dependents of six articulators that are the principle actors in the production of speech: Labial, Coronal, Dorsal, Soft Palate, Radical, Glottal the articulators are grouped into a cavity specification where the constriction is formed: oral, nasal, pharyngeal certain manner (stricture) features more or less freely cross-classify the articulators and are off to side of the root node (3) [round] Labial [later] > Coronal [dtstrib] [back] [high]* [low1 Dorsal [nasal] Soft Palate [cons] [sonor] Nasal :",I , " ? Glottal [voiced] terminal features articulator cavity stricture root [3] overview and motivation certain recurrent groups of features in rules of assimilation and reduction these groups are dominated by some node in the feature tree assimilation formalized as "spreading" of a tree node to the corresponding node in a neighboring segment; reduction formalized as the elimination of some tree node in the segment * segments linked to a timing tier of X slots that represent the linear order of speech sounds length/geminate contrast is represented as one root node of feature tree linked/associated to two successive timing slots [4] Assimilation types nasal assimilation: a nasal acquires the place features of a following (oral) consonant but not it's manner features like [lateral] or [continuant] Catalan (simplified) so[n] amics 'they are friends' bilabial so[m] pocs 'they are few' dental so[g] dos 'they are two' alveolar so[n] sincers 'they are sincere' palatal so[ii] [lY]iures 'they are free' velar so[g] grans rule [ + cons] / Nasal [ """ 'they are big' + cons1 ....., ........I Oral Oral dotted line in rule denotes the spreading node; * = denotes the delinked node whatever articulator Oral dominates (Labial, Coronal, Dorsal) becomes the articulator for the preceding nasal * predicts no assimilation for a nasal preceding a pharyngeal or laryngeal consonant (cf. Sudanese Arabic p. 158 regressive assimilation in general: node X acquires the same feature specification as node Y, losing its original specification X Y I +'."".....<....,.,, [Fl [F] e.g. five but fif-th where [F] = [voice] and X and Y = Glottal progressive assimilation: node Y aquires the same feature specification as node X losing its original specification e.g, dog-[z] vs. cat-[sl where [F] = [voice] complete assimilation Arabic sun and moon letters ?al-qamr 'the moon' ?aJ-anls 'the sun' ?al-faras 'the horse' ?ad-daar 'the house' ?al-kitaab 'the book' ?az-zayt 'the oil' ?a]-harb 'the war' ?an-nahr 'the river' ?al-ab 'the father' ?aO-8awb 'the garment' timing tier X,,, f + X ""-....,, I [ cons] [ / [ + lateral] + cons] I Oral Coronal lateral consonant of definite prefix is replaced by following coronal consonant [ 5 ] assimilation without delinking low tone spread in Buli: a high tone [A] becomes rising [g] after a low tone [A] mid tone [S] neither undergoes nor triggers the rule fi:k bag fi:k 'small lizard' w i 25 'his millet' l2m 'meat' wA lam 'his meat' niim 'grind' niim z6 'grind millet' zi 'small' 'millet' ci [ + lo] (I [ + hi] syllable tier tonal tier as a result of this rule the second syllable is associated with two tonal specifications: lo followed by hi which is a natural representation for a rise; similarly hi followed by lo associated to same syllable is a natural representation for a falling tone [6] reduction deletion of part of tree without replacement reduction of unstressed vowels to schwa in English (Flem~zing2004) Rosa's roses [a] .... [i] height difference but front-backness determined by coarticulation with adjacent - consonants delinking of [back] from unstressed vowel Dorsal debuccalization: s,f > h; t > ? [ +.back] t. s-aspiration in Caribbean Spanish mes m ~ h , 'month' meses [mes~hl PI 0' I Coda I [ -t consl after the rule the Glottal articulator becomes the major articulator to express [ + continuant] [ + contin] "Oral I Coronal * k > ? in Hawaiian *kele > ?ele 'black' ,I+ consl [-contin/] *Oral 1 after the rule the Glottal articulator becomes the major articulator to express [-continuant] Dorsal geminates [7] * represent long vowel or consonant as one root node associated to two successive timing slots motivation: PBrnela Amanda Latin stress rule: heavy penult takes stress Heavy syllable: CVC or CV: Light syllable CV Ram6:na rhyme timing tier /\ XX / \ X X X I root node \/ [-cons] rhyme * e [an1 rhyme lo:] I I I [-cons] [ + cons] [-cons] heavy syllable formally defined as having a branching rhyme geminate notation [oo] does not express fact that for rules of assimilation like umlaut long and short vowels behave the same (as a single segment) bevkb 5 a h k i i ' i ~ I jn;-s x d k.*wzb. T w-7 [8] geminate integrity - S oh h C t c: i-3 rnBnnc,Lm 'fwengabl geminate consonants parallel a cluster of two consonants for rules of syllable structure recall Italian f[a:].to but al.to and fat.to but geminates resist separation by rules of epenthesis (vowel insertion) Berber dialect of Guerssel (1978) inserts schwa to break up three consonant cluster (recall Tangale) ams 'rub' ass amas-tan 'rub them' ass-tan 'tie them' "asas-tan X X X formal ban on crossing association lines Kolami vowel copy 'tie' (Kenstowicz & Pyle 1973) 1sg. pres. 1 sg. past imper . suk-atun suk-tan suk 'whither' dakap-atun dakap-tan dakap 'push' katk-atun katak-tan katak 'strike' melg-atun melek-tan meleg 'shake' kink-atun kinik-tan kinik 'break' iM-atun it-tan ict 'tell' ad4-atun at-tan 'thirst for' mind-atun min-tan a4 mind 'bury' poqg-atun poqk-tan POrJ 'bowl over' the linked structure in the homorganic nasal stop cluster like gk blocks epenthesis [ + cons] 1 SP + [ cons] \ I Dorsal