Positional Faithfulness

Beckman, Jill N.

doi:10.4324/9780203055427

Cited by 101 publications

(194 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…are longer 'by nature'" (p. 19), but do not provide a formal account. Note that the present approach is incompatible with accounts of final devoicing that rely on across-the-board bans against laryngeal features suspended in certain prosodic positions (Bethin, 1992;Beckman, 1998) or before vowels or sonorants (Lombardi, 1995a;Rubach, 2008;Beckman et al, 2009). This is because such accounts predict that all obstruents between the nucleus and the syllable boundary should undergo delaryngealization (as in candidate (b.)…”

Section: Obstruent Clusters and Postalveolarsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Final devoicing and vowel lengthening in Friulian: A representational approach

Iosad

2012

Lingua

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This paper proposes an account of final devoicing in Friulian which relies on contrastive feature specification and feature geometry to explicate the connection between final devoicing and vowel lengthening. It is proposed that obstruents which are the outcome of final devoicing are phonologically distinct from true voiceless obstruents, being completely unspecified for laryngeal features. It is argued that the representational deficiency of such delaryngealized obstruents is directly connected to their inability to license a mora, which opens the way to vowel lengthening. More generally, the paper shows how feature geometry may be adapted to capture the effects of contrastive specification and express markedness relations, and proposes a novel approach to hierarchies involving the sonority of coda segments.Keywords: final devoicing, moraic theory, sonority hierarchy, feature geometry, Romance languagesThe present paper has two purposes. Empirically, it focuses on final devoicing in Friulian and on the connection between final devoicing and vowel lengthening. Its aim is to account both for the phonetic phenomena involved in final devoicing and for the fact that stressed vowels are lengthened before devoiced obstruents (but only in a word-final syllable). From a theoretical perspective, the paper takes up several strands of recent research into markedness relations. I argue that feature specifications should be assigned solely on the basis of phenomena attested within Email address: pavel.iosad@uit.no (Pavel Iosad)

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Section: Obstruent Clusters and Postalveolarsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Final devoicing and vowel lengthening in Friulian: A representational approach

Iosad

2012

Lingua

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“…In wellknown patterns, the full range of vowel contrasts is found only in stressed syllables (as in English), or voiced obstruents appear only in onsets (as in German). Such patterns are the subject of a large body of research (Barnes 2006;Beckman 1999;Crosswhite 2001;de Lacy 1999de Lacy , 2002Kaplan 2008Kaplan , 2015Walker 2011, among many others), and one constraint type that is often called upon to account for them is Positional Licensing (Beckman 1999;Goldsmith 1989;Ito 1988;Lombardi 1994;Steriade 1995;Walker 2011;Zoll 1997Zoll , 1998a. Focusing on vocalic patterns, Walker (2011) develops a theory of Positional Licensing (building on much of the work just cited) in which constraints of the form LICENSE(λ, π) require elements of the type λ to coincide with a position of the type π. I take as a starting point the constraint definition in (1), which is simplified from the formalism developed by Walker.…”

Section: Positional Licensing and A Pathologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Distance Licensing in Harmonic Grammar

Kaplan

2016

AMP

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Positional Licensing constraints can compel a feature to spread to a prominent position such as a stressed syllable. In Harmonic Grammar, this spreading takes a pathological form: over long distances, spreading can be blocked because it would accumulate too many faithfulness violations. The result is an unattested system in which there is an arbitrary upper bound to the distance across which a feature can spread. This defect is remedied here by modifying Positional Licensing so that rather than simply assigning one violation for an unlicensed feature, it assigns violations in proportion to the distance between the feature and its licensor. It can therefore counter faithfulness regardless of the distance between trigger and target. This reformulation necessitates other changes to avoid new problems: Positional Licensing must reward licensed features instead of penalizing unlicensed ones, and it must be couched in Serial Harmonic Grammar. This result provides new support for those theoretical constructs, and it helps clarify the differences between OT and HG.

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“…An OT implementation of the dual patterning of weak syllables with respect to VR in Dutch can be provided using positional faithfulness constraints (Beckman 1998). The cross-linguistic observation that segments in the head of a prosodic constituent are preserved to a greater extent than segments in a non-head domain has lead scholars to propose positional faithfulness constraints preserving feature specifications specifically in prosodic heads (e.g., HEAD-IDENT[FEATURE]; McCarthy 1995; Alderete 1995Alderete , 1999Beckman 1998).…”

Section: The Internally Layered Foot In Dutchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cross-linguistic observation that segments in the head of a prosodic constituent are preserved to a greater extent than segments in a non-head domain has lead scholars to propose positional faithfulness constraints preserving feature specifications specifically in prosodic heads (e.g., HEAD-IDENT[FEATURE]; McCarthy 1995; Alderete 1995Alderete , 1999Beckman 1998). The concrete definition of the positional faithfulness constraint on foot-heads is given below:…”

Section: The Internally Layered Foot In Dutchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The internally layered foot in Dutch protected from undergoing weakening processes and/or they can become the target of strengthening effects (e.g., Trubetzkoy 1969Trubetzkoy [1939; Steriade 1994;Byrd 1996;Beckman 1998;Casali 1998;Alber 2001;Smith 2005;Cabré and Prieto 2006;Becker et al 2012;Fougeron and Keating 1997;Keating et al 2003;Selkirk 2011). To capture the dual patterning of unstressed vowels in Dutch and, more specifically, the fact that in the semi-formal register not all unstressed vowels reduce (e.g., [ˌlokəmo'tif], rather than [ˌlokəmə'tif]), we propose that the positional constraint in (32) …”

Section: (32) Initialfoot-ident[feature] (Abbr Initialft-ident[f])mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The internally layered foot in Dutch

Kager

Martínez-Paricio

2017

Linguistics

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Recent metrical studies have proposed that, under certain circumstances, a weak syllable may be adjoined to a binary foot, giving rise to a minimally recursive foot. Adding to a growing body of research from metrical stress and foot-conditioned phenomena in various languages, the goals of this paper are twofold. First, we aim at providing empirical evidence for internally layered feet based on the distribution of three foot-conditioned processes of Dutch: vowel reduction, glottal stop /ʔ/ insertion and /h/ licensing/deletion. Second, we explore a less studied theoretical and descriptive advantage of internally layered feet: their potential to predict phonological strength distinctions that go beyond the traditional weak vs. strong dichotomy. In support of this view, we will argue that all three above-mentioned foot-based processes of Dutch distinguish between two types of unstressed syllables. We will demonstrate that the metrical representation that best captures this dual patterning of unstressed syllables necessitates internally layered feet.

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Positional Faithfulness

Cited by 101 publications

References 41 publications

Final devoicing and vowel lengthening in Friulian: A representational approach

Final devoicing and vowel lengthening in Friulian: A representational approach

Long-Distance Licensing in Harmonic Grammar

The internally layered foot in Dutch

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