Contrast and Phonological Activity in Nez Perce Contrast and Phonological Activity in the Nez Perce Vowel System
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چکیده
0. Introduction Features which pattern as inert with respect to phonological processes are often unnecessary in distinguishing segments in an inventory. The relationship between phonological activity and contrastiveness has been modeled in theories of underspecification (e.g. Archangeli 1984, Steriade 1987). However, there is no consensus on how to determine which features are contrastive. The theory of the contrastive hierarchy (Jakobson and Halle 1956, Dresher 1998a,b) provides a method for determining contrasts in an inventory by ranking features so that some features take scope over others. This theory relies upon analyses of language-particular inventories. In OT, however, inventories arise from constraint ranking and language-specific inputs are rejected. The role of the inventory in determining phonological behaviour is therefore more limited in OT. This talk provides an analysis of the Nez Perce vowel system within the framework of the contrastive hierarchy. Our analysis assumes an abstract front vowel which participates in ATR harmony. An abstract vowel is assumed in analyses by Jacobsen (1968), Rigsby and Silverstein (1969), Zwicky (1971), and Hall and Hall (1980). In addition, we demonstrate that contrastive specifications are compatible with OT and can be achieved using mechanisms such as Ident constraints and contextual markedness constraints which are central to that theory. An alternative analysis of Nez Perce vowel harmony within the framework of OT is found in Bakovic (2000). As in our OT analysis, he uses featural faithfulness constraints and markedness constraints. His account differs from ours in its lack of reference to contrast. Appealing to the theory of the contrastive hierarchy we demonstrate that many of Bakovic's rankings are unmotivated and that making explicit reference to contrast can determine the crucial constraint rankings.
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Contrast and Phonological Activity in the Nez Perce Vowel System*
0. Introduction Features that pattern as inert with respect to phonological processes are often unnecessary in distinguishing segments in an inventory. A natural way of accounting for the phonological inertness of noncontrastive features is via underspecification. If noncontrastive features are absent from underlying representations and barred from the phonology, it follows that they will not b...
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تاریخ انتشار 2005