Lyman’s Law Effect in Japanese Sequential Voicing: Questionnaire-Based
Nonword Experiments*
Mutsuko Ihara1

Katsuo Tamaoka2

Tadao Murata3

St. Marianna University School of Medicine1

 

2

Reitaku University
 
Kyushu Institute of Technology32-2-15 Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki, 216-8511 Japan1
2-1-1 Hikarigaoka, Kashiwa, 277-8686 Japan2
1-1 Sensui-cho, Tobata-ku, Kitakyushu, 804-0015 Japan3
m2ihara@marianna-u.ac.jp
ktamaoka@reitaku-u.ac.jp murata@dhs.kyutech.ac.jp
Abstract
The present study investigated Lyman’s Law effect (OCP) in Japanese sequential voicing by twoquestionnaire-based experiments using nonexistent compounds.

Experiment 1 explored the positional

effect of the voiced obstruent contained in the second element.

Experiment 2 investigated the influenceof etymological type of lexical stratification of the first element.

The change in results of theseexperiments for a period of twenty-one years was also examined.

It may be concluded from thisresearch that (1) Lyman’s Law is a general tendency rather than a categorical prohibition, (2) the
etymological type of the first element affects Japanese sequential voicing, and (3) the ‘X-basigo’
exception, where X represents any first element, has closely conformed to the tenets of Lyman’s Law
over twenty-one years.
Keywords: sequential voicing

Lyman’s Law OCP

questionnairedecision tree analysis

0. Introduction
Sequential voicing in Japanese, or rendaku, refers to voicing of the initialvoiceless obstruent of a second element in a compound. Lyman’s Law is awell-known condition inhibiting rendaku when the second element of the compound
already contains a voiced obstruent. Lyman’s Law is one particular case of Obligatory
Contour Principle (OCP) by which an identical element or feature is prohibited fromrepeating within a certain domain. In order to explore rendaku ruled by Lyman’s Law,
two experiments were conducted in the present study. Experiment 1 explored how theposition and distance of the voiced obstruent contained in the second element affect- 1007 -rendaku.
Experiment 2 investigated how the etymological type of the lexical
stratification of the first element influences rendaku in exceptional cases to Lyman’s
Law. Etymological types of lexical stratification of Japanese are generally classified
into native Japanese, Sino-Japanese (Chinese Borrowing), and foreign loanwords. It
has been well-documented and is uncontroversial that the etymological type of second
elements affects rendaku. Rendaku occurs more frequently in cases that the second
element is native Japanese, whereas it less frequently or hardly ever occurs where thesecond element is Sino-Japanese or foreign loanwords. In previous studies (Vance
1979, Ito and Meter 2003: 147), it is concluded that the etymological type of the second
element affects rendaku, but that the first element has no effect on rendaku voicing of
the second element. Another aim of this study is to investigate the change in results ofthese experiments over a period of twenty-one years. These experiments wereconducted in 1984 by Murata and in 2005 by Ihara with an interval of twenty-one years
based on the questions used in (Murata 1984) by simply asking for a single choice outof each pair of voiceless and voiced nonexistent compound words. These experiments
were questionnaire-based. Vance (1979) originally applied a questionnaire-based
approach to the research of rendaku. His experiment was run with too small sample
size (14 participants) for a statistical investigation and too many test items forparticipants to process (645 items.) The test items used were hybrid compounds
consisted of a modern Japanese word and an old Japanese word. (Murata 1984) and(Murata and Ihara 2006) expanded the sample size and employed carefully selected andelaborated test items for the specific phenomena of rendaku. The present study
focuses on the experimental findings rather than theoretical considerations.

1. Sequential Voicing (Rendaku)
In the Japanese language, when two words are compounded, the initial voicelessconsonant of the second element is voiced, which does not always occur consistently.
(1) a. ko ‘small’ + taiko ‘drum’ Æ ko-daiko / *ko-taiko ‘small drum’b. oo ‘big’ + hako ‘box’ Æ

oo-bako / *oo-hako ‘big box’

For example, in (1a), where the first element /ko/ ‘small’ and the second element /taiko/‘drum’ are compounded, the initial voiceless obstruent /t/ of the second element /taiko/
is voiced as /d/ as in /ko-daiko/ ‘small drum.’ This is the phenomenon called rendaku.

- 1008 -In Japanese, /h/ behaves like an obstruent whose voiced counterpart is /b/. In (1b), /oo/‘big’ and /hako/ ‘box’ are compounded to be /oo-bako/ ‘big box.’ The voiceless /h/alternates with the voiced /b/, because the modern Japanese /h/ was derived from /p/ via
a voiceless bilabial fricative through historical change (Hashimoto 1950, Komatsu 1981,
Vance 1979).

2. Lyman’s Law
Lyman’s Law is a well-known condition on rendaku that the existence of avoiced obstruent in a second element prohibits rendaku.
(2) a. tori ‘bird’ + kago ‘cage’ Æ tori-kago/ *tori-gago ‘birdcage’
b. naga ‘long’ + sode ‘sleeve’ Æ naga-sode/ *naga-zode‘long sleeve’c. oo ‘big’ + tokage ‘lizard’ Æ oo-tokage/ *oo-dokage ‘big lizard’ d. nawa ‘rope’ + hasigo ‘ladder’ Æ *nawa-hasigo/ nawa-basigo‘rope ladder’
In (2a), the second element /kago/, which contains a voiced obstruent, does not undergo
voicing. The compounded word is not /*tori-gago/ but /tori-cago/.
prohibited.
(3) a. 2nd element of (2a)kago

C1 V C 2 V

Rendaku isb. 2nd element of (2b)to ka ge
C1 V

C2V C3V

Lyman’s Law is one particular case of Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) by which an
identical element or feature is prohibited from repeating within a certain domain (Ito &Mester 1986, 2003; Kubozono 1999, 2005). The relevant feature here is laryngeal[+voice, -sonorant] and the domain is the second element of a compound. In (2a-b),
C2 in the two-mora CVCV-structured second element is a voiced obstruent, and in(2c-d), C3 contained in the three-mora CVCVCV-structured second element is a voiced
obstruent. C1 is a potential rendaku site. In (2a-b), C2 is adjacent to the potential
rendaku site C1. In (2c-d), C3 is at a distance from C1 by the intervention of C2. Theintervening V is irrelevant here. (2d) /nawa-basigo/ is one of the few exceptions to- 1009 -Lyman’s Law found in the existing vocabulary. The second element /hasigo/ contains
a voiced obstruent C3. Nevertheless, it undergoes rendaku.

3. Experiment 1
Experiment 1 explored how the position and distance of the voiced obstruent
contained in the second element affect rendaku.
3.1. Method
The experiments were conducted with a total of 256 undergraduate students of
St.Marianna University School of Medicine, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Nihon
University in 2005, and 194 students of Kyushu Institute of Technology and Yamaguchi
University in 1984. All participants were native speakers of Japanese. However,analyses were carried out depending on the number of participants who responded toeach item due to missing values.
The second elements of two-element compounds were controlled by varying thepositions of the voiced obstruent. The position of the voiced obstruent was varied
from the second mora position to the fourth mora position (C2, C3, C4). The
participants were asked to judge whether or not the first obstruent of these second
elements is voiced in each question as exemplified in (4). These voiced-and-voicelesspaired questions were randomly presented to participants in a single questionnaire.
(4) Voiced-and-voiceless paired question‫غ‬  ‫غ‬㐳(࠽ࠟ)࡮࠲ࠡ
㐳(࠽ࠟ)࡮࠳ࠡ

( /naga-tagi/ )( /naga-dagi/ )

  

3.2. Stimulus Items and Item-by-Item Analyses
As shown in Table 1, two real words /naga/ ‘long’ and /oo/ ‘big’ were chosen as
the first elements. The two-mora CVCV-structured nonword /tagi/, the three-mora
CVCVCV-structured nonword /harage/, and the four morae CVCVCVCV-structured
nonword /haranige/ were chosen as second elements to measure rendaku. C2 was avoiced obstruent in /tagi/, C3, in /harage/, and C4, in /haranige/.

This manipulation was
intended to keep the second element semantically neutral or avoid analogy and to make- 1010 -the experiments easier to control.
Table 1. Experiment 1 in 1984
1984
Voiced
1st element + 2nd element(1) CVCV-structured 2nd element

Chi-square test of

VoicelessRate

goodness-of-fit

naga-tagi / naga-dagi

16

177

0.08

χ 2 䋨1䋩=134.31, p <.001

oo-tagi / oo-dagi

30

164

0.15

χ 䋨1䋩=92.56, p <.001

naga-haragi / naga-baragi

88

110

0.44

χ 䋨1䋩=2.44, p =.12, n.s.

oo-haragi / oo-baragi

75

122

0.38

χ 䋨1䋩=11.21, p <.001

2(2) CVCVCV-structured 2nd element22(3) CVCVCVCV-structured 2nd element2naga-haranige / naga-baranige

55

80

0.41

χ 䋨1䋩=4.63, p <.05

oo-haranige / oo-baranige

52

83

0.39

χ 䋨1䋩=7.12, p <.01

2

Table 2. Experiment 1 in 2005
2005
Voiced
1st element + 2nd element(1) CVCV-structured 2nd element

Chi-square test of

VoicelessRate

goodness-of-fit
2

naga-tagi / naga-dagi

43

214

0.17

χ 䋨1䋩=113.78, p <.001

oo-tagi / oo-dagi

48

208

0.19

χ 䋨1䋩=100.00, p <.001

naga-haragi / naga-baragi

71

182

0.28

χ 2 䋨1䋩=48.70, p <.001

oo-haragi / oo-baragi

71

184

0.28

χ 䋨1䋩=50.07, p <.001

2(2) CVCVCV-structured 2nd element
2(3) CVCVCVCV-structured 2nd element2naga-haranige / naga-baranige

74

182

0.29

χ 䋨1䋩=45.56, p <.001

oo-haranige / oo-baranige

57

111

0.34

χ 䋨1䋩=17.36, p <.001

2

In Table 1 and 2, compound words are examined by a series of chi-square tests ofgoodness-of-fit setting an expected value of equal frequency (50% random chance) for
choice of a voiceless or voiced initial consonant in the second element. Table 1 andTable 2 show that a significantly larger proportion of participants selected the voicelesscase for almost all stimulus items.

- 1011 -Table 3. Comparison of 1984 and 2005 in Experiment 1
Rendaku rate
1984

2005

Chi-square test of
independencenaga-tagi / naga-dagi

0.08

0.17

χ 䋨1䋩=6.894, p <.01

oo-tagi / oo-dagi

0.15

0.19

χ 2 䋨1䋩=0.832, p =.362, n.s.

naga-haragi / naga-baragi

0.44

0.28

χ 2 䋨1䋩=13.058, p <.001

oo-haragi / oo-baragi

0.38

0.28

χ 2 䋨1䋩=5.317, p <.05

1st element + 2nd element(1) CVCV-structured 2nd element

2(2) CVCVCV-structured 2nd element(3) CVCVCVCV-structured 2nd element2naga-haranige / naga-baranige

0.41

0.29

χ 䋨1䋩=3.829, p <.05

oo-haranige / oo-baranige

0.39

0.34

χ 䋨1䋩=685, p =.408, n.s.

2

In Table 3, a series of chi-square tests of independence are carried out for each
item to compare voiced frequency between 1984 and 2005. Table 3 shows that thefrequency of rendaku significantly increased in twenty-one years in the case of second
elements with a voiced obstruent in the second mora (C2) and that the frequency of
rendaku significantly decreased in the case of second elements with thethird-/fourth-positioned voiced obstruent (C3, C4) as illustrated in (5).
(5) Positional blocking effects in 1984 and 2005
1984
C2
C3
C4

>

2005
C2

<
<

C3
C4

3.3 Results
Decision tree analysis CHAID (Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detection)
was used setting a dependent variable of a voiced or voiceless decision predicting by thethree independent variables of (1) two types of first element, (2) voiced mora position of
the second element, and (3) years of research of 1984 and 2005. The decision tree
analysis, as shown in Figure 1, revealed the following significant trends: (1) rendaku
with a voiced obstruent in the second mora of the second element (15.2%) occurred lessfrequently than in the third and the fourth mora (34.0%) [χ2(1)=102.435, p<.001]; (2) inthe case of second elements with a voiced obstruent in the second mora, the frequencyof rendaku significantly increased in twenty-one years from 1984 to 2005 (11.9% in- 1012 -- 1013 -Node 7
Voiced16
Voiceless 177
n
193

naga

2005

1984

χ 2 (1)=4.754, p <.05

Node 5
Voiced270
Voiceless 395
n665

Figure 1. Decision tree analysis of Experiment 1

Node 8
Voiced30
Voiceless 164
n
194

oo

Node 4
Voiced91
Voiceless 422
n
513

2005
Node 6
Voiced273
Voiceless 659
n932

Year of Researchχ 2 (1)=22.121, p <.001

Year of Researchχ 2 (1)=5.855, p <.05

Type of the First Element

Node 3
Voiced46
Voiceless 314
n
387

1984

Node 2
Voiced543
Voiceless 1054n
1597

3 and 4 Morae

Node 1
Voiced137
Voiceless 763
n900

2 Moraeχ 2 (1)=102.435, p <.001

Number of Morae in the Second Element

Voiced or Voiceless in the Second Element
Node 0
Voiced680
Voiceless 1817n
2497

1984, 17.7% in 2005) [χ2(1)=5.855, p<.05]; and (3) the frequency of rendaku
significantly decreased in the case of second elements with the third-/forth-positioned
voiced obstruent over twenty-one years from 1984 to 2005 (40.6% in 1984 and 29.3%
in 2005) [χ2(1)=22.121, p<.001].

4. Experiment 2
Experiment 2 examined how the etymological type of lexical stratification of thefirst element influences rendaku in cases deviating from Lyman’s Law. /Nawa-basigo/‘rope ladder’ is one of a few exceptions to Lyman’s Law found in the existing
vocabulary. Nonexistent pairs of X-hasigo and X-basigo, where X referred to any firstelement, were used.
4.1. Method
The participants are the same as in Experiment 1. The first elements were
controlled by varying the etymological type of Japanese such as native Japanese,
Sino-Japanese, and foreign loanwords. Again, the same participants were asked tojudge whether or not the first mora of the second element is voiced in each question.
These voiced-and-voiceless paired questions were randomly presented to participants ina single questionnaire.
4.2. Stimulus Items and Item-by-Item Analyses
As shown in Table 4 and Table 5, first elements were chosen according to threedifferent etymological types of lexical stratification: native Japanese, Sino-Japanese(Chinese Borrowing), and foreign loan words. The first elements were native Japanese/naga/ ‘long,’ Sino-Japanese /tetusei/ ‘iron-made,’ and a foreign loan word /sutenresu/‘stainless-steel-made.̉ These first elements were compounded to a pair of second
elements, the voiceless /hasigo/ and the voiced /basigo/, respectively, to constitute a pairof nonwords.1

Table 4. Experiment 2 in 1984
1984
1st element + 2nd element(1) Native Japanese 1st elementnaga-hasigo /naga-basigo

Voiceless Voiced

Chi-square test ofRategoodness-of-fit

7

190

0.96

χ 2 䋨1䋩=169.99, p <.001

127

71

0.36

χ 䋨1䋩=15.84, p <.001

132

66

0.33

χ 2 䋨1䋩=22.00, p <.001(2) Sino-Japanese 1st element
tetusei-hasigo / tetusei-basigo

2(3) Foreign loan word 1st element
sutenresu-hasigo /sutenresu-basigo- 1014 -Table 5. Experiment 2 in 2005
2005
1st element + 2nd element(1) Native Japanese 1st elementnaga-hasigo /naga-basigo

Chi-square test of

Voiceless VoicedRategoodness-of-fit

82

175

0.68

χ 2 䋨1䋩=33.65, p <.001

188

70

0.27

χ 2 䋨1䋩=53.97, p <.001

231

27

0.10

χ 2 䋨1䋩=161.30, p <.001(2) Sino-Japanese 1st element
tetusei-hasigo / tetusei-basigo(3) Foreign loan word 1st element
sutenresu-hasigo /sutenresu-basigo

Table 4 and 5 shows that for native Japanese first elements, a significantly larger
proportion of participants selected the voiced case, while for Sino-Japanese and foreign
loanword first elements, a significantly larger proportion of participants selected thevoiceless case.
Table 6. Comparison of 1984 and 2005 in Experiment 2
Rendaku rate
1st element + 2nd element(1) Native Japanese 1st elementnaga-hasigo /naga-basigo

1984

2005

Chi-square test of
independence

0.96

0.68

χ 2 䋨1䋩=56.88, p <.001

0.36

0.27

χ 2 䋨1䋩=3.99, p <.05

0.33

0.10

χ 2 䋨1䋩=36.09, p <.001(2) Sino-Japanese 1st element
tetusei-hasigo / tetusei-basigo(3) Foreign loan word 1st element
sutenresu-hasigo /sutenresu-basigo

Table 6 shows that for every etymological type, the frequency of rendaku decreased
over twenty-one years.
4.3.Results
As shown in Figure 2, the decision tree analysis revealed the following significant
trends: (1) the frequency of rendaku is marked by notable differences among
etymological types from the highest 㧙 native Japanese, Sino-Japanese, and foreign
loanwords [χ2(2)=373.124, p<.001] 㧙 and (2) for every etymological type, thefrequency of rendaku has consistently decreased over the twenty-one-year period[χ2(1)=56.883, p<.001 for native Japanese, χ2(1)=3.994, p<.05 for Sino-Japanese, andχ2(1)=36.085, p<.001 for foreign loan words].

- 1015 -- 1016 -1984

Node 4
Voiced190
Voiceless7n197

Year of Research

2005
Node 5
Voiced175
Voiceless82n257

χ (1)=56.883, p <.0012

Node 1
Voiced365
Voiceless
89n454

Native Japanese

1984

2005
Node 7
Voiced70
Voiceless 188n258

Figure 2. Decision tree analysis of Experiment 2

Node 6
Voiced71
Voiceless 127
n
198

1984
Node 8
Voiced66
Voiceless 132
n
198

2

2005
Node 9
Voiced27
Voiceless 231n258

χ (1)=36.085, p <.001

Year of Research

2

Year of Researchχ (1)=3.994, p <.05

Node 3
Voiced93
Voiceless 363n456

Foreign loan words

Node 2
Voiced141
Voiceless 315n456

Sino-Japaneseχ (2)=373.124, p <.001

2

Etymological Type of the First Element

Node 0
Voiced599
Voiceless 767
n1366

Voiced or Voiceless in the Second Element

5. Discussion
The present study investigated Lyman’s Law effect on rendaku. Experiment 1
demonstrated that the blocking effect of voiced obstruency was higher with voiced
obstruents in the second mora position than in the third/fourth mora position. There
was no significant difference in rendaku frequency between cases in the third mora andthe fourth mora. This indicates that the blocking effect by Lyman’s Law differs instrength depending on the position of the voiced obstruent contained, and what is more,
there exists a gap between the second mora position adjacent to rendaku-targeted mora
and the third/fourth mora position distant from the rendaku-targeted mora. The
blocking effect decreases toward the end of the domain of rendaku. The strong
effect of proximity is thus observed. Comparing the results in 2005 with those in 1984,
in the case of the voiced obstruent in the second mora, Lyman’s Law effect has
weakened, whereas it has intensified in the case of the voiced obstruent contained in thethird and fourth mora. These are opposing tendencies. This indicates that thedifference in Lyman’s Law effect between the second mora position and the third/fourthmora position has decreased over 21 years. Therefore, Lyman’s Law differs inblocking effect depending on the position of the voiced obstruent already contained,
although these differences tend to decrease. This implies that Lyman’s Law is a
general tendency rather than a categorical prohibition.
Experiment 2 revealed that the frequency of rendaku is marked by notabledifferences among the etymological type of the first elements.2 The frequency of
rendaku among native Japanese, Sino-Japanese, and foreign loanwords was observed indescending order. Comparing the results in 2005 with those in 1984, for every
etymological type, the frequency of rendaku has consistently decreased in twenty-one
years. In other words, the exceptionality of the hasigo exceptions to Lyman’s Law
tends to decrease. This reveals a tendency that in close conformance with the tenets of
Lyman’s Law.
Based on the two experiments and their close examinations with statisticalanalysis using decision tree analyses above, it may be concluded that (1) Lyman’s Law,
which is one case of OCP, is a general tendency rather than a categorical prohibition;(2) etymological types of the first element affect rendaku; and (3) the ‘X-basigo’
exception has closely conformed to the tenets of Lyman’s Law in twenty-one years.

Notes- 1017 -* The work reported in this paper was partly supported by the Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research (C) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(No.19520352).
1. More test items are examined in (Ihara & Murata 2006).
2. See (Tamaoka, Ihara, Murata & Lim To appear) for more extensive study.

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