The Twenty-Sixth Manchester
Phonology Meeting

ABSTRACTS BOOKLET
Thursday 24th - Saturday 26th May 2018
Held atHulme Hall, Manchester
Organised by a collaboration of phonologists at the
University of Edinburgh, the University of Manchester, andelsewhere.

This booklet contains the abstracts for all the papers presented at
the twenty-sixth Manchester Phonology Meeting, held at Hulme
Hall, Manchester, in May 2018.

The abstracts are arranged in alphabetical order by the surname ofthe (first named) presenter. If any abstracts are missing from thisbooklet, it is most likely because the authors did not submit a
non-anonymous version of their abstract.

The abstracts for the oral paper sessions are presented first,
followed by the abstracts for the poster paper sessions, and thebooklet concludes with abstracts for the special session.

The final programme, included in your registration pack andavailable on the conference website, gives the details of which
papers are in which room, and at which times.

Oral papers

Outward-Looking Phonologically Conditioned Allomorphy in the Koryak Verb
Rafael Abramovitz (MIT) - rafabr@mit.edu
One of the most widely-cited predictions stemming from research in realizational theories of morphology
is Bobaljik (2000)’s concerning the directionality of allomorphy: outward-looking allomorphy can only
be sensitive to the morphosyntactic properties of its trigger, and inward-looking allomorphy can only besensitive to the morphophonological properties of its trigger. In this paper, I propose a counterexample tothis prediction from the verbal complex of Koryak (Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Kamchatka), where, in transitive verbs, the suffixal portion of the present tense circumfix (ku- -ŋ) shows allomorphy triggered by thesegmental content of the following morpheme in the verb. In particular, if the following morpheme begins in a noncoronal consonant, the ŋ deletes, as shown by the contrast between (1) and (2), where thesuffixes are coronal-initial and noncoronal-initial, respectively.
(1) a. t-ə-ku-nmelew-ŋ-ə-tək ‘I heal you (du)’(2) a. t-ə-ku-nmelew-∅-ɣi ‘I heal you’b. t-ə-ku-nmelew-ŋ-ə-n ‘I heal him’b. ne- ku-nmelew-∅-ɣəm ‘X heals me’
However, the opposite is observed in intransitive verbs: the agreement suffix deletes if it begins in a noncoronal consonant, whereas the ŋ of the tense morpheme remains. This is shown by the contrast between
the witnessed past and present forms in the (a) and (b) examples below, where the labial-initial 1NSG
agreement suffix is deleted in the present.
(3) a. məlaw-tək ‘You (du) danced’(4) a. mət-ə-mlaw-mək ‘We (du) danced’
b. ko-mlaw-ŋ-ə-tək ‘You (du) dance’b. mət-ko-mlav-ə-ŋ-∅ ‘We (du) dance’
Viewed in this light, the facts under discussion constitute a conspiracy: the suffixal portion of the present
circumfix may not surface followed by a morpheme that begins in a noncoronal consonant. It is tempting to
try to account for this conspiracy purely phonologically, using a markedness constraint that implements
the insight above (*ŋC[−cor] ), thereby preserving Bobaljik’s generalization about insertion. I will argue
that purely phonological accounts of this phenomenon are impossible in monostratal theories like standard OT (Prince and Smolensky 2004) because epenthesis between the ŋ and a following noncoronal stop
does not prevent deletion from being triggered. This requires the constraint to apply to an intermediate
representation without epenthetic vowels, which is not possible in a monostratal framework. Stratal OT(Bermúdez-Otero 2008) does not share this problem, but it cannot account nonstipulatively for the factthat the attested solution to the marked structure involves supraminimal faithfulness violations: rather
than deleting just enough to satisfy the markedness constraint, the entire suffix deletes (cf. (4b), where
deleting the suffix’s first segment would be enough to satisfy the constraint.) Furthermore, licensing ŋ
before a consonant only if it is coronal appears to be unattested crosslinguistically (Anderson 2008). This
casts doubt on the plausibility of a purely phonological account of these facts, especially since it is nota general fact of Koryak phonology that ŋ cannot precede a noncoronal consonant: the circumfix je- -ŋ
‘want’ does not trigger or undergo deletion preceding ŋ.
(5)t-ə-ku-je-ləʔu-ŋ-ŋ-ə-n ‘I want to see him.’

Optimal Interleaving (Wolf 2008) provides a mechanism for constraints referring to segmental features toenforce the non-exponence of nodes, which seems to be the most natural way of accounting for the conspiracy. In particular, by ranking an indexed version of *ŋC[−cor] over realize morph at a point in thederivation before the normal phonological operations take place, we can account for the all-or-nothing
solution to the problem posed by the marked structure. This alone underdetermines the correct solution,
as deleting either the ŋ or the suffix would satisfy this equally well. I will suggest that constraints requiring
the realization of particular morphosyntactic features of the arguments coindexed by the agreement morphemes are necessary to account for the pattern, further supporting analyzing this phenomenon outsideof the normal phonology.

Partial vowel reduction in initial syllables in American English
Adam Albright, MIT (albright@mit.edu)
Vowel reduction is one of the most pervasive phonological processes of English, and manyarguments in The Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky and Halle 1968) rested on a simple assumption: stressless short vowels reduce. Chomsky and Halle noted that reduction is more
limited in certain contexts (especially, prevocalic vowels and final non-low vowels), but theSPE grammar is generally designed to ensure that unreduced short vowels bear some degree ofstress, either on the surface or at some earlier derivational stage. In this talk, I demonstrate an
additional restriction: vowels in absolute word-initial position show a more limited and complex
pattern of reduction, maintaining a two-way height distinction in stressless syllables: ɪ/ɛ vs. əin light syllables, and ɪ vs. ɛ/æ in heavy syllables. I argue that the occurrence of non-ə vowels cannot be attributed to stress, but instead requires a grammar that allows for a more limited
inventory of short lax vowels in phonetically long stressless syllables.
The pattern of reduction for short front vowels is shown in (1). As is well known, reduction
depends on speech rate, frequency, foreignness, and morphologically related forms. Controlling for these, the distribution in (1) holds phrase-initially in careful speech. It is well-known
that reduced vowels vary between higher (ɪ-like) and lower (ə-like) vowels. However, there
is more to be said: in fact, a limited height contrast is maintained in absolute initial position.
The restriction to absolute initial position is important for (1a–d), which show reduction to [ə]word-internally ([ɛ]stónia vs. b[ə]stów) and phrase-internally (an [ə]gregious error).
(1)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

/
/
/
/
/

Partial contrasts maintained in absolute-initial position
/ɪ/
/ɛ/
CV
ɪ/i illícit, imáginary ɪ/i elástic, epístle
TRV ɪ/i igúana, Iglésias ɪ/i ecláir, Etrúscan
STV ɪ
Islámic, Iscáriot ɛ/ɪ Estónia
TCV ɪ
igníte, ignóble
ɛ/ɪ eccéntric, egrégious
RCV ɪ
impártɛ
Elmíra

/æ/
ə
ə
ə
æ/ɛ
æ

allége, aphásia
acquíre, acrópolis
Astóriaaccéntuate, admíre
alpáca, ambássador

These data are not obscure (the transcriptions follow Kenyon and Knott 1949), but as far as
I can tell, the special status of absolute-initial vowels has not received careful analytical attention. Chomsky and Halle (1968:118) posit secondary stresses on initial syllables with clusters(#(C)V̀CC), covering cases such as [æ]sbéstos. Secondary stress cannot account for the full pattern, however, since it predicts full maintenance of the underlying vowel quality. This is indeed
found in (1e), where reduction is impossible. However, the SPE rule also predicts secondarystress in (1d), but reduction to [ə] is impossible for /ɪ/ and /ɛ/, and optional for /æ/ ([æ]∼[ə]dmíre).
In other (previously undescribed?) dialects, /æ/ reduces to [ɛ] in this context ([ɛ]dmíre), yielding a pattern of partial reduction that is completely unlike medial stressless syllables. Thus, (1d)cannot be due to secondary stress. Instead, I argue for a more nuanced vowel reduction process: stressless initial /æ/ reduces to [ə] obligatorily in light syllables, and optionally in heavy
syllables (reducting to [ɛ] otherwise, in some dialects).
We could easily add stipulations to the SPE Vowel Reduction rule to capture these restrictions, but the real question is why they hold. In fact, vowel reduction is often blocked in absoluteinitial position, plausibly due to longer duration in this position (Barnes 2006, Lunden 2013). I
argue that the pattern in (1) reflects a set of reduced vowel inventories, depending on vowel duration (Herrick 2003, Flemming 2007). In the longest contexts (stressed syllables), all contrasts
are maintained, while in the shortest contexts (medial stressless syllables), only [ə] is allowed.
In initial position, depending on the VCC interval duration, inventories of two (ɪ vs. ə/ɛ) or three(ɪ, ɛ, ə) front vowels are tolerated. This is analyzed using MinDist constraints (Flemming 2002)
and markedness constraints against low vowels in short syllables.

Stress position in novel -ory derivatives: Phonology, morphology, and the speaker
Sabine Arndt-Lappe and Javier Sanz, University of Trier (sanz@uni-trier.de)
Descriptions of English morphophonology and theories of the morphology-phonology interfacebuilding on such descriptions traditionally make a distinction between stress-neutral and stressshifting affixes. Stress position in polymorphemic words with stress-shifting affixes is often
assumed to be determined by the same stress rules that also apply to monomorphemic words inthe language. Complex words with stress-neutral affixes, by contrast, preserve the stress of theirbases.
Looking at English derivational morphophonology, there are two wellknown problems
with the distinction between stress-shifting and stress-neutral affixes. The first is that some
affixes are not easily accomodated within this dichotomy, but show variation in stress position.
One such affix is adjectival -ory (e.g. óscillatory, oscíllatory, oscillátory > óscillate; e.g.
Liberman & Prince 1977, Burzio 1995, Zamma 2012, Bauer et al. 2013: 288ff.). The second
problem is that it is not entirely clear what the default stress rules of the language are. From anempirical perspective, the problem is aggravated by the fact that most accounts are based on
existing words. This is a problem because, as has been shown in Arndt-Lappe and Sanz (2017),
the degree of lexicalisation of stress may be a key factor in explaining stress position in existing
English -ory derivatives.
The present study investigates how native speakers productively stress novel -orywords. In a reading study we elicited 20 different non-existing -ory adjectives in context from30 speakers of British English. All nonce bases are at least three syllables long and end insyllables frequently encountered in existing derivatives: -atory (e.g. serigtory), -icatory (e.g.
helificatory), -utory (e.g. celesutory), and -isory (e.g. levenisory). Furthermore, all derivatives
were presented in two conditions simulating differences in morphological status of the base:one in which the derivative was embedded in a context that also provided the nonce base used
as a verb (e.g. serigate, helify, celesute, levenise), and one in which there was no evidence thatthe nonce base was a free form.
We find that, in general, stress on the final syllable before the suffix is the clear majority
option, regardless of how the base ends (e.g. serig[ˈeɪ]tory, helific[ˈeɪ]tory, celes[ˈu]tory,
leven[ˈaɪ]sory). At the same time 24 of our 30 speakers show substantial variation. Statisticalanalysis (conditional inference trees, mixed-effects regression) reveals effects of themorphological status of the base (in the sense defined above) and stress in the base when it
occurs as a free form, as well as substantial differences between different groups of speakers.
Different groups of speakers are characterised by (a) the extent to which base-final stress is a
default pattern, and (b) the extent to which speakers are sensitive to the morphological status of
the base and, if applicable, to its stress. Finally, (c) speakers are found to differ in terms of how
they vary among different retraction patterns (e.g. sérigatory vs. serígatory).
For example, for almost all speakers presentation of the test words as involving boundbases lead to significantly more stresses on the penultimate syllable before the suffix (e.g.
serígatory, helifícatory, celésutory, levénisory). In the condition in which the derivative waspresented with a verbal base, some speakers systematically preserved stresses in the verbal base(e.g. sérigatory > sérigate, hélificatory > hélify). Whereas, however, stress on theantepenultimate syllable before the suffix is systematic in some speakers, others show more
idiosyncratic patterns of variation among different derivatives.
Our findings complement those of an earlier study of existing -ory words (Arndt-Lappeand Sanz 2017). The two studies provide converging evidence that productive stress assignment
in -ory derivatives in British English is characterised by both markedness and faithfulness
effects, and a probabilistic interaction of the two types of effect. The division of labour between
morphological and phonological aspects of the computation seems to be different for different
speakers. By contrast, evidence for a single, categorical default rule along the lines often
assumed for monomorphemic words seems rather weak.

Three laryngeal cues to two laryngeal contrasts
Maya L. Barzilai, Georgetown University, mlb290@georgetown.edu
Kate Riestenberg, Smithsonian Institution, kate.riestenberg@gmail.com

Languages often employ multiple acoustic cues to convey a single phonological contrast(e.g., Denes, 1955; Lisker, 1986). Tone and phonation, two laryngeal features, tend to exist
in this redundant relationship: contrastive tone is often additionally cued by non-contrastive
creaky phonation; conversely, contrastive phonation type can be additionally cued by noncontrastive pitch movement (Gordon & Ladefoged, 2001). This paper examines the relationship between tone and phonation cues in Macuiltianguis Zapotec (MacZ), a Northern
Zapotec language in the Otomanguean family that contains both contrastive phonation andlexical tone (Riestenberg, 2017). We present a previously undocumented phenomenon of
MacZ, a spike in F0 that surfaces significantly more frequently on modally voiced vowels
than on checked ([VP ]) ones, in addition to and independently of the F0 cues to phonemic
tone. We posit two possible analyses of this F0 spike, ultimately arguing that it is a cue
to phonation type, which occurs in addition to the phonetic phonation cue itself, yielding asystem in which F0 provides the cue to two separate laryngeal contrasts.
This study examines phonologically modal and checked MacZ tokens produced by three
native speakers, elicited from a word list. The F0 spike analyzed is operationalized as avisible rise followed by a fall in F0, occurring during the last third of the vowel duration,with a total di↵erence in F0 of approximately 20Hz and lasting 5-10 ms. Presence or absenceof the F0 spike was coded by acoustic profiling of the pitch track. A test of equal proportions
on 598 tokens of phonologically modal and checked vowels revealed that the proportion of
tokens with pitch spikes on modal vowels was significantly higher than that on checkedvowels, regardless of the lexical tone on the vowel ( 2 (1, N=88.273, p<0.001)).
In one possible analysis, the spiking pattern in F0 is the surfacing of an intonational boundary
tone, appearing here as a facet of list intonation. Glottalized vowels are often associated withan underlying or historical low tone (e.g., Gordon & Ladefoged, 2001); such a low tone may
exist on MacZ checked vowels, blocking the posited boundary tone from surfacing. However,the F0 spike analyzed here appears as a rapid fluctuation in pitch rather than as a canonicalboundary tone with a clear tonal target, weakening this analysis.
We argue that the data better support a second analysis, that the F0 spike is an F0 cue
to contrastive phonation, supplementary to the phonation cue itself and distinct from theF0 cue to lexical tone. The glottalized portion of a checked vowel in MacZ occurs only atthe end of the vowel, making the contrast difficult to perceive; therefore the need for an
additional perceptual cue to phonation contrasts is not surprising. F0 contours tend to belicensed on longer vowels (Zhang, 2004), explaining why it is the modal vowels that have theF0 spike and not the checked vowels, which have a relatively shorter period of sonority.
This paper examines the complex laryngeal system of MacZ, in which a spike in F0 is
significantly more likely to occur on phonologically modal than checked vowels. We argue
that this spike is best analyzed as an additional cue to contrastive phonation, creating asystem in which three di↵erent laryngeal cues are used to convey only two laryngeal contrasts.

1

Amelia Becker
Georgetown University
The phonological status of [mid-spread] and [aligned-thumb-configuration] in American Sign
Language
Signed languages demonstrate a level of structure analogous to phonology in spoken
languages (Stokoe 1960), and native signers display categorical feature perception in a similar
way to native users of spoken languages (Best et al. 2010). However, American Sign Language(henceforth ASL) offers few minimal pairs to affirm the contrastiveness of a given feature. The
present study capitalizes on a unique characteristic of the signed modality – the presence of two
independent articulators – to investigate the phonological status of “mid” realizations of the[spread] and [thumb-configuration] features of ASL handshapes. The data indicate that [spread]is a binary feature, with [mid-spread] resulting from phonetic reduction. On the other hand,results favor an analysis of [thumb-configuration] (henceforth [t-c]) as a potentially ternaryfeature, with underlying specification for [opposed], [unopposed], and [aligned-t-c] values.
When movement, location, and orientation features of each hand differ in a two-handed
sign, one hand (the nondominant hand, henceforth NDH) must act as the passive articulator orplace of articulation for the other (the dominant hand, henceforth DH). Battison (1978) identified
a limited set of NDH handshapes in this type of sign, which he dubbed “asymmetrical” signs.
This set includes a handshape with all fingers fully extended and fully spread ([+spread] in thepresent study). Another is produced with the fingers extended and partially spread ([midspread]). Battison described the latter as ‘distinct from fingerspelled “B”’ (p. 52), the handshapein which all fingers are extended and touching along their edges ([–spread]). However, Battison
did not indicate whether he considered the [mid-spread] variant a NDH allophone of‘fingerspelled “B”’ or whether the two handshapes belong to separate phonemes. The NDH
inventory also includes both [opposed] and [unopposed] thumb configurations, as well as
handshapes which display an [aligned-t-c] variant in which the thumb and index finger align. But
although [t-c] is the only feature distinguishing two of Battison’s seven NDH handshapes, it is
not clear whether this feature is contrastive in other parts of the lexicon, given the lack ofminimal pairs as mentioned above.
Data analyzed come from publicly available videos of language use by Bobbi Cordano, a
native ASL signer and president of Gallaudet University, a Deaf university in Washington, D.C.
The DH and NDH of each asymmetrical two-handed sign occurring in these videos were codedfor [+], [–], and [mid] realizations of [spread] and for [opposed], [unopposed], and [aligned]
realizations of [t-c]. Independent variables were DH vs. NDH context, grammatical category,[spread] and [t-c] values of the preceding and following DH and NDH, sign (word), and whether
the two handshapes are the same or different in citation form. Results from a multivariate
regression conducted in Rbrul (Johnson 2009) require different accounts for the distribution of
the two features. [mid-spread] occurs most frequently in contexts where we would expect
phonetic reduction (the NDH context and function words). There is also evidence of regressive
assimilation to [+spread] but not to [mid-spread]. These results are interpreted as evidence that[mid-spread] results from phonetic reduction and is not underlyingly specified. On the other
hand, distribution of the three values of [t-c] suggest that [aligned] is at least sometimes theunderlying specification for [t-c]. Thus [t-c] may be a ternary feature, with underlying
specification for [aligned] in addition to [opposed] and [unopposed].

Metrical Incoherence: different metrical structure at different strata
Johanna Benz - Universität Leipzig - benz@studserv.uni-leipzig.de
Metrical Incoherence: In some languages, there is conflicting evidence for metrical structure.
This can manifest itself in different ways: 1. the metrical structure as diagnosed through thestress pattern of the language is different from the metrical structure as diagnosed through otherphonological properties such as segmental processes, or 2. the stress system itself has incoherent properties. In this talk, I show that “metrical incoherence”(Dresher & Lahiri 1991, Gordon
2016) follows from how metrical structures assigned at different strata interact in Stratal Optimality Theory. Metrical structure assigned at an earlier stratum can be overwritten or preserved by there-ranked constraint system at a later stratum.
Data: An example of the latter type is Washo (Jacobsen 1964), where word stress (in verbs) behaves much like lexical stress: most verbal roots and some affixes (near future -ášaP below, sameis true for negative -é:s, interrogative -hé:š) bear stress independently of where in the word they occur, restricted only by a constraint against stress clashes, which is satisfied by de-stressing the firstof two adjacent stressed syllables (1d). However, declaring the stress system “lexical” misses important generalizations as the location of stress on stem (roots and roots extended by reduplication)is actually predictable (Yu 2005).
(1)

(2)

“lexical” stress at the word level:a. l-[stem émeP]-ši-ášaP-i ! lémePšiyášaPi “We are going to drink.”b. we-[stem híwi]-ášaP-i ! wehíwiyášaPi “It’s going to thunder.”c. l-[stem éyeP]-weP-giš-uweP-ášaP-i ! léyewegišuwaPášaPi “I’m going to go far away.”d. P-[stem íšl]-ášaP-i ! PišlášaPi “He will give it [to the man].”predictable penultimate (ultimate if monosyllabic or ultimate contains a long vowel) stressat the stem level (see also examples above):a. bókoN “to snore” b. bíNil “to try” c. biNíNil “to try repeatedly”

Analysis: The Washo facts receive an analysis where stress is predictably assigned at the stem
stratum (along the same lines as in Yu (2005)). At the word level, faithfulness constraints against
deletion and addition of stress are promoted (but the constraint against deletion of stress remains
dominated by *C LASH). Stress is thus “frozen” on the same syllable that it was assigned to at thestem stratum and interacts like lexical stress with the inherently stressed affixes.
Discussion: Metrical incoherence instantiates a controversial prediction of this framework: namely,that the phonology of a later stratum could be quite different from the phonology at an earlier one(McCarthy 2000). In Washo, stem-level stress is preserved at later strata. Jarawara (Kiparsky
2015, Dixon 2004) builds feet from left to right at the stem-level (recoverable from segmental
processes), but right-to-left trochees at the word level. Jarawara is therefore an example for the
non-preserving type, where the earlier metrical structure is nonetheless still visible in the output.
Gordon (2016) analyzes several cases of metrical incoherence as a mismatch between word- andphrase-level metrical structure. I will argue that these are special cases of the more general possibility of a mismatch beween “early” and “late” metrical structure and can therefore be integrated
into the proposed approach without problems. The departure from a strictly parallel approach toconflicting metrical structures makes the additional prediction that these conflicting structures canreasonably be assigned at different strata.

Constraints on doubling are amodal

Iris%Berent1,%Outi%Bat/El2,%Qatherine%Andan3,%Diane%Brentari4,%and%Vered%Vaknin/
Nusbaum5%
1%Department%of%Psychology,%Northeastern%University,%i.berent@neu,edu%
2%Department%of%Linguistics,%Tel%Aviv%University,%%Tel/Aviv,%Israel,%obatel@post.tau.ac.il%
3%Department%of%Psychology,%Northeastern%University,%kattywa@gmail.com%
4Department%of%Linguistics,%University%of%Chicago,%USA,%dbrentari@uchicago.edu%
5%School%of%Education,%Western/Galilee%College,%Akko,%Israel,%vered.vaknin@gmail.com%

Propotion ABB response

Propotion ABB response

Our study seeks to dissociate the contribution of phonology from the phonetic system, asking
whether some phonological constraints are independent of the phonetic substance. Our
experimental results provide a positive answer to this question, showing that (i) a single
linguistic stimulus with invariant phonetic properties can give rise to conflicting linguistic
responses – aversion vs. preferences; and (ii) the acceptability of a linguistic form can remain
invariant when its phonetic substance is radically altered – from speech to signs.
Our case study concerns the restrictions on doubling, generally ABB (e.g. panana).
Doubling is amenable to two distinct parses, depending on the linguistic level of analysis. At
the phonological level, doubling is parsed as identity, and adjacent identical elements within
the same morpheme are banned by the OCP (McCarthy, 1981), so ABB<ABA. At themorphologicallevel,
Example Structure
OCP ANCHOR
doubling
isparsedas Phonology ABB panana [p1a2n3a4n5a6]*
reduplication, and since the
ABA panapa [p1a2n3a4p5a6]√
base (i.e. AB) is identity-free, Morphology ABB panana [p a n a ]{n a }√1 2 3 43c 4c
the OCP is vacuously
ABA panapa [p1a2n3a4]{p1ca2c}*
respected, and the proximityc = copy/reduplicant; [] marks the base and {} the reduplicantof the identical elements is
now required by ANCHORING, i.e. ABB>ABA (McCarthy & Prince 1995). Our experiments
examined whether speakers productively project these restrictions on doubling acrosslanguage modalities.
We first demonstrate that English speakers indeed shift theirWords
responses to novel English words (printed or spoken)
1
0.9
depending on the linguistic level of analysis. In each trial,
0.8
participants made a forced choice among a matched pair of tri0.7syllabic stimuli––ABB or ABA (e.g. panana vs. panapa).
0.6
0.5
Results show that without of a morphological context (i.e.
0.4morphologically simple forms), adjacent identical syllables
0.3
were systematically disliked (ABB<ABA). But once doubling
0.2
0.1
was presented as a licit morphological operation of plurality,0
the doubling aversion shifted into a systematic preference
Simplepluraldimin(ABB>ABA). No such preference obtained forEnglish speakers
morphological diminutives.
Signs
1
0.9
Our subsequent experiments showed that English
0.8
speakers with no command of a sign language
0.7
spontaneously project these principles to novel
0.6
0.5
ASL signs. As with novel spoken forms, ABB
0.4
signs in bare phonological forms
were
0.3
systematically disliked. But when doubling was
0.2
presented as a licit morphological operation of
0.1
0plurality, the doubling dislike shifted into a
Simple plural
dimin
Simple plural
diminsystematic preference (ABB>ABA).
English speakers
Hebrew speakers
Moreover, the projection of doubling constraints
to speech and signs depended on the morphology of participants’ spoken language. While
English and Hebrew speakers each showed a reliable doubling preference when doubling
indicated plurality (the unmarked semantics of reduplication), only Hebrew speakers
projected a reduplicative parse to diminution (the marked semantics of reduplication), whichis expressed by reduplication in Hebrew, but not English.
Together, these results suggest that the parsing of doubling in speech and signs is constrainedby a single set of abstract linguistic principles. As such, these findings suggest that somephonological principles are amodal and abstract.

Unsupervised emergence of a five-vowel system in a Deep Belief Network
Paul Boersma, University of Amsterdam
We claim that when a large set of auditory representations of speech sounds are fed to a selflearning artificial neural network, discrete phonological categories will emerge in the network
solely on the basis of the distributional properties of this set, i.e. without any supervision as towhat the intended categories were. Our example here is that of a set of 30,000 vowels
represented as excitation patterns of the basilar membrane, drawn from a Spanish-likeinventory of five vowels with natural variation: the network will automatically come tounderstand that this language has five, rather than 30,000 vowel categories.
The simplest network that accomplishes this feat is a Deep Belief Network consisting of two
stacked Restricted Boltzmann Machines. To model an incoming vowel sound, the first(input) layer contains 30 nodes that represent locations (i.e. spectral frequencies) along thebasilar membrane and/or its representation in the auditory cortex. The second layer has 50
nodes, the third layer 20 nodes. The number of nodes is largely immaterial: qualitatively
comparable results arise with networks that are 3 times smaller or 10 times bigger.
We trained this network by feeding it sounds drawn from a Spanish-like distribution offormant values (F1 and F2), where the regions around an F1 of 4 ERB with an F2 of 26 ERB(i.e. [i]), 8 with 23 ERB (i.e. [e̞ ]), 12 with 20 ERB (i.e. [a]), 8 with 17 ERB (i.e. [o̞ ]), and 8with 23 ERB (i.e. [u]), were only slightly more common than sounds in other regions (a peakto-valley ratio of only 1.5 in the pooled distribution). With this scheme we trained the two
RBMs simultaneously 30,000 times with a learning rate of 0.001.
After training, we tested the network by applying 200 F1–F2 combinations randomly drawn
from the auditorily possible space; these points are the starting points of the 200 arrows
visible in the figure. We had each sound percolating up via the second layer to the third layer,
and then reflecting back from the third via the second to the input layer. The resulting
reflected activation pattern usually has peaks in several locations. When we take the twohighest peaks and define the one with the lower frequency as F1 and the one with the higher
frequency as F2, we obtain a “reflected” F1–F2 pair, and this pair is shown in the figure as theend point of the arrow.

F1 (ERB)

4
The arrowheads turn out to cluster infive regions, which are (from left to6right) near the vowel sounds [i], [e̞ ],[a], [o̞ ] and [u]. Apparently, the8
network “thinks” that the input
10
consisted of only five different sounds(prototypes of the categories, so to
12say) rather than a randomly dispersed
set of 200 different sounds. The cause
14
is that in the third layer there are only
16
five different possible activation
patterns, which is precisely what30
28
categorization means (categorization
being defined as the discretization of behaviour).

26

24

22

20
18
F2 (ERB)

16

14

12

10

8

We conclude that a simple case of fivefold category emergence is correctly handled by asimple Deep Belief Network. This holds large promise for future phonological modelling,
because these bidirectional networks are similar to ones that can replace older decision
mechanisms such as bidirectional OT; it will be good to have a single type of network thatcan produce and comprehend speech, and create its own categories, just like our brain does.

Artificial grammar learning reveals differences in L1 categorical and gradientconstraint effects
Justin T. Craft – University of Michigan
Phonological theories that assume a single generative mechanism (Prince &Smolensky 1993/2004) make a learning prediction that phonotactic knowledge drives
alternation learning. Some psycholinguistic evidence that phonotactics and alternations arelinked comes from artificial grammar learning (AGL) experiments with adults (Wilson 2003,
Finley 2016). Pater and Tessier (2005) found that participants utilize categorical constraint
knowledge and rely on their L1 phonotactics when learning novel alternations. This workbuilds on their result and investigates the contribution of variable phonological knowledge:that is, the extent to which a gradient phonotactic constraint that drives a variable alternation
in a learner’s native phonology improves their learning of a related, across-the-board
generalization.
The study used an AGL experiment with speakers of Canadian French (CF) andAmerican English (AE). In CF, high vowels have tense and lax allophones: tense [i, y, u]
appear in open syllables (e.g. [vi] “life”, [sa.ly] “hello”) and lax [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ] appear in closed
syllables (e.g. [vɪd] “empty”, [e.lɪt] “elite”). However, word-final high lax vowels in closed
syllables can optionally trigger laxing in preceding high vowels: e.g. [pu.tɪn] ~ [pʊ.tɪn]“poutine”, [tˢy.mʊʃ] ~ [tˢʏ.mʊʃ] “fly-paper” (Dumas 1976, Walker 1984, Poliquin 2006).
Thus, CF speakers must have some gradient wellformedness knowledge of sequences like[u…ɪ] and [y…ʊ]. In AE, no such optional harmony applies, so AE speakers should not haveany such knowledge.
Participants in the AGL experiment were exposed to an invariant version of thevariable CF harmony process: singular words ended in tense vowels (e.g. [si.pu] “rabbit), andplurals were marked with a [-t] suffix that triggered laxing in the final syllable and hence
harmonic laxing in the initial syllable (e.g. [sɪ.pʊt]).
SingularTraining:[mu.gi][ti.gi]

PluralTraining[mʊ.gɪt][tɪ.gɪt]

Testing: Legal
Singulars[bu.ki]

Testing:
Illegal Singulars*[bi.gʊ], *[sɪ.tʊ]*[fɪ.ti]

Testing:
Legal Plurals[zʊg.gɪt]

Testing:
Illegal Plurals*[fu.tʊt],*[bi.kut]*[zɪ.dit]

Given their L1 experience, CF participants should be better at learning andgeneralizing harmony to novel items while rejecting non-harmonic novel items. Likewise,
given the findings of Pater & Tessier (2005), participants should also reject test words that
violate categorical constraints in their L1: schematically, *ɪ# in AE and *iC# in CF.
Participants in both language groups recognized familiar items and generalized tonovel items in testing at near identical rates (CF: 85%, AE: 86% in familiar test items, CF &AE: 74% in novel test items) showing no advantage in learning for CF speakers. However,error trends do show effects of L1 phonological knowledge. Between language groups, test
items that violate categorical L1 constraints (*ɪ# in AE, *iC# in CF) are accepted at lower
rates by participants. CF participants reject final lax vowels less than AE participants(reflecting AE *ɪ#), while AE participants reject tense vowels in closed syllables less(reflecting CF *iC#). Combined, these results reaffirm that speakers use phonologicalknowledge in AGL experiments, while also
60%suggesting that L1 gradient constraint knowledge
doesn’t appear to aid alternation learning in AGL
40%experiments. Alternatively, L1 categorical constraint
English20%
knowledge appears to aid in rejecting illegal test
Frenchforms in an AGL experiment when participants
0%
don’t receive positive evidence in exposure thati_it ɪ_it ɪ_ɪ i_ɪ
conflicts with their categorical L1 constraint.

The English “Arab rule” without metrics
Quentin Dabouis , Jean-Michel Fournier1, Guillaume Enguehard2 & Nicola Lampitelli1
LLL UMR 7270 CRNS1,2, U. Tours2, U. Orléans2
1. firstname.lastname@univ-tours.fr 2. firstname.lastname@univ-orleans.fr
0. English vowel reduction can be blocked in some contexts (Halle & Keyser 1974, Burzio
1994, Hammond 2003, Pater 2000, SPE among many others). First, we focus on a specificcase: when the unstressed vowel of a second final syllable is followed by a non-coronal coda
obstruent, it is: i. reduced if the preceding syllable is light (e.g. [æɹəb]), or ii. not reduced if
the preceding syllable is heavy (e.g. [eiɹæb]) (1). This phenomenon is generally called “Arabrule” (Hayes 1980; Pater, 1995, 2000; Ross 1972).
(1)_[-cor]_[+cor]
1

L_

Reduction

ReductionH_

No reduction

Reduction

1. The purpose of this talk is twofold: i. to evaluate the efficiency of the Arab rule; and ii. topropose an analysis without metrics consisting in the unification of English blocking contexts.
2. Our careful corpus-based scrutiny on 210 disyllabic words with trochaic stress taken from
Wells (2008) with [-cor] final codas reveals that, in 84% of cases, no reduction occurs to thesecond syllable when the first is heavy, whereas reduction does occur in 75% of cases when
the first syllable is light. In disyllabic words ending in [+cor] coda, in turn, reduction
generally occurs, regardless of the weight of the first syllable (Burzio 2007, Ross 1972).
3. Assuming that lateral relations condition both inhibition and strengthening (Ségéral &Scheer 1999, Scheer 2000), we propose that these can interfere with English vowel reduction.
The non-moraicity of coronal codas suggested by Hammond (1999) supposes that these arefollowed by a licenser in CVCV (i.e. they behave like onsets). Conversely, the moraicity of
non-coronal codas supposes that these are followed by an unlicensing nucleus (i.e. they
behave like codas).1 In sum, reduction is blocked when the vowel is unlicensed and needs tolicense a heavy rhyme on its left (2). Interestingly, this hypothesis makes a clear prediction.
Because they are preceded by an initial empty CV (Lowenstamm, 1999), vowels of unstressedclosed initial syllables are found in the same lateral configuration (3). Thus they should not be
reduced. This is what we observe when we compare [æ]pteryges and [ə]peritive.
(2)(3)
C V C V C V C V
e j

r æ b

[C V] C V C V ...
(C) V C

4. We extracted all the words in Jones (2006) which are marked as unstressed on their firstsyllable and stressed on the second syllable. Only monomorphemic words and words
containing a bound root and a suffix were preserved for this study (974 words). Over thesewords, 744 items have an open initial syllable, whereas the remaining 230 items begin with aclosed syllable. As expected, closed syllables tend to block reduction: this happens in 89% ofcases (204 words). Open syllables, in turn, show solid tendency for reduction in 69% of cases(517 words). Our prediction is borne out.
5. Overall, our analysis is an attempt at representing the relation between stress and vowel
reduction in English without the use of notions such as ‘foot’ or ‘mora’. Rather, we adopt two
independently motivated notions: that is the relations of government and licensing. We claimthat the distribution of vowel reduction depends on the interaction of these relations.
1. More specifically, we will argue that a non-coronal consonant behaves like a bipositional cluster embedding a
non-final empty nucleus (hence unlicensing).

Individual Variation in an Incipient ay-raising Dialect: Unlocking the Mystery of Dialect B
Stuart Davis (Indiana University Bloomington), Kelly Berkson (Indiana University Bloomington)
davis@indiana.edu; kberkson@indiana.edu

In Joos’s (1942) description of Canadian Raising, wherein /ay/ and /aw/ surface as[ʌy]/[ʌw] before voiceless consonants, he noted that Toronto area high school students exhibited
two patterns of raising. Those he referred to as Group A (Dialect A) talkers showed what is
generally considered to be a phonological pattern: the diphthong raised before underlyingly
voiceless segments, regardless of surface voicing, such that /ay/ raised to [ʌy] before both thesurface-voiceless [t] in write and the surface-voiced t-flap in writing. Those Joos referred to asGroup B (Dialect B) talkers did not raise before t-flaps, thus producing typewriter as [tʌɪpɹaɪɾɚ].
This pattern aligns with what would be expected of phonetic raising, as these talkers raised before
the surface voiceless [p] in type but not before the surface-voiced t-flap in writer. Other attestationsof phonetic raising have proven elusive: by the early 1970s only Dialect A talkers remained in
Toronto (Chambers 1973), leading Kaye (1990) to observe that the phonetic Dialect B disappeared
rapidly if it ever existed at all. Moreover, Fruehwald (2013, 2016) makes a strong claim based on
the Philadelphia Neighborhood Corpus (PNC) that ay-raising is probably phonological from thevery beginning of its inception. His investigation of the PNC revealed no evidence of purely
phonetic raising in Philadelphia: as soon as diphthongs in items like write show raising, diphthongs
before t-flaps in items like writing show raising as well. We have recently documented incipientphonetic raising in Fort Wayne (FW) in northeastern Indiana, however. Our data come from 27
participants (16 female; 19-78 yrs old) who hail from FW and were recorded producing a wordlist.
Crucially, in addition to words like write and writing, our list contains two syllable
monomorphemic forms like Nike and bison, where /ay/ precedes a voiceless consonant, andmonomorphemic forms like cyber and tiger, where /ay/ precedes a voiced consonant. Previous
research does not seem to detail words like Nike and bison, but we find that they provide crucial
insight into the nature of incipient /ay/-raising and the mystery of Dialect B. Specifically, while
our 27 talkers range from those who have no raising to the phonological raising described inprevious research, we have also identified a previously undiscovered pattern: some speakers raise
before the voiceless consonant in monosyllables like write but do not raise in any bisyllabic
words—neither before voiceless consonants as in bison, nor before the t-flap in writing. Timenormalized F1 trajectory of such a speaker is in (1a). More interesting is that we have somespeakers who raise before voiceless consonants in monosyllables and before a t-flap like in writing
but not before the voiceless consonant in bisyllabic monomorphs like bison and Nike (data in 1b).
By looking at a range of speakers in an incipient ay-raising dialect we can see that, as hypothesized
by Bermúdez-Otero (2017), incipient raising indeed affects monosyllables before bisyllables(consistent with Dialect B). Furthermore, the first bisyllables to be affected are those that are in aparadigm relation with a monosyllabic form that undergoes raising. This leads us to conclude that
Dialect B is not really a dialect, but an incipient stage of Dialect A. That is, those in FW who
display a Dialect B type pattern of raising will eventually come to have the phonological pattern.
We hypothesize that Joos’s Dialect B speakers may have retained Dialect B only if they moved toan area that lacked Canadian raising. Otherwise, they became Dialect A speakers.
(1a) Speaker jan22a (female, 20 yrs)

(1b) Speaker jan5a (female, 35 yrs)

Timecourse of Diphthong
Timecourse of Diphthong(1)! Time-normalized F1 (in Hz) of Diphthong in monosyllabic and bisyllabic forms

Two Phonologies

Noam Faust & Adèle Jatteau (Université Paris 8, CNRS SFL), Tobias Scheer (Université de Nice, CNRS BCL)

Claim. Phonological computation is held to be the set of operations that transforms lexical
representations stored in long term memory and assembled by morpho-syntax into surface
realizations that constitute the input to phonetic processing. Following work by Gouskova &Becker (2016) and Rasin (2016), we argue that this production scenario needs to beaugmented by a different computational system that manages and creates lexical
representations when speakers integrate new words in their lexicon (in L1 acquisition or atadult age). That is, lexical representations must somehow come into being by a process thattransforms the continuous auditory signal into a discrete symbolic representation which obeys
lexical constraints. This process is distinct from regular perception, which occurs on the fly incommunication and contributes to morpheme recognition: lexicalization creates lexical items,
while regular perception does not. We contend that regular perception phonology uses bothlexicalization and production phonology.
We argue that lexicalization phonology and production phonology are distinct computational
systems: they do not work on the same input (auditory signal upon lexicalization, symbolic
vocabulary in production), they do not impose the same restrictions (to be illustrated below)
and they perform (partially) different types of operations that do not occur in the other system(e.g. inventory-related adaptations upon lexicalization, association line-management andsandhi processes upon production).
Syllabification. Government Phonology (GP; Kaye et al. 1990) offers several arguments tothe effect that syllable structure is fully recorded in the lexicon. Yet GP does not talk about
the question of how syllable structure gets comes to be represented: it is not contained in the
acoustic signal. Hence it is not the case that there is no syllabification algorithm in GP –rather, syllabification occurs upon lexicalization. That the two phonologies – one building
syllable structure, the other using it – are separate may be illustrated by a case from Modern
Hebrew where [e] syncopates unless the result would be a triconsonantal cluster: [kiter, kitr-u]‘he/they ranted’ [kinter, kinter-u] ‘he/they taunted’, and not *[kintru], which would involve
resyllabifying two separate consonants into a branching onset. This being said, denominalverbs in Modern Hebrew can be created by “squeezing” the consonants of the base into a twovowel stem, e.g. [katalog] ‘catalogue’ becomes /kitleg/ ‘he catalogued’ upon nativization.
Crucially, this word formation process can create the same clusters that the production
grammar refuses to create from two originally separate consonants: [χantariʃ] ‘charlatan’ =>/χintreʃ/ ‘he talked nonsense’. This makes sense if creating a new verb is a matter oflexicalization that obeys its own well-formedness conditions, whereas syncope is a matter of
production phonology where (re)syllabification is not performed.
MSC. The lexicalization phonology is the locus of what was called Morpheme Structure
Constraints (MSCs) in SPE, i.e. restrictions that are imposed on what is storable. Although
MSCs have been rejected because of the ‘Duplication Problem’ (they duplicate active rules in
the production grammar), they can be shown to be necessary in a number of cases. For
example, Ancient Greek does not allow aspiration features to co-occur within a morpheme(Jatteau 2016). This generalization is however not surface-true: it is violated when
independent constraints require a [spread glottis] feature in a given position, as in root-initialr: [rhuthmos] ‘rhythm’. We show that this problem can be solved if the co-occurrence
constraint is part of the lexicalization grammar, rather than the production grammar.
ROTB. If, as we suggest, perceived inputs are restated upon lexicalization in terms of what apossible lexical entry is in the language, there are many configurations that never reachproduction phonology because they are filtered out upon lexicalization. This view therefore
undermines Richness of the Base. We illustrate this point by reexamining McCarthy’s (2005)
analysis of final vowels in Arabic dialects, showing that the ban on final short vowels is moreinsightfully accounted for in lexicalization than in production.

Laryngeal sonority and timing
Chris Golston (California State University Fresno)
Wolfgang Kehrein (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
We present a survey of how obstruents and sonorants are aspirated and glottalized acrossover 70 languages. In general our study supports Howe & Pulleyblank's claim that 'thedistribution of glottalisation appears to be governed by syllable structure’ (2001:45) andexpands the implications of this in two ways. First, we expand the claim to cover aspiration as
well as glottalizaton, yielding a generalized account of laryngeal timing. Second, we drive theexplanation deeper into syllable structure by linking it directly to sonority sequencing
Our proposal for sonority sequencing puts larygneals between obstruents and sonorants:(1) stop < fricative < laryngeal < nasal < liquid < glide < hi V < mid V < low V
Given this sonority hierarchy, we find two common patterns, one rare pattern, and one
missing pattern for laryngealized consonants. In the common prosodic pattern, sonority risesin the onset and falls in the rhyme: obstruents are post-aspirated and ejective in onsets but preaspirated and pre-glottalized in codas, while sonorants are pre-aspirated and pre-glottalized in
onsets but post-aspirated and post-glottalized in codas:(2) Prosodic pattern (36 lgs: Halh Mongolian, Irish, Tarascan, Icelandic, Tzotzil, Cua...)Obstruents
tʰaʰt
t’aˀt
Sonorants
ʰnanʰ
ˀnanˀ
Intervocalic laryngeal timing mirrors onsets in some languages (tʰatʰaʰt) and codas in others(tʰaʰtaʰt), dividing the prosodic pattern into two subtypes, both well attested.
In the common onset pattern we find the laryngealization patterns for onsets (tʰ, t’, ʰn, ˀn)generalized to coda position; obstruents are post-aspirated and ejective, sonorants are preaspirated and pre-glottalized, in onsets as well as codas:(3) Onset pattern (20 lgs: Yokuts, Armenian, Kabardian, Georgian, Sm’algyax, Gitksan...)Obstruents
tʰatʰ
t’at’
Sonorants
ʰnaʰn
ˀnaˀn
Very rare is the coda pattern, with ʰt, ˀt, nʰ, nˀ generalized to onset position; we find only at
most three languages with this pattern, suggesting that coda patterns are relatively marked:(4) Coda pattern (3 lgs: Nɬeʔkepmxcin, Huautla Mazatec, Osage)
Obstruents
ʰtaʰt
ˀtaˀt
Sonorants
nʰanʰ
nˀanˀ
The logically possible antiprosodic pattern (onset-friendly tʰ, t’, ʰn, ˀn in codas; codafriendly ʰt, ˀt, nʰ, nˀ in onsets) is completely unattested as far as we can tell:(5) Antiprosodic pattern (0 languages)
ObstruentsʰtatʰSonorants
nʰaʰn

ˀtat’
nˀaˀn

We end with breathy-voiced stops (nʱ, dʱ) and voiced pre-glottalized plosives (ˀd) in 20
languages, showing that voicing complicates our account of glottalization and aspiration.

6OJWFSTJUZ PG &EJOCVSHI

5IFSF JT OP QSPCMFN PG W JO 3VTTJBO QIPOPMPHZ
1BWFM *PTBE
pavel.iosad@ed.ac.uk

5IF EVBM CFIBWJPVS PG W IBT CFFO B OPUPSJPVT DSVY JO 3VTTJBO QIPOPMPHZ TJODF BU MFBTU +BLPCTPO  
5IF CBTJD QSPCMFN JT UIBU W GBJMT UP USJHHFS WPJDJOH BTTJNJMBUJPO  MJLF TPOPSBOUT CVU VOEFSHPFT CPUIBTTJNJMBUJPO UP GPMMPXJOH PCTUSVFOUT  BOE ஷ஫OBM EFWPJDJOH  MJLF PCTUSVFOUT[bʲitvə]ʗʞʨʘʖ‫ؠ‬CBUUMF‫ء‬C [podvʲik] ʥʤʚʘʞʙ
‫ؠ‬GFBU‫ء‬B[pʲɪvʲet͡s] ʥʛʘʛʬ
‫ؠ‬TJOHFS‫ء‬C [pʲɪft͡sa]ʥʛʘʬʖ‫ؠ‬JE (&/4(‫ء‬B[zovə]
ʝʤʘʖ‫ؠ‬DBMM(&/4(‫ء‬C [zof]ʝʤʘ‫ؠ‬DBMM‫ء‬B

5IF DPNNPOFTU TPMVUJPO JO UIF MJUFSBUVSF JT SFQSFTFOUBUJPOBM <W> JT USFBUFE BT B TPOPSBOU FJUIFSBO VOEFSMZJOH X -JHIUOFS  )BZFT  ,JQBSTLZ  PS TPNF MBCJBM OPOHMJEF $PBUT )BSTIFOJO  1BEHFUU   .PTU SFDFOUMZ 3FJTT  BOBMZTFT W BT 7 VOEFSTQFDJஷ஫FE GPS<±WPJDF> ‫ ؜‬QBUUFSOJOH XJUI TPOPSBOUT CVU OPU B TPOPSBOU JO GFBUVSBM UFSNT ‫ ؜‬UIBU JT EFWPJDFE UP <G>)F BSHVFT UIBU UIJT JT BO JOTVSNPVOUBCMF DIBMMFOHF UP UIF $POUSBTUJWJTU )ZQPUIFTJT )BMM  TJODF<W> BOE <G> BSF NJOJNBMMZ EJTUJODU JO UFSNT PG WPJDJOH CVU EP OPU QBUUFSO QIPOPMPHJDBMMZ MJLF PUIFS
TJNJMBS QBJST JO 3VTTJBO
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3VTTJBO W BT CFMPOHJOH UP UIF QIPOFUJD DPNQPOFOU KVTU BT JT UIF DBTF GPS TPOPSBOUT
6OEFS UIJT BOBMZTJT UIF BQQBSFOU TFSJBM JOUFSBDUJPO PG UIF PCTUSVFOUJ[BUJPO PG W BOE JUT EFWPJDJOHGPMMPXT GSPN UIF GFFEGPSXBSE BSDIJUFDUVSF PG HSBNNBS OPU GSPN PSEFSJOH XJUIJO UIF QIPOPMPHZ GPS B
SFMBUFE BOBMZTJT TFF ,OZB[FW    * BSHVF UIBU 3VTTJBO W JT MBSZOHFBMMZ VOEFSTQFDJஷ஫FE OPU KVTUJO UIF JOQVU UP QIPOPMPHZ CVU BMTP JO JUT PVUQVU JU JT JO OP TFOTF UIF WPJDFE DPVOUFSQBSU PG G XIJDI
KPJOT UIF CFUUFS LOPXO <UˢT> <UˢɃɲ> BOE <Y> JO MBDLJOH TVDI B DPVOUFSQBSU DG BMSFBEZ ,JQBSTLZ  *G UIF QBUUFSOT PG W EF WPJDJOH BSF QIPOFUJD UIFO B XIPMF IPTU PG GBDUT DFBTF UP CF QSPCMFNBUJDGPS QIPOPMPHJDBM BOBMZTJT JODMVEJOH UIF GBNPVT WBSJBCJMJUZ JO UIF CFIBWJPVS PG EFWPJDFE W BT BO
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TQFDJஷ஫D UP <W> TVDI BT UIF NJOPSJUZ CVU SPCVTU QBUUFSO PG QSPHSFTTJWF BTTJNJMBUJPO JO <WW> TFRVFODFT
7PSPOUTPWB   BOE UIF TFOTJUJWJUZ PG TPOPSBOU BOE W EF WPJDJOH UP QSPTPEJD CPVOEBSZ TUSFOHUI5IF EJTTPDJBUJPO CFUXFFO MBSZOHFBM BTTJNJMBUJPO JO PCTUSVFOUT BOE JO W JT BMTP FYQFDUFE UP GPMMPX
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FWFO XIFSF JU EJE IBQQFO EJE OPU BMXBZT SFTVMU JO <G> <Y> CFJOH B GSFRVFOU PVUDPNF F H ,BTBULJO (BMJOTLBZB   5IF QSPQPTFE BOBMZTJT JT SFNJOJTDFOU PG ‫ؠ‬SVMF TDBUUFSJOH‫; ء‬TJHB  #FSNºEF[0UFSP  XJUI CPUI QIPOPMPHJDBM BOE QIPOFUJD QBUUFSOT PG EF WPJDJOH GPVOE JO UIF TBNF MBOHVBHF
JO GBDU * BSHVF UIBU QIPOFUJD W EF WPJDJOH DPFYJTUT XJUI BOPUIFS QIPOFUJD QBUUFSO PG PCTUSVFOUEFWPJDJOH BOE BTTJNJMBUJPO ‫ ؜‬UIF HSBEJFOU DPOHFOFS PG QIPOPMPHJDBM BTTJNJMBUJPO SVMFT BSJTJOH WJB SVMFTDBUUFSJOH
6MUJNBUFMZ NBOZ BTQFDUT PG UIF CFIBWJPVS PG 3VTTJBO <W> NBZ IBWF B QIPOFUJD SBUJPOBMF BU MFBTU
IJTUPSJDBMMZ BMCFJU QPTTJCMZ OPU TZODISPOJDBMMZ BT BSHVFE CZ #KPSOEBIM   )PXFWFS JO UIJT QBQFS *BSHVF UIBU UIF CFTU BOBMZTJT PG UIF QSPCMFN PG W JT B TVCTUBODFGSFF POF UIBU EPFT OPU FODPEF UIFTF
FYQMBOBUJPOT JO UIF QIPOPMPHJDBM HSBNNBS DPOUSB F H 1BEHFUU  CVU BMTP SFTQFDUT UIF QSJWJMFHFESPMF PG DPOUSBTU JO QIPOPMPHJDBM SFQSFTFOUBUJPO DPOUSB 3FJTT  Indexed Morphemes and Locality Conditions on Polish Yer Deletion
Gaja Jarosz, University of Massachusetts Amherst, jarosz@linguist.umass.edu
Traditional analyses treat Polish yers, alternating vowels ([bɛz] ~[bzɨ] ‘lilac’), as exceptional
segments that differ underlyingly from their non-alternating counterparts ([bɛz]~[bɛzɨ]‘meringue’; Rubach 1986, Szpyra 1992). Gouskova (2012) reanalyzes Russian yers relying on
indexed constraints (Kraska-Szlenk 1995, Pater 2000) and the whole morpheme exception
hypothesis, positing that exceptionality is a property of morphemes, not segments. Rubach(2013, 2016) argues that the whole-morpheme approach is untenable since Gouskova’s analysis,
which relies on an indexed context-free *MID constraint to trigger deletion in yer morphemes,
fails to extend to Polish due to difficulties restricting deletion to observed contexts.
Contra Rubach, the present paper argues that a parallel, whole morpheme indexed
constraint analysis is possible for Polish if yer morphemes undergo a deletion process driven bya context-sensitive markedness constraint *ɛCV (Rubach 2016) indexed to triggering morphemes
AND the indexed constraint violations are evaluated locally. Morpheme-level exceptionality
succeeds, and indeed is desirable for Polish, because the locus of alternation is entirely
predictable (see Gouskova 2012 on Russian). Alternations are limited to the last vowel of themorpheme immediately preceding a V-initial triggering morpheme: yer vowels (underlined)
occurring earlier in the word do not delete: [sfɛtɛr+ɛt͡ ʂ+ɛk] ~ [sfɛtɛr+ɛt͡ ʂ+_kj+ɛm] ‘sweater(double diminutive)’ (k→t͡ ʂ and k→kj palatalizations are not analyzed here). Triggeringmorphemes (/-ɛmL/) are indexed to *ɛCVL, which ranks above general MAX, conditioning
deletion (1). Crucially, *ɛCVL violations (double underlined) are local, incurred only when theoffending structure contains an exponent of the indexed morpheme (1b). Morphemes with nonalternating [ɛ] (/sɛtɛrL/) are indexed to a high-ranked MAXL, preventing their deletion (1c), evenwhen violations of *ɛCV are at stake (2). Indexed context-sensitive *ɛCVL correctly predicts thatalternating vowels do not delete before C-initial suffixes (3), even if these are indexed triggers.
Polish morpho-phonology provides unique opportunities for observing the interaction ofindexed constraints across morpheme boundaries and reveals that the locality conditions on
indexed markedness constraints require refinement beyond the containment conditions proposed
by Pater (2010). The Polish facts require that indices on markedness constraints be anchored toan edge of the overlapping configuration. For *ɛCVL the right edge of the marked configurationmust overlap with an exponent of the indexed morpheme (4): morphemes can trigger from theright, but deletion cannot be conditioned by a local triggering morpheme on the left (4a).
The paper will also show that the proposed approach extends to the challenging cases ofyers that exceptionally delete ([vjatr] ‘wind’) or variably delete ([sarn]~[sarɛn] ‘roe deer’) in
simplex forms yet reliably appear in derived forms ([vjatɛrɛk], [sarɛnɛk]) (Szpyra 1992,
Gussmann 2007), thereby providing a unified treatment of the three yer alternation patterns.
(1) /sfɛtɛr-ɛk-ɛmL/☞ a. sfɛtɛrkjɛmb. sfɛtɛrɛkjɛmc. sfɛtɛrɛkm(2) /sɛtɛrL-ɛmL/☞ a. sɛtɛrɛmb. sɛtrɛm!

MAXL *ɛCVL MAX
*
W*
L
W*
*
MAXL *ɛCVL MAX
*
W*
L
W*

(3) /t͡ sukjɛr-nikL/
MAXL *ɛCVL MAXj͡
☞ a. tsuk ɛrnikb. ͡tsukrnikW*(4) /sɛtɛrL-ɛk-ɛk-ɛmL/ MAXL *ɛCVL MAX☞ a. sɛtɛrɛt͡ ʂkjɛm
(*)
*
j
͡
b. sɛtɛrtʂk ɛm**j͡
c. sɛtɛrɛtʂɛk ɛmW*(*)

Geminate prohibition across the phonological hierarchy
Gerrit Kentner, Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany
The lexicon of German avoids geminates (e.g. Wiese 1996). In terms of autosegmental
phonology, this may be represented as a prohibition of structures like (1a) and (1a’) in
which a single segment or two identical segments on the melodic tier are associated with
two adjacent positions on the skeletal tier. In this paper, I present data to show that,in German, the ban on geminates is wider in scope than has hitherto been envisaged.
Specifically, I show that not only geminate consonants but also sequences of identicalsyllables, feet, and p-words (prosodic geminates, as it were) are banned from entering
the lexicon. Generally, adjacency of segmentally identical prosodic nodes as in (1b)and (1b’) is illicit. The present data suggest any geminate -nodes that do show up to
be generated post-lexically. Geminate -nodes (1b, 1b’) violate the Ocp (e.g. McCarthy1986) and are avoided in German by either A: phonological alteration of one of the twins
thwarting identity, or B: epenthesis, i.e. interspersed material that thwarts adjacency.
(1)a. * tx

a’. *t t
x

xx

b. *

b’. *
X

X

i

i

X X

Evidence for A (phonological alteration - identity avoidance):i. Syllable level: Nicknames may be formed by truncation to a light syllable that gets
doubled (Johannes ! [jo] ! ["jo.jo]). Crucially, the syllables form a trochee and are thus
not identical but di↵er in terms of stress (culminativity prevents level stress).
ii. Foot level: Hypocoristic rhyme (Hansi ! Hansipansi, proper name) and ablaut reduplication (Quatsch ! Quitschquatsch, ‘nonsense’) involve alteration of stem onset or vowelto achieve non-identity. Total reduplication is not viable (*Hansihansi, *Quatschquatsch).
Evidence for B (epenthesis - adjacency avoidance):iii. Segment level: collective -s suffix for proper names (/Müller/+/s/ ! Müllers) requires epenthetic [@n] with names ending in [s]: Maas ! Maasens [ma:s@ns] ⇠ *[ma:s:])iv. Word/Compound level: Recursive compounds (Kind+es+kind ‘child of the child’)
necessarily involve linking elements (*Kindkind).
v. Phrase level: Sequential constructions (Tag für Tag, ‘day by day’) involve semanticallyopaque (and hence: epenthetic) prepositions preventing adjacency of the twin nouns.
Examples i.-v. are clearly lexicalised or at least lexicalisable. Contrast this with examples(vi.-viii.) that do produce segmental or prosodic geminates:
vi. Non-lexicalised compounds: Lack+kanne, [lak:an@], ‘jug of paint’. If such compounds
become lexicalised, they tend to de-geminate (e.g. Hand+tasche [hantaS@], ‘purse’).
vii. Contrastive focus reduplication (Finkbeiner 2014, Freywald 2015): ReisReis ‘runof-the-mill-variety rice’; ad-hoc construction, not lexicalisable; only valid as a referring
expression in contexts where the reduplicated base is given or salient.
viii. Potentially unbounded iteration (ach Gott, ach Gott, ach Gott, ‘oh god’ ⇥ 3). Unbounded iteration is considered impossible within the lexicon.
Conclusion: Geminates in German are post-lexical in nature. The lexical ban on geminates holds for consonantal geminates, but also for geminate -nodes across the phonological hierarchy (syllables, feet, p-words, potentially phrases). Cases of underlying -node
gemination within the lexicon are repaired and made adhere to the Ocp.
References: Finkbeiner (2014), Word Structure 7; Freywald (2015), Studies in Language
39; McCarthy (1986), LI 17.2; Wiese (1996), The phonology of German.

Base identity effect at the segmental and suprasegmental levels in nonstandard Korean
Ji Yea Kim (Stony Brook University; jiyea.kim@stonybrook.edu)
In order to conform to the legitimate syllable structure (C)(G)V(C) in Korean, input stem-final
consonant clusters undergo simplification by deleting one of the two consonants:/(C1)(G)V(C2)(C3)/ [(C1)(G)V(C2/3)]. This occurs with no variation for nouns in isolation, asin (1). In contrast, variation occurs in inflection with a vowel-initial suffix, as in (2a-c).
(1) Isolation: /talk/[tak]‘chicken’(Note: no variation)(2) Inflection: /talk-i/ a. [tal.ki] ‘chicken-NOM’ (Standard with both consonants)~ b. [ta.ki] ‘chicken-NOM’ (Nonstandard I with only one consonant)~ c. [tak.si] ‘chicken-NOM’ (Nonstandard II with [s]-epenthesis)
For standard inflection, both consonants from input are preserved, as in (2a) [tal.ki]‘chicken-NOM’. For Nonstandard Korean I, the consonant that remains in isolation also remains.
For example, the isolation form [tak] ‘chicken’ in (1) and the Nonstandard I form in [ta.ki]‘chicken- NOM’ in (2b) share the same consonant [k] at the expense of the other one, /l/. This
indicates that segment preservation or deletion in nonstandard forms, as in (2b-c) is determinedby the consonant in isolation forms, as in (1). I adopt Kenstowicz’s (1996) version of outputoutput correspondence constraint, BASE-IDENTITY to explain the fact that isolation forms are
the base to which nonstandard inflected forms make reference to at the segmental level.
There is even striking variation by inserting non-etymological [s] in inflected forms, asin (2c) [tak.si] ‘chicken-NOM’ in Nonstandard Korean II. This phenomenon has been
underestimated as a speech error (e.g., Jun & Lee 2007) presumably because [s] cannot find its
origin in input, as shown in /talk/ ‘chicken’. Yet, it is observed consistently in colloquial speech,
not only for stem-final consonant clusters like the lk sequence shown above but also for stemfinal simplex consonants, as in /pap-i/ [pap.si] ‘rice-NOM’ (the example from Jun & Lee 2007).
I propose that the purpose of [s]-epenthesis in onset position of the second syllable is
to align the coda in the isolation forms tak]σ ‘chicken’ and pap]σ ‘rice’ to the coda in theinflected forms tak]σsi ‘chicken-NOM’ and pap]σsi ‘rice-NOM’, respectively. In other words, theBase identity effect also works at the suprasegmental level, to be more specific at the syllable
level. This requires the syllabic profile in isolation forms and inflected forms be identical. I
adopt the constraint CORR-σ-ROLE (Aguero-Bautista 1998 in Kenstowicz 2005): “… [I]f x andy are corresponding segments then x and y have the same syllabic analysis (onset, nucleus,coda).” This is another kind of the BASE-IDENTITY constraint, which was originally proposed
to explain the two allomorphic diminutive suffixes -sit and -it in Spanish from a syllabic
perspective. The actual output of the diminutive of amor ‘love’ is [a.mor.-si.t-o] to have theconsequence that [r] is in coda for both the Base [a.mor] and the diminutive. On the contrary,
if phonological optimization were more important, -it would be chosen (i.e., *[a.mo.r-i.t-o])since the stem ends in a consonant, and thus to conform to CV, which is less marked than CVC.
[s]-insertion in Nonstandard Korean II can also be accounted for by this effect underwhich the syllable structure of isolation forms (i.e., Base) is preserved in nonstandard inflected
forms. This can be accounted for by the constraint ranking in which CORR-σ-ROLE dominates
BASE-IDENTITY and DEP-C-IO, as in (3), which shows the selection of [tak.si] ‘chicken-NOM’.
(3) /talk-i/ (Base: [tak])CORR-σ-ROLE
BASE-IDENTITY
DEP-C-IO
a. [tal.ki]*! ([k] is not in coda.) * (No [l] in Base.)b. [ta.ki]*! ([k] is not in coda.)* (No [s] in Base.) * (No [s] in input.) c. [tak.si]
By means of inserting the non-etymological [s] in the second syllable at the expense ofbeing faithful to input, [k] remains to be in coda position both in isolation [tak] and in inflection[tak.si] in Nonstandard Korean II. The interaction between the two versions of Base constraints,
BASE-IDENTITY (the segmental level) and CORR-σ-ROLE (the suprasegmental level) contributes
to a better understanding of nonstandard varieties, which are not entirely predictable from input.

Against a stem-allomorphy analysis of Amuzgo tonal inflection
Yuni Kim, University of Essex (y.kim@essex.ac.uk)
Many morphological categories in Amuzgo (Oto-Manguean: southern Mexico) are marked
non-concatenatively by phonological mutations in stems. The lack of linearized surface
morphs makes it difficult to tell whether morphologically complex words have constituentsand subconstituents on a more abstract level, or whether it is even possible to distinguish
operations on underlyingly unified roots and stems from large-scale suppletive allomorphy.
In this paper, using a case study from Amuzgo, I develop a general approach for teasing
morphological structure out of phonological stem alternations; the key lies in patterns ofinteraction between those alternations and their morphological context. Data come from an
unpublished manuscript of verb conjugations by native speaker Fermín Tapia García, which
was checked and reviewed with him and other speakers during fieldwork by the author in thecommunity of San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca.
I focus on tonal alternations in Amuzgo verbal paradigms and make two main claims.
First, although inflectional tones generally overwrite lexical tones, I argue that they originate
at a higher level of morphosyntactic structure and cannot be inherent to lexical entries of stem
allomorphs. Evidence comes from the neutralization of inflection-class distinctions incausativization. In (1), although the lexical item belongs to a minor inflectional class that
replaces the lexical tone (which here is H) with L in 1sg. and HM in 2sg., the causative forms
revert to the general default tonal inflection pattern of HM in both 1sg. and 2sg.
(1)'sleep', completive'cause to sleep', compl.

1sg.
2sg.
L
tsɔ
tsuʔHM
siH-kiH-tsɔHM siH-kiH-tsoʔHM

3sg.
tsoH
siH-kiH-tsoH

Our analysis of this pattern is that tonal inflection is crucially mediated by abstract
inflection-class features on the stem. A structurally distinct AGR head hosts the inflectional
tone. However, causative derivation introduces a Voice head that intervenes between the root
and AGR, such that locality requirements for the visibility of the stem's inflection-classfeatures to AGR are no longer met. The additional layer of structure causes the stem to bespelled out before the phonological material of the inflectional tone in AGR has been
selected, so the stem's abstract inflection-class features are no longer accessible. A suppletive
analysis where inflectional tones are integral to stem allomorphs has trouble accounting forthis interaction between inflection class and causative derivation.
The second main claim is that lexical tones are present during derivations even where
they are ultimately overwritten by inflectional tones. Again, evidence comes from the tonal
patterns of causatives. The interaction in (1), where lexical inflection class is neutralized tothe default inflection class, applies only where the underlying lexical tone is morphotactically
ill-formed as an inflectional tone. Only 5 of the 8 contrastive Amuzgo tones are used ininflection, so this applies if the causative is built on a lexical item with one of the three
inflectionally invalid tones (H, MM, MH). However, if the underlying stem tone is one of theother five (HM, HL, M, L, LL), most forms simply surface with the lexical tone (with a few
systematic exceptions) and there is no alternation - no matter the inflection class of the stem.
The crucial fact is that phonological information about the lexical tone must be visible to
AGR - exactly what we predict if the stem is spelled out prior to selecting inflectional tone.
To summarize, in some contexts the realization of Amuzgo inflectional tones is
defective due to locality or morphotactics, and the influence of the lexical tone can emerge.
These patterns permit resolution of the perennial analytical ambiguity in stem alternations
between operations and suppletion, revealing the complexity of the derivations involved.

Stem allomorphy in Uspanteko as an epiphenomenon of metrical affixation
Björn Köhnlein (koehnlein.3@osu.edu), Yuhong Zhu (zhu.1447@osu.edu)
The Ohio State University
The issue. We argue that a complex pattern of stem allomorphy in Uspanteko (Mayan) can be
successfully analyzed within a morpheme-based model of morphology given two
assumptions: i. underlying representations can contain metrical templates (e.g. Saba Kirchner
2013, Iosad 2016 for recent proposals); ii. pitch-accent contrasts in Uspanteko are a surface
exponent of a difference between trochaic (falling tone) and iambic feet (level tone), as
proposed in Authors (to appear). We claim that our analysis is more restrictive than an earlier
account by Bennett & Henderson (2013; henceforth B&H), who (arbitrarily) divide relevant
items into several nominal cophonologies. In analyzing non-concatenative exponence as an
epiphenomenon of metrical affixation, our approach is in line with principles of Generalized
Non-Linear Affixation (e.g. Bermúdez-Otero 2012, Trommer & Zimmermann 2014).
Data. In Uspanteko, certain possessive prefixes lead to variation in stress and pitch accent andcan sometimes trigger vowel length alternations or consonant deletion in roots. Here, we
focus on long vowels (VV) for purposes of exposition (we discuss all relevant data, which arefrom B&H, Can Pixabaj 2006). There are four distinct patterns for VV roots when affixed;
examples in (1) show prefixation with /in-/ ‘my’ (before C) or /aw-/ ‘your’ (before V).
Underlining indicates stress; accent marks indicate H of falling pitch accent:(1) Stress and pitch accent under possessive affixation for VV rootsa. Prefix introduces H, VV preserved, final stress – [ooj] ~ [aw-óoj] ‘avocado’b. Prefix introduces H, VV shortens, penultimate stress – [teem] ~ [ín-tem] ‘chairc. Prefix H blocked, VV preserved, final stress – [keem] ~ [in-keem] ‘weaving’d. VV with H in isolation stays the same – [kúukʔ] ~ [in-kúukʔ] ‘squirrel’Cophonologies. B&H assume that possessive prefixes come with a lexical H (always realized
on penultimate vocalic mora, attracting stress), and account for variation with four nominal
cophonologies: one protecting H and vowel length, leading to VV with H (1a); one protecting
H but prohibiting tone on final syllables, leading to shortening and H on penultimate syllable(1b); one protecting length and prohibiting H on final syllables, leading to a toneless VV (1c);one where root structure is fully preserved due to high-ranked output-output faithfulness (1d).
Our approach – representations. Assuming the foot inventory by Kager (1993), we adopt
from Authors (to appear) that the language contrasts moraic trochees and (default) syllabic
iambs (the general contrast between iambs and trochees is already motivated in B&H), andthat all tones are intonational – realized as falling tone on moraic trochees, and as level toneon iambs. To account for the allomorphy patterns, we propose that possessive prefixes carrysegmental information and a floating trochaic template, plus four underlying metrical
specifications in VV roots: bimoraic vowel (1a); monomoraic vowel plus a floating mora OR
non-moraic vowel plus two floating moras (1b); bimoraic vowel associated with an iambic
template (1c); bimoraic vowel associated with a trochaic template (1d).
Our approach – grammar. There is maximally one foot, which is right-aligned (ALL-FT-R).
While underlying root feet are always preserved upon affixation (1c, d), trochees introducedby possessive prefixes can violate certain restrictions that feet in simplex words have torespect (e.g. sonority-sensitive stress; [ín-tem] in (1b) would have to be [intem] as a simplex
word). We account for this apparent paradox in Stratal OT. At the stem level, only words with
lexically associated foot structure have feet (iff these feet respect positional restrictions,‘DEFAULT’ (as a cover constraint) >> MAX-FT). Other words receive no footing (MAX-FT >>*STRESS >> GRWD = PRWD); floating moras remain floating (MAX-µ, DEP-LINK >> *FLOAT).
At the word level, footed roots retain their feet under possessive prefixation – preserving
associated feet is preferred over incorporation of the floating affix foot, which would violate
additional DEP-LINK constraints (1c, d). Unspecified roots are assigned default feet as simplex
words due to reranked GRWD = PRWD >> *STRESS (either iambic by default or based on otherrestrictions, such as sonority); yet they will receive a right-aligned trochaic foot frompossessive prefixes – this can override certain default patterns (reranked MAX-FT >>‘DEFAULT’). Roots with bimoraic vowels (1a) have to preserve association lines between
moras and segments (MAX-LINK) and get a right-aligned trochaic foot on the final heavy
syllable, with the initial syllable unparsed (ALL-FT-R, MAX-LINK >> PARSE-V). Words withfloating moras (1b) have a shortened root vowel and stress on the prefix, parsing bothsyllables while maintaining a right-aligned foot (trochaic shortening). This satisfies ALL-FTR, MAX-FT, PARSE-V and MAX-LINK, while potentially violating ‘DEFAULT’, as in [ín-tem](cf. sonority).

The Role of Tongue Root Advancement in Palatalization: Evidence from Polish
Steven M. Lulich & Malgorzata E. Cavar (Indiana University)
slulich@indiana.edu, mcavar@indiana.edu
The range of palatalization phenomena in Polish includes both diachronic and synchronic
processes, including velar palatalization to post-alveolars (1st Velar Palatalization), coronalpalatalization to pre-palatal sounds, and (allophonic) secondary palatalization (Surface
Palatalization).
We used ultrasound to image tongue shapes during production of both phonemic andallophonic palatalized “soft” and unpalatalized “hard” consonants in Polish. Our research strategy
initially was exploratory, in which we sought to discover a common articulatory pattern that
distinguished “soft” and “hard” consonants. In all cases, we observed that tongue root activity was
found to be a consistent articulatory correlate, with “soft” consonants produced with tongue root
advancing, and “hard” consonants produced with tongue root retraction.
Anatomical constraints and prior electromyography (EMG) studies support this finding.
While intrinsic tongue muscles and the anterior genioglossus have been found to contribute to the
production of front vowels, including [i], the most consistent and effective muscular mechanism
for producing [i] appears to be contraction of the posterior genioglossus, geniohyoid, andmylohyoid muscles, all of which advance the tongue root and “squeeze” the tongue body upward
and forward by means of a muscularhydrostat mechanism (cf. Takano andHonda, 2007).
Tongue root advancement wasobserved in all phonetically “soft”
Polish consonants, including phonemic
prepalatals, but was absent in “hard”
post-alveolars, as illustrated in Figure 1
which shows thresholded midsagittal
ultrasound images of the initialconsonant in the words “Ciska” and“Czyngiz” overlaid on each other.
On the basis of anatomical Figure 1. Thresholded ultrasound images from theconstraints and EMG findings, together “soft” consonant at the beginning of the wordwith the confirmatory ultrasound data “Ciska” (yellow) and the “hard” consonant at thefrom Polish, we propose that all beginning of “Czyngiz” (blue). The tongue root issynchronically active palatalization advanced in the “soft” consonant and retracted in theprocesses cross-linguistically involve “hard consonant”.
tongue root advancement. In diachronic sound change, we propose that palatalized sounds may bereanalyzed and lexicalized by new generations of speakers, potentially using features (andmuscular mechanisms) other than tongue root advancement (e.g. coronal place features) todistinguish them from other sounds in the language. This outlook can account for the range of(synchronic and diachronic) palatalization processes in Polish. We suspect it can also explain
constraints against secondary palatalization of uvular and retroflex sounds, since (we hypothesize)
both classes require tongue root retraction, directly contradicting the requirement of palatalization.

Trisyllabic hypocoristics in Spanish and layered feet
Violeta Martínez-Paricio and Francesc Torres-Tamarit
Universitat de València, SFL (CNRS/Université Paris 8)
Two main types of hypocoristic truncated forms (TFs) have been described for Spanish: those that
preserve the initial portion of the source form (SF) (Féde ← Federíco; in all the examples an acuteaccent marks stress), and those that preserve the stressed syllable of the SF until the right edgeof the word (Mándo ← Armándo) (Prieto 1992, Lipski 1995, Colina 1996, Piñeros 2000a,b, Grau
Sempere 2006, 2013, Sanz Álvarez 2015, 2017). The two types of hypocoristic TFs are generally
bisyllabic; more precisely, they correspond to a syllabic trochee. Monosyllabic hypocoristic TFs havealso been reported to be possible in Spanish as long as they are bimoraic (Crís ← Cristína) (Grau
Sempere 2013).
The goals of this paper are twofold. First, we provide a detailed description of a truncation
process in Spanish that creates trisyllabic hypocoristics and has often gone undetected (although
see Sanz Álvarez 2017). Second, we develop a constraint-based analysis of this truncation processby means of internally layered ternary (ILT) feet (Martínez-Paricio 2013, Martínez-Paricio & Kager
2015).
We will show that most hypocoristic trisyllabic TFs (TTFs) in Spanish conform to the general
unmarked pattern of penultimate stress (amphibrach rhythm), whether they end in a vowel (Estéfa← Estefanía, Encárna ← Encarnación) or a consonant (Eméren ← Emerenciána, Estánis ← Estanisláo). Among TTFs derived from simple names, two subgroups can be identified: those that
preserve the left portion of the SF (like the previous examples), and those that preserve the stressedsyllable of the SF (Chabéla ← Isabél, in which a gender desinence is epenthesized in order to comply
with the trisyllabic template). The most productive TTFs derive from compound names (Mariájo← Maria José, Joséma ← Jose María). Finally, there are a few TTFs that exhibit anapest rhythm(Marijó). We claim that the reason why this kind of TTF surfaces with final stress is related to
the form of the SF. In TTFs with anapest rhythm, the SF is a compound name whose members arethemselves bisyllabic truncated forms. For instance, the SF of an anapest TTF like Marijó is not
the SF María José, but Mari Jóse, a truncate-based compound made up of two independent TFs,
Mári (← María) and Jóse (← José) (cf. *Mariajó).
In our analysis we assume, like in previous work on templatic truncation, that shortening is driven
by faithfulness constraints targeting output-output correspondence relations between bases and truncated outputs, size restrictor constraints, and anchor constraints (Alber & Arndt-Lappe 2012). In
TTFs the constraints that promote exhaustive parsing (Chain constraints in Martínez-Paricio &Kager 2015) outrank the constraint against truncation Max(SF-TF), and Max(SF-TF) dominates
Foot-Binarity, which penalises ILT feet. Constraints on foot-type (Trochee), alignment constraints on the position of the adjoined syllable, and Head-Max (Piñeros 2000a,b), relativised toprosodic heads, are also necessary to derive all types of TTFs.
Emerenciána

Chain Max(SF-TF)

a. ☞ (E(méren))
b.

(Éme)

c.

Eme(ren(ciána))*****Ft-Bin*******!***!**

We will demonstrate that our analysis allows us to reconcile the general assumption that all hypocoristic TFs in Spanish correspond to the size of a foot, to be more precise, a maximal foot, while providing further support for the existence of a particular layered ternary structure in the domain oftruncation. Although minimal recursive feet were originally proposed to account for ternary rhythm(Selkirk 1980, Prince 1980), it has not been until fairly recently that metrical studies have reintroduced ILT feet in prosodic representations in order to account for a wide range of segmental,
tonal, and stress-related phenomena cross-linguistically. In this context, our main contribution isto demonstrate that there is also morphophonological evidence for this metrical configuration in
Spanish from a truncation process of hypocoristic formation.

Locality, Transparency, and Uyghur backness harmony
Adam G. McCollum, UC San Diego, agmccoll@ucsd.edu
Transparency has proved a recalcitrant problem for theoretical models of vowel harmony.
Some work has argued that true transparency does not exist, and that harmony is, by nature,
local (Gafos 1999; Ní Chiosáin & Padgett 2001). In support of this claim, recent phonetic
studies have shown that, in some languages, putatively transparent vowels actually exhibit
harmonic alternations (Gick et al. 2006; Benus & Gafos 2007; Ritchart & Rose 2017). In
Kinande and Moro, these alternations are categorical, but in Hungarian, the alternations are
subphonemic. Analyses assuming strict locality cannot account for harmony patterns wheretransparent vowels do not undergo even low-level subphonemic alternations. Uyghur backness
harmony is reported to be one such pattern. Uyghur [i] is reportedly transparent, failing to
exhibit even low-level phonetic alternations based on backness context (Lindblad 1990; Hahn
1991; Vaux 2000). This paper presents results from experimental fieldwork showing that, in
actuality, [i] is not transparent, but alternates for harmony like other vowels in the language.
Vaux (2000) argues that [i] is transparent for the(1) a. til-lar‘tongue-PL’
following reasons: one, [i] does not have ab. ʧiʃ-lar‘tooth-PL’[+back] counterpart, two, [i] generally triggersc. sællæ
‘turban’[+back] suffixes (1a,b), and three, medial [i] does
d. palta‘axe’
not even undergo phonetic coarticulation ine. bæl-i-dæ ‘waist-PS3-LOC’[+back] contexts. Underlying high vowels are
f. tal-i-da‘willow-PS3-LOC’transparent to harmony in (1e,f). High vowels
g. sælli-lær ‘turban-PL’
may also arise due to raising (1g,h). The rooth. palti-lar ‘axe-PL’final vowels in (1c,d) are [-high] in final as well
as closed syllables, but in medial open syllables, these vowels raise to [+high], (1g,h). Bothtypes of high vowels, underlying and derived, are transparent to harmony.
Contrary to Vaux’s claim, we first demonstrate from fieldwork (9 speakers; over 6000 vowel
tokens) that the Uyghur inventory does possess both /i/ and /ɨ/. The accusative suffix isinvariantly produced as [-ni] (mean F2 = 2.23 z/ 2680 Hz) but the third-person possessive (PS3)and ablative (ABL) suffixes are invariantly produced as [-ɨ] and [-dɨn] (aggregate mean F2 =0.86 z/ 2004 Hz). These invariant suffixes require underlying representations that include both/i/ and /ɨ/. Second, while the pronunciation of some lexemes varies between [i] and [ɨ], e.g.
[ilim] ~ [ɨlɨm] ‘science,’ front vowel variants typically trigger [-back] suffixes, [ilim-lær]‘science-PL’ but back vowel variants trigger [+back] suffixes, [ɨlɨm-lar] ‘science-PL.’
Third, medial high vowels do undergo alternations for [back]. For raised vowels (1g,h), there
is a highly significant difference in normalized F2 based on [back] context (ΔF2 = 0.78 z/434
Hz, p< .001). For underlying high vowels, like those in PS3 and ABL, even though they do
not exhibit categorical [i]~[ɨ] alternations, they do undergo subphonemic alternations (ΔF2 =0.37 z/183 Hz, p< .05). Thus, raised vowels regularly alternate and underlying high vowels
subphonemically alternate for [back] in Uyghur.
In sum, phonetic evidence suggests that harmony does not skip [i] in Uyghur. Further, harmony
does not even skip consonants. Dorsal obstruents are known to alternate for backness, but thisstudy found that the lateral also alternates, surfacing as [l] in [-back] contexts and [ɫ] in [+back]contexts (ΔF2 of = 1.60 z/ 785 Hz, p< .001). All results suggest that harmony is strictly local,
as in neighboring Kazakh (Dzhunisbekov 1980). In turn, these results support the claim thatvowel harmony is ontologically local.

LOUD, EVEN IAMBS: EVIDENCE AGAINST THE IAMBIC/TROCHAIC LAW
Zachary Metzler – CSU, Fresno
Trevor Driscoll – CSU, Fresno
zmetzler@mail.fresnostate.edu
tdriscoll7@mail.fresnostate.edu
The Iambic/Trochaic Law (ITL), first proposed as part of auditory perception (Bolton 1894,
Woodrow 1951) and later as a principle governing feet (Hayes 1985), makes two claims: (i)stimuli differing in intensity are grouped trochaically, (ii) stimuli differing in length are groupediambically. We argue that both claims are counterexemplified in Hidatsa (Siouan, North Dakota)
and that these claims fail to predict quantity-insensitive iambic languages like Osage (Altshuler2009).
We show that intensity peaks in Hidatsa align to quantity-sensitive iambs. This increase inintensity is such that it overrides the inherent sonority of the vowels. This counterexemplifies (i)because the intensity peaks are grouped iambically and not trochaically and is significant(p<.001) in a two-tailed t-test. abica, ‘crane’, exemplifies this as the /i/ is over 10 decibels louder
than either the preceding or following vowels, despite /a/ being inherently louder than /i/.

a
p
i
ts
a
70.05
80.62
70.14
ITL claim (ii) is undermined by intervocalic voicing in Hidatsa, which is gradient anddetermined by foot position. Foot-medial stops are more voiced than foot-initial stops and stops
in unfooted syllables. Stops in the onsets of heavy syllables in LH sequences behave like footinitial stops, suggesting that LH has a foot boundary L(H). (ii) requires that (LH) be a metricalconstituent but the gradient intervocalic voicing data from Hidatsa show that (LH) is not a footbut a foot-and-a-half L(H). Without LH there are no uneven iambs, invalidating (ii). Altshuler(2005, 2009) has shown that Osage has quantity insensitive iambs, further demonstrating that
iambs need not differ in length.
Following Kager (1993), we show that all types of iambic lengthening, a process traditionallyattributed to the ITL, can be accomplished by the Stress-to-Weight Principle (Prince 1990) and avariety of faithfulness constraints. Our factorial typology shows that the possible constraint
rankings that result in iambic lengthening outnumber those that prevent it, making the ITL an
emergent tendency of the typology and not a constraint itself:
Rankings Resulting in Lengthening
V Lengthening:
SWP, MAX, DEPμC > DEPμV (Hixkaryana, Derbyshire 1985)
Gemination:
SWP, MAX, DEPμV > DEPμC (Southern Paiute, Harms 1966)
Deletion:
SWP, DEPμC, DepμV > MAX (Hopi, Jeanne 1978)
Ranking Resulting in Even Iambs
Even Iambs:
DEPμC, DEPμV, MAX > SWP (Asheninca Campa, Payne 1990)
Under this analysis, iambic lengthening is emergent; by removing the ITL from phonologicaltheory and accounting for its effects with interaction of independently needed constraints, we can
explain iambic lengthening while also capturing the relevant facts of languages like Hidatsa andOsage.

The life cycle of Mapudungun epenthetic vowels:
Historical evidence for lexicalisation and morphologisation
B

J. M

–T

U

E

The earliest records for the Native American language Mapudungun (presumed-isolate, Chile/
Argentina) date back to the early seventeenth century (Valdivia 1606, 1621). These documents
present a system with abundant consonant clusters both within morphemes and across their boundaries, in a pattern that contrasts with all present-day varieties of the language. The author of theseearly works, the Jesuit Luís de Valdivia, explicitly rejects the possibility of a vowel breaking up suchsequences. While this is consistent with his spelling of individual morphemes ⑴, his transcriptionof complex verbs evidences alternations indicative of incipient or sporadic epenthesis ⑵.
⑴

a.
b.

⟨plli⟩‘soul’⟨mamll⟩‘wood’⑵

a.
c.

⟨kim–i–n⟩
know–
–1 :
⟨elu–l–m–n⟩
give–
–2–

b.

⟨elu–n⟩give–1 :Varieties of Present-Day of Mapudungun (PDM) appear to no longer tolerate tautosyllabic
consonant sequences, either in the onset or coda. In the same root-morphemes where Valdivia
described clusters, PDM now has a vocalic element ([ɨ]) breaking up the series and creating a newsyllable ⑶. Diachronically, therefore, this vowel can be characterised as epenthetic. However, by
PDM these root-internal vowels no longer alternate with the original clusters (Echeverrı́a 1964,
Salas 1976, Sadowsky et al. 2013) and the newer vowels now interact with the stress assignment
system (Molineaux 2014, 2017), leading us to believe they have been lexicalised. As for the crossmorpheme contexts, PDM appears to have regularised the 17th century epenthesis process, leaving
no surface word-level clusters ⑷. Crucially, however, where the morphemes are truly agglutinative(i.e. when they represent a single meaning as in the ‘2’ and ‘pl’ morphemes in 4b), epenthesis appears
to be a surface phenomenon, and does not interact with stress, while where morphemes are fusional,
e.g. portmanteaus (notably, 4a), the vowel may receive stress, showing it to be part of a deeper levelof representation for the morpheme.
⑶

a.
b.

[ˈpɨ.ʎi]‘soul’[ma.ˈmɨʎ]‘wood’⑷

a.
c.

[ki.ˈm–ɨn]know–1 :[e.ˈlu–l.–m–ɨ–n]
give–
–2–

c.

[e.ˈlu–n]give–1 :–By mining a large selection of Mapudungun texts for the 17th to the 20th century (the coretexts earmarked for the Corpus of Historical Mapudungun), in this talk I will reconstruct thesuccessive synchronic stages of epenthesis for the 400-year history of the language. In a brief
overview of the contact situation with Spanish and the timing of the changes, I will conclude
that epenthesis-related processes must be considered endogenous to Mapudungun. This done, I
will go on to show how epenthesis follows the well-documented life-cycle path of phonologicalprocesses (Bermúdez-Otero & Trousdale 2012, Ramsammy 2015): the rule is ﬁrst seen to stabilise
at morphological boundaries, going on to enter the stem domain, where it is quickly lexicalised.
Perhaps more interestingly, among fusional suﬃxes, epenthesis becomes morphologised, creatinga suppletive morphological patterns (cf. [-n]∼[-ɨn]) in place of the erstwhile purely phonologicalone (which allows for the interaction with stress). Throughout these processes, however, a postlexical rule of epenthesis remains active in the agglutinating morphology. I conclude with a callfor some reﬁnement of the life-cycle model, in order to better predict the diﬀerent patterns ofmorphologisation arising in fusional as opposed to agglutinating morphology, an aspect of themodel which — to my knowledge — has not been addressed in the theoretical literature.

Scottish Gaelic svarabhakti: Not evidence for prosodic identity in copy epenthesis
Donald Alasdair Morrison (donald.morrison@manchester.ac.uk)
The University of Manchester
It has been claimed that copy vowels and their hosts stand in correspondence with one another(Kitto & de Lacy 1999), but this is said to predict unattested processes in which an epenthetic
vowel seeks to match its host for prosodic properties (Kawahara 2007). Stanton & Zukoff (toappear, S&Z) claim that such processes do exist, using evidence from Scottish Gaelic (SG),Selayarese and Ho-Chunk. I show that their analysis of SG is incorrect, and offer an alternative
analysis drawing on Köhnlein's (2016) proposals for Franconian tone-accent dialects.
In SG, an epenthetic copy vowel (svarabhakti vowel, SV) breaks up an underlying
heterorganic cluster whose first member is a sonorant, as in (1). Words containing SVs areprosodically distinct (tone 2, rising) from those containing underlying vowels (UVs, tone 1,
falling). The host vowel must be stressed (SG is mostly stress-initial) and cannot be long.
(1)i. /pal̪ ɣk/ → [2pal̪ ɣak] 'bellows' (cf. /pal̪ ɣak/ → [1pal̪ ɣak] 'skull')ii. /l̪ juːɾpɔst/ → [l̪ juːɾpɔst] 'Leurbost (village)' *[l̪ juːɾupɔst] *[l̪ juɾupɔst] *[l̪ juːɾuːpɔst]

As part of this tonal contrast, SVs bear higher pitch and longer duration than UVs (Bosch & deJong 1997), suggesting that they carry stress in addition to the host vowel. S&Z attribute thisto a host-epenthetic (HE-)correspondence constraint HE-IDENT(stress). Moreover, they
attribute the blocking of epenthesis after long vowels to a constraint HE-IDENT(length), working
alongside constraints that prevent the shortening of underlying long vowels in initial syllables
and prevent the occurrence of long vowels in non-initial syllables.
S&Z view svarabhakti in isolation. However, the same tonal contrast occurs elsewhere in
SG, distinguishing diphthongs and long vowels (tone 2) from underlying hiatus sequences (tone1), as in (2) (Ladefoged et al. 1998). Dialects vary in their realisation of the tonal contrast (pitch,glottalisation, or overlength), but each dialect realises the contrasts in (2) in the same manneras the contrast produced by svarabhakti (Ternes 2006). Since these examples do not involve
copy epenthesis, HE-correspondence cannot be responsible for the tonal contrast in general.
(2) i. /tu͡an/ → [2tuan] 'song' vs. /tu.an/ → [1tuan] 'hook'ii. /poː/ → [2poː] 'cow' vs. /po.ə/ → [1poː] 'reef'
In addition, S&Z's explanation of the blocking of epenthesis after long vowels hinges cruciallyon the assumption that long vowels are banned in non-initial syllables, even when stressed. This
assumption is false: numerous items with exceptional non-initial stress show that length islicensed by stress, not by initial position, e.g. [pəˈn̪ɣthaːhtə] 'potato', [tjəˈmaːrɣst] 'Tuesday'.
Morphological evidence and speaker intuitions have led many authors to link the tonal
contrast to syllable count: tone-2 words are monosyllabic and tone-1 words are disyllabic (e.g.
Ladefoged et al. 1998, Iosad 2015). In the case of svarabhakti the epenthetic vowel does notproject a new syllable, and the form therefore carries the rising tone of a long monosyllable. I
derive this using Köhnlein's (2016) constraint HEADMATCH(Σ) (the head of a foot in the output
must match that of its input correspondent) coupled with his proposal that the level at which
the head occurs depends on the level at which branching occurs (i.e. the head of [Σ σμ σμ ] is thefirst syllable, and that of [Σ σμμ ] the first mora). If the input to svarabhakti is taken to be [Σ σμμ ],then highly ranked HEADMATCH(Σ) prevents epenthesis from bringing about resyllabification
to [Σ σμ σμ ]. Under this analysis, the blocking of epenthesis after long vowels can be motivatedby constraints against superheavy syllables and the shortening of underlying long vowels.
I also cast doubt upon S&Z's two other analyses. Their account of Selayarese is dependent
on an unsafe assumption about the synchronic underlying representations of loanwords andtheir account of Ho-Chunk uses forms that contradict those attested in their sources. I conclude
that processes in which an epenthetic vowel seeks to match its host for prosodic properties, suchas stress or length, remain unattested in accordance with Kawahara (2007).

In Which Bracketing Paradoxes Fall Flat
Heather Newell, UQAM
The Problem. Bracketing Paradoxes (BPs) are seen as a puzzle whose solution may give particularinsight into generative structure building and its interpretation at the interfaces. This classic
problem arises from mismatches like in (1). Many solutions to BPs have been proposed, but each
1. (a) [[transformational grammar]ian] Syn/LF (b) [transformational [grammarian]] PF
has drawbacks (Pesetsky 1977/1985, Allen 1978, Williams 1981, Selkirk 1982, Kiparky 1982,
Sproat 1985/1988, Booij & Lieber 1993, Newell 2005/2008, etc.). I argue here that thesedrawbacks are concentrated around two theoretical propositions. First, that an affixes’
phonological behaviour is mediated through morphological classification (as in Lexical Phonology(LP)) and, second, that hierarchical structure exists in the phonological representation. In this talkI demonstrate that eliminating lexical Levels and Prosodic Hierarchy(PH)-based structure
dissolves the paradox. A CVCV linear analysis (Scheer 2004) of phonological outputs combinedwith cyclic interpretation of syntactic phases is shown to account for apparent mismatches. Thissolution gives particular insight into the generative process and its relation to the interfaces, andrenders the grammar truly modular in the Fodorian sense. A sketch of the solution. Affixes in thephonological output of a derivation are not restricted to appearing in the position ascribed to themby the morpho-syntax, ex. infixation, liaison, cliticization (ex. Peperkamp 1997), morphologicalmerger/lowering (Halle & Marantz 1993), and phonological merger (Newell & Piggott 2014). It
is clear that bloody in absobloodylutely is not in a syntactic position intermediate to abso andlutely. Given this indisputable evidence, we must consider the possibility that the syntactic
structure, and input to both the phonology and the semantics, is (1a), and that -ian is subject to oneof the operations above, ensuring its phonological proximity to grammar despite its syntactic
distance. This is exactly what has been independently proposed by Newell (2017). Newell showsthat a better account of the ‘Level 1/2’ distinction in English is given if this difference is notmorphological but phonological; so-called Level 1 affixes begin with a floating vowel andtherefore link with an open vocalic skeletal position at spell-out, as in (2):
2.

C
|
g

V
|
ø

C
|
ɹ

V
|
ə

C
|
m

V
|
e

C
|
ɹ

V

i

C
|
j

V
|
ə

C
|
n

V
|
ø

‘grammarian’The derivation of transformational grammarian is effected in at least two steps. Presupposing
cycles/phases and Late Insertion (as in Distributed Morphology), [[[transformational]agrammarÖ]Æ]n. undergoes Vocabulary Insertion, and PF outputs [tɹænzfəɹmeʃənəl gɹæməɹ]. The
second cycle [[[transformational]a grammarÖ]Æ]n ian]n, after liaison in (2) induces resyllabification and stressing, gives [tɹænzfəɹmeʃənəl gɹəmeɹijən]. It is irrelevant to thephonological representation if transformational has been interpreted as closer (e.g. in acycle/phase) to grammar in the syntax/semantics. The ‘phonological bracketing’ in (1b) neverexists. That this is not a notational variant of a PH/bracketing account will be demonstrated. This
type of analysis will also be shown to account for unhappier and particle verb paradoxes, such as
the Russian /pǒdǔ-žǐg-l-ǔ/ à [podžëg] 'set on fire.masc' (Pesetsky 1979). Such BPs, given
independently motivated cyclic syntactic analyses (e.g. Ramchand & Svenonius 2002, Newell2005), lead to strictly linear phonological representations where the prefixes/particles are notsyllabified with their bases, while the suffixes are. Dealing with allomorphy What of allomorphic
BPs like Baroque flautist? Here [[[Baroque]a fluteÖ]Æ]n, outputs [bəɹok flut]. The addition of thesuffix -ist cannot induce allomorphic selection of flaut post-hoc. Again, independent argumentsfrom comparative allomorphy in Bobaljik & Wurmbrand (2013) demonstrate that a larger domainof allomorphic conditioning will be forced in just these cases and [[[Baroque]a fluteÖ]Æ]n mustdelay Spell-Out until after -ist is merged. The entire construction is interpreted together. BPs ofthis type are hence also illusory. Import of this analysis. Bracketing Paradoxes have been aproblem only since the advent of LP and the PH. This analysis demonstrates that problems like BP
can reveal the need to reexamine our theoretical tools, forcing a shift of theoretical paradigm. Thisin turn has an important impact on what constitutes an explanatory theory of phonology.

Tone features reconsidered: Proof from Limbum deverbal nouns
Jude Nformi, Universität Leipzig, awasom jude.nformi@uni-leipzig.de
Introduction. With novel data from Limbum (Grassfields Bantu, Cameroon), I present an
account of an interesting behaviour of tone in nominalised verbs. I show that the nominalizer
in the language comprises a floating tonal circumfix ( l - L ) which triggers various lowering
eﬀects on the edges of verb roots. I assume the model of tonal representation proposed by
Snider (1999) and provide an OT-analysis of the data.
Data. Verb roots in Limbum can be monosyllabic or disyllabic and have various tone patterns
including high (H), low (L) for monosyllabic roots, and high high (HH), low mid (LM), lowhigh (LH) for disyllabic roots. Nominalisation involves combining the circumfix and a verb
root. The eﬀect of this process is that the tone of the verb root lowers as shown in (1). The
high and low tones of the first syllable become mid and extra low (LL) respectively while thehigh and mid of the second syllable both become low.
(1)

Deverbal nouns
Verb roots
H
tá
L
v0̀
HH yé’nı́
LM bı̀sī
LH lèsı́

‘shoot’‘come’‘teach, learn’‘answer’‘forget’

Sg.
Pl.
r-tā
m-tā
r-v‚
0
r-yēPnı̀ r-bı̀sı̀
r-lèsı̀-‘shot(s)’‘coming’‘lesson, way of teaching’‘answer’‘forgetfulness’

Analysis. Lowering of the tone of the first syllable results from association of the floating
l -register of the prefixal part of the circumfix to the tonal root node it precedes and delinking
its original register if it was h (Register lowering). The high tone with h-register surfaces with l.
On the other hand, the suﬃxal L overwrites the tonal feature of the second syllable, hence H
and M change to L. However, the tone of the first syllable is not overwritten by the suﬃxal L .
I argue that the root-initial syllable is a prominent position whose segments are preserved by apositional faithfulness constraint which makes the insights of this alternation better expressedin OT.
I adopt a correspondence-theoretic version of OT and show that register lowering and tonal
overwriting in deverbal nouns basically follow from the ranking of relevant constraints as shownin (2) and (3). In (2), *Float-(l) is ranked highest because the floating l -register has to be
associated to a tonal root node. Max-(l) is also ranked higher than Max-(h) since l -register ofthe nominaliser is preferred over h.
(2)

Monosyllabic H: *Float-(l) ≫ Max-(l) ≫ *hl ≫ *Float-(h) ≫ Max-(h)
l
h
l
H
H

◦
◦
a.
→
In (3), we consider only the eﬀect of the suﬃxal L and since this is a monosyllabic root,
the positional faithfulness constraint which forbids deletion of the tone of the initial syllable isranked highest. The correct output is faithful to the input, whereas the L of the nominaliser
is deleted since Max-(L) is ranked lower.
(3)

Monosyllabic H L : Max-σ 1 (t) ≫ *hl ≫ *Contour≫ *Float-(t) ≫ Max-(l) ≫Max-(h)
l
l
L
H
H

◦
◦
a.
→
The analysis considers the idea of geometry of tone and tone features (particularly Snider1999)
against one which considers only tonal primitives. Such a featural approach allows us to modelthe diﬀerence between the lowering eﬀects triggered by the prefix (register lowering) and thesuﬃxal boundary tone (tonal lowering). Contrary to Hyman (2010) and Clements et al (2010),
tone features are still needed in analysing such tonal alternations.

The stray syllable in Dutch: leftwards or rightwards attachment?
Marc van Oostendorp
Meertens Instituut / Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Dutch is standardly assumed to have trochaic feet (Hulst1984, Kager1989, Gussenhoven2009),
but in certain cases it shows a ternary pattern similar to e.g. English, such as in fonologie[fònoloGı́]. The third syllable of this word (which we call ‘stray’) has a different status than
the second, ‘weak’, syllable. The question is what its position in the prosodic structure is.
While most literature (Oostendorp1999, Gussenhoven2009) assumes that it is attachedleftwards to fono, Kager and Martínez-Paricio2018 [KMP18] argue that it is instead rightwards attached to gie. This presentation offers a refutation of KMP18’s claims and gives
new arguments that the stray syllable is indeed leftwards attached. This obviously has
implications for our theory of foot typology.
1. Arguments for rightwards attachment we have deduced from KMP are the following: 1.1. An asymmetry between weak syllables has been observed many times
in the literature; it concerns vowel reduction to schwa, which is optional. However, while
phon@l@gie and phon@logie are both possible, phonol@gie is not. In other words, the straysyllable only reduces if the weak syllable also does. This is taken to show (Kager1989,
Booij1995, Oostendorp1995) that the stray syllable is in a stronger position. KMP18
attribute this to the fact that syllables at left edges are stronger, but they show no independent evidence that this is not just an edge effect, regardless of left/right position.
1.2. Licensing of [h] and [P]. KMP18 claim that [h] is optionally deleted in a weaksyllable (Johan, [jóhAn, jó(w)An] but not in a stray syllable. They claim this is because
foot-initial [h] is not deleted. Some of the examples they give (Villahermosa (place name),
protohistorisch ‘protohistoric’ may be analysed as morphologically complex, with h appearing at the beginning of a word, so being initial in another way. We show data that in
the other words they mention (Tarahumara) the [h] is deleted by Dutch speakers just likein the case of weak syllables. We show that something similar holds in our experiment
for the purported licensing of [P]: Dutch speakers have stray syllables behave more likeweak syllables than KMP18 claim. We conclude that there are no strong empiricalarguments for rightwards attachment.
2. A new argument against rightwards attachment. If stray syllables are indeed
attached rightwards, one would expect them to behave similar to initial unstressed syllables, such as in geniet [G@nit] ‘enjoy’. This is indeed KMP18’s claim for the [h] and [P]facts, addressed in 1.2. They do not note, however, that all word-initial syllables witha schwa have one of the onsets G, b or r. This is hardly a natural class in phonologicalterms, and no similar restriction holds for stray syllables. A possible explanation for thisrestriction is that re-,be, ge are the three possible prefixes with schwa in Dutch. We mightsurmise therefore that initial schwa syllables are only allowed if they can be analysed asprefixes, even if that is not their etymology. Under a rightwards attachment analysis, thisis an unexpected restriction. The leftwards attachment analysis, inversely, would have aproblem with freely occurring schwa syllables.
3. Typological implications. As noted, English has a ternary pattern much like
Dutch; however, the arguments for rightward attachment in English seem much stronger.
We argue that this can be learned by the learner because English has no restriction on‘morpheme-like’ initial syllables.

Û MFM Abstract/Marc van Oostendorp: Stray syllable in Dutch

1

Tense? (Re)lax! (A new formalisation for the tense/lax contrast)
Markus A. Pöchtrager (markus.poechtrager@univie.ac.at), University of Vienna
Problem. The two sets of English stressed vowels bear various names: tense/lax (focus
on quality), long/short (quantity), free/checked (behaviour). Stressed checked vowels are
disallowed finally (1a) and pre-hiatus (1b) as they need ‘checking’ by a following consonant. This explains their distribution but not why they need ‘checking’ in the first place(or why they have the phonetic characteristics they have). Similarly, Government Phonology equals tense with (melodically) headed and lax with unheaded (Kaye 2000) and requires branching nuclei to link to headed expressions, thus deriving long vowels to betense and connecting quality to quantity. However, this does not capture or explain the
distribution in (1) in a non-arbitrary fashion (without extra stipulation). That is, previous
accounts capture different aspects of the tense/lax distinction, but never the full range.
This abstract derives all properties from one single assumption.
Proposal. Tense (2a) and lax (2b) vowels have the same basic structure, a nuclear head(xN) and a complement (x), but differ in who makes use of the complement: In a tensevowel, xN claims x by spreading its melody, while in a lax vowel the complement is notclaimed by xN and therefore needs licensing by a following consonant (marked ‘O’).
Predictions. 1. The need of lax vowels to be ‘checked’ by a following consonant is nolonger an extra stipulation, but follows from having an unused complement in need oflicensing; (1) follows. 2. Tense vowels take up more space (head & complement) thancorresponding lax vowels (head only). Their greater duration ([biːt]/[bɪt] have vowel
ratios of 3:2) follows, thus explaining the quantitative difference. 3. The different quality
can be pinned on the status of the nuclear head: laxness means there is no other point totake care of. 4. Tense vowels require more room than lax ones. If a coda consonant (inthe sense of GP) takes up the place of the nuclear complement (2c), only lax vowels are
possible: [ˈɪmp], *[ˈiːmp]. (Alveolar clusters can exceed that limit, cf. Pöchtrager 2010.)
Extensions. 1. Québec French laxing ([vide] ‘to empty’ but [vɪd] ‘empty’) can be derived
by one extra stipulation on constituency: A consonant in the same syllable will claim thecomplement x (cf. 2b), thus laxing the preceding vowel. (The restriction of laxing to highvowels can be derived from structure as well; cf. Pöchtrager in print.) 2. The unstressed
position in English is restricted to schwa and some tense vowels (happy, into). a. That thelatter group be tense is unsurprising; final vowels are not followed by a consonant, sothey must be tense, i.e. xN must take care of x. (At least in some varieties of English.)
Tellingly, once this vowel finds itself followed by a consonant it becomes lax (happily vs.
happy). b. It is tempting to treat schwa as tense (as argued by Booij 1995 for Dutch), thus
uniting all vowels, but the lack of a parallel to happy/happily remains problematic. 3. My
proposal can be seen as a (possibly language-specific) extension of Kaye's (1990)(universal) Coda Licensing Principle, requiring a coda to be licensed by a following
onset: Not only codas need such a license, but lax vowels do, too.
(1) stressed V: tenselax(2) a. tenseb. laxc. coda Ca. finallyb[iː], z[uː] *b[ɪ], *z[ʊ]b. pre-hiatus l[iː]o,*l[ɪ]o,th[iː]atre *th[ɪ]atre

Systematic leveling and what to make of it
Renate Raffelsiefen
IDS Mannheim
raffelsiefen@ids-mannheim.de
Leveling typically involves the replacement of various stem forms by the relevant "basic" form
(Old Engl. help-an, hæalp, hulp-on, holp-en, Modern Engl. help, help-ed) (cf. Kuryɫowcz's 1949
2nd law). Compare the modeling of such change in SPE-type vs. Structuralist analyses:
SPE-type analyses. Guiding intuition: same underlying representation for "related" morphemes
as long as surface variation can be derived by "independently motivated" (recurring) rules (Halle& Mohanan 1985 on English strong verbs). "Leveling" may indicate mere loss of diacritic
marking of the underlying form (hence lead to a simplified lexicon) but could moreover involve
loss of a rule (hence lead to a simplified grammar) (Bynon 1977).
Structuralist analyses. Guiding intuition: same representation for sounds (phonemes) as long as
surface variation can be attributed to the segmental or prosodic context. Phonemic distinctness inrelated surface forms entails allomorphy, associated with distinct morphosyntactic markings suchas {/hɛlp/Basic, /hilp/PresSg:2,3 /hæalp/PastSg:1,3 /hulp/PastPl;2, /holp/PastPart}. "Leveling" indicates the lossof allomorphs, thereby simplifying the lexicon while also impoverishing it, as morphosyntactic
information is no longer (redundantly) expressed through the stem form.
Explanations for leveling on either analyses invoke low token frequency. Yet there are
significant phonological correlates, which may empirically decide among the two approaches.
Consider the fate of the original class III verbs, defined by a stem-final consonant cluster, inEnglish. Of the 23 surviving verbs involving a stem-final homorganic nasal-stop cluster or a single
consonant (due to degemination or h-loss), 21 are still strong. Formerly weak verbs have switched
into this class (fling, string). All remaining original class III verbs, whose stems end in otherclusters, have become weak. This regularity indicates an active markedness constraint *+αF-αF(Consonant clusters must agree regarding place, manner). A possible role for this constraint inhistorical leveling is shown in (1), where inputs consist of (Structuralist-type) allomorphs
encountered in acquisition and *+αF-αF is sandwiched between faithfulness constraints (MAXIOD (The basic input form must have an output correspondent), DEP-IO (Output forms must have
input correspondents)) and DISTINCT constraints, which link specific morphological differences
to phonemically distinct stem forms (DISTINCT B ≠ P (past tense stems must differ from basic
stems), DISTINCT B ≠ PL (plural stems must differ from basic stems)). The grammar in (1)models the transition state where allomorphs are still known but no longer used.
(1) {/hɛlp/B, /hæalp/PastSg:1,3, /hulp/Pastpl;2,
DEP-IO MAX-IOD *+αF-αF] DISTINCT{/hilp/PresSg:2,3, /holp/PastPart }B ≠ P, B ≠ PL{/hɛlp/B, /he:lp/Past }*{/hilp/PresSg:2,3 }*{/hɛlp/B, /hæalp/PastSg:1,3, /hulp/Pastpl;2, }*****☞ {/hɛlp/B}
SPE-type analyses famously aspire to accounting for the production of forms which have notbeen encountered but may fail to capture the regular abandoning of forms known to the speaker.
Such analyses might explore linking the systematic leveling in question to the fragmentation of
the class due to vowel changes before /ɹ/, which might favor rule loss, but reasonably large
classes remained (see (2)). Indeed, several strong verbs persist in English despite showing
isolated alternations (/ɪ/ : /ɛi/ bid - bade, /ɐ/ - /ɛi/ come - came, /ɑi/ - /u/ fly - flew).
(2) /ɛ/: delve, bellow, yelp, help, melt, thresh; /ɑ/: bark, carve, fart, smart, starve
Two additional cases of large-scale systematic leveling in the history of German to bemodeled with reference to phonological markedness constraints will be presented: allomorphy inpresent tense paradigms and allomorphy in weak verbs involving "rückumlaut".

Phonetic lapse in American English –ative
Juliet Stanton, NYU (stanton@nyu.edu)
In American (A.) English forms ending in –ative, whether or not –at- bears stress is influenced by
the identity of the segment(s) preceding it (Nanni 1977): stress is more likely when –at- is precededby an obstruent or cluster (irrigative, integrative) than when it is preceded by a vowel or sonorant(palliative, speculative). I provide new empirical support for Nanni’s claim (§i) and argue that theattested pattern should be understood as an effect of gradiently evaluated *LAPSE: phoneticallylonger lapses are penalized more severely than shorter ones (§ii). Results from a nonce word ratingtask support this claim (§iii). The broader implication of these results is that the definition of
constraints regulating the distribution of prominences (e.g. *LAPSE) must make reference to finegrained durational information (see also Hayes 1984). Alternatives to the present proposal (e.g.
Davis 1988's) will be discussed and shown to yield a worse fit to the corpus and behavioral data.
(§i) Corpus study. To verify that Nanni's generalization is correct, a corpus was built including
all current –ative forms in the OED with a transcription and frequency information available. I
focus on forms with trochee-final stems, where failure to stress –at- would result in a *LAPSE
violation (e.g. íntegr-ative, n=332). The OED data support Nanni’s (1977) generalization, though
they also reveal variability and additional distinctions among consonant types: –at- is stressed mostfrequently after a cluster (CC), then an obstruent (O), then a sonorant (R), then a vowel (∅).
Preceding cons.
Stressed –atStressless –atRate of –at- stressCC27, e.g. législàtive
1, e.g. ádequative
96% (27/28)
O91, e.g. dépcrecàtive
19, e.g. dúbitative
83% (91/110)
R85, e.g. mútilàtive
65, e.g. spéculative
57% (85/150)∅
21, e.g. annúnciàtive
23, e.g. pálliative
48% (21/44)
A logistic regression fit to the corpus data indicate that the identity of the pre –at- material plays asignificant role in predicting whether or not it bears stress (p < .001), even when other potentiallyrelevant factors (e.g. frequency of the –ative form, frequency of its morphological base, andrelative frequency of the two; cf. Hay 2003; Collie 2007, 2008) are taken into account.
(§ii) Proposal. Why should the rate of –at- stress depend on preceding segmental material? I
propose that the identity of these segments is relevant because -at- stressing is a lapse resolution
strategy (législative violates *LAPSE, while législàtive satisfies it), and the identity of the pre-atmaterial can shorten or lengthen the duration of the lapsed string: all else equal, a string containing
a CC is longer than one containing an O, which is longer than one containing an R, which is longer
than one containing ∅. Under the further assumption that the longer the lapse, the more actively
it's avoided, legislative (with CC) is more likely to bear –at- stress than speculative (R) because
the lapse that would result in legislative, were –at- stressless, would be longer than that in
speculative. For this proposal to be plausible, (a) the phonetic facts must be as this hypothesis
assumes, and (b) speakers of A. English must prefer phonetically shorter lapses to longer lapses.
(§iii) Experiment. A nonce word rating task probed (§iia) and (§iib). The stimuli included 80
stressless -ative forms, with a trochaic beginning (e.g. sóbi-) and one of 20 endings (∅, 4 R, 8 O,
7 CC; followed by –ative). One native A. English speaker recorded the stimuli. Their productions
corroborate (§iia): a change in the pre-at- segment(s) from ∅ to R to O to CC is correlated with anincreased lapse duration (p < .001). These recordings were incorporated into a rating task, whereparticipants (n=50) were presented with auditory and orthographic stimuli and asked to rate themon a scale from 1 (least natural) to 7 (most natural). Corroborating (§iib), forms with longer lapses
had lower ratings (p < .001). Together, these results indicate that the proposal regarding stress in–ative is plausible: the rate of -at- stress observed in the OED is positively correlated with theduration of a potential lapse, and A. English speakers disprefer long lapses relative to shorter ones.

The L-ephant in the room. Lateralisation in vocalised /l/Patrycja Strycharczuk1, Donald Derrick2 & Jason Shaw3
University of Manchester (patrycja.strycharczuk@manchester.ac.uk)1,
University of Canterbury2, Yale University3
Allophonic processes affecting /l/ in English can be modelled in terms of positionallyconditioned variants, ranging from relatively more consonantal (word-initial) to relatively more
vocalic (word-final). This type of distributional pattern is typically the result of a diachronic
positional weakening (lenition) process, but it is less clear when in the process of sound change
the shift in manner happens. /l/-vocalisation is an interesting source of evidence in this context,
because it involves a loss of not one, but two consonantal features: tongue tip raising and tongue
lateralisation. If we see /l/-vocalisation as simply lenition of the tongue tip gesture, we may
expect that the loss of lateralisation will be a later development in the change. In contrast to thisprediction, our data show that decrease in lateralisation is a gradient and persistent feature of TT
reduction in New Zealand English.
We present EMA data from 7 native speakers of NZE from the South Island, where /l/vocalisation is variably found in final position, depending on dialect and speech style (Hay 2008).
The speakers read test items including /l/ preceded by the FLEECE, KIT (which is mid and central
in NZE) or THOUGHT vowel. The morpho-syntactic boundary following /l/ was systematicallyvaried, similar to Sproat and Fujimura (1993). Each speaker read 20 repetitions, which yielded
300 tokens per speaker. For each speaker, five EMA sensors were placed on the tongue surface:
three midsagittal sensors: Tongue Tip (TT), Tongue Body (TB) and Tongue Dorsum (TD), andtwo parasagittal sensors: right (TR) and left (TL). In addition, we placed sensors on the upper andlower lip, on the lower incisor, and on the nasal bridge.
Following Ying et al. (2017), we calculated the Tongue Lateralisation Index for the entire /Vl/duration, quantified as the difference in height between the relatively more lowered parasagittal
sensor (TR.z or TL.z), and the estimated height of the tongue blade in the midsagittal plane along
the same horizontal location as TR and TL. We analysed this variable in normalised time, using
General Additive Mixed Modelling (GAMM).
The GAMM results show that both the timing and the degree of lateralisation vary, dependingon vowel and context. On average, lateralisation reaches its peak early in the vowel (ca. 35% into/Vl/), although it may be relatively delayed in contexts like heal Mick, i.e. in a context for
darkening, when the preceding vowel is high and front. The maximum degree of lateralisation isgreater for /ɔː/ compared to /iː/, but within vowel, relatively lighter /l/s (e.g. word-initial) shows
more lateralisation compared to darker ones (e.g. word-final).
We propose that the vowel effects we find are due to a link between lateralisation and dorsal
retraction (Sproat and Fujimura 1993). While the prosodic effects seem to contradict this link(there is less lateralisation in word-final /l/), they can be explained as a gradual loss oflateralisation, conditioned by final /l/-vocalisation. This is further supported by results frommixed-effects regression modeling of peak TT magnitude, depending on peak lateralisation,
vowel, context and context within speaker. The average magnitude of TT gesture decreases inword-final pre-consonantal /l/, and it is also highly variable in this context. Furthermore,lateralisation interacts with context: it is correlated with TT magnitude, particularly in the context
for vocalisation (Vl#C).
Our data suggest that lateralisation begins to decrease as soon as there is reduction in TT
contact. A possible interpretation of this correlation is that lateralisation is mechanically coupledwith TT raising. This view, however, is challenged by the dynamic patterns in our data:
lateralisation tends to reach its peak value early in V1, consistently preceding TT raising.
Assuming the connection is not a mechanical one, /l/-vocalisation appears to track therelationship between multiple articulatory components. This supports an interpretation of
vocalisation as a gradient, multi-dimensional shift in manner, rather than weakening sensu stricto.

The Tonal Patterns of Reduplication in Standard Chinese
Yanyan Sui Nankai University yanyansui@nankai.edu.cn
Issue: The reduplication in Standard Chinese (SC) exhibits three basic tonal patterns,
represented by diminutive, intensifying and delimitative reduplications. In diminutive
reduplication, the reduplicant is toneless, the Low tone in the base does not undergo tone
sandhi, e.g., lǎo lao ‘maternal grandma’ . In intensifying reduplication, the reduplicant
has the same tone as the base, and tone sandhi applies regularly, e.g., lán lǎn ‘very lazy’ .
Whereas in delimitative reduplication, the reduplicant is toneless, but tone sandhi applies tothe base, e.g., zóu (/zǒu/) zou ‘to take a walk’ .
Background: Packard (1998) and Xu (2001) are representative endeavours to account for the
tonal properties of reduplication from the perspective of Lexical Phonology and Morphology(Kiparsky 1982, Mohanan 1982, 1986). Xu (2001) orders the two phonological rules of tone
sandhi and tone deletion differently depending on the level of word formation. Mandarin
word formation processes are divided into two levels. In Level one, tone deletion applies
before tone sandhi, hence blocks tone sandhi to occur in diminutive reduplication. Whereas inLevel two, tone sandhi precedes tone deletion, therefore, in delimitative reduplication tone
sandhi applies to the Low tone in the base before the conditioning Low tone in the reduplicant
is deleted, which gives rise to the opacity of the application of tone sandhi in the base.
Xu’s analysis cannot distinguish between delimitative and intensifying reduplications,since the latter does not undergo tone deletion. In addition, the purely lexical analysis is not
sufficient to explain the incompatibility of delimitative reduplication and resultative verbs.
Proposal: Reduplication is an interface study of grammar. The distinct tonal patterns in
reduplication are manifestations of the interaction between multiple modules of grammar.
Analysis: Semantically, (i) the syntactic distribution of intensifying reduplication overlapsthat of the degree word hěn ‘very’ . Degree morphemes cannot co-occur with reduplicatedadjectives, hěn gāo ‘very-tall’  versus *hěn gāo gāo (Chao 1968, Lü et al. 1980, Zhang
2015). Moreover, neither hěn ‘very’  nor intensifying reduplication can occur incomparative or superlative constructions (Chao 1968, Zhang 2015). (ii) Delimitative
reduplication is sensitive to the aspectual structure of the base verb. Only verbs that lack aninherent result state may undergo delimitative reduplication, and delimitative reduplication isincompatible with progressive and durative aspects. Moreover, the base and the reduplicant
can be interrupted by yī ‘one’ and the perfective aspect marker -le, which is inconsistent with
the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (Jackendoff 1972, Huang 1984, Selkirk 1986).
We adopt the syntactic analyses proposed by Zhang (2015) for intensifying reduplication
and by Arcodia et al. (2014) and Basciano & Melloni (2017) for delimitative reduplication torepresent the reduplicant and the base in different syntactic positions. In addition,
extrasyntactic operations are necessary in order to explain the distinct tonal patterns in
reduplication. In particular, diminutive reduplication is derivational affixation, intensifying
reduplication is compounding, and delimitative reduplication is inflectional affixation.
Affixation triggers tone deletion in the reduplicant. Meanwhile, the morphosyntactic
processes are subject to phonological constraints.
Conclusion: Phonology interfaces with morphology in reduplication in a transparent way,
faithfully reflecting the morphological differences in various types of reduplication by
maintaining distinct phonological patterns in the reduplication output.

A Natural Turn of Evenks
Christian Uffmann, HHU Düsseldorf
Background: The classic SPE view that features are grounded in phonetics has recently
come under attack, most notably by Mielke (2008), who argues that features only definephonological classhood, and that the interface to phonetics thus has to be sought elsewhere.
Crucial to his argument is the existence of phonetically unnatural classes of sounds that arephonologically active. Particularly striking here are what Mielke calls ‘crazy’ classes ofsounds, a notorious example of which is found in Evenki (Tungusic).
Data: In Evenki, suffix-initial v, s, g become homorganic nasals if preceded by a nasal (seeexamples in (1)). Mielke argues that, given the inventory in (2), these do not form a naturalclass of sounds that could be captured by a single phonetically grounded distinctive feature.
Proposal: This talk will argue that these sounds do indeed form a natural class once thecontrastive function of features is also taken into account, allowing for underspecified
representations. It argues that v, s, g (and j) form a class of underspecified continuants. The
process of nasalisation is motivated by a constraint against nasal+continuant clusters. Thisrequires, however, not to look at an isolated process but at the whole phonological system of
Evenki and the constraints operating on it (including other processes and phonotactic
restrictions) and also to look more closely at the phonetic realisation (and variability) of thesesounds. We ultimately propose the revised inventory in (3).
Analysis: We argue that g is indeed a continuant, and that there is independent evidence that
it forms a natural class with v, s, j. Indeed, g is [ɣ] intervocalically and word-finally, which
can be shown to be underlying (and [g] is derived). It shows similar contextual variation withv; both have sonorant realisations and harden in onsets. v, g are also exempt from anotherwise general ban against final voiced obstruents (Konstantinova 1964, Nedjalkov 1996).
Moreover, in cluster phonotactics (Bojcova 1966) v, g, s don’t behave like obstruents. Notethe inclusion of j in this class although it does not trigger nasalisation. However, the resulting
nasal [ɲ] is systematically banned from clusters. After nasals, suffix-initial j is deleted instead,i.e subject to the same phonotactic constraint, although a different repair is chosen.
Discussion: v, s, g behave as a class in different contexts, and they are phonetically not as
distinct as a superficial analysis may suggest. We will analyse the Evenki consonant system
in a version of the Parallel Structures model of Feature Geometry (Moren 2003, Iosad 2012)
and Optimality Theory, arguing that a ‘myopic’ look at individual processes is insufficient todetermine whether they are natural or unnatural. Instead, we call for a more holistic view ofphonology that takes the notion of contrast in a system more seriously.
(1) Nasal assimilation in Evenki (examples from Konstantinova 1964, Boldyrev 2007):bira-vaɟu-sunile-git‘river (acc.def.)’‘your (pl.) house’‘human (elative)’(2) Evenki consonants (Mielke 2008)

but
but
but

laaŋ-meoron-nun
kurim-ŋit

(3) Reanalysis‘trap (acc.def.)’‘your (pl.) reindeer’‘wedding (elative)’

Prevocalic Tenseness in English, Binarity and the Typology of Long Vowel Distributions
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn (CNRS Paris 8, UCL) & Katalin Balogné-Bérces (PPCU)This presentation connects the process of Prevocalic Tenseness (PT) with Current Southern British
English’s place in the broader typology of long vowel (Vː) distribution. The analysis of PT is couched in
the framework of Strict CV, but the presentation is of broader interest to other frameworks because of (a)our proposed typology of Vː distributions and (b) the novel mechanism by which this typological variation
is formally accounted for: parameter hierarchies (Ulfsbjorninn 2017; Benz & Ulfsbjorninn 2018; of the same
type as used for syntax Baker 2001; Biberauer et al. 2013; Biberauer & Roberts 2014; Sheehan 2014).
Prevocalic Tenseness is an exceptionless static distribution which subsequently interacted withmonophthongisation. In English, only ‘tense’ (long) monophthongs /iː, uː/ precede schwa. This reveals acontrast between diphthongs and V+schwa hiatuses: (a) [lɪə] → [lɪː] ‘Lear/leer’ vs. [liːə] ‘Leah’ & (b) [ʃʊə]→ [ʃoː] ‘sure’ vs. [suːə] ‘sewer’. A priori, Strict CV cannot distinguish diphthongs from hiatuses or VC
sequences due to its recasting of constituency into flat dependency (Scheer 2013). However, this data
demands an interpretation of this contrast. The key question is: why should monophthongisation affectV+schwa and not Vː+schwa? The data suggests that only binary vocalic spreading is possible, but thisdoesn’t follow from the general distributional restrictions on Vːs. As we will demonstrate typologically, if alanguage allows Vːs then it universally allows Vːs preceding filled Vs (e.g. [baːra]) (cf. Yoshida 1993; Kaye
1995; Scheer 2004). In any other position, Vː is marked and its distribution is parametrised according tothree independent core environments: (a) Medial Empty Nucleus (MEN) [baːmØpi], (b) Final Empty
Nucleus (FEN) [baːmØ], or (c) nothing [bamaː].
(1) Parameter hierarchy for long vowels (English settings shown in bold underline)Vː prec Filled V(baːma, baːmana)
yes
no

None

yes

(bamaː)no(baːm)
yes
no

FEN

MEN

yes
no

(baːmpa)

In English, a vowel may spread to any V position that is (a) licensed by a filled vowel, (b) in absolute wordfinal position, or (c) before FEN, but not before a MEN. This implies that there would be nothing improper
about having ternary monophthongisation of hiatus sequences. One way to restrict this sequence is to impose
a binary limit on spreading. The most economical way is to have this limit piggy-back on a pre-existing
representational condition. We propose the (Strict CV) mechanism for quantity: Incorporation(Ulfsbjorninn 2014) (a) Filled V1 = V1* (* is a grid mark) (b) Filled V1 prec Empty V2 = V1**). In English
there are only two degrees of quantity: Heavy (VC, VV) > Light (V), despite there also being ‘superheavy’rimes (VVC) (Harris 1994). No phonological behaviour identifies VVCs as phonologically heavier than heavy
rimes. That is to say, there is no third weight category. Incorporation in English is binary. Having
established that, English PT results from assuming that vowels can only spread into incorporated positions(also required for Palestinian (Faust & Ulfsbjorninn to appear)). Accordingly, diphthongs are incorporation
domains and correspondingly have permitted their V2 to be subject to spreading: [lɪː] ‘leer’ in (2a), while
the V3 of hiatus sequences has fallen outside of the domain of incorporation: [liːə] ‘Leah’ in (2b).

(2) a.

b.

*)α
*

C
|

V1

l

ɪ

*)α

*)α

C

V2
ə

*

C
|

V1

l

i

*)α

C

V2

C

V3

*

ə

Phonological domain paradoxes in Indonesian: A stratal analysis
Joanna Zaleska (joanna.zaleska@uni-leipzig.de), University of Leipzig

In Standard Indonesian (SI; Lapoliwa 1981), suffixes seem ‘closer’ than prefixes to lexical roots
for some phonological processes but for others, this relation is reversed. I argue that unlike
the well-known phonology-morphology/semantic bracketing paradoxes (Cohn 1989; Cohn &McCarthy 1994), this type of mismatch is not amenable to a fully parallel analysis. I propose
an account couched in Stratal Optimality Theory (Kiparsky 2000, 2015; Bermúdez-Otero 2011,2012) in which both prosodic and cyclic-stratal domains limit segmental processes, providing aunified account for both types of data while maintaining the Indirect Reference Hypothesis.
In SI, some phonological processes take as their domain the lexical root plus suffix but fail toapply across the prefix-root boundary. These include (i) intervocalic glide insertion, which applies
within morphemes and across root-sufix boundaries, (1a) but not across prefix-root boundaries,
where a glottal stop is inserted (Cohn 1989: 192); and (ii) stress placement, which falls on the
penultimate syllable from the right edge of a suffixed word, (2a), unless the penultimate syllable
is a prefix, in which case the root is stressed, (2b; Lapoliwa 1981: 32–33,128).
a. /diam/b. /di+ambil/ [di"Pambil] ‘taken’(1)["dijam]‘quiet’/hari+an/[ha"rijan]‘daily’/di+aÃari/ [diPa"Ãari] ‘taught’
a. /bodoh/b. /di+tik/ [di"tik](2)["bodoh]‘stupid’‘typed’/k@+bodoh+an/ [k@bo"dohan] ‘stupidity’
Other processes, such as nasal place assimilation, take as their domain the prefix plus lexicalroot, (3a), but fail to apply across the root-suffix boundary, (3b; Lapoliwa 1981: 106–107).
[m@ñÃ@mpUt]‘to fetch’(3)a. /m@N+Ã@mput/[m@yakinkan]‘to convince’b. /m@N+yakin+kan/
Furthermore, nasal substitution (fusion of a nasal with a voiceless stop) applies at the prefix-rootboundary, but not between prefixes, the root-suffix boundary or root-reduplicant boundary.
My analysis adopts the prosodic structure of Indonesian words proposed by Cohn (1989),
where the left edge of the lexical root coincides (4) Simple
Reduplicatedwith the left edge of the prosodic word (!), with!
!
!
prefixes adjoined to the clitic phrase () andsuffixes incorporated into the leftmost !, (4).
However, in contrast to Cohn, I assume that prosk@ a diP Pa di kan
m@ ya kin kan
odic structure is built incrementally, together
prefix root
RED suffix
prefix root suffix
with morphological structure. Finally, I combine
Pater’s (1999) and (2001) analyses of nasal substitution, viewing it as the cumulative effect of*NC and C RISP E DGE (CE; Itô & Mester 1999). The analysis proceeds as follows.
˚ LEVEL: A ! (dominating a right-aligned foot) is built over the entire lexical root, due the
ROOT
A LIGN(RT,L,!,L) and A LIGN(RT,R,!,R) constraints (Trommer 2011: 64).
S TEM LEVEL: Prefixes are added. They are adjoined directly to the -node, due to a highranked faithfulness constraint, FAITH(!↔[•) protecting the left edge of a prosodic word. A
S HARE(P LACE)NC constraint triggers nasal place assimilation. Across prefix-root boundaries,
this incurs a violation of CE, whose cumulative interaction with *NC causes nasal substitution
˚
when the lexical root begins with a voiceless segment.
W ORD LEVEL: The reduplicative morpheme and suffixes are added. With nasal substitution having applied at the previous stratum, its overapplication in reduplication forms (e.g.
/m@N+karaN+karaN/ → [m@NaraN NaraN] ‘to make up’) follows automatically. With the rightedge equivalent of F TH(!↔[•) low-ranked, the prosodic word can be extended rightwards
to include suffixes. The position of the foot is readjusted, resulting in penultimate primarystress. S HR(P L)NC is demoted, which correctly predicts the lack of nasal assimilation or nasal
substitution across root-reduplicant and root-suffix boundaries (an improvement over Pater
2001, where an *NC repair is predicted in, e.g. /t@r+potoN+potoN/ [t@rpotoN potON] ‘to be
˚ insertion repairs O NSET violations within !s but not across prefix-!
cut into pieces’). Glideboundaries due to CE (P-insertion applies at the S ENTENCE L EVEL; Cohn & McCarthy 1994).

Loanword specific prosody as minimal constraint re-ranking
Draga Zec, Cornell University
dz17@cornell.edu
In this paper we propose an analysis of loanword patterning in Standard Serbian characterized by
an idiosyncratic distribution of pitch accents that departs from the native phonological system,
yet is in no obvious way related to any of the donor languages.
Loanword classes that we focus on here emerge within the prosodic system of Standard
Serbian, characterized by H(igh) tone and stress (Browne&McCawley 1965, Lehiste&Ivić 1986,
Inkelas&Zec 1988, Smiljanić 2002). H is lexically governed and can occur on any syllable in a
lexical form, while the occurrence of stress is predictable from the locus of H. Crucially, H andstress co-occur when H is on the initial syllable (1a), and occupy contiguous syllables in all othercases (1b). (Stress is designated by a vertical bar, and H tone by an H subscript on the TBU.)(1)a. 'va H tra ‘fire’, 'ja H goda ‘strawberry’, 'pra H vedan ‘just’, 'o H morina ‘heat’b. 'voda H ‘water’, ra'mena H ‘shoulders’, 'mara H ma ‘scarf’, ru'kavi H ca ‘glove’
We note two loanword specific prosodic classes: LClass A (2), in which H and stressinvariably co-occur on the same syllable, and LClass B (3), in which stress falls on the syllable
immediately preceding the H toned one only when that syllable is word initial (3a), otherwise,
stress co-occurs with H (3b):(2) LClass A: fre'kve H ntan ‘frequent’, ade'kva H tan ‘adequate’, ambu'la H nta ‘clinic’(3) LClass B: a. 'stude H nt ‘student’, 'promo H cija ‘promotion’, 'dikta H tor ‘dictator’b. asi'ste H nt ‘assistant’, inves'ti H cija ‘investment’, provo'ka H tor ‘provocateur’
In the proposed OT analysis (following Zec&Zsiga 2017), the standard pattern is
prosodically circumscribed by three undominated constraints, which insure the faithfulness oflexical H (4), the trochaic foot shape (5), and the inclusion of lexical H in the head foot (6):(4) IDENTHIGH Correspondent tones must be identical. (5) FOOTFORM: TROCHEE (syllabic)(6) HDPROSWD/H: The foot that corresponds to the head of the prosodic word contains H.
Among the dominated constraints, (7) and (8) regulate the locus of H within the foot. Cooccurrence of H and stress is penalized by (7), and their separation is penalized by (8). Constraint(9), here non-gradient (Kager 2005), captures the unmarkedness of word initial stress.
(7) *HD/H
Foot head may not be associated with H.
(8) *NONHD/H Foot non-head may not be associated with H.
(9) ALIGNPRWD/LEFT Align the left edge of a prosodic word with the left edge of a foot.
With the ranking in (10), *NONHD/H is violated in forms with non-initial lexical H (1b), and*HD/H is violated in forms with initial H (1a) (in order to avoid violating one of the undominatedconstraints). ALIGNPRWD/LEFT, violated in forms with non-initial stress, does not affect theoverall outcome.
(10) HDPROWD/H, IDENT-H, TROCHEE >> *HD/H >> *NONHD/H >> ALIGNPRWD/LEFT
Significantly, the two loanword patterns emerge from a factorial typology of the dominated(boxed) constraints in (10), which yields six rankings, and three co-phonologies, as in (11).
(11) Three co-phonologies: (i) = Standard Serbian; (ii) = LClass A; (iii) = LClass B(i) *HD/H>>*NONHD/H>>ALIGNPRWD/LEFT; *HD/H>>ALIGNPRWD/LEFT>>*NONHD/H;
ALIGNPRWD/LEFT >> *HD/H >> *NONHD/H(ii) *NONHD/H >>*HD/H >>ALIGNPRWD/LEFT; *NONHD/H>>ALIGNPRWD/LEFT>>*HD/H(iii) ALIGNPRWD/LEFT >> *NONHD/H >> *HD/H
While in both loanword classes *NONHD/H outranks *HD/H, imposing the co-occurrence of H
and stress, the ranking of ALIGNPRWD/LEFT in LClass B further occasions their separation.
To conclude, the two loanword patterns presented here both depart from the standard system,
but do so by virtue of exploiting system internal potentials for minimal constraint re-rankings.

On the Acquisition of European Portuguese Liquid Consonants by Chinese Learners
Chao Zhou1, Maria João Freitas1 & Adelina Castelo2,1
1

University of Lisbon, Centre of Linguistics / 2Macao Polytechnic Institutezhouchao@campus.ul.pt, joaofreitas@letras.ulisboa.pt & adelina.castelo@ipm.edu.mo

The acquisition of non-native liquid consonants has been a topic under discussion in L2
speech research (Aoyama et al., 2004; Brown, 1998; Face, 2006, Colantoni & Steele, 2007,
among many others). Despite the references showing the difficulties exhibited by Chinese
learners acquiring these segments in European Portuguese (EP) (Batalha, 1995; Espadinha &Silva, 2009; Martins, 2008; Nunes, 2015; Oliveira, 2016), as far as we know, no previous
work has systematically analyzed the L2 acquisition of EP liquids.
According to Mateus et al. (2016), EP shows four liquids, /l/ (phonetically realized as [l]in onset singletons and clusters, as [ɫ] in codas), /ʎ/ (singletons), /ɾ/ (singletons, onset clusters
or codas), and /ʀ/ (singletons, mostly produced as fricatives [ʁ], [χ] and [x]; Rennicke &Martins, 2013; Rodrigues, 2015). Meanwhile, Mandarin Chinese (MC) only exhibits /l/(singletons) and /ɻ/ (singletons and codas) (Duanmu, 2005; Lin, 2007) in its segmental
inventory.
This study examined the production of EP liquids by fourteen B1 level MC speakers
through a picture naming task eliciting the target segments in all possible syllable andword-level positions; phonetic transcriptions were performed by 3 researchers and acoustic
analysis was undertaken to assist the transcription of non-native productions.
The results, discussed in the light of the relationship between segmental and prosodic
levels (Nespor & Vogel, 2007), show that, in the interphonology of these learners: /l/ is stablein singletons (100% target-like) due to the positive transfer from MC. However, it is very
often vocalized in codas (only 16.7% target-like production, [ɫ]), which might be attributed toa phonetically based tendency (Borowsky, 2001; Graham, 2017; Recasens, 1996). The highaccuracy (97% target-like) of /l/ in onset clusters, an absent structure in the L1, can be theresult of the heterosyllabic nature of EP obstruent-liquid sequences (Veloso, 2006) or of theassociation of two segments to a single skeletal position, which was also argued as anintermediate stage in EP L1 acquisition (Freitas, 2003). /ʎ/ is still under acquisition (52.4%
target-like), and is produced as a L1 category [lj], due to the acoustic and the articulatory
similarity between [ʎ] and [lj]. As for /ɾ/, it is not acquired in onsets (39% target-like insingletons, 51.2% in clusters), because the participants fail to notice the difference between /ɾ/and /l/; the fact that the feature [+lateral], which serves to distinguish /ɾ/ from /l/ in EP(Mateus & Andrade, 2000), is redundant in CM may account for this failure. Nevertheless, /ɾ/is accurately produced in 69% of the cases in coda. We argue that the relatively high accuracy
is driven by the input’s phonetic properties, namely the consistent production of target coda /ɾ/by native EP speakers, as opposed to onset /ɾ/ (Zhou et al., submitted). This input consistency
in coda may thus contribute to an early categorization of /ɾ/ in this syllable position; /ʀ/ isalready acquired (81% target-like), and this may be due to the fact that MC learners are
sensitive to its fricative nature and thus realize it as [x], which is available in MC’s inventory.
Our results demonstrate that not all L2 segments are equally difficult for non-native learners
and that it is crucial to adopt a phonetically based phonological approach to understand theacquisition of L2 phonological categories.

The Gradience of Ghosts: An Account of Unstable Segments
Eva Zimmermann, University of British Columbia
Eva.Zimmermann@uni-leipzig.de

Main Claim Ghost segments are best analysed as weakly active elements. This account predicts
that 1) both phonological and lexical factors can contribute to the realization of a ghost elementand 2) that ghost segments only gradiently contribute to markedness if they surface.
Ghost segments Ghost segments alternate with zero and only surface if their realization either
solves a markedness problem or does not create a new markedness problem (Archangeli, 2011).
An example for the former type can be found in Catalan (Bonet et al., 2007) where for masculine nouns, an /u/ is realized to avoid a sibilant cluster (vs. regular epenthetic /@/). In addition,an arbitrary class of masculine nouns always surface with this additional /u/, independently of
any markedness. The masculine suffix can hence be analysed as a ghost segment /u/ that only
surfaces if it avoids a marked structure or receives lexical support from certain nouns.
An example for the second type of ghost (1)V__C__segments is found in Ahousaht (Kim, a. /–(q)umì/ ‘round’Patìa–qumì tì’is–umì
2003a,b) where certain suffixes begin b./–(k)ìa:/ ‘to be called’ Pu–kìa:kwis–ìa:with consonants that only surface postvocalically (1). The non-realization of the unstable consonants thus avoids a marked structure: a coda for (C)V-suffixes (1-a: */tì’isqumì/) and a complex coda for (C)CV-suffixes (1-b:*/kwiskìa:/). Both structures are possible outside the context of ghost consonants in Ahousaht.
Analysis Under the assumption of Gradient Symbolic Representations, phonological elements
can have different degrees of presence in underlying representations, expressed as numericalactivities (Smolensky and Goldrick, 2016; Rosen, 2016). Deletion of a weakly active element
hence does not violate M AX to the same degree as deletion of a fully active element does.
Together with the assumption of Harmonic Grammar (Legendre et al., 1990), gradient activity
predicts the typology of unstable segments. The /–u/ in Catalan is taken to be weakly active andhence only realized if it reduces markedness violations or receives additional lexical activity.
The latter is taken to be another weakly active /u/ in the representation of those nouns that always
surface with /u/. These two weak elements can then coalesce in order to pass the realizationthreshold. The weak consonants in Ahousaht, on the other hand, are only realized if they do
not cause further markedness violations. Since M AX is only violated by -0.5 if a weakly active
segment remains unrealized, this deletion is the preferred option to avoid a coda (cf. (2)) or
coda cluster. Under the new assumption that elements can retain their weak activity in the
output, a ghost segment only violates markedness constraints gradiently (-0.5x*C OD in (3)).
The asymmetry that ghost segments are avoided if they would ‘push’ a base segment into thecoda (2) but are realized if they end up as coda themselves (3) hence straightforwardly falls out.
(2)/–(C)V/: Coda avoided(3)/–(C)CV/: Coda tolerated
tì1 i1 s1 –q0.5 u1 m1 ì1a.
+ b.

tì1 i1 s1 .q0.5 u1 m1 ì1
tì1 i1 .s1 u1 m1 ì1

M AX
20
-0.5

*C OD
14
-2
-1

P1 u1 –k0.5 ì1 a:1
-28
-24

+ a.
b.

P1 u1 k0.5 .ì1 a:1
P1 u1 .ì1 a:1

M AX
20
-0.5

*C OD
14
-0.5

-7
-10

Alternative accounts Both the interaction of phonological and lexical support for ghost segments (=Catalan) and the gradient markedness of ghost segments (=Ahousaht) cannot be analysed under the assumption that unstable segments are phonologically defective and lack, for example, a segmental root node (Archangeli, 1983, 1991; Hyman, 1985; Szypra, 1992; Zoll, 1998,
2001) or that there are listed allomorphs for those morphemes (Bonet et al., 2007). In Ahousaht,
the constraint preferring non-realization of the unstable segment (e.g. D EP ROOT N ODE under adefectivity account or P RIORITY under an allomorphy account) must be ranked/weighted above
N O C ODA for (1-a) but below N O C ODA for (1-b) – a ranking/weighting paradox emerges.

Poster papers

kkt and ɡkd in English: Evidence for Coronal-Velar Stops
Samuel Andersson, samuel.j.andersson@gmail.com, Yale University
Introduction I aim to show that there is phonological and acoustic evidence for doublyarticulated coronal-velar stops kkt, ɡkd as allophones of /k, ɡ/ in some British Englishes. This
type of double articulation was previously attested only in clicks (Ladefoged and Maddieson
1996). Within Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins 2004, 2006, et seqq.), I suggest that coronalvelars arose from misperception (ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ) and reanalysis (ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ) of other realizations of /kl,
ɡl/ clusters, such as [kl, ɡl] and, importantly, [tl, dl] (Blevins and Grawunder 2009, henceforth
BG). Strikingly, one also finds /kl/ realized as [ᵏǁʰl]. A voiceless aspirated lateral click isformed due to overlap between coronal and velar movements for [kktl] (cf. Fuchs, Koenig, andWinkler 2007). The implications for phonological typology are discussed.
Data
BG show that the pronunciations [tl, dl] for [kl, ɡl] used to be widespread in
the UK and the US, and list perceptual and articulatory factors favoring coronals in thisenvironment. Both sets of variants are attested in a corpus of 2017 recordings of BBC sportscommentators from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. 1 A pool of variation
including velar and coronal tokens has led to the innovation of a third variant: some tokens
with coronal release have a preceding velar constriction. (1) shows [əkktlɒk] o'clock, with acharacteristic 'velar pinch' on the [ə] (cf. (2)). Phonologically, /n/ can assimilate to [ŋ] before
coronal-velars: [faɪŋ kktlɒθs] fine cloths. Preliminary analysis suggests that the duration ofthese consonants is comparable to that found for plain stops (see (1-2)), and they only show asingle release burst (see (1)), supporting an interpretation with complex segments kkt and ɡkd.
ClicksOverlapping coronal and velar gestures at word boundaries are known to giverise to weak clicks in several languages (see Fuchs et al. 2007 and references therein). In thepresent dataset, the clicks resulting from such overlap are very salient acoustically. I attribute
this to the high degree of overlap between coronal and velar gestures in kkt, as compared to theoverlap in the sequences like …k#t… studied by Fuchs et al. (2007). There is no need, then,for a phonological process turning /k/ into [ᵏǁʰ]. Acoustically salient clicks are otherwise neverused linguistically “in any ordinary languages outside of Africa” (Ladefoged and Maddieson
1996: 246), and virtually nothing is known about their origins (Blevins 2004: 194-197).
Although the English [ᵏǁʰ] has not been phonologized, the data show the necessary
preconditions for a regular sound change creating clicks from non-clicks.
Conclusions The work reported here argues for the existence of kkt and ɡkd in varieties ofEnglish. The phonetic implementation of these stops sometimes involves acoustically salient
clicks, which are also vanishingly rare crosslinguistically. Without these varieties of English,
we would have no evidence for (pulmonic egressive) coronal-velars as a possible segment
type, and no evidence for non-clicks becoming clicks as a possible alternation. This caseillustrates a more general point: the absence of a property in the languages currently known tolinguists need not imply that this property should be ruled out by Universal Grammar, nor thattheories which predict it to exist must be restricted for reasons of overgeneration.

1 Diagnostic criteria for coronals were taken from BG, and include spectral properties of the release burst, andauditory impression. In addition to this, formant transitions on the preceding vowel were used.

Patterns of s-retraction in Manchester English: Investigating categoricity with ultrasoundGeorge Bailey & Stephen Nichols, University of Manchester&;2Q`;2X#BH2v- bi2T?2MXMB+?QHb' ! KM+?2bi2`X+XmF
This investigation of Manchester English (McrE) uses ultrasound tongue imaging to examine
the articulation of s-retraction in /stɹ/ and /stj/ clusters. Our results reveal inter-speaker variation
with respect to whether retraction in these environments is gradient or categorical in nature.
S-retraction is comparatively under-studied in British English and work has relied solely on
acoustic data (e.g. Bass 2009, Sollgan 2013). Ultrasound enables us to ascertain a better articulatory picture; this is especially important given that the same acoustic signal can be achieved
through different articulatory means (e.g. Mielke et al. 2017 on covert articulation of /ɹ/).
In contrast, it is relatively well-studied in American English (AmE; e.g. Durian 2007, Gylfadottir 2015, Wilbanks 2017), where it has been argued that retraction is triggered non-locallyby /ɹ/ (Shapiro 1995). These studies have also principally been based on acoustic data, with thenotable exception of ultrasound studies by Mielke et al. (2010) and Baker et al. (2011).
However, our results suggest that, in McrE, /ɹ/ is not the direct cause of retraction, nor is it
the only indirect source due to comparable behaviour in /stj/, a cluster notably absent in thesecontexts in AmE. Although we find inter-speaker variation with respect to the gradience or categoricity of retraction, /stɹ/ and /stj/ appear to pattern together.
In this study, articulatory data were collected using ultrasound tongue imaging alongsideaudio recordings. Five repetitions of each target word were elicited in a carrier sentence. The
stimuli were all monosyllabic with target segments in word-initial position and were balanced
for the following vowel (/iː uː ɒ/), with the exception of /stj/, which only occurs before /uː/ andfor which two target words were disyllabic (student, stupid). Distractor items began with /s/, /ʃ/,/st/, /tʃ/, /tj/, /tɹ/ and /ɹ/. The /s/- and /ʃ/-initial words were used to gauge the degree of retraction
in target clusters.

0

0

Type
/ʃu/
/stju//stɹu/
/stu/
/su/

10

20

Predicted y-value

Predicted y-value

-10

Type
/ʃu/
/stju//stɹu/
/stu/
/su/

20

30

40
-20

0

x-value

20

40

-25

0

x-value

25

50

Figure 1: SS-ANOVAs for M01 (left) and F01 (right)

Results from 6 subjects (2M, 4F; aged 18–26; mean age 22) reveal inter-speaker variation; speakers fall into two broad groups, as illustrated by the SS-ANOVA curves in Figure 1. Some speakers exhibit categorical retraction in /stɹ/ and /stj/ contexts in addition to gradient retraction in /st/,while others exhibit only gradient retraction in /stɹ/ and /stj/ and no retraction in /st/. In the latterpattern, retraction is actually more advanced in /stj/ than /stɹ/, which we suggest stems from thecoalescence of underlying /tj/ and the categorical nature of the palatalisation to [tʃ].
The fact that all speakers, whether gradient or categorical, produce retraction for /stɹ/ and/stj/ shows that the explanation for s-retraction in AmE is not applicable to McrE. Rather than/ɹ/ being the direct trigger (see Baker et al. 2011), we instead suggest that both /ɹ/ and /j/ trigger
affrication of the preceding /t/, which in turn causes retraction of /s/.
Future work will also examine word-internal /stɹ/ and /stj/ clusters as well as the effects ofword and morpheme boundaries and other factors such as speech rate.

Bidirectional learning explains tone typology
Jeroen Breteler & Paul Boersma ⇥ University of Amsterdam ⇥ j.m.w.breteler@uva.nl

Introduction In many tone languages, tone spreads or shifts. We collectively refer to thisas “tonal reassociation” (TR). Previous work by the first author developed a constraint-based
analytical framework for TR patterns. The analyses use foot structure; feet act as tone licensors,causing tone to reassociate to footed positions (Kang 1997). The framework successfully
accounted for attested TR patterns, but also generated some types of unattested patterns. Here,we continue this research by involving learnability simulations.
Studying the learnability of TR is a worthwhile technical challenge, and one that has notbeen the subject of any previous work. TR patterns can be highly complex (Jardine 2016);
surface forms often differ starkly from their corresponding lexical forms, and neutralizationis common. In addition, in our foot–tone framework, learners have to deal with structural
ambiguity both in terms of feet and autosegmental structure. A second motivation in this study
relates to TR typology. If attested TR patterns are favored in learning over unattested patterns,
then the overgeneration of the foot–tone framework can be explained away by learnability(Boersma 2003; Staubs 2014; Stanton 2016).
Methods We have used the online, error-driven Gradual Learning Algorithm (GLA,
Boersma & Hayes 2001). We ran 100 learning trials for each of 11 patterns (5 attested,
6 unattested). We kept much of the representational structure hidden; virtual learners were
presented with adult example pairs of a “meaning” form containing only some morphologicalinformation, and an impoverished surface phonological form. Learners had to decidethemselves about all surface and lexical structure for both tones and feet (Apoussidou 2007).
Findings TR patterns are learnable: an average of 78% of virtual learners converged
successfully for the attested patterns. The learnability results also fit with typology: the average
convergence rate for unattested patterns was only 23%. Interestingly, the learning success andthe typological fit depend crucially on our use of two underexplored choices in online, errordriven learning simulations: bidirectional error detection and harmonic bounding avoidance.
Bidirectionality In previous literature, the learner typically only updates its grammar
when it has found an error in its production-direction behavior. In our approach, errors fromthe comprehension direction are also used for learning (Boersma 2011). This bidirectionality oferror detection is crucial; using only production errors, the success rate for attested patterns falls
from an average 78% to 38%, while unattested patterns don’t have a major change in average
rates, meaning that the overall typological fit of the results is also weakened. We also tested
learning using only comprehension errors (Hamann et al. 2009). This resulted in a 0% successrate for all patterns. This shows that there is added value in considering errors in both directions
in tandem, and that bidirectionality is key to learning success and typological explanation.
Harmonic bounding Another crucial choice is that we did not include productiondirection harmonically bounded candidates in G EN. We term this “harmonic bounding
avoidance”. Simulations with a G EN that does include all candidates show a dramatic 62% pt
drop in average success rate for the attested patterns, and a 12% pt drop for unattested ones.
Conclusion We have shown that foot-based analyses of a class of complex tone patterns
are learnable, even when lexical and surface phonological structure are hidden. In addition,
we have enhanced the typological account of the foot-based framework by showing thatsimilar analyses for a class of representable but unattested tone patterns are not learnable.
Methodologically, our results have revealed the importance of bidirectional error detection andharmonic bounding avoidance.

Sound change as a function of experimental setting: methodological and theoretical issues
Karolina Broś, University of Warsaw
k.bros@uw.edu.pl

According to the lifecycle of phonological processes (Bermúdez-Otero & Trousdale 2012),
phonological innovations go through a series of stages, from spontaneous phonetic changes,
through cognitively controlled processes to full-fledged phonological rules applied in specified
domains. This can be observed synchronically in cross-dialectal variation. Also, some speakers
may present more advanced changes compared to other speakers of the same variety. In thisstudy, however, I analyse different stages of ongoing language change presented by the same
speakers that do not happen at random, but rather as a function of the modality they use. This
is of importance as variable realisations of the same sounds by the same speakers governed bycircumstances show sound change in progress and inform about the current/established outputs
vs. the outputs the dialect is transitioning to. Moreover, the circumstances in which variation isobserved give us insight into an issue that has been largely neglected in phonologicalinvestigations: the way our data gathering methodology affects our observations and analyses.
The data are based on the speech of 6 native speakers of Canarian Spanish whose
spontaneous productions were recorded during interview-based fieldwork. A few months later,
the same speakers took part in a controlled experiment consisting of a repetition and a readingtask. Not surprisingly, speakers present a more radical version of consonant weakening in
spontaneous productions, yet the differences are not random but structured in accordance withthe well-known lenition patterns, and systematic between the two modalities. First, when
repeating sentences, speakers produce coda s weakening to [h] inside words and across wordboundaries before vowels and voiceless, but not voiced, consonants. S is deleted before voiced
consonants. In spontaneous speech, s is elided before all consonants and pauses. Two otherprocesses are involved. Unlike in other varieties, approximantisation of voiced stops only takes
place after vowels and not after continuant consonants in phrase phonology in Canarian. Even
more surprisingly, in the controlled setting, /b d g/ do not become [β ð ɣ] when preceded by ans-final word even though the s is deleted. In spontaneous speech, approximantisation does apply
in the same context. Thus, deletion acts as a blocker of the change in controlled speech, but notin unconstrained productions. At the same time, advanced degrees of approximantisation are
not suppressed in other contexts so the blocking is not a result of more careful pronunciation in
general. Rather, it is a domain-specific effect that affects word edges in phrase-level phonology.
The third process, postvocalic voicing, fails to apply in spontaneous speech when the s of thepreceding word is deleted, which is an exact parallel of what we observe withapproximantisation in controlled speech. All the above observations enable us to draw a cycleof events which supports Bermúdez’ lifecycle hypothesis, esp. phonologisation effects.
The analysis of the dialect needs to include the (systematic) variation across modalities,
opaque weakening across word boundaries (before vowels) and the curious blocking behaviourof deleted segments. The latter problem requires turbidity (Goldrick 1998) in conjunction witha stratal approach. The proposed Stratal OT account is based on a coda condition against s
restricted by ONSET (no deletion before vowels), with debuccalisation at the word level anddeletion allowed at the phrase level. The restriction on the deletion patterns is governed by ahigh-ranked CC AGREEMENT constraint for voicing, which accounts for the discrepancies
between segments preceding [p t k] and [b d g]. This restriction competes with a different
constraint ranking that promotes deletion everywhere but before vowels (demotion of
MAXSEG), as well as the extension of the context of approximantisation beyond post-vocalic
position. The blocking effect on both [β ð ɣ] formation and [p t k] voicing results from thepronunciation vs. projection relations between inputs and outputs governed by RECIPROCITY
constraints. The intra-speaker variation is understood as a competition between different cophonologies (with partially unranked constraints) reflecting sound change in progress.

MFM abstract – Productivity of Minor Syllables in Burmese
Dan Cameron Bugdorf
Cornell University, dcb275@cornell.edu
Burmese is often described as sesquisyllabic, but in some respects, it doesn’t fit the profile.
Sesquisyllabic languages have distinct major and minor syllables, where the latter have restrictedphonological forms and must occur attached to the left of a major syllable, forming a distinctive
word shape. Minor syllables in Burmese are toneless and restricted to the form /Cə/, such as in/tʰə.mɪ́:N/ “rice.” However, words frequently contain multiple adjacent minor syllables(/ʝə.tə.na:/ “treasure,” /tʰə.mə+ʝe:/ “rice water”), and major syllables can be reduced to minor
ones in certain contexts, including in compounding as above. Previous accounts (notably Green
2002) have concluded that whether and how compounds reduce must be lexically specified, but I
make the claim that reduction is productive, prosodically motivated, and partially predictable.
I depart from previous analyses in positing a three-way weight distinction in syllables, wherehigh and level tone syllables are bimoraic, creaky and checked tone are monomoraic, and minor
syllables are nonmoraic, which I justify with a consideration of vocalic material and duration innative speaker pronunciations. I find that compounds of some shapes (e.g. μμ+μ) are very likely
to reduce, while other shapes (μ+μμ, μ+μ) don’t, and posit that Burmese uses iambic feet towhich minor syllables contribute sub-mora weight. Using Optimality Theory as a formal
framework, an analysis is given in which conflict between faithfulness (non-reduction) and apreference for exactly one well-formed foot per (minimal) prosodic word characterizes the
distribution of reduction in compounds.
(1) (a) ŋá:+ʔṵ →(b) ŋá:+tɕaʊʔ →(c) nwá:+ma̰ →(d) tɕɛʔ+ʔṵ →(e) tɕɛʔ+θáː →Reduced(ŋə.ʔṵ)(ŋə.tɕaʊʔ)(nə.ma̰)*(tɕə.ʔṵ)*(tɕə.θáː)

Unreduced*(ŋá:).ʔṵ*(ŋá:).tɕaʊʔ*(nwá:).ma̰(tɕɛʔ.ʔṵ)(tɕɛʔ.θáː)

fish+egg = fish spawn
fish+dry = dried fish
cow+F = female cow
chicken+egg = chicken egg
chicken+meat = chicken

In (1a-c), the unreduced form of the input, which can’t be well footed, is ungrammatical; in (1de), the unreduced form makes a well-formed iambic foot, and reduction is ungrammatical.
In addition, morphological structure and part of speech also influence reduction, with reduction
very common in noun compounds but not in verbs. Alternations like the following, however,show that morphology, like lexical specification, is not a sufficient explanation:(2) (a) wʊ́:N.kwɛ́:+ə.ma̰ →(b) wʊ́:N.kwɛ́:+ɲi:.ma̰ →(wʊ́:ŋ).(kwɛ́:).(ə.ma̰)(wʊ́:ŋ).(wə.ɲi:).ma̰

cousin+older.sister
cousin+younger.sister

Other patterns of reduction and their interaction with syllable structure are also examined,
including a very common reduction whereby minor syllables collapse into onset clusters for thefollowing major syllable. Overall, though roots may be lexically specified as containing a minor
syllable in the first place (like /tʰə.mɪ:́ N/ “rice”), much of the syllable structure of Burmese canbe modeled and predicted with productive constraints.

What's wrong with being a rhotic?
Alex Chabot
Université Côte d'Azur
alexander.chabot@etu.unice.fr
This talk explores the phonological unity of the class of segments known as rhotics. Crosslinguistically as much as in individual languages this is a set of segments which function as aphonological class but don’t share any clear phonetic qualities (Lindau 1985; Ladefoged &Maddieson 1996; Hall 1997; Walsh Dickey 1997; Scobbie 2006; Wiese 2011). Indeed, the class ofrhotics exhibits extraordinary phonetic variability, encompassing a wide range of articulatory
diverse sounds. The literature has documented (at least) the following phonetic realizations ofrhotics cross-linguistically: [υ r̥ r ɾ̥ ɾ ʃ ʒ ɹ̥ ɹ ɽ ȿ ɀ ɻ̥ ɻ x ɣ ɰ ʀ̥ ʀ χ ʁ h ɦ]. Variation within a single
language can also be extensive. Brazilian Portuguese is an example of such a language showing aparticularly intricate pattern of rhotic allophone variation with a relatively large number ofphonetically disparate allophones, including [ɾ h ɦ χ ɣ ɻ] (Cristófaro Silva 1998), with most dialects
showing variation between three of these items.
This makes determining a phonetic correlate difficult. For that reason, conversely,
identifying a segment as a rhotic in an unknown language is not a trivial matter: in absence of
reliable phonetic evidence the analyst must fall back on the behavior of segments in distribution
and processing. In language with branching onsets for instance, rhotics are identified by theirability to constitute the second element of a branching onset. Hence in Polish [ʃ] in [pʃɛd] 'before' isa rhotic: this is supported by its diachronic identity and synchronic alternations. That is, often only
a phonological analysis can reveal rhoticness; phonetic criteria are insufficient.
The talk identifies two properties that characterize rhotics cross-lingustically and are
independent of phonetics. One is procedural stability: rhotics that are implicated in phonologicalprocesses can vary in a phonetically arbitrary manner without perturbing the process itself. The
other is diachronic stability: the phonetics of rhotics can vary in diachronic evolution without
provoking a realignment in the phonology.
A particularly telling process from Norwegian illustrates the fact that the phonetic
realization of rhotics does not matter and has no bearing on their phonological identity or behavior.
In standard Norwegian, [ɾ] causes a following obstruent to be realized as a retroflex: /bɑːɾ/ 'bare' +/t/ NEUT → [bɑːʈ] (Stausland Johnsen 2012). However, in the Frogner dialect of Norwegian, therealization of the rhotic is [ʁ], which nevertheless causes the same retroflexion of following
consonants: /fɑːʁ/ 'father' + /-s/ NEUT → [fɑːʂ] (Stausland Johnsen 2012) – there is no source ofretroflexion on the surface, and L1 learners never hear a retroflex r. They infer from the fact that [ʁ]causes retroflexion that this uvular articulation is in fact a dental retroflex, phonologically speaking.
If the phonetic realization of rhotics is unpredictable and divorced from their phonological
identity, it is hard to see how their relationship could be considered natural. That is, the behavior ofrhotics shows that languages are happy to instantiate an arbitrary phonetics-phonology relationship.
If this is true for rhotics, then it may be true for all of phonology. Hence rhotics provide support for
the view of substance free phonology (Hale & Reiss 2008; Blaho 2008; Iosad 2012) whereby
phonological objects are devoid of any reference to phonetic categories.
The arbitrary relationship between phonological items and their phonetic realization can beunderstood by an interface setup that relates the output of phonological computation, i.e. on the
grounds of listed correspondences (such as r ↔ [ʃ] in the Polish example). The two terms of alexical entry are by nature arbitrary, as in the case of the interface between syntax and phonology
where the output of morpho-syntactic computation is converted into a phonological string througha lexical access called vocabulary insertion (e.g. past tense ↔ -ed).

Phonological impacts on phonetic variation: vowel harmony and V-to-V coarticulation
Jenna Conklin & Olga Dmitrieva
jconkli@purdue.edu, odmitrie@purdue.edu
Purdue University
When phonetic and phonological processes compete for the use of phonetic cues, phonetic
variation can be suppressed, as has been shown for nasalization in French (Cohn, 1990) and stop
consonant voicing, pitch, and tone in Cantonese (Francis, Ciocca, Wong, & Chan, 2006). It has
been argued that phonetic variation is suppressed in order to preserve phonological contrast. For
example, by reducing coarticulatory nasality in vowels, French maintains contrast between oral
and nasal vowel phonemes (Cohn, 2007). The present study is concerned with the interaction
between phonological vowel harmony and its gradient phonetic counterpart, vowel-to-vowel
coarticulation, within a single language. While examination of coarticulation between harmonizedvowels is impossible, some languages with vowel harmony have a well-established set of
exceptional, disharmonic words. Such disharmonic words provide insight into the workings ofcoarticulation in harmonizing languages when harmony itself is not in force. On the one hand,disharmonic words might be expected to exhibit strong coarticulation in the same direction as
vowel harmony, such that over time, vowel harmony would apply to these words as to the rest of
the lexicon. On the other hand, disharmonic words may resist coarticulation in the direction
parallel to harmony in order to maintain a phonological contrast between harmonic anddisharmonic words in the language, even if the possibility of actual lexical confusion is low.
Beddor & Yavuz (1995) examined coarticulation in disharmonic words in Turkish andfound that coarticulation on the harmonizing feature [back] proceeded primarily in the direction
opposite that of vowel harmony in Turkish. This finding is compatible with the idea that thepressure to maintain phonological contrast between harmonic and disharmonic words in Turkish
leads to suppression of phonetic variation. The present study builds on this result by investigating
vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in Tatar, a Turkic language with left-to-right backness harmony andan established lexical sub-stratum of dishamonic words. Twenty native speakers of Tatar
completed a sentence reading task with carefully chosen target words designed to detect
coarticulation, and average differences between neutral and coarticulated stimuli were analyzed.
Pilot results from one speaker demonstrate exclusively right-to-left backness coarticulation indisharmonic words, in contrast to the left-to-right harmony in harmonic items. These findings
reflect Beddor & Yavuz’s (1995) Turkish results and further support the hypothesis that
coarticulation in the direction parallel to vowel harmony is suppressed in harmonizing languages.
A possible confounding factor, however, can explain both the Turkish and the Tatar results:
stress. It has been suggested that stressed vowels are more resistant to coarticulation thanunstressed ones (Majors, 2006). Word-final stressed vowels, like those found in Tatar and Turkish,
may therefore trigger coarticulation in the leftward direction while inhibiting its rightward spread,especially if disyllabic stimuli are examined. In order to further examine the role of stress in vowel
coarticulation, an acoustic investigation of coarticulation was conducted in Spanish, where stresscan appear in a number of positions within the word. Non-word data were collected from 20 native
speakers of Spanish and examined for right-to-left and left-to-right coarticulation in threecombinations of stressed and unstressed vowels. The Spanish results confirmed that stressedvowels underwent less coarticulation than unstressed ones and provide partial support to the
hypothesis that Turkish and Tatar coarticulation is due to the location of stress and not to thepresence of phonological vowel harmony.

On diphthong formation and stress assignmentThaïs CRISTÓFARO SILVA (UFMG, CNPq, FAPEMIG)
thaiscristofarosilva@ufmg.br
This paper discusses cases where high vowels may occur as glides when adjacent to anothervowel in order to address the nature of stress assignment in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In several
Romance languages high vowels may be manifested as glides when adjacent to another vowel(MAROTTA 1993; VAN DER VEER 2006; MIRA MATEUS & PARDAL 2000). Stress has aclose relationship to diphthong formation. In languages like Portuguese or Spanish primary stresscan be final, penultimate or antepenultimate - sábia [ˈsabia] ‘wise(fem)’; sabia [saˈbia] ‘(s/he)knew’; sabiá [sabiˈa] ‘a type of bird’ -, but stress cannot fall on the fourth-to-last vowel:*[ˈsaciada]. Penultimate stress is the most common pattern in BP. Any account to predict stressassignment has to assume that either antepenultimate stress or final stress is an ad hoc pattern(BISOL 2013, LEE 1997). It is assumed that stress assignment has access to syllable structure,
but not to segmental material. In this paper we will examine diphthong formation and suggestthat segmental material provides important information for stress assignment in BP. We willconsider cases where high vowels are adjacent to each other and diphthongs may be formed. Aninteresting question to be posited when the adjacent vowels are both high vowels is: which one of
the high vowels will be manifested as a glide and why it is so? Let us first consider cases which
involve two adjacent high vowels where one of the vowels receive primary stress. When thesequence of vowels is (back+front) either a diphthong ruiva [ˈhujva] ‘red haired’ or a hiathus
ruído [huˈidu] ‘noise’ may occur. When the sequence of vowels is (front+back) only a hiathus
occurs ciúme [siˈumi] ‘jealousy’. In fact, [íw] diphthongs are not allowed in BP unless wordfinally in verbal morphology, as in viu [ˈviw] ‘(s/he) saw’ or as cases of lateral vocalization mil/mil/ > [ˈmiw] ‘thousand’ or silva /silva/ > [ˈsiwva] ‘Silva’ (surname). Intervocalic glides may
occur only with a palatal glide [j] and receive penultimate stress, as in saia [ˈsaja] ‘skirt’,
although in loans a finally stressed vowel may be preceded by a palatal glide: maiô [majˈo]‘swimming costume’. Another restriction on intervocalic glides is segmental: no sequence of
only high vowels such as *[ˈuju] or *[ujˈu] occurs whereas non-high vowels do: meio [ˈmeju]‘half’ or maiô [majˈo] ‘swimming costume’. In the cases we have just considered one of theadjacent high vowels were either stressed or occurred as an intervocalic palatal glide. Let us now
consider a case with four adjacent high vowels. In the word Tujutí [tujuˈti] ‘a school of samba’stress is final. Stress could not be penultimate, *[tujˈuti], as [ujˈu] is not allowed in BP.
Antepenultimate stress would not be allowed as an [iw] diphthong would occur: *[tuˈiwti]. When
we consider a word which presents five adjacent high vowels as Tuiuiú [tujujˈu] ‘a kind of bird’stress is final. Stress could not be penultimate as [iw] diphthongs do no occur in BP: *[tujuˈiw].
Antepenultimate stress would present an *[ˈuju] sequence which is not allowed in BP: *[tujˈuju].
The data we presented suggest that adjacent high vowels interact with stress assignment on
diphthong formation. Diphthongs formed by (back+front) high vowels are favoured whereas(front+back) high vowels diphthongs are restricted to verbs or cases of lateral vocalization. In asequence of more than two high vowels segmental restrictions play an important role in defining
stress assignment. This result suggests that segmental material provides important information
for stress assignment in BP.

Markedness and the learning of non-native stress patterns: a language game
Megan J. Crowhurst, University of Texas at Austin, mcrowhurst@austin.utexas.edu
Laura R. Faircloth, University of Texas at Austin, laura.faircloth1693@gmail.com
A decades-long research programme in metrical phonology has delivered a well-articulated
typology of stress patterns occurring in the world’s languages and has informed theories of metricalmarkedness (e.g. Hayes 1980, 1995; Prince 1983; Halle & Vergnaud 1987; Kager 1992, 1993, et seq).
Yet, in spite of this solid foundation, remarkably little research has studied the relationship between
markedness and the learning of stress patterns. Some research has explored the markedness/learnability
connection computationally (e.g. Stanton 2016). However, studies with human learners are scarce. In
two recent studies, Carpenter (2010, 2016) demonstrated that adult native speakers of French andEnglish were able to learn a natural (quality- or quantity-sensitive) stress pattern significantly better
than an unnatural and highly unlikely stress pattern. However, little to no research has investigateddifferences in how adults learn patterns which we believe to differ in markedness, but which areattested, familiar patterns in the stress typology.
As a first step in addressing this gap, we conducted an experiment to explore English-speaking
adults’ ability to distinguish and learn patterns differing in the presence and location of a stress lapse.
Five and seven syllable “words” were constructed for three target patterns. All stimuli had iterative
stress with initial main stress. In pattern A, secondary stress fell on all odd syllables including the final(e.g. bádegèdabègadà). In pattern B the ultima was unstressed creating a final stress lapse (e.g.
bádegèdabègada), and in pattern C, a stress lapse occurred after the initial syllable (e.g.
bádegedàbegàda). The physical correlates of stress were higher pitch (primary vs nonprimary stress),duration and intensity. We take B to be least marked in this set. Pattern A, in which final stress implies
a degenerate foot, (báde)(gèda)(bèga)(dà), is marked relative to B if a degenerate foot is less harmonic
than a non-exhaustive parse (as in B). We assume that pattern C is marked relative to B as final lapses
are relatively common and initial lapses are not (on inspection of, e.g. Halle & Vergnaud 1987, Hayes
1995). Participants were assigned to one of three conditions with the hidden goal of learning one of
the three target patterns, A, B or C. They heard 32 pairs of nonce words differing only in stress pattern.
One in each pair matched the target pattern and the other, a non-target pattern. For example, group A
subjects were tested on counterbalanced pairs with the structure AB, BA, AC, CA. Participants weretold that they were learning words in a new language and that on each trial, they would hear a correct
and an incorrect pronunciation of the same word. They were to indicate which they thought was thecorrect pronunciation. As subjects were learning “from scratch”, there were no practice trials andsubjects were instructed to pick either choice on the first turn. Subjects received visual “hit vs. miss”
feedback after every trial to help them. The statistical analysis measures increases in accuracy overtime for individual subjects and differences in accuracy across subjects in the A, B and C target learning
conditions.
As the study is not yet complete, we must defer areport of statistical outcomes. The early results (figure toright) suggest that group A (cyan) and B (salmon) subjects
perform with high accuracy against the initial lapse pattern C,
but at near chance levels against the other left-to-rightiterative pattern. Group C subjects (lilac) distinguish pattern
C from A and B, but choose C as correct less often against A
and B, as compared with the group A and B subjects’ accuracy
against pattern C. These early results suggest that patterns
A and B both seemed natural and were learned with comparable ease, even though phonologists mightclassify A as more marked. Although the initial stress lapse in C was highly distinct (as confirmed bysubject feedback), subjects were less willing to accept C as the correct pattern. A full report of results
and interpretations will be made at the conference.

Strength of morphophonological generalizations: consonant mutations in Polish
Bartłomiej Czaplicki, University of Warsaw, bczaplicki@uw.edu.pl
I provide evidence supporting construction-based sublexicons (Anttila 2002, Inkelas 2014)
and morphophonological schemas extracted from them (Bybee 2001, Becker & Gouskova2016). In contrast to SPE-style rules, schemas exhibit various strength depending on thefrequency of use and on their confidence scores (calculated on the basis of the number ofwords in which they apply and the number of words in which they are applicable – hits/scope,
Albright & Hayes 2002), they refer to arbitrary and morpheme-specific classes of segments(Gussmann 2007, Mielke 2008) and their impact is continuously mediated by paradigm
uniformity pressures (Steriade 1999). Supporting material comes from selective eliminationof consonant mutations in Polish. Two patterns from Polish are analyzed: a low-frequency
pattern – agent nouns in -ista and a high-frequency pattern – diminutives in -ek (1 ÷ 11;
calculations of frequency based on dictionary and corpus searches).
-istateni[s]teni[ɕ-ist-a][s z n] ‘tennis’‘tennis-player’mutationspla[n]
pla[ɲ-ist-a]‘plan’‘planner’-ista
fle[t]
fle[tɕ-ist-a]
Bonapar[t]-ebonapar[t-ɨst-a][t d r] ‘flute’‘flautist’‘supporter of B.’
mutations/balla[d]-a balla[dʑ-ist-a] propagan[d]-a propagan[d-ɨst-a] ~ no mutations/‘ballad’‘ballad writer’ ‘propaganda’ propagan[dʑ-ist-a]
variation‘propagandist’-ek
kro[k]
kro[tʂ-ɛk]mutations[k g x] ‘step’
The distinct behavior of words in -ek and -ista finds an explanation in their different type
frequencies: the pattern with a lower frequency is less stable. The different behavior of basefinal [s z n] and [t d r] within the -ista pattern is dependent on paradigm uniformity effects,
manifested as the featural similarity of mutated consonants to their base correspondents,[±strident]. In addition, whether a particular derivative in [t d r] shows mutations, nomutations or variation depends on its token frequency, U = 356.00, z = -2.308, p < .05.
As part of an experiment probing native speaker intuition, 61 subjects were asked toform nonce words in -ista. Their responses were compared to the data drawn from a
dictionary. The table below provides the percentages of words with mutations for [t d r] and [sz n] in the dictionary and in the experiment. All the analyzed base-final consonants show a
reduction in the number of mutations in the experimental results, compared with thedictionary. These findings point to the continuous impact of paradigm uniformity (basederivative correspondence).
% of words with mutations
t
d
r
s
z
n
dictionary
38
46
35
100
100 100
experiment
9
7
16
59
46
95
In the formalization of the analysis, schemas, which are ranked based on the frequency of themorphological pattern they encode, are interspersed with paradigm uniformity constraints(IDENT[feature]O-O). In this way, the stability of a pattern goes hand in hand with its frequency: ek vs. -ista. The greater stability of some particular words (maintenance of mutations) thancomparable others is promoted by their high token frequency and the constraint USELISTED,
which enforces the use of stored representations, as opposed to their generation fromcomponent elements (Zuraw 2000).

Prosodic boundaries in Vietnamese continuous and discontinuous noun phrases
Sarah Duong Phu, Goethe University of Frankfurt, sarahduongphu@outlook.com

Since Vietnamese is an isolating language, word order plays an important role in identifying
the function of a particular word. Yet, in some contexts SVO word order may be flexible especially in the case of special information structural settings. Discontinuous noun phrases constitute a specific case of word order change in Vietnamese. In (1) the head noun cam ‘orange’ isseparated from the numeral classifier complex: the fronted noun takes the role of a contrastive
topic and the numeral classifier complex is the focus. This word order is contrasted to the canonical word order in (2) where the noun cam ‘orange’ appears after the classifier. This sentence
does not require a special information structural setting, but is uttered in a context of all-sentence focus.

Mean duration in ms(1) Cam tôi mua hai trái.
(2) Tôi mua hai trái cam.
orange I buy two CLF
I buy two CLF orange‘I buy two oranges.’‘I buy two oranges.’
I have conducted a read-speech experiment with 6 female speakers from the Southern dialect1
in order to find out whether there are prosodic or intonational effects in a comparison between
continuous (unmarked word order) and discontinuous noun phrases (marked word order) in
Vietnamese. Adding together mean durations of 5 classifiers (with 5 different tones)2 in continuous and discontinuous context, it turns out that the classifiers are significantly longer (p<0,001,
ANOVA calculation) in the case of discontinuous noun phrases (see figure 1) and that the rising
tone (sắc) is clearly articulated as rising. In the case of continuous noun phrases the duration of
the classifier is significantly shorter (p<0,001, ANOVA calculation) and a classifier with rising
tone may lose its rising property.
Mean duration of classifiers in continuous and discontinuous contexts
600
400
200
0
con

trái

đàn

Continuous NPs

Discontinuous NPs

củ

ngọn

Figure 1

I assume that in Vietnamese there is generally a correspondence between syntactic and prosodic
structure as in Selkirk (2011) and Féry (2017). This means that for example the DP hai trái cam‘two oranges’ (two CLF orange) is matched by a prosodic phrase, thus (hai trái cam)Φ. However,when the noun cam ‘orange’ is separated from the numeral classifier complex the noun and theclassifier form a prosodic phrase on their own: (hai trái)Φ. It can thus be concluded that intonation effects in Vietnamese are not only present in expressing sentence modality and in changing
the role of function words (Do et al. 1998 and Ha and Grice 2010), but they also play a role
word order change, as in discontinuous nominal phrases.
1

An experiment with speakers of the Northern dialect was constructed earlier. The results were similar to thecurrent experiment (see Duong Phu 2016).
2
For four classifiers (con, trái, củ, ngọn) there were 60 target words in discontinuous and 30 target words in continuous context. As for one of the classifiers (đàn), there were 35 discontinuous and 18 continuous target words.

1

Chao’s dilemma: segmentation is indeterminate
Sean Fulop & Chris Golston
California State University Fresno
Chao argued against the ‘assumption that given the sounds of one language, there will be one
and only one way of reducing them to a system of phonemes which represent the sound system’(1934, 38). Reducing the phonology of Cantonese or English to a unique set of phonemes, heshowed, is not possible; at best, one can argue for a better or worse set of phonemes for a given
language. We show here that this is true of the phonetic concept phone and its phonologicalcounterpart segment as well, and argue that the problem is endemic to any attempt at segmenting
speech into letter-sized units. Despite vast progress in the speech sciences over the past 80 years,
the fundamental problem of segmentation remains, casting terrible doubts on typological claims
based on segments (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996; Maddieson 2014abc; etc.)
We show that the indeterminacy problem is greatly diminished, perhaps solved, by doing
away with segmental, letter-sized units, leaving only sub– and suprasegmental units. The
subsegmental units are distinctive features (Jakobson, Fant & Halle 1952), the suprasegmentals
are onsets and moras (Hyman 1985). We need units (features) and minimal organization (onsets,
moras), but segments make the organizational problem intractable.
We focus on White Hmong (Heimbach 1966, Ratliff 1992), which starkly illustrates theindeterminacy of segments: depending on analysis, Hmong has 70 segments (57 Cs, 13 Vs), or
25 (17 Cs, 8 Vs), or some number in between: aspirates can reasonably be treated as simple (pʰ)
or complex (ph), as can prenasalised stops (mb, mb), diphthongs (a͡ u, au), and complex tones(RISING, LH). Despite the major segmental indeterminacy, there are exactly 57 distinct onsets and
91 distinct rhymes in the language. Since aspirated onsets don’t combine with breathy rhymes,
there are exactly 4836 syllables in Hmong, all featurally distinct using LAB, COR, DOR, POST, DIST,
STOP, NAS, CONT, STRID, LAT, SG, CG, HI, LOW, FRONT, ROUND, H, M, L. For instance,H/\
Ons µ µ|| |LAB LO HI
LAT
FRONT
NASAL
STOP
SG

[mpɬáí] ‘ring’

All of the features have articulatory and acoustic correlates that render them observable andquantifiable. Bundling them into onsets and moras doesn’t suffer from indeterminacy either, so it
appears that omitting segments from phonology solves Chao’s dilemma while maintaining a
discrete phonetics and phonology. Phonological organization in syllables is minimal (Ons, µ)and phonological atoms are too (features, gestures, elements, as the case may be).
Chao 1934. The non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions of phonetic systems. AcSin IV.4, 363-97.
Heimbach 1966. White Hmong-English Dictionary. Cornell Southeast Asia Program.
Hyman 1985. A theory of phonological weight. Dordrecht, Foris.
Jakobson, Fant, & Halle 1952. Preliminaries to speech analysis. Tech Rep, MIT.
Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996. Sounds of the World’s Languages. Blackwell
Maddieson 2013abc. Consonant inventories, Vowel inventories, Tone. WALS.
Ratliff 1992. Meaningful tone. Northern Illinois University, Center for SE Asian Studies.

Deriving three surface VOT categories from a two-way phonological contrast in Tibetan
Christopher Geissler
Yale University!

In Central Tibetan (henceforth, “Tibetan”), words carry high or low register tone, andword-initial stops can be aspirated or unaspirated and sometimes voiced, but aspiration is longer
in words with high tone than words with low tone, and voicing occurs for some but not all
unaspirated stops with low-tone. Descriptions vary as to whether to treat the stops as two(Dawson 1980) or three (Denwood 1999, Tournadre and Dorje 2003) phonological categories.
While voice onset time (VOT) is an important cue to phonological contrast and exhibits
language-specific variation (Cho and Ladefoged 1999), three positive VOT categories is notattested in other languages.
We present phonetic data showing that there is a three-way contrast in positive VOT but
argue that this three-way contrast in the phonetics can be derived from a simpler distinction in
the phonology. Specifically, we draw on the uneven distribution of VOT and tone categories (seechart) to derive the third surface phonetic VOT category, the contrast between “Middle VOT”
and “Long VOT,” from the effect of tone on relative timing of the laryngeal and supra-laryngeal
gestures of stop consonants.

!

Short VOT

Middle VOTLong VOTHigh Tone[tá.mak] ‘cavalry’N/A[tʰá.mak] ‘cigarette’

Low Tone[tòm] ~ [dòm] ‘spider’ [tʰòm] ‘bear’!

N/A

Recent phonetic work on Mandarin (Gao 2008) and Thai (Karlin 2014 et seq) has argued
that tone affects the relative timing of word-initial consonants and vowels, in that the presence ofa specified tonal gesture conditions a reduction in the temporal overlap of consonant and vowel
gestures. These studies did not bear on the laryngeal component (only voiced segments werestudied), but it follows that less overlap between a stop closure and the following vowel gesture
could ‘expose’ more of a glottal opening gesture, resulting in longer VOT in this environment
than in the absence of a specified tonal gesture.
This paper uses the tonal effect on C-V timing to explain the Tibetan facts as follows:
treating the high tone as carrying a high tonal gesture and the low tone as lacking suchspecification, the presence of the high tone reduces overlap between the consonantal closure andthe vowel, lengthening aspiration for aspirated stops. Unaspirated stops, which have a releaseburst but no aspiration, remain unaffected by the presence/absence of tone and retain a similar
VOT in either tonal context. Thus, the Tibetan distribution is analyzed on the phonological levelas a straightforward interaction between presence/absence of high tone and presence/absence of aglottal opening gesture, analogous to the feature [SPREAD GLOTTIS]. This analysis resolves athree-way surface phonetic categories into a two-way phonological contrast, with the additional
phonetic distinction in VOT resulting from the effect of tone on the timing of the consonant andvowel.

Sonority and the typology of Turkic onset obstruentisation
Deepthi Gopal, University of Cambridge / University of Manchester
dg537@cam.ac.uk
In many of the Kipchak and all of the Siberian Turkic languages1 , sonorant-initial suﬃxes are obstruentised if preceded by a high-sonority coda—Kazakh [alma.lar] ‘apples’, but [kitap.tar] ‘books’. Individual
cases show variability in ‘cut-oﬀ point’ for obstruentisation, and in the behaviour of segments with identical manner and diﬀering place speciﬁcation; partial sample in table 1 below.
Language

Onsetl

Bashkir

n

vowel

r

baqsa.lartaw.ðarjșr.ðarkyl.dær

garden-pl

mountain-pl

place-pllake-plbaqsa.nȨ
garden-acc

taw.ðȨ

mountain-accmlKazakhnmlKhakas
n
l
Tuvan

n
m

Preceding coda
ln, m, ċglide

voiced obst.

voiceless obst2 .

urman.dar

kolxoz.dar

kitap.tar

forest-pl

kolkhoz-pl

kyl.dș

urman.dȨ

kolxoz.do

kitap.tȨ

place-acclake-acc

forest-acc

kolkhoz-acc

book-acc

qus.tartake-neg

taw.larkijar.lar

køl.daradam.darqȯz.darapple-plmountain-pl

cucumber-pl

lake-plman-plgirl-plkøl.dikelin.dibride-acc

taw.dȯ

kijar.dȯ

qȯz.dȯ

apple-acc

mountain-acc

cucumber-acc

lake-acc

taw.makijar.ma

køl.meɒaċ.baqȯz.baqus.paapple-int

mountain-int

cucumber-int

lake-int

sleeve-int

girl-int

bird-int

pu.lartoj.larpyyr.ler

ton.nartaȣ.laraȣas.tarthis-plwedding-pl

wolf-plfur coat-pl

mountain-pl

school-acc

toj.nȨ

taȣ-lar.nȨ

wedding-acc

mountain-pl-acc

ton.nȨ

fur coat-acc

girl-acc

bird-plqus.tȯ

alma.maɃkola.nȨ

Poppe 1964

al.mamtake-cond- sg

alma.laralma.nȯ

book-pljșr.ðȨ

al.Ȩr.mȨn

SourceMukhamedova 2015

bird-acc

tree-pltaȣ.nȨ

inek.timountain-acc

cow-accbala.lardækter.ler

ool.darkyn.ner

at.tarchild-plbala.nȨ

notebook-pl

boy-plhorse-pldækter.ni

ool.dȨ

sun-plkyn.niat.tȨ

child-acc

notebook-acc

boy-acc

sun-acchorse-acc

kumda.ma

dur.mingel.begag.babil-bes.ben

angry-negstay- sgcome-neg

put-negknow-neg- sg

Gouskova 2004

Anderson 1998

Mawkanuli 2004

Table 1: Summary of selected Turkic desonorisation patterns, for 4 of 14 languages considered.
All attested patterns show continuity with respect to the assumed position of the triggering coda on thesonority scale: if coda A triggers desonorisation in onset B, then B will desonorise after all equal or lowersonority codas.
is is not reversible; onsets of seemingly identical sonority behave independently. Partial accounts of these data appear previously in the literature on sonority-driven alternations (Davis 1998;
Gouskova 2004), but absent the /n/-/m/ asymmetries in table 1. In this work, I will argue that existing
approaches cannot capture place-dependent non-uniformity across onset segments with identical manner.
I make the following propositions in this analysis: ﬁrst, that (contra e.g. De Lacy 2002, 2006; Gouskova
2004) it is possible to permit featural markedness scales and structural elements such as sonority to interact, and consequently, featural markedness scales and ‘combined’ scales corresponding to coda-onset sequences; second, that the scale of prominence for onsets alone undergoes a re-ordering that accounts for the
anomalous patterns in onset desonorisation. I consider additionally questions of the origin and phonologisation of these alternations; sonority-driven obstruentisation a fairly narrow areal and genetic distribution
within the larger family, but points to more widely-inherited patterns of phonetic implementation across
Turkic that lead to diﬀerently-triggered obstruentisations in more distantly-related languages.
1 Altai (Dyrenkova 1940; KotviÍ 1962; Schönig 1998), Bashkir (Poppe 1964), Chulym (Li et al. 2008; Schönig 1998), Chuvash (Krueger 1961), Dolgan(Stapert 2013), Kazakh (Davis 1998; Gouskova 2004; Mukhamedova 2015), Khakas (Anderson 1998), Kyrgyz (Gouskova 2004; Herbert & Poppe 1963),
Noghay (Csató & Karakoç 1998; Karakoç 2013), Sakha (‘Yakut’) (Krueger 1962; Odden 2005), Shor (Schönig 1998; Chispyakov 1992), Tuvan (Mawkanuli
2004; Anderson & Harrison 1999; Harrison 2000), and (Western) Yugur (Roos 2000).

Features, UG, and ‘Sensorimotor’ Experiments on Infant Speech Perception
Mark Hale & Madelyn Kissock, Concordia University, Montréal
The trend in infant and adult speech perception studies has been moving steadily away from narrow(auditory-related-only) perception bases toward more integrated perception-production-sensorimotor(PPS) bases for perception (Werker & Gervain 2013). From the standpoint of theoretical linguistics, thisentails a reduction in the primacy of (abstract, phonological) features in favor of a less well-defined andmore general cognitive/production approach. In this paper, we examine a selection of recent experimental results, using Bruderer, Danielson, Kandhadai, & Werker (2015) as the focal point (henceforth BDKW)
from the PPS theory side.
BDKW (2015) propose that articulation plays a critical role in the perception of speech sounds for 6
month olds, including for sounds not found in the environment language. Their infant subjects, when
prevented from using the relevant articulators, showed significant impairment of contrast perception ascompared to performance when the articulators were unimpeded. These findings were considered strong
support for existing ‘motor’ theories of adult speech perception behavior (including audio-visual effects
and sensorimotor effects), particularly as any experiential component could be ruled out. Such results
may challenge the positing of substance-free UG features (à la Hale & Reiss 2007).
Considering various aspects of BDKW (2015) and related experiments (e.g. Ito et al. 2009; Sams et al.
2005; d’Ausilio et al. 2009 inter alia), we argue that the role of audio-visual/motor/sensorimotor in speech
perception is peripheral, and never causal, and that innate features are both necessary and sufficient forperceiving contrasts in language. Specifically, we make the following points:• that infants studied at the earliest ages do not have the requisite motor skills but still perform successfully on contrasts;• that categorial contrasts (VOT), speaker independent token perception, and multiple possible articulatory sources for single sounds remain unexplained under a production-influenced theory;• that the loss of discrimination based on experience with environment language (10-12 months,
Werker & Tees 1984) cannot be attributed to loss of motor skills, with the conclusion that featural representations are critical (Hale & Kissock 1997, 2007) — any claim that the relevant motor
skills are lost at this point falls apart in face of bilingual L2 acquisition;• that there is a mistaken interpretation of causality in those experiments showing that listeners
activate articulatory muscles upon hearing tokens;• that there is a mistaken attribution of behavior to the linguistic system rather than to any of themultiplicity of additional cognitive systems involved in analysis of experimental input;• that the fact that damage to the motor system does not impair speech perception (refs. in Hickok2012) conflicts with the claimed results;• and that the notion of improvement in perception (BDKW and Werker & Gervain 2013) highlights
some additional problems with such experiments concerning ‘average’ behavior (i.e., performance)
rather than individual knowledge states (i.e., competence) — for any single subject, perceptual capacity is either present or absent, not scalar (and thus not subject to ‘improvement’).
In summary, we note that traditional experiments such as those favored by psychologists have a very
different goal than subject-based data collection in linguistics. The former seek to describe the ‘average’,or ‘majority’ behavior of a selected population. However, following the generative tradition of Chomsky
and Halle (1968) and Chomsky (1957), our own (linguistic) interests lie in answering the question ‘Whatis a possible human language?’ or, more specifically, ‘what sorts of representations and computations are
possible in a human linguistic system?’. We maintain that the crucial question for linguistics is not ‘howmuch/many’ but ‘whether’.

Laryngeal features of voiced-aspirated stops: Empirical evidence from Bangla
Md Jahurul Islam
Georgetown University; mi302@georgetown.edu
The Laryngeal Realism (LR) framework (Iverson & Salmons 1995, Honeybone 2005,
Beckman et al. 2013) argues for multiple specified features in voiced-aspirated stops, aka
breathy-voiced stops, in four-way stop systems, found in many Indic languages. While
predictions of the LR framework have been tested on two- and three-way stop systems, there
has been very little work on four-way contrast systems. Specifically, there is a general lack of
empirical evidence for the claim that voiced-aspirated stops involve two different specified
features, [voice] and [spread glottis] ([sg]). This study presents empirical evidence from
Bangla and argues that 1) the predictions of the LR framework work variably for the voicedaspirated stops; [sg] is found to be a stronger candidate to be a specified feature than [voice],and 2) the notion of breathy voicing may not be a completely redundant feature of thebreathy-voiced stops, as claimed in earlier literature (e.g., Mikuteit & Reetz 2007).
In the LR framework, stop contrast systems are captured with different combinations of
the privative features [voice] and [sg]. In a two-way system, one category is specified for
either [sg] (in aspirating languages) or [voice] (in true-voice languages) while the othercategory remains unspecified ([∅]). In a three-way contrast, as in Thai, the three categories
are specified for [sg], [voice] and [∅], respectively. LR predicts that the fourth category is,however, specified for multiple features: both [voice] and [sg]. The effect of speech rate on
the length of the acoustic cues of the specified features has recently been proposed and used
to test laryngeal features empirically (e.g., Beckman et al., 2013; Beckman et al., 2013;
Schwarz 2017). The basic assumption is that acoustic cues of the specified features are longer
in slower speech than fast speech. This ‘diagnostic technique’ has been successfully used for
2-way (e.g., English, Russian, Swedish) and 3-way (e.g., Thai) stop contrasts.
The current study extends the use of the technique to a 4-way contrast system, in Bangla,
especially to investigate what the tool would predict for the voiced-aspirated stops which is
specified for two features. Ten native Bangla speakers produced 16 stop sounds (4 places x 4manners) in word-initial position at faster and slower speech rates; the total number of tokens
were (16 stops x 3 repetitions x 2 speech rates x 10 speakers) 960. The duration of ‘lag-time’(the cue for [sg]) and prevoicing (the cue for [voice]) were compared between the two speechrates to investigate the impact of speech rate on the cues of the specified features.
Results revealed that slower speech increased lag-time, the cue for [sg], in both voicelessaspirated and breathy-voiced stops. This effect provides support of [sg]’s being a specified
feature. Mixed-effects models confirm that slower speech significantly lengthens lag-time.
On the other hand, the duration of the prevoicing was not affected by speech rate; this wastrue for both plain- and breathy-voiced stops (mixed-effects models also did not produce
statistically significant difference). Out of the eight voiced stops, only [g], [ɖ], and [d̪ ʰ] hadlonger closure voicing in slower speech. This tendency contradicts the prediction of LR that[voice] is a specified feature in breathy-voiced stops. Also, the absolute duration of true
breathy-voicing, when present, in the voiced-aspirated stops increased in slower speech. (Itmust be noted that about 40% of the voiced-aspirates did not have a breathy-voiced interval
at all.)The results are interesting at least in two ways. First, the general prediction of LR that[voice] is a specified in the ‘voiced’ stops is contradicted, even though the [voice] feature in
Russian stops were tested successfully (Beckman et al. 2013). Rather, the results align withthe proposal of Schwartz et al. (2017) that [voice] could be a less important/redundant cue forstops. Second, there have been claims that the instance of ‘breathy-voicing’ during in voicedaspirated stops is an optional/secondary cue (Mikuteit and Reetz 2007); data here indicatesthat speakers had active targets for breathy-voicing indicated by their longer intervals in
slower speech. More research might reveal if these tendencies are affected by the trade-off
relations of different cues.

Precedence is pathological: Majority Rule in Harmonic Serialism
Andrew Lamont - University of Massachusetts Amherst
This paper argues that constraints defined in terms of precedence relations make pathological predictions, focusing on Majority Rule assimilation as a case study.
Majority Rule (MR) is a pathological agreement pattern predicted in parallel Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004), where assimilation is controlled by thelargest class in the input (Lombardi, 1999; Baković, 2000). MR occurs with the standard
markedness constraints Agree and CC-Ident which penalize the co-occurrence of segmentsthat disagree in some feature. Tableau (1) gives an example of MR in sibilant harmony. Candidates (1c) and (1d) satisfy the markedness constraints Corr(sib), which requires sibilants
to correspond, and CC-Ident(ant), which requires correspondents to agree in anteriority.
Ident prefers (1d) over (1c) because it targets the fewest segments for assimilation.
(1)/S. . . S. . . S. . . s. . . s/Corr(sib) CC-Ident(ant) Ident
a. S. . . S. . . S. . . s. . . s
W6L
b. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . si . . . si
W6L
c. si . . . si . . . si . . . si . . . si
W3
! d. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . Si
2In OT, MR arises from di↵erences in the number of times candidates violate a given
faithfulness constraint. These di↵erences do not arise in Harmonic Serialism (HS) (Prince &Smolensky, 1993/2004; McCarthy, 2000), because Gen is limited to producing candidates
that di↵er from the input via the application of at most one unfaithful operation. Therefore,
one might expect that HS cannot derive MR, for the same reason that it avoids otherpathologies like Sour Grapes (McCarthy, 2010). This paper shows that this is not the case.
Tableaux (2-3) show how HS derives the same MR sibilant harmony pattern as tableau(1). At each step, the unfaithful candidates (c) and (d) tie on Ident, each targeting one
segment for assimilation. Crucially, however, these candidates di↵er in their violations of
CC-Ident(ant), which assigns violations for every pair of corresponding segments that
disagree in anteriority (Rose & Walker, 2004; Hansson, 2010; Bennett, 2015).
(2)
Step 1: /S. . . S. . . S. . . s. . . s/ Corr(sib) CC-Ident(ant) Ident
a. S. . . S. . . S. . . s. . . s
W6L
b. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . si . . . si
W6L
c. Si . . . Si . . . si . . . si . . . si
W61
! d. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . si
4
1
(3)
Step 2: S. . . S. . . S. . . S. . . s
Corr(sib) CC-Ident(ant) Ident
a. S. . . S. . . S. . . S. . . s
W4
L
b. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . si
W4L
c. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . si . . . si
W61
! d. Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . Si . . . Si
1This reveals that MR is not a pathology associated with Gen, which can be avoided
in HS, but rather a pathology associated with Con, specifically with CC-Ident. The
potential loci of violation for CC-Ident of a candidate like Ax . . . Bx . . . Cx . . . Dx are {AB,AC, AD, BC, BD, CD}. Hansson (2007) terms this global evaluation, and contrasts itwith local evaluation, which limits potential loci to the uninterrupted pairs {AB, BC, CD}.
Global evaluation is necessary to derive MR. This paper proves that at each step of an HS
derivation, targeting a member of the minority class optimally satisfies CC-Ident whenevaluated globally. Local evaluation does not produce MR because assimilation results inties between unfaithful candidates on CC-Ident that are broken by other constraints.
This paper characterizes global and local evaluation of CC-Ident in terms of Formal
Language Theory, showing that global evaluation is equivalent to a Strictly Piecewise (SP)constraint defined over precedence relations (Heinz, 2007, 2010; Rogers et al., 2010). Other
SP constraints, such as generalized alignment (Eisner, 1997, 2000), are also known to produce
pathologies, and we hypothesize more generally that Con does not include SP constraints.

An Artificial Language Learning experiment finds no bias against word-final devoicing
Julian Kirkeby Lysvik (University of Oslo) - j.k.lysvik@iln.uio.no

Summary: This talk outlines an ALL experiment designed to test for substantive bias
(Moreton, 2006) in phonology. Previous studies (see summary in Moreton & Pater, 2011) havenot shown effects of such biases in forced-choice tasks. In my experiment, no bias against wordfinal voiced obstruents was found. However, a channel bias against intervocalic voicelessobstruents was found in the production task for plurals, which is able to account for themarkedness of a synchronic process of final voicing.
Experiment: Two groups of Norwegian native participants (n = 36) were exposed to one of
two artificial languages. Either: final obstruent devoicing (FOD) or final obstruent voicing(FOV). Norwegian has both voiceless and voiced final obstruents, but no FOV or FOD rules.
There is no structural difference between these two rules, so there should be no complexity
effects. FOV, however, is both typologically nonexistent (Kiparsky, 2006) and harder toproduce (Yu, 2013). The experiment has three phases: Learning, Forced-Choice andProduction. During Learning participants were exposed to auditory/visual stimuli of singularand plural forms. Plural forms were constructed on the form /C1VC1VC2-u/ and singulars:/C1VC1VC3/. C3 was always voiced in FOV language, and voiceless in FOD. C2 could be either
voiced or voiceless in both languages (12.5% of tokens were voiced in FOV, and vice versa),
to avoid a rule interpretation of C Æ [-voice]/V_V. The auditory stimuli were created using
MBROLA speech synthesis software. The duration of voiced segments was shorter than the
duration of voiceless segments to simulate natural voicing (Westbury & Keating, 1975). In the
Production Phase participants heard a plural form (4/5 times) and a singular form (1/5 times).
They were then asked to produce the singular and plural, respectively. For the Forced-Choice
Phase participants heard two tokens, one corresponding to the language and one incorrect token.
They were then asked to choose the token correctly corresponding to the language by pressing
a button, and the RT for the press was measured.
Results/discussion: The results show no significant difference between the singulars forlanguages in either Forced-Choice or Production (figures 7 and 8, mixed logit model tests:
Pr(>|z|) = 0.21, z-value = 1.253 for FC, and Pr(>|z|) = 0.895, z-value = 0.132 for Production),
consistent with a lack of substantive effects as in previous studies. However, the figures showthat in production of plurals, participants in the FOV language produced voiced obstruents when
the target was voiceless to a larger degree than FOD participants produced voiceless segments
when the target was voiced (Mixed logit, Pr (>|z|) > 0.01, z = -3.471). The consequence of thisis that participants in FOD produce the alternating form rusubu ↔ rusup, a typical devoicing
process, as expected. However FOV participants produce rusubu ↔ rusub, rather than thealternating rusupu ↔ rusub. Importantly, in the forced-choice task participants chosealternating and non-alternating forms equally frequently. I argue that a production channel bias
against intervocalic voiceless obstruents can account for this.

A REANALYSIS OF CROSS-FEATURAL POLARITY AS OCP-DRIVEN INSERTION
Savio Megolhuto Meyase
University of Leipzig, Germany
savio.meyase@uni-leipzig.de

Main Claim: Tones in Tenyidie (Angami) employ a so far unattested type of polarity, a crossfeatural polarity. In this talk, I argue that the cross-featural polarity in tone can be reanalysed
as an OCP-driven epenthesis in a stratal model.
Data: Tenyidie has four level tones – Extra High, High, Mid, and Low (Blankenship et al, 1992;
Meyase, 2014). There are three classes of suffixes: first, those that simply surface consistently
with one of the four tones in all contexts; second, those where the suffix always show up witheither Extra High or High; and third, those where the suffix always show up as Mid or Low.
The second and third classes show the natural division of the four tones into the two higher andthe two lower tones and this follows the assumption of tonal features as in (1).
(1)

Featural representation of Tenyidie tones following Yip (1980).
+Upper+high–highExtra High /e̋/High /é/Register
Pitch/Tone
Tone in Tenyidie–Upper+high
Mid /ē/–high
Low /è/The second class of suffixes has the pattern in (2), exemplified with the perfect suffix /-te/.
(2)

vő

te̋

+Upper[]+high+Upper[]+high+Upper
[
]
−high

prū

te̋

lè

−Upper[]+high+Upper[]+high“to go” + PRF“to jump” + PRF

sá−Upper
[
]
−high

té

“to repeat” + PRFté“to go down” + PRF+Upper[]−high+Upper[]−high

Here the suffix is Extra High when it follows a [+high] stem and High when follows a [–high]stem. This alternation is predictable under the assumption that these suffixes are underspecified
for only [+Upper] and assimilate in [±high] to the preceding tone.
But in the third class, while [–Upper] is specified for the suffix, the alternation of[±high] in the suffix is seen as a phenomenon of cross-featural polarity where the [±high] value
is the polar opposite of the [±Upper] in the stem, as in (3).
(3)

vő

liè

sá

liè

+𝑈𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟[]+high−Upper[]−ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ+𝑈𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟[]−high−Upper
[
]
−ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ

prū

liē

lè

liē

−𝑈𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟[]+high−Upper[]+ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ−𝑈𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟[]+high−Upper[]+ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ“to go” + IMP“to jump” + IMP“to repeat” + IMP“to go down” + IMP

Proposal: In this talk, I propose a reanalysis for this apparent polarity pattern that does not rely
on a powerful mechanism like alpha-rules (Gregersen, 1974), following de Lacy (2012). The
polarity in (3) follows as OCP-driven epenthesis under the assumption that tones can beassociated on a tier other than the one they originated on, in order to avoid another costly repair.
Instead of the aforementioned features we simply use H and L and repeat them in the two tiers
to represent the tones. Suffixes are still taken to be underspecified; in (4), for L on the registertier. Epenthesis of H takes place to counter the L-L OCP in the first stratum (assuming strata,
Bermudez-Otero (2007)). This H then moves to the next tier in the next stratum. Here OCP
does not apply, and the suffix gets a full-tone status. Underspecified suffixes in non-OCP
environment simply get a default L on the tonal tier to fully specify the tone.
(4)

.
+
.
L
L
L
(underlying form)

→

.
.
→
.
.
(Low + suffix)
L H L
L
L
L
L
H
(OCP; H insertion; stratum I) (association of floating tone; stratum II)

Although the H-tone hence originated on the register tier, it is associated on the tonal/pitch tierto fully specify the underspecified suffixes.

A diachronic analysis of sibilants in early French phonology in a split-margin approachFrancisco Antonio Montaño, Lehman College (CUNY), francisco.montano@lehman.cuny.edu

Sibilants enjoy a unique status with respect to other obstruents throughout the history ofFrench, as evidenced by their ability to surface in phonotactic environments where otherobstruents cannot. Particularly in the earliest stages of French, spanning from Late Latin
through the Gallo-Romance period (1st-10th centuries) and well into the late Old French
period (11th-13th centuries), /s/ is distinctive from other obstruents in that it may form aword-initial cluster with another obstruent (e.g. Latin sponsa 'spouse.FEM'), later undergoingpostlexical prothesis (sponsa > espuse 'spouse.FEM') (Pope 1952; Rohlfs 1970; Rickard 1989)
when not preceded by a vowel-final word, and that it persists in coda position as a member ofa syllable-contact cluster well beyond other obstruents, which delete in this position during
the Gallo-Romance period (cf. rupta > rute 'route' vs. festa > feste 'celebration', hospitale(m)> ostel) (Pope 1952; Jacobs 1995; Gess 1998, 1999, and later work). The patterning of /s/ in
Late Latin and Gallo-Romance provides rich insights into the sonority-based licensing of
consonant clusters as well as the melodic properties of harmonic syllables and phonologicalwords in these early stages of French phonology, as word-initial and word-internal clusters
containing /s/ become progressively more restricted to heterosyllabic surface positions (i.e.
syllable-contact clusters).
During the Old French period /s/ ceases to surface as a licit word-internal syllable coda
(Gess 1998, 1999, and later work), as it undergoes deletion accompanied by compensatory
lengthening of the preceding vowel (feste [fɛs.tə] > fe:te [fɛ:.tə]) (Gess 1998). The deletion
phenomenon occurs in stages, conditioned by the sonority of the following onset segment(Montaño 2017). In close chronological proximity to coda /s/ deletion, the prothetic vowel ofwords containing an etymological word-initial /s/ + obstruent cluster becomes a fixed
element of surface forms (e.g. /spusə/ à [es.pu.zə] ~ [spu.zə] > /spusə/ à [es.pu.zə]) (Pope
1952), pointing to one of two possible conclusions: that prothesis shifted from the postlexicalto the lexical phonology (input form /spusə/ à [es.pu.zə]), or that the prothetic vowel had
been re-analyzed as part of the input form during acquisition via lexicon optimization (input
form /espusə/ à [es.pu.zə]). Interestingly, the inability of /s/ to occupy a word-internal coda
position (i.e. as the first member of a syllable-contact cluster) interferes with prothesis in that
simply epenthesizing a word-initial vowel no longer yields a harmonic output form once Old
French coda /s/ deletion is underway, since such an output would also violate a criticalconstraint against /s/-initial syllable-contact clusters (e.g. /spusə/ 'spouse.FEM' à *[spu.zə],*[es.pu.zə]). Unsurprisingly, /s/ does delete in this position (/spusə/ à [e.pu.zə]), but
critically no compensatory lengthening accompanies deletion as in word-internal contexts(Pope 1952). This particular distinction, corroborated by the lack of long vowel or diphthongs
in modern varieties of French (e.g. Québec French) that in fact preserve long vowels in
erstwhile compensatory lengthening contexts (Walker 1984; Picard 2004; Gess 2008; Côté2012), lends strong support to my claim that prothesis remained an active phenomenon in thelexical phonology throughout the Old French period. Moreover, Old French prothesis, oncecoda /s/ deletion took hold, underwent a fundamental transformation on a phenomenologicallevel. It in fact represents a case of non-surface-apparent opacity (McCarthy 1999) in that theprothetic vowel surfaces in output forms in which the conditioning environment of wordinitial [s] + obstruent clusters is absent. My analysis shows how well-establishedphonological constraints succeed in characterizing both the Old French synchronic reality ofthe opaque prothesis phenomenon and coda /s/ deletion as well as the diachronic
developments leading up to it within a single, unified evolving phonological system.
In my optimality-theoretic analysis, I formalize the interrelated nature as well as thepredictably ordered chronology of these changes in consonant cluster licensing by use of theSplit Margin Approach to the Syllable (Baertsch 2002; Baertsch & Davis 2003; and laterwork). I demonstrate how the rich network of implicational structural relationships among
syllable and word-level constraints on margin segments, as they interact with faithfulness
constraints, elegantly captures how the phenomena of prothesis and coda /s/ preservation anddeletion evolve over the course of Late Latin through Old French, as well as how the two
phenomena intersect in critical ways. Baertsch and Davis' split margin approach proves
particularly adept for analyses such as this, not only due to the high granularity of the splitmargin family of markedness constraints, but especially by virtue of its insightful structurallink between M2 consonants, i.e., the second member of an onset cluster and a singleton coda
consonant. By capitalizing on the analytical breadth of this approach in the parallel
evaluation of diverse sonority contours and its applicability to clusters in both the syllable
domain (onset clusters) and the phonological word (syllable-contact clusters), I offer acomprehensive and informative schematization of the clustering possibilities of /s/ in earlyFrench phonology and how this system evolves over time.

You have a neat theory, then [l] turns up
Filiz Mutlu, McGill University, ​filizmutlu@yandex.com​,[l] can pattern with approximants (R) or stops. Korean ​[l] alternates with an approximant [ɾ]and [l] occurs in ​_#​, a position restricted to stops (1a).​ In Yaka [l] alternates with a stop, [d]:[l]+[a, o, u]​ but ​[d]+[i, j]​ (1b). In Luganda [l, r] alternate, similar to Yaka in the V(owel)
context: ​#[l], [a, o, u]+[l]​ but ​[i, e]+[r]​ (1c) (Myers 2015 and works cited therein). (1) is apuzzle for any theory aiming to capture the link between manner and sonority/complexity(see Selkirk 1983, Harris 1994), ​and​ between the V context and laterality. In this paper I willshow how Spatial Phonology (SP) straightforwardly accounts for the puzzling facts of
Luganda and Yaka, and the seemingly contradictory behaviour of [l].
1. a)​ Korean (cf. Sohn 1994):[sa​l​] ‘flesh’, [pa​ɾ​am] ‘wind’,​ [pa​ŋ] ‘room’,[kyːʑin] ‘ghost’, ​[nat] ‘face’, [cip] ‘straw,[pak] ‘outside’, *s, h, ​ɾ, tʃ​#b)​ Yaka (Hyman & Inkelas2012): ​di​la ‘cry’, ​dj​a ‘eat’, ​lela‘rock (baby), ​lala​ ‘get lost’,lula​ ‘blame, scold’, ​lola‘punish’c)​ Luganda (Halle & Clements1983): ​l​uula ‘sit’, k​ol​a ‘do’,w​ul​ir​a ‘hear’, eddw​al​ir​o‘hospital’, bu​ul​ir​a ‘tell’Background: ​SP adopts the position that language is an algorithm to asymmetrically build athree-dimensional cognitive space (cf. Arsenijevic 2008, Di Sciullo 2005, van der Hulst 2015,
Kayne 1994). All primitives (or ​elements​ in Government Phonology (Kaye et. al. 1985)) arecoordinates in this space (0/1). By asymmetry, no non-zero coordinates can be the same on aplane. In (1), I will deduce all and only the possible place and manner properties: The
elements I, ​A​, ​U​; no constriction, ​friction​, ​stopness​. The exact mapping of (1) to elements ismotivated on phonological and phonetic grounds in Author (in press).

(2a) is the point (0, 0, 0), or the ​head. ​It can be combined with a ​dependent​. (2b) shows adependent removed from the head along one dimension, (1, 0, 0), or the ​comp(lement)​.​ (2c)has a dependent removed along two dimensions (-1, 1, 0), or the ​spec(ifier)​. ​In syntax, these
relations can exist within a compound or a phrase. In phonology, the internal structure of thehead maps to place properties (2a-c). There must be exactly three basic ‘place’ elements I(2a), ​A ​(2b), ​U ​(2c). Dependencies in the phrase map to kinds of constriction: no constriction(2e), ​friction ​(2f), ​stopness ​(2g) (cf. Steriade 1993, Pöchtrager 2006, Schwartz 2015). (2e)shows a dependent removed along three dimensions, (0, 0, 1), or an ​adjunction point​, where
in a phrase adjuncts sit. Formally, ​projection ​is gaining an adjunction point, or the potential tohave adjuncts. ​Stopness​ and ​U​ contain the same dependency, ​spec​-head (​A ​and ​friction​ havecomp​). (2g) is a stop without oral release (​N​), (2i) is catch+release ​(T).
Analysis: i: ​[l]​ has a complex compound head ​A​+​U ​(2d) (cf. Pöchtrager 2001, Balcı 2006),[r, d] have ​A​ (2b)​ ​(Broadbent 1993). (By asymmetry, either the head can be complex (2d), or
the phrase (2i), but not both, hence there is no (non-contour)​ lateral T​ *(2d+2i)). On a scale ofdimensional complexity, I, ​A​, ​U​ exist in that order. In Luganda (1c), V+R can have ​only​ two
adjacent objects from that scale: I, ​A​ or ​A​, ​U​, not both. ​A ​is monogamous, if you will. Since[l] has ​A​+​U, ​it cannot have a neighbour with I (front V)​.​ Yaka (1b) [l]+V must share ​at least
one element (​A​, ​U​). [l] patterns with [r] (1a, c) since they have the same projection (2e). [l]patterns with stops (1a, b) since it has the same dependency as stopness ​within its head ​(2c,2g). (Time permitting: Though [w] has ​U,​ glides are different from liquids in that glides sit ina functional projection between consonants and vowels, see Author (2017), Liu (2014).)

Element suppression: dependents are the first to go
Kuniya Nasukawa and Phillip Backley (Tohoku Gakuin University, Japan)
This paper describes segmental weakening in the model of melodic structure known asPrecedence-free Phonology (AUTHOR A 2014, 2016, 2017). It describes how weakening
operates on structures, and shows how the outcome of weakening reveals details about theinternal representation of consonants and vowels. In this sense, phonological evidence (fromweakening effects) provides support for phonological structures (melodic expressions).
It is proposed that all cases of weakening follow a single general principle in which
dependent structure – specifically, the most deeply embedded unit(s) in a melodic expression –is suppressed. Since segmental weakening is thought to operate blindly and uniformly on any
target structure, the phonetic and phonological properties of a reduced sound are determinedlargely by the structural properties of the original target expression. So, typological differences
in vowel/consonant reduction among dialects/languages are attributed to differences in the way
segments are represented in a particular system, and not to the weakening mechanism itself.
Precedence-free Phonology (PfP) uses the six elements |A I U H L ʔ| of Element Theory(Harris & Lindsey 1995, 2000; AUTHOR B 2011), but departs from standard versions ofelement-based phonology by requiring all element concatenation to be based on headdependent relations: the complexity of a melodic expression increases by concatenating
additional elements via the recursive use of head-dependent relations between elements(AUTHOR A 2016, 2017). This produces melodic expressions with ‘vertical’ structures built
from a network of asymmetric relations. These PfP structures correspond to prosodic domainsof varying sizes from a single nucleus, through syllable- and foot-sized units, to entire prosodic
words. As the name ‘Precedence-free’ suggests, the linear ordering of segments in a melodic
representation is not overtly expressed in terms of precedence relations; instead, it falls out fromthe way that element expressions are hierarchically organized and phonetically interpreted.
In vowel structures, one element (usually |A|) acts as a head, providing an essential
structural base but contributing little in terms of melodic information. (By itself, a bare head
|A| is pronounced as a schwa-like default vowel – the realization of an unmodulated baseline
carrier signal.) By contrast, dependent elements are structurally unimportant but they are key
to contributing contrastive melodic properties (AUTHOR B & AUTHOR A 2015, AUTHOR
B 2017): a single level of dependency/embedding produces the ‘corner’ vowels [a i u], while
additional layers allow for further contrasts to be expressed. Vowel reduction targets the mostdeeply embedded elements in an expression, leaving behind a weak vowel comprising either asingle dependent element (giving [a]/[i]/[u] in centrifugal systems, e.g. Chamorro) or a bare Vhead element (giving [ә]/[ɨ] in centripetal systems, e.g. English).
In consonant structures, a laryngeal element (|H| or |ʔ|)acts as a head, this C-head being a dependent of the vowel
structure which licenses it (together they form a unified CVunit). As in vowels, the C-head supports dependent elementsthat provide contrastive information. And again, segmental
weakening (consonant lenition) targets the lowest elements in
the hierarchical structure. Depending on the specific propertiesof the original structure, this could leave behind a glottal [ʔ] or[h], a fricative (i.e. a spirantised stop), or an approximant suchas [w], [ɣ] or [ɾ].
By assuming that processes such as segmental weakening
are formally simple and blind in terms of the way they apply
to target structures, the burden of explanation is placed on
representations. In PfP these are sufficiently rich in melodic
information to express the range of weakening effects
observed cross-linguistically.

Velar softening without precedence relations
Hitomi Onuma (Iwate Medical University) and Kuniya Nasukawa (Tohoku Gakuin University)
This paper presents an account of velar softening – the well-documented set of alternations
between the velar stops /k ɡ/ and the coronal consonants /s ʤ/ – using the Precedence-free
Phonology approach (AUTHOR B 2015, 2016). According to this approach, phonologicalrepresentations refer only to elements, which are employed recursively throughout a structure
in such a way that excludes all precedence relations between units.
Velar softening takes place only when the target stops /k ɡ/ are followed by a front vowel/ɪ, i, aɪ, e/ in one of the participating suffixes. It is generally thought to result from the Rootlevel suffixation of morphemes such as -ity, -ism and -ise/ize, it is assumed to take place in the
Root-level morphology (Harris 1994). In utterances, these suffixes are realised as -[ә]ty, -[ә]zm
and -[aɪ]se/[aɪ]ze. However, as the spelling suggests, they were presumably pronounced -[ɪ]ty,-[ɪ]zm and -[ɪ]se/[ɪ]ze at some earlier stage in the history of English. Even if the pattern is viewed
as a synchronic process, there seems to be a consensus that /ɪ/ is the lexical form of the initial
segment of the suffixes. Thus, the /k/-/s/ alternation may be described by the rewrite rule /k/ →/s/ / ___/ɪ/ (Chomsky & Halle 1968, Halle & Mohanan 1986, Halle 2005).
Since velar stops /k ɡ/ do not alternate with /s ʤ/ when the stops are preceded by highfront vowels (e.g. /pɪk/ ‘pick’ → */pɪs/, /pɪɡ/ ‘pick’ → */pɪʤ/), any analysis must regard theprecedence relation between /k ɡ/ and front vowels as a key factor in triggering the process.
Analysing velar softening is clearly a challenge for Precedence-free Phonology, which excludes
from phonological representation all properties associated with precedence relations.
In this paper, we analyse English velar softening as a Root-level morphological operation(Harris 1994) without referring to precedence relations. Within the framework of Precedencefree Phonology we propose that the process in question may be viewed as an agreement effectinvolving the |A|-headed [|A||I|] set: in velar softening, the elements which are flanked by thehighest and lowest elements in the C domain of the base are overridden by the |A|-headed [|A||I|]
set in the lowest part of the suffix according to ALT NONHI-NONLOWVSUFF WITH HIVBAS in (1c).
(1) a. Velar softening: the /k/~/s/ alternation→b. The structure of /sɪ/

ALT NONHI-NONLOWVSUFF WITH HIVBAS
Replace an expression which is neither highest nor lowest in the consonantal domainof the base with the copied lowest vocalic domain of the suffix.
Since the highest element in the C domain of the base in (1a) is the first token of |H| and thelowest element in the C domain is the second token of |H|, these must be preserved and parsedin accordance with (1c). On the other hand, the elements in between (i.e. the |U|-headed [|Ɂ||U|]set) must be replaced by the structure of the suffix-lowest /ɪ/ (i.e. the |A|-headed [|I||A|] set).
The motivation for this type of alternation is, we suggest, to produce a tighter concatenationakin to a non-analytic form; the effect is something similar to dovetailing. In addition, we
assume that the motivation for leaving intact the highest and lowest elements of the C domainof the base may be attributed to their linguistically significant roles: the head (i.e. the first token
of |H| in (1a)) is structurally important (obligatory) while the dependent (i.e. the second token
of |H| in (1a)) is rich in terms of contrastive information (AUTHOR B 2015, 2016). That is, theelements occupying the outermost (i.e. top and bottom) positions in a domain are resistant tophonological alternation. The other type of velar softening which involves the alternation/ɡ/~/ʤ/ is also analysed in the same manner.
In addition, velar palatalization proceeds along the same lines. The only difference
between the two processes is that velar palatalization shows an agreement effect involving theset of [[|A||I|]A|I|]A.
c.

Perceptual Assimilation and Orthographic Effects in L2 Allophonic Acquisition
Alexandra Pfiffner, Georgetown University (amp343@georgetown.edu)
The Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM; Best et al., 2001; Tyler et al., 2014) predicts a hierarchyof discrimination ease for non-native phonemes based on how similar the new phones are to native
phonemes. For example, if the two L2 phonemes map onto two L1 phonemes, then it will be easy todiscriminate between the two L2 phones. If two L2 phonemes map onto the same L1 phoneme, thenit will be more difficult to discriminate between them. No predictions are made, however, for L2
allophonic variants. This study investigates the discrimination and subsequent acquisition ofallophonic variants with regards to two main factors: similarity to L1 phoneme categories andorthography.
Using an artificial language learning paradigm, participants were exposed to one of threeallophonic variations (hereby “languages”) paired with one of three orthographic types. Following
PAM’s discrimination criteria, the variations included phones that assimilate to two native phoneme
categories (TC), phones that assimilate to one native phoneme category, but one is a better fit (category
goodness, or CG), and phones that assimilate to the same category and are equally good exemplars ofthat L1 phoneme (SC). PAM predicts an ease of discrimination hierarchy of TC>CG>SC, and thus it
was hypothesized that participants would follow this discrimination ease hierarchy with the allophonicvariants, subsequently acquiring TC best, followed by CG, and then SC. Orthographic conditions
included no orthography, transparent orthography (each allophone had a separate symbol), andopaque orthography (both allophones shared a symbol). It was predicted that transparent orthography
would improve learning, as different symbols explicitly draw attention to the different allophones,
whereas opaque orthography would hinder learning by masking the allophones behind one symbol.
Materials (examples in Table 1) consisted of CVCVC words recorded by a Russian speaker.
Language Allophone
Distribution
Transparent orth.
Opaque orth.
TC[r]word-initial; word-medial
robes
ɻobes
word-medial; word-final
nipul
[ɫ]
nipuɻ
CG
word-initial; word-medialllobeslobes[lʲ]word-medial; word-final
nipul
nipul
[ɫ]
SC
before nasals
piimulpimul
VːVelsewhere
balos
balos
Two hundred English L1 participants learned vocabulary words in a “Martian” language and thentested their memories. Participants underwent a training phase, where they were familiarized with thelanguage’s phonotactic pattern by hearing 50 randomized words repeated four times. Participants inopaque and transparent orthographic conditions were also given the spelling of each word. After the
training phase, participants entered a testing phase with 10 repeated training words, 10 phonotacticallyconforming new words, and 10 non-phonotactically-conforming new words. Participants were asked
if they had previously heard the word or not, with no pictures nor orthography given. If participantslearned the allophonic variation, then they should “false alarm” and say that they previously heard thephonotactically-conforming new words. This procedure followed a phonotactic learning paradigm
that has been used with success (Bernard 2015; Steele et al., 2015; Denby et al., 2018).
Results demonstrated that TC and CG languages were equally acquired, while SC was not acquired.
Additionally, the simple presence of orthography improved learning, but there were no significant
differences between transparent and opaque orthographic types. These results suggest that L2
allophonic discrimination is not the same as L2 phonemic discrimination, and that any type oforthography may aid allophonic acquisition over having no orthography.

Why high vowels are not always high vowels
Marie-Luise Popp, Leipzig University, marie_luise.popp@uni-leipzig.de
Chain Shifts are phonological processes where an input /A/ surfaces as [B] while /B/ becomes[C]. Widespread examples of chain shifts are partial height harmonies where low vowels become mid vowels and mid vowels become high vowels in the same environment (Parkinson
1996; Moreton 2010). However, low vowels do not become high vowels, as exemplified by
Lena Spanish in (1) where the high vowel in the affix -u triggers raising of the stem vowel.
(1)
Lena Spanish(Hualde 1989; Parkinson 1996)
a→e
a→e

gat-a
sant-aget-u
sent-u

e→i
e→i

‘cat’
‘saint’nen-abwen-anin-ubwin-u‘child’‘good’

Chain shifts are problematic for Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993) as they resultin a ranking paradox. The constraint triggering the vowel change must outrank the faithfulness
constraint preserving the mid vowel to trigger a shift from /e/ to [i], however, the faithfulness
constraint preserving a mid vowel resulting from a low vowel apparently needs to outrank theconstraint triggering the vowel change to prevent /a/ from shifting to [i]. Moreover, McCarthy(1993) and Kirchner (1996) have argued that rule ordering is not an appropriate solution to
chain shifts since they clearly exhibit two different instances of a single raising process. In
this paper, I will show that the opacity problems posed by Chain Shifts can easily be analysed
within Containment Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993; Trommer 2011; Trommer & Zimmermann 2014; van Oostendorp 2003, 2007) . In contrast to previous approaches to Chain
Shifts (Kirchner 1996; Łubowicz 2012), my analysis does not require powerful mechanisms
but makes reference to constraints that base on compelling phonological, phonetic and typological evidence.
In Containment Theory, deletion of phonological elements is impossible. Rather, phonologicalfeatures can be inaccessible to phonetics but remain in the phonological structure. Thus, anunderlying segment has a different featural specification than a derived segment. I make useof the consequence that an underlying vowel /e/ has different features than a vowel [e] that isderived by vowel raising. While an underlying /e/ is specified as [-high, -low], a derived [e]is necessarily specified as [-high, -low, +low] since the [+low] feature of the underlying /a/remains phonologically accessible. I suggest that this is what prevents derived /e/ vowels fromchanging into [i]. This can be obtained by a markedness constraint sensitive to all features in thecandidate against the combinations of features [+low,+high] within a segment. Crucially, thisconstraint is not stipulative but builds on a strong phonological basis. The tableau in (2) shows
how this can be modelled in OT. Raising is driven by two harmony constraints, crucially ranked
higher than the respective faithfulness constraints. However, the constraint *[+low,+high]I rulesout [i] as it penalizes a combination of a +low and +high feature on a single vowel and exactly
such a combination arises if an underlyingly low vowel is raised to a high vowel.
(2)
Abstract chain shift: /a/ → [e]Phonetically invisible features: feature/a/ [+low,-high]

a.

b.
c.

*[+low,+high]Ia [+low,-high]+e [ +low , -high, -low]i [ +low , -high, -low, +high]∗!

H ARMONYhighP

H ARMONYlowP

∗!

∗
∗

FAITHhighI∗

FAITHlowI∗∗

I will show that all types of Chain Shifts can easily be analysed within Containment Theory bymeans of a number of independently motivated constraints which makes powerful and potentially overgeneralizing mechanisms like Constraint Conjunction superfluous.

Phonology produces Morphology. How to define the Righthand Head Rule (RHR) in
morphologically complex word as an effect of Phonology
Michela Russo (University of Lyon 3 / UMR 7023 SFL CNRS, Paris 8)
mrusso@univ-paris8.fr
We question here the modalities of the relationship between an abstract structure required, where thefunctional or categorial heads connect with their dependent, as well as its phonological realization. In the
Righthand Head Rule (RHR), Williams states (1991, 248): “In morphology, we define the head of amorphologically complex word to be the righthand member of that word”. We propose to see in the typicalconfiguration, where the heads (of any nature, categorical and functional) are made final, the effect of thesyllabification, universally retrograde. If this proposal is right, we do not need to state the morphologicalprinciple of the head finality. The primacy of structural heads (below any linear reading) ensures their final
realization, ordered, from more embedded to more peripherical. If the syllabification can ensure a realizationof the successive linear morphological elements, it can also be used to determine their co-realization, a formof merger, to the extent that the content of phonic morphemes determines an interpretation of the structuraldependency in this sense. The segregation of consonants and vowels naturally lends itself to the corealisation in the syllabification (rather than the consecutive realization) of the morphemes hierarchicallyassociated (such as the temporal-aspectual head and the verbal root in the Semitic languages).
In the Italo-Romance domain and in Metaphony, the number and gender can be performed as a final segment,
the current situation. However, they can also be realized parasitically on the tonic vowel, which is a
description of the opaque metaphonic status of Southern Italian Modern dialects. The internal morphologyof Southern Italian dialects is not the effect of a phonic segregation that would require using the material ofa morpheme structurally neighbour to syllabify the content of a morpheme. We can, however, see in it a kindof ionization phonological effect that an elements phonological approach allows to formalise. It is known
that the incompleteness of the ions determines their propensity to combine. We have argued strongly thatthe responsible for the Italo-Romance Metaphony has to be an element, and specifically not one or the ones
that we are waiting for... the element A (the one that defines the low and mid vowels) is the active elementin the Metaphony (see Russo 2007), i.e. a morpheme A singular and feminine, instead of the morphemes,
the elements high (I, U) plural and masculine. A morphological mark reduced to an element is readyoptionally, instead of an interpretation as a segment, to an interpretation by combination with other vocalicmaterial.
The Italian heteroclite paradigms type masculine singular il dito ‘the finger’ and the feminine plural le dita‘the fingers’ correspond to the dialectal, with the exception of the metaphony, furno M.S. the oven / forna
F.PL. the ovens. The analysis is facilitated here if the Element A represents a morpheme of plural,functionally higher than the proper gender of the form, which also imposes a parasite gender, in thisparticular case the feminine gender: [PL-A [F-A m--N[F / PL [Ge-AǀA
Fig. 1 heteroclite paradigms (il dito /le dita)[PL [F m - N
⁄ ⁄ ǀ
A A 
Fig. 2 furno / forna – metaphonic typeSee already in the Medieval Southern forms (HistTroya 78) the feminine plural affix -a in quella mura withheteroclite agreement of the (plural) verb and adjectives:
quella mura foro fabricateAGR.PL. e coperta de marmore ben laborate, e pente
These walls were built
and covered of marbles well worked and painted

Or the Italian Southern Latin forms: - ad agra puma ‘apples’ - as Modern Italian le dita F.PL. ‘the fingers’.
As the derivational suffixes, which determine regularly the category of the resulting word, are logicallyrecognized as structural heads of the complex form, the functional categories of the grammar (gender,
number in particular) can be considered to be structural heads. This leads to a unified theory of (affixational)
morphology, in which derivational affixes and inflectional affixes do not need to be separated in the rules offormation and in which Phonology builds Morphology.

Characterizing Contrasts: Features vs. Acoustic DistanceChelsea Sanker, Brown University (chelsea sanker@brown.edu)
Are distinctive features per se reflected in perception? Some work has found evidence for
abstract features not attributable to acoustic similarity, in consonantal contrasts (StuddertKennedy, Shankweiler, & Pisoni 1972). However, while consonants exhibit consistent categorical discrimination, vowels can have more continuous patterns (e.g. Fry et al. 1962; Pisoni1973), and do not exhibit the same e↵ects of having shared features (Blumstein 1974).
I present a perceptual discrimination study examining whether contrasts are better captured
by abstract features or phonetic similarity. The results support a featural characterizationof consonants, but are more consistent with an acoustic characterization of vowels.
48 native English speakers heard pairs of English words and decided whether they were thesame or not. Half of the pairs were phonologically distinct; half were the same. Within a
block, phonological contrasts were consistently in the same position of the word: onsets (e.g.
fan-pan), nuclei (e.g. look-lock), or codas (e.g. fun-sun). Each listener completed one blockof each contrast type. The study was split into two conditions: (1) maximizing trials for eachword pair (mean = 21.6), with fewer pairs; (2) maximizing number of pairs, with fewer trials
for each (mean = 8.0). Pairs di↵ering in number of segments were excluded from analysis.
For consonant contrasts, the phonological distance between paired items, measured in numberof features, was negatively correlated with response time; listeners made faster decisions when
the two items di↵ered in more features. Condition 1: in Coda blocks, r(62) = -0.27, p =0.025 and in Onset blocks, r(68) = -0.23, p = 0.049. Condition 2: in Coda blocks, r(353) =-0.18, p < 0.001, and in Onset blocks, r(326) = -0.14, p = 0.01.
Items di↵ering by more consonant features more accurately distinguished, though the correlation between featural distance and accuracy was only significant in the condition with morepairs: in Onset blocks, r(326) = 0.22, p < 0.001, and in Coda blocks, r(353) = 0.095, p =0.073. The e↵ects varied by feature; e.g. [+continuant] was more distinctive than [+voice].
Table 1: Correlations of acoustic and featural distance with RT and accuracy: Nuclei
Condition 1 (n = 73) Correlations
F1-F2 Euclid. Dist.
FeaturesRT-0.20·-0.14

Condition 2 (n = 358) Correlations

accuracy
0.34***
0.12

F1-F2 Euclid. Dist.
FeaturesRT-0.15***-0.083accuracy
0.23***
0.093

For vowel contrasts, acoustic distance was a stronger predictor than featural distance; both
response time and accuracy were significantly correlated with Euclidean distance between
the F1 and F2 values of the paired items. The correlations with featural distance had a weaktrend in the expected direction, which is predicted by the acoustic grounding of features.
Despite the correlation between acoustic distance and accuracy, responses were generally categorical; ‘same’ responses for phonologically distinct pairs (6.2% and 4.2%, in each condition)
were infrequent relative to responses for phonologically matching pairs (93.7% and 89.3%).
For consonantal contrasts, response time and accuracy were both correlated with featural
distance between paired items. However, neither response time nor accuracy was significantly
correlated with featural distance between paired items with a vowel contrast; rather, they
were correlated with acoustic distance. These patterns suggest di↵erent encoding of vowel
and consonant contrasts, as well as demonstrating limitations of equating di↵erent features.
1

Perspectives on final laryngeal neutralization – new evidence from Polish
Geoff Schwartz, Ewelina Wojtkowiak & Daria Arndt: UAM Poznań
Since it was first reported for final obstruent devoicing, incomplete neutralization has been acontroversial phenomenon. Some (e.g. Port 1996) have suggested that incomplete
neutralization poses a challenge to the fundaments of phonology, and perhaps for this reason
many (e.g. Manaster-Ramer 1996) have dismissed the findings, citing methodological issues
such as the influence of orthography. Röttger et al. (2014) address such methodologicalconcerns in their study, and still find solid evidence for contrast maintenance in German. This
study aims to reproduce the Röttger et al. methodology to assess claims of neutralization in
Polish, both in production and perception.
For production, we use a singular formation task based on aural input of nonce words,
minimizing possible effects of orthographic bias. Participants heard a carrier sentence
containing a nonce word with contrasting obstruents before the plural ending (i/ɨ), and theirtask was to produce the singular version with a zero ending in a different carrier:x Aural Stimulus: Szeby~Szeby /ʂɛbɨ~ʂɛpɨ/ można znaleźć w Warszawie (‘you can find______ in Warsaw’)
x Participants’ productions: A w Poznaniu jest tylko jeden szeb~szep (‘But in Poznań
there is only one __________’)We recorded 24 nonce pairs (48 words) from 15 speakers, for a total of 720 items. Linear
mixed-effects regression models were run with 4 different acoustic measures (Vowel
Duration, Closure Duration, Closure Voicing Duration, Burst Duration) as dependent
variables, Underlying Voicing as an independent variable, and Speaker and Item as random
factors. Significant effects of Underlying Voicing were found in the expected direction forVowel Duration (mean difference of 6.6 ms), Closure Duration (7.2 ms), and Closure Voicing(2.1 ms). Individual results revealed that Vowel Duration, Closure Duration, and Closure
Voicing were neutralized for 4, 5, and 7 speakers, respectively, and that 3 speakers showedneutralization in all acoustic measures.
Recordings from the production study were used in a perception experimentemploying a forced choice plural formation task in which listeners were asked to choose
which of the two words displayed on the screen was the plural form of the word that they
heard. Stimuli were chosen such that the acoustic contrasts between the voiced/voicelessproductions was representative of those observed in the production study. The experimentcontained 112 trials (56 voiced/voiceless pairs). Forty-six L1 Polish listeners took part in theexperiment yielding a total of 5152 tokens for analysis. The overall accuracy rate was 78.8%,
suggesting that listeners were quite adept at hearing the difference between voiceless and‘devoiced’ items. In addition, underlying voiceless items were identified with greater
accuracy (89%) than underlying voiced items (68%). A mixed effects logistic regression
analysis found a significant effect of Vowel Duration on accuracy (Reference Value: Correct,
B=-0.021, Std.Error=0.003, t=-6.44, p<.001), but no effects for Closure Duration, Closure
Voicing, or Burst Duration. The negative coefficient for the effect of Vowel Duration
indicates that shorter vowels contributed to more accurate responses. An additional perception
experiment is in preparation in which the stimuli will be manipulated to equalize the abovementioned acoustic measures.
Our results suggest that incomplete neutralization is alive and well in Polish, but how
may it be incorporated into a phonological analysis (cf. van Oostendorp 2008)? We argue thatthe issue of neutralization is a relic of the ‘segment’, and that a structural approach tolaryngeal phonology (Schwartz 2017) offers an insightful explanation of how group-based
incomplete neutralization effects may co-exist with intra-speaker neutralization.

AMPLITUDE AS A MEASURE OF STRESS PLACEMENT IN CROW
John Simonian; California State University, Fresno; john@mail.fresnostate.edu

Phonetic correlates of stress are listed as length, intensity, and pitch (Gordon 2011). Crow
is a language where length is contrastive and where pitch is predictable with a series of rules(Graczyk 2007: 15; 20-21). By process of elimination, the feature that must be the indicator ofstress is intensity.

To establish what a high intensity peak is, monosyllabic words in isolation are thebenchmark. Crow is a language that is iambic and quantity sensitive (Golston & Riad 2017).

All monosyllabic Crow words are bimoraic such as búa ‘fish’ or bíi ‘snow’ (Simonian 2017).
The average intensity of 10 measured monosyllabic words is 82.79 dB.

When comparing words comprised of two heavy syllables, their mean intensities are

similar. Across 60 words the average intensity of the first syllable is 77.95 dB and the averageof the second is 76.55, effectively identical. However, these numbers mask the fact that there
are two sub-classes of HH words. The division that creates two classes of HH words is theplacement of the “accent” marker which is displayed in Crow orthography as <´>. This

marker is thought to be a marker of high tone (Graczyk 2007). A word accented on the firstsyllable, for instance, déeshe [deː.ʒæː] ‘tongue’ has an intensity for the first syllable of 82.00
dB with the second having an intensity of 72.14 dB. A word accented on the second syllable

chiaxxó [ʧiːəx.xɔː] ‘five’ has an intensity for the first syllable of 71.42 dB with the second
having an intensity of 81.68 dB. The placement of this “accent” marker is the determining
factor in which of these two syllables is louder, or in other words, stressed.
I propose that the loudest syllable is routinely predicted by the orthographically-marked
high tone, regardless of what should be the loudest syllable based on iambic footing. Evidence
for this claim comes from LH and HL words where the light syllable is louder than the heavy
syllable if and only if it has the lexical accent mark. Additional evidence is that out of 433
words, 359 words had the loudest syllable and the marked accent coincide, regardless of things
like the sonority differences between different types of vowels. With evidence that amplitude
and pitch co-occur, Crow’s system of stress is changed from what Golston & Riad haveproposed. Instead of amplitude being stable and predictable, it is clear that pitch and amplitude
co-occur in a majority of words.
Golston & Riad 2017. ‘Pitch accent in Crow and Osage’. mfm. Gordon 2011. ‘Stress:

Phonotactic and Phonetic Evidence’. UCSB. Graczyk 2007. A Grammar of Crow. Nebraska.
Simonian 2017. ‘Minimal Word and Affix Length in Crow and Hidatsa’. Siouan/Caddoan

Languages Conference, Missouri.

There is Faith and Faith: Prosodic contrast in Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian verb
derivation
Marko Simonovic, Univerza v Novi Gorici, Universiteit Utrecht
I discuss productive verb derivation patterns with special attention for allowed
preservation of prosodic contrast. A preliminary study yielded two sets of extremely
productive verb derivational patterns, which allow very different amount of prosodic
contrast. Specific Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian suffixes will be analysed andcompared. In this abstract we illustrate the main generalisations using Serbo-Croatian
examples.
On the one hand, suffixes -ova- and -a- which have been used for denominal verbs
and are currently mostly employed for the integration of English verbs allow thepreservation of prosodic patterns, even some which are not attested elsewhere in theverbal system. For instance, S-C verbs generally follow the pattern where the stemfinal syllable has a high tone in the infinitive form. However, denominal verbs such asu žin-a-ti ‘to snack’, based on the noun u žina ‘snack’, form an exception. Similarly,
non-initial high tones have to spread to the left in native verbs, forming rising accents(če k-a-ti derives do -če k-a-ti and not *do-če k-a-ti), but loanwords allow patterns likerikve st-a-ti *ri kve st-a-ti ‘ to request’ based on the English verb.
On the other hand, suffixes -i:va-, -a:va- and -V:.a- which are involved in co-called
secondary imperfectivisation (derivation of an imperfective verb from a verb which wasmade perfective by prefixation) all have predictable prosodic patterns, thereby
allowing no prosodic contrast, as can be seen from the same pattern in the rightmost
column below. This pattern is analysable in terms of the prosodic dominance of thesuffix, but it is also worth considering an option in which the surfacing pattern is postlexical (see Simonović & Arsenijević 2014, for a similar account).
H

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

Original IMP

Prefixed PERF

Secondary IMP

pi: s-a -ti‘to write’

pre-pi: s-a -ti‘to copy’

pre-pis-i: v-a -ti‘to copy repeatedly’če k-a-ti‘to wait’

do -če k-a-ti‘to meet’

do-ček-i: v-a -ti‘to meet repeatedly’

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

H

Finally, I observe that the two kinds of derivational patterns seem to be strictly
separated in the dynamics of verb aspect encoding in the lexicon, so that hardly any
denominal and borrowed verbs ever derive secondary imprefectives.
I discuss two possible approaches to accounting for the observed grouping andseparation of the productive derivational patterns. On the one hand, the two kinds ofderivation involve radically different syntactic structures, so I test an account couchedin Distributed Morphology (Halle & Maranz 1994, Mavrin 2003), which allows syntax
to impose or delete prosody of the stem. On the other hand, representational
phonological approaches will be tested, which involve the well-known mechanisms of
OO-FAITH (Benua 1997) and Lexical Conservatism (Steriade 1997). I conclude thatwhile phonological approaches seem to be suited to account for the exceptionalpreservation of contrast, a more syntactic approach is required to account for the lossof contrast in secondary imperfectives.

Approximant Reduction in Colloquial Icelandic
Brynhildur Stefánsdóttir
Cornell University
bs724@cornell.edu
Cited pronunciations often do not reflect actual speech. This is the case in Icelandic, even though
it is thought to be a conservative language. In colloquial speech there are interesting changes
happening, for example with regards to approximants (traditionally symbolized [v], [ð], [j] and[ɣ]). Approximants frequently weaken, or fully delete in colloquial speech (Árnason 2011,
Helgason 1993), e.g maður ‘man’ [ma:.ðʏr̥] Æ[ma:.ur̥] or [ma:r̥]. This can lead to further
reduction, e.g. náttúrulega ‘naturally’ [nauhturʏlɛɣa] Æ [nauhtl̥ a]. Deletion happens within aprosodic word, e.g. þú veist ʽyou knowʼ [θu.veist] Æ [θu.eist]/[θust].
Some of these pronunciations have resulted in new written variants, mainly used in
informal writing. This is similar to contracted forms in English where some, e.g. you’ll for you
will, are more acceptable than others, e.g. prolly for probably. For example, ætlarðu ʽare you goingto’ is commonly written ætlaru. The former was used 16 times on Twitter in January 2018 while
the contracted form appeared 26 times. Some of these written variants have a restricted usage, e.g
when þú veist ‘you know’ is not used in its lexical meaning but rather as a discourse marker or ahedging word it is sometimes written þúst. This contracted form was used 25 on Twitter in January
2018 compared to 38 instances of the full written form. Importantly, there are no examples of þústwhen the phrase retains its lexical meaning but 112 examples of the full written form.
This paper reports the results of a study on approximant reduction in colloquial Icelandic
and how it affects the pronunciation of a word. For an actual representation of colloquial speech,
I used data from an Icelandic podcast, where a male and a female speaker discuss Icelandic films
as well as various random topics. I fully transcribed a half hour of speech, containing almost 800
examples of approximant reduction each. This kind of data has never been used before for
Icelandic. The advantage is that this is a fully casual and informal conversation between speakers
that are not trying to realize expected pronunciations in accordance to prescriptive rules. This isapparent e.g. from their usage of English slang and high frequency of discourse fillers and hedging
words. Furthermore, Twitter was used to gather data on the two participants usage of new written
variants.
In the data, an approximant is rarely fully pronounced; intervocalically it is always deleted,e.g. mögulega ‘possibly’ [mœ:ɣʏlɛɣa] (2 examples) is pronounced [mœ:ʏlɛa] and [mœ:lɛa]. Only[v] and [j] can appear word initially and there they are not deleted, e.g. vera ‘to be’ is pronounced[vɛ(:)ra] or [vra]. An approximant is more likely to be deleted when it appears in high frequency
forms. For example, eitthvað ‘something’ (168 examples) and svona ‘thus’ (120 examples), while
formally pronounced [eittkhvaθ] and [svɔ:na] respectively, the most common pronunciation is[eihkha] and [sɔ:na]/[sɔnna]. Another clear example is the phrase þú veist ‘you know’ [θuveist].
There are 180 examples in the data where it is used as a discourse marker or a hedging word. Whenused as such it is more susceptible to lenition. The pronunciation is on a continuum, ranging from[θuest to [θs], with [θʏst]/[θust] being the most frequent.
The results of this study show that the most significant factors for extreme weakening anddeletion are frequency and grammatical function. When a phrase has lost its lexical function, it ismore likely to be reduced. This does not reflect a fully automatic process from the standard form
but is rather the result of contributions from both reduction and lexicalization. Data from Twittersupports this, both speakers use þú veist when using the phrase in its original lexical function.
However, the only time the phrase appears as a discourse marker, the female speaker uses thecontracted form þú veist. In sum, even in Icelandic, thought to be to be conservative, there are clear
signs of reduction with a range of variation in colloquial speech.

Prosodic Faithfulness and (no) noun classes in Afar

Jelena Stojković, University of Leipzig, jelena.stojkovic@uni-leipzig.de

§!

§

§

§

§!

§

NonFin

§

§!

Dep-

§

a. ( m á c a n ) d a
b. m a ( c á n d a )+ c. m a c a n ( d á )

§

WSP

§

§

/m a c a n d a/ +Align-R§Hµ

Ident-Dep-§

NonFin§!

Dep-H

a. ( m á c a n ) d a+ b. m a ( c á n d a )c. m a c a n ( d á )WSP/m a c a n d a/

Align-R

Introduction. Afar (Cushitic) nouns can be feminine or masculine: feminine end in a stressedvowel, and masculine can end in an unstressed vowel or in a consonant (1). The phonologicalshape of the noun interacts with stress-reassignment when the particular suffix is attached (2).
(1)
Case marking(2)
Particular
ACC NOM GEN
gloss
ACC
particular gloss
Icalé calé calé-C ‘mountain’I
dummú dummuytá ‘vixen’
II gíta gití
gití
‘road’
II dúmmu dummúyta ‘tomcat’
III alíl alíl
alíl
‘heart’III xatúk
xatúkta‘star’
Previous approaches. Ulfsbjorninn 2016 has proposed that Afar has no noun classes, rather
that the apparent suppletive allomorphy is phonologically conditioned, but this proposal holds
only if nouns are marked for stress and syllabified in the input. In that sense the account basedon noun classes (Bliese 1981) is advantageous, but it fails in other cases. My proposal builds on
Ulfsbjorninn’s idea and shows that apparent noun classes are derived via suffixation on different
strata. Accentual properties of nouns with and without the particular follow from a high-ranked
demand for faithfulness to the input foot size.
Analysis. Assuming that Afar has an accentual system with the H tone on the Stress Head, I
claim that Afar nouns are subject to Prosodic Faithfulness (Itô et al. 1995): size of the foot isimmutable in terms of the number of moras. Feminine is thus derived via affixation of a foot (asin Greek, cf. van Oostendorp 2012) associated with a H tone.
(3)
I DENT- : Substrings of the input dominated by feet correspond to substrings of theoutput dominated by feet.
(4)‘younger brother’(5)‘younger sister’

§

Max-H

+ c.

H
H
/
d u m m u y ( t a )*Deass-T

b.

H
H
/
/
d u m m u y ( t a )Align Ra.

OCP-R

( d u m ) m u + y t aHH/d u m ( m u y ) t aH

Head=HH

Ident-

Max-H*Deass-Td u m(m u ) + y t a

OCP-R

H

Head=HH

Ident-

It is crucial that this constraint ‘sees’ only the prosodic structure, but cannot refer to elements
below the mora. At the stem stratum, accent is re-assigned when the particular suffix (underlyingly specified with a H tone) is attached. Since this construction has two H tones, the left one isdeleted due to right-directed OCP-R (cover constraint for OCP » A LIGN -R).
(6)
Feminine noun + particular(7)
Masculine noun + particular

§!

§§

§

§

§!

§

§§

§

§

§§

§

H

§!

§!

§

§

a.

H
/
( d u m ) m u y t a

§!

§§

§

b.

H
H
/
/
d u m ( m u y ) t a

§

§

+ c.

H
H
/
/
d u m ( m u y ) t a

Prosodic Faithfulness has been implied in different domains: apart from F T B IN and F OOT F ORM(Prince & Smolensky 1993), constraints sensitive to foot size have been employed for reduplication (Steriade 1988, McCarthy & Prince 1995), truncation (Piñeros 2000, 2014, Sanz Álvarez2015), blends (Ahn 2014, Trommer & Zimmermann 2010), language games (Itô et al. 1995).
This account joins them in advocating for mechanisms in the grammar that can only see up to acertain point in the structure, but not further than that.

Phonologically-conditioned cyclicity in Standard French • Benjamin Storme (CNRS)
1. Introduction. The phonology of derivatives can be regular (i.e. it obeys the language’s phonotactics) or cyclic (i.e. the derivative bears resemblance to its base beyond what is predicted by thelanguage’s phonotactics). This paper documents a pattern of phonologically-conditioned cyclicity inStandard French (SF), where the realization of a mid vowel as tense or lax in the final syllable of a
derivative’s stem (e.g. ê in fêt-ard ‘partier’) is cyclic when a schwa can or must occur between thestem and the suffix (e.g. coqu-(e)-let ‘hen-DIM’) but regular otherwise (e.g. fêt-(*e)-ard ‘partier’).
This puzzling pattern is discussed in light of the debates on the ‘French foot’ (Selkirk 1978 a.o.).
2. Method. Ten SF speakers (age: 21-30; seven female speakers) were recorded uttering 42 triplets
consisting of a derivative (e.g. fêt-ard ‘partier’), its base (e.g. fête ‘party’) and a word which ismorphologically simple and phonologically similar to the derivative (e.g. feta ‘feta cheese’). This
word provides the phonotactic baseline for the derivative. The derivatives contained (i) vowel- andglide-initial suffixes (before which no schwa can occur, due to a ban on @-vowel and @-glide sequencesin SF) and (ii) obstruent- and liquid-initial suffixes (before which a schwa can or must occur). The
words were embedded in a carrier sentence and presented to the participants in pseudo-randomizedorder (with three repetitions). The distance to the F1/F2 space’s center was used as a measure ofvowel quality: lax mid vowels [E, O] are more central than tense mid vowels [e, o].
3. Preliminary results. The data from three speakers have been completely analyzed so far. The
figures below show how mid vowels are realized as a function of the word type (base, derivative, thederivative’s phonological neighbour), the stem-suffix boundary (schwa available vs. unavailable) andthe identity of the mid vowel in the base as established by pronunciation dictionaries ([E, O, o]). The
results show that, when a schwa can or must occur at the stem-suffix boundary (the right panels in Fig.
(a-c)), the derivative patterns with the base (i.e. cyclically) ; otherwise (the left panels in Fig. (a-c)), it
patterns with its phonological neighbour (i.e. regularly). Three linear mixed-effects models were fit to
the data: a fully phonotactic model (Derivative=Neighbour), a fully cyclic model (Derivative=Base),
and a partially cyclic model (Derivative=Base if schwa can intervene between the stem and the suffix;
Derivative=Neighbour otherwise). The third model was found to provide the best fit (lowest AIC).

(a) Base with [E](b) Base with [O](c) Base with [o]4. Discussion and conclusion. The preliminary results of this study add to the body of evidence
suggesting that preschwa syllables have a special status in French. Durand (1976) and Selkirk (1978)
hypothesize that these syllables are prosodically prominent: this prosodic prominence could explain
the cyclic effect (see Kenstowicz 1996). However, because optional noninitial schwas (e.g. the medial e in coqu-e-let) are very rarely pronounced in conversational SF, the cyclic pattern may also
be directly conditioned on the nature of the segment following the stem in the derivative synchronically (nonschwa vowel or glide vs. obstruent, liquid or obligatory schwa), without reference to the
distribution of optional schwas and their potential prosodic effects.

Gradient interaction of nasality and rounding
A corpus study of Hungarian
Ildikó Emese Szabó
ildi.szabo@nyu.edu

Introduction: Törkenczy (2006) observes that coda mC clusters in Hungarian are almost exceptionlessly preceded by [+round] vowels: words like /tømb/ tömb ‘block’, /tsomb/ comb ‘thigh’, and/tsim.bi/ cimbi ‘buddy’ are well-attested, but words like */tsimb/ cimb are extremely infrequent. In
this paper I confirm Törkenczy’s observation, and show that it is part of a larger gradient restriction:
labial /mC/ is more likely to be preceded by [+round] vowels, and dental /nC/s are more likely tobe preceded by [-round] vowels. I present corpus evidence for this distribution, and argue that its
motivation is perceptual: [±round] contrasts are less perceptible adjacent to nasal codas.
Corpus study: The type frequency data in this paper comes from a corpus based on the Szótár
AdatBázis 1.0 (Szilágyi N., 2014), which contains 71,133 unique stems of Hungarian. After theelimination of compounds, the corpus used in this study contains 21,787 stems. Table 1 shows
the type frequencies of rounded and unrounded vowels in VNC sequences relative to other VCCs.
Rounded vowels are significantly overattested before labial VNC clusters ( 2 -test with Yates’ correction: 2 =33.97, p=0.0001), while they are underattested before dental NCs ( 2 =29.34, p=0.0001).
At the same time, other NC clusters pattern in-between, though there is little data on M{f,v} andñ{c,é} strings. Note that the nasal here is always a coda, due to rules of Hungarian syllabification,
but the cluster might be split accross a syllable boundary—e.g. in /tsim.bi/ cimbi ‘buddy’.
RoundedUnrounded
Ratiom{p,b} M{f,v}
167
13
181
27
0.92
0.48

n{t,d}
ñ{c,é}
233
25 (35)729
40 (65)0.31 0.63 (0.54)

N{k,g}
180
409
0.44

other CCs
3071
6282
0.49

Table 1: Type frequencies of CCs in V environment

As partially anticipated by Törkenczy, this pattern holds also in the more specific word-final
environment (VNC#): in 15/16 Vm{p,b}# forms, but only 36/193 Vn{t,d}# forms, the vowel is[+round] (cf. 288/735 for all CCs). Outside of the coda context, we find evidence for only part of
the restriction: rounded vowels are slightly overattested before prevocalic (onset) /m/, but vowels
preceding onset /n/ do not pattern differently from vowels preceding other consonants.
Analysis: I claim that the prenasal suppression of the [±round] contrast is a result of anticipatory
nasalization from coda Ns obscuring the cuing of roundedness in vowels. There is evidence fornasalization obscuring cues of roundedness—lowering F2 as well as dampening and raising F3(Maeda, 1993)—and coda Ns typically induce more nasal coarticulation than onsets. Neutralizationof [±round] contrasts preceding coda nasals is also attested (e.g. French: Fourgeron & Smith, 1993).
Hungarian has substantial V N coarticulation from coda nasals—VnC alternates with Ve C (Siptár& Törkenczy, 2000)—which might make a roundedness distinctions harder to perceive prenasallyand could lead to gradient partial neutralization. This can be analyzed in a Dispersion theoretic
framework (Flemming 2004) as an interaction of constraints promoting nasal coarticulation andconstraints enforcing distinctiveness thresholds for rounding contrasts (M D ).
The overattested ngrams (VU R n and VR m) suggest an enhancement effect. Since VR and /m/share a labial gesture, together they can cue the VN string as a whole better than e.g. /VU R m/ could.
It is predicted that since /N/ does not participate in this pattern, it must have a smaller effect on
preceding vowels than /m/ and /n/ do, which is yet to be verified experimentally.
1

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Opaque Multiple-Source Suppletion in Eslarn Infinitives
Jochen Trommer University of Leipzig jtrommer@uni-leipzig.de
Summary: In this paper, I provide new empirical evidence for phonological optimization in
suppletive allomorph selection (Kager 1996, Bonet et al. 2007, Wolf 2015). The alternation
between -5 and -n in Eslarn ([isliN]) Bavarian (Bachmann 2000) is triggered by two disjoint
phonological contexts and can therefore not be captured through selection by a unitary subcategorization frame (Bye 2006, Paster 2006, 2009, 2015). I provide an analysis in Containment
Theory which also captures the phonological opacity in the pattern emerging from nasal-stop
coalescence. Data: The infinitive suffix is -n after non-nasal consonants undergoing place assimilation (1-a,d) and coalescence with singleton stops (1-c), but -5 after nasal-final roots (1-b).
This suppletion pattern is mirrored in vowel-final roots (restricted in Eslarn to diphthongs andlong [a]), where final low vowel triggers -n (1-f), and high vowels -5 (1-e):(1)
1sg
Infin.
1sg
Infin.
laf
laf-m
‘run’
SEl
SEl-n
‘ring’
a. Fricatives les
les-n"‘read’
d. Liquids
hul
hul-n
‘get’
"
sOU
be.tlG be.tlG-n ‘beg’< x sOU< x-N" ‘quest’""öam öam-5 ‘vacate’baU
baU‘build’<< -5
b. Nasals
öEn
öEn-5
‘run’
e. Non-low Vowels SöaI
SöaI
‘yell’
<
<-5
sIN
sIN-5
‘sing’
lOU
lOU
‘let’
<
< -5
lep
lem
‘live’
ma:
ma:-n
‘mow’
c. Stops
ret
ren‘talk’
f. Low Vowels
fO5
fO5
-n
‘drive’
<
<
lek
leN
‘put’
fI5
fI5
‘lead’<<-n
Crucially, neither the distribution of -5 (after high vowels and nasal consonants) nor -n (lowvowels and non-nasal consonants) can be captured as a natural class, and hence as a unitary subcategorization frame, but the pattern is in crucial respects phonologically optimizing, avoiding
two marked configurations that are illicit in Eslarn inside of phonological words, adjacent nasals(as in hypothetical [*öam-n]) and low-vowel sequences (as in *[ma:-5]). Analysis: The pattern
can be exhaustively captured by phonologically choosing between the listed allomorphs throughthe ranking {*NN, *V+low V+low , SharePlace TN } * 3µ *V̆, where the constraint against unstressed vowels *V̆ leads to preference for syllabic nasal consonants as in [laf-m], overwritten"
in the relevant contexts by the ban on two adjacent nasals (*NN) and by * 3µ (‘Avoid
trimoraic
syllables’) for non-low vowels ([lOU*[lOµ Uµ nµ ] ), whereas the latter is outranked by< ] [5]<*V+low V+low for low-vowel stems. Opacity: -5/-n allomorphy involves two cases of surface
opacity problematic for an analysis in Standard Correspondence Theory (CT). First, since inCT coalescence is true segment fusion as in /l1 e2 p3 -n4 / ! [l1 e2 m3,4 ], it should also be available
for nasal-final stems (/ö1 a2 m3 -n4 / ! *[ö1 a2 m3,4 ]) and preferred since coalescence of two nasals
leads to less violations of Ident constraints than nasal+stop coalescence. Second, stems which
end in a high vowel and a stop (e.g. [SöaI<p] ‘write’) exhibit the nasal, not the vocalic allomorph([SöaI<m], not *[SöaI<p5]). Both patterns fall out naturally in Autosegmental Containment Theory(Zimmermann and Trommer 2014), where underlying phonological material cannot be deleted
but only marked as phonetically invisible, and coalescence boils down to non-realization of oneof the involved segments accompanied by spreading (Zaleska 2018, in this case independently
motivated place spreading to nasals). If now both *NN and *V+low V+low are interpreted as generalized markedness constraints evaluating phonetically visible and invisible segments on a par,a form such as *[öa( m -m)Lab ] (with spread Labial, and stem-m made floating/invisible) still
violates *NN and loses against [öam-5], whereas [SöaI<( p -m)Lab ] wins over *[SöaI<.p5] because
it additionally satisfies undominated SharePlace TN (‘An obstruent should share Place with afollowing nasal’) even though it violates lower-ranked ⇤ 3µ .

Maintenance of voicing and aspiration contrasts in Nepali stops
Rachel Vogel | Cornell University | rcv44@cornell.edu

Duration in ms.

This paper investigates the four-way contrast in aspiration and voicing of Nepali oral stops (i.e.,[-voice, -asp], [+voice, -asp], [-voice, +asp], [+voice, +asp]). While this type of stop system israre cross-linguistically, it is well attested in the Indo-Aryan family, as well as in unrelated
languages in South Asia (Maddieson 1984, Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996). In many languages,
however, it is observed that elements of the contrast are lost, usually with voiced aspirated stops(Dutta 2007, Kanwal & Ritchart 2015). In Nepali, specifically, it has been suggested that voiced
aspirated stops undergo deaspiration in non-initial positions (Bandhu et. al. 1971, Acharya 2001,
Schwartz, Sonderegger, & Goad 2017); however, this has never been systematically tested, andthe observations differ across studies. The present investigation provides a systematic analysis of
the four-way stop contrast, based on the durations of the closure and release portions of each stop
type in word-initial and intervocalic positions, and demonstrates that at least for the variety of
Nepali tested here, the contrast remains robust in both positions.
Based on previous observations regarding Nepali (Pokharel 1985), I formulated and tested
the following hypotheses; any hypothesis not supported suggests neutralization of a contrast.
(1) Hypothesis 1: The total duration of aspirated stops in both initial and intervocalic positions
will be longer than the duration of their unaspirated counterparts.
(2) Hypothesis 2: Aspirated stops, but not unaspirated stops, in both initial and intervocalic
positions will exhibit substantial release portions following the closure.
(3) Hypothesis 3: The closure periods of phonemically voiced stops in both initial andintervocalic positions will be shorter than those of their voiceless counterparts.
The corpus, recorded and analyzed using Praat, consists of 120 stops with the four aspiration/
voice combinations, in initial and medial positions in real Nepali words, produced in a carrierphrase (4) by a 19-year-old speaker (F) from Kathmandu, currently studying in the United States.
(4) Nepali Carrier Phrase: məlai ___ pʰeri bʰanus ‘please say ___ to me again.’
Figure 1 shows the mean duration of each consonant type (B = voiced, P = voiceless; h =aspiration), in each position (1 = initial position, 2 = intervocalic). The lower portion of eachcolumn is the closure duration; the upper portion is the release, identified as the time between therelease burst and onset of the following vowel. As seen, while all types of stops are longer ininitial position, in both positions they exhibit the same basic patterns. That is, aspirated stops are
longer overall and have longer
release portions than
Closure & release duration by consonant type &syllable
unaspirated ones, thus
confirming Hypotheses 1 and200
2. Voiceless stops have longer
150
108.6
closures than voiced ones,
65.3
94.3
10.9
100
77.8
9.1
confirming Hypothesis 3. We
16.4
Release50 80.9 13.9 98.4
can thus conclude that there is
74.9
75.4
72.9 58.3 49.8
Closure44.8
0
no evidence for loss of any
B-1 B-2 P-1 P-2 Bh-1 Bh-2 Ph-1 Ph-2
elements of the four-way stop
stop typecontrast in the present varietyof Nepali.
Figure 1. Summary of results

Continuancy in nasal place assimilation
7FOP7PMFOFD 6OJWFSTJUZPG;BHSFC
WWPMFOFD!GG[HIS

Introduction. This paper reports previously unrecognized patterns from Croatian in which nasal
place assimilation is coupled with assimilation of continuancy. We show that a formal rule-based
analysis which treats segments as unstructured sets of features elegantly captures all relevant
phonological generalizations without overgenerating. These patterns are problematic for OT
approaches to place assimilation (e.g., Jun 2004 (‘classic’ OT), McCarthy 2008 (harmonic
serialism)) because of the phonetically arbitrary nature of nasal assimilation in Croatian.
The Data. In Croatian, phonemic nasals behave differently with respect to place assimilation:/n/ assimilates to bilabials, labiodentals, and velars; /m/ only to labiodentals; and /ɲ/ does not
assimilate. Examples: /jedanput/ → [jedamput] ‘once’, /on ʋidi/ → [oɱʋidi] ‘he sees’, /banka/→ [baŋka] ‘bank’, /tramʋaj/ → [traɱʋaj] ‘tram’. Crucially, /n/ changes to a velar nasal stop
before non-continuants /k/ and /g/, but into a velar nasal continuant before continuant /x/; also,/m/ changes to a nasal continuant [ɱ] before continuants /ʋ/ and /f/. Preliminary
electropalatographic recordings (averaged across two speakers at the frame showing maximal
tongue-palate contact) indicate complete closure in realization of
the nasal stop in [baŋka] ‘bank’ (Fig. 1) and non-complete
obstruction in realization of the nasal continuant in [iŋxibirati]‘inhibit’ (Fig. 2). Thus in specific cases Croatian nasals assimilate
in continuancy as well as in place. These data are challenging bothin terms of phonological computation (rules vs. constraints) andphonological representations (segments as unstructured sets of
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
features vs. feature geometry).
Analyses. The simplest way of accounting for Croatian nasal assimilation patterns is with thefollowing phonological rules:(1)/+COR, +NAS/ → [–COR, αANT, βBACK, γCONT] / __ [–COR, αANT, βBACK, γCONT](2)/+LAB, +NAS, –CONT/ → [+CONT] / __ [+LAB, +CONT]
Rule (1) models place assimilation of /n/ before bilabial, labiodental, and velar segments,
depending on the values of variables. Under this analysis [ɱ] is predicted to be a continuant, incontrast to more traditional interpretations of [ɱ] as a nasal stop (e.g., Laver 1994: 215). This is
in line with Ladefoged’s & Maddieson’s (1996: 18) careful consideration: “We do not know if
a true occlusive could be made with [a labiodental] gesture, when we take into account the gapsthat often occur between the incisors.” Rule (1) explicitly accounts for the fact that /n/ assimilates
differently before non-continuant velars than before a continuant velar. Rule (2) models placeassimilation of /m/ before labiodentals /ʋ/ and /f/. The feature [±CONTINUANT] is crucial forcorrectly stating both rules: It is the only feature which discriminates between labial andlabiodental classes while still including both sonorant [ʋ] and non-sonorant [f]. Neither rule
predicts unattested patterns: /m/ does not assimilate to velars, /ɲ/ does not assimilate at all. Whilean OT-HS analysis (McCarthy 2008) gives correct predictions in some simple cases (e.g., /banka/→ [baŋ.ka]), it cannot be brought to account for continuancy assimilation, and it predicts
unattested output forms (e.g., /iznimka/ → *[iz.niŋ.ka] ‘exception’). The main reason for thisinadequacy is its reliance on CODACOND, defined by the [PLACE] node which does not include[±CONT]. Ideas on how to obviate this difficulty, pursuing possibilities explored by Padgett (1994)
and/or positing a feature [LABIODENTAL], are presented and compared to the rule-based analysis.
Implications. Supported by phonetic data, this paper reports a previously unrecognized case ofplace and continuancy coupling in assimilation of nasals. A simple rule-based analysis ((1), (2))
explicitly captures all relevant generalizations: (i) Croatian underlying nasals behave differently
with respect to assimilation (e.g., /n/ assimilates, while /ɲ/ does not); (ii) nasal place assimilation
can be coupled with continuancy assimilation (e.g., [ŋ] in [baŋka] is [–CONT], [ŋ] in [iŋxibirati]is [+CONT]); (iii) a single natural class, velar obstruents, leads to two different outputs of placeassimilation. We also show that due to the phonetically arbitrary nature of this phonologicalalternation, OT analyses undergenerate in some cases (e.g., in assimilation of /n/) andovergenerate in others (e.g., in assimilation of /m/).

Elements on the Licensor Tier for the Prosodic-Domain Head
Yuko Yoshida (Doshisha University)
This presentation provides a unified representational explanation of two seemingly
unconnected points of dialectal variation observed between Standard and Kansai Japanese (SJ& KJ respectively): (a) the phonetic interpretation of an |U| element with a nasal soundpreceding it and (b) whether a position filled with |U| can be accented. My proposal highlights
the property of headedness as the key that unifies these phenomena.
This talk broadly couched in Government Phonology and Element Theory (Kaye et al.
1985, 1990; Charette 1991), elucidates the phonological role that elements can play whensituated on what I call the Licensor Tier. My account is a novel tier-based representation ofheadedness (for overview see Ulfsbjorninn (to appear)). It explains how headship in Japanesepitch-accent varieties has an effect on segmental interpretation.
Since Y.Yoshida (1995), it has been assumed that, in Japanese, the head position of aword domain in a pitch-accent language is phonetically interpreted as a high pitch, unlike instress languages, in which headship is manifested by strength. Only those nuclei which areprojected to the Licensor Tier are the candidates for the headship of the prosodic domain. Thus
a pitch accent never falls on a position which is licensed at the skeletal level (a.k.a. a dependent)
e.g. the empty position involved in the representation of a geminate (ONO where N=φ) or the
licensed position of a branching nucleus. In a similar vein, the skeletal position of /N/ nevertakes the role of prosodic head in SJ. Consequently, an epenthetic vowel /u/, headless |U|, neverbears an accent in SJ (cf. Y.Yoshida 2003). As we will see, this has repercussions for thesegmental interpretation. It constitutes another instance of the Labial-Velar correspondence thatis attested in many other languages. According to the labial-velar hypothesis, these two classesof sounds are characterised by the same resonance/place element |U|, which is headed for labials
and headless for velars (Backley & Nasukawa 2009, extended in Ulfsbjorninn to appear).
In SJ, the phonological element |U| is a non-headed expression, which phoneticallymanifests as [ɯ], a velar approximant without labial quality. On the other hand, KJ has a headed
expression of the |U| element manifesting as [u]. In KJ, the vowel /u/ is pronounced withsignificant lip rounding [u], unlike its SJ counterparts [ɯ] (Sugito 1996). Correspondingly, theF2 of [u] in KJ is lower than SJ counterpart.
Another contrasting phonetic quality of /N/, the so-called ‘syllabic nasal’ of SJ and KJ,
comes from the status of an element |U|. This follows the analysis of Y.Yoshida (1995): in SJ,
scarcely distributed /nu/ (/n/ followed by a velar approximant), takes the headed expression |U|([u]), which is typically accented, whereas non-headed |U| in the same composition,phonetically manifests [ɯ̃ ] (a nasal velar approximant) and is never accented.
In KJ, and unlike SJ, |U| can project to the Licensing Tier, where (in addition to being
interpreted as headed with full rounding) they can even serve as heads of the prosodic domain.
This means that accents may fall on to those nuclei, including the second member of apparent
monophthongs, ʧuu’ka ‘Chinese’, and an epenthetic /u/, soNbu’rero (sombrero), which attests
the implication of the headedness of |U| in KJ.
A confirming piece of evidence comes from the mysterious behaviour of /N/ in KJ,
which is capable of carrying a word accent: kiN’ki ‘kinki region’ and oN’bu ‘piggyback’.
Homorganicity of N with its following onset is equally observed in SJ and KJ, however, themanifestation comes from different instances of licensing: in SJ it is induced by nasals fillingthe onsets involved, whereas in KJ the headed |U| in the representation of /N/ attracts the nasality
from the neighbouring onset for place of articulation. In the Kyoto Dialect, uma ‘horse’ in SJ is
pronounced as N’ma, which sounds exotic to SJ ears with its a) word-initial /N/ and b) accented/N/. The nasality is copied from the following onset, even without any underlying nasality forthe initial onset.

How many R’s are there in “Arabic”?
Islam Youssef <islam.youssef@usn.no>
University of South-Eastern Norway
Despite the great variability in the sounds corresponding to the letter <r> across and within
languages, the literature has systematically treated them as a single phonological class ofrhotics (Wiese 2001, 2011). Rhotics are nonetheless far from unified under one set of features;
they have been characterized via the manner features [approximant], [stop], [fricative], or just[rhotic], and with the place features [coronal], [dorsal], or ‘underspecified’ (Ladefoged andMaddieson 1996, Hall 1997). Arabic rhotics can be narrowed down to the alveolar tap/trill
category – for the vast majority of dialects (Anani 1985, Watson 2002). Researchers have notedvariation both across and within dialects, one that is especially related to emphatic vs. nonemphatic variants of the rhotic (e.g. Shaheen 1979, Younes 1994). However, questions remain
as to whether the variation should be categorized as phonetic or as phonological; whether thatcategorization holds for all dialects; and if not, what evidence can be provided for the potential
representational dissimilarities.
In this paper, I will compare and contrast the phonological behavior of rhotics in two Arabic
dialects, namely Cairene and Baghdadi, in an attempt to answer these important questions. I
show that in Cairene there are two rhotic phonemes, one plain and the other emphatic, which
exist in a multiplex of contrastive and complementary distributions (see also Schulte 1985). In
Baghdadi, however, there is only one plain rhotic phoneme that is subject to allophonicvariation. Evidence for the distinction comes from phonological processes that involve /R/ inboth varieties or in only one of the varieties. Examples of the former type include the total
assimilation of the definite article /l/ to consonants that exhibit some form of ‘coronality’ (seeWatson 2002: 217 and references therein), and across-the-board assimilation of the sonorants/n, l/ to a following /R/. Two examples of the latter type are highlighted. First is the behavior
of /R/ as a long distance trigger of emphasis (pharyngealization) spread in Cairene, but not in
Baghdadi. Only in Cairene do emphatic and plain /R/’s contrast, although the emphatic
phoneme undergoes de-emphasis (to a plain /R/) when adjacent to tautosyllabic high front
vowels (Broselow 1976, Woidich 1980). Corresponding behavior in Baghdadi is shown to beallophonic. Another process, attested only in Baghdadi, is the labialization of certain vowels (achange from /i/ to /u/) when flanked between a labial consonant and a back, emphatic or nonemphatic, consonant, where /R/ patterns with velar/uvular (back non-emphatic) consonants.
My conclusion is that although the R’s in the two dialects appear to be phonetically similar,
they are not phonologically so. Not only do we see a phonemic R split in Cairene and not in
Baghdadi, but also neither of the Cairene /R/ phonemes is featurally identical to the Baghdadi/R/. Assuming Modified Contrastive Specification (Dresher et al. 1994, Hall 2007, Dresher
2009, inter alia), the distinct phonological behavior of these three /R/ phonemes should
correlate with representational differences. There is evidence that all three have a consonantal
place [coronal] feature as well as sonorant-like properties, indicated by a combination
consonantal [open] and vocalic [close] features (following Morén 2003, 2006). The Cairene
emphatic /R/ is characterized by a secondary vocalic [dorsal] feature, and the Baghdadi /R/ by
an additional consonantal [dorsal] feature. Given that /R/ is phonetically both elusive andvaried (Wiese 2011), these representations should not be viewed as articulatorily implausible.
The representations demonstrate how the phonological behavior of segments can influenceinventory structure and featural makeup, with the implication that distinctive features are notas rigid as most models of feature geometry propose. This also calls attention to the division oflabor between phonetics and phonology, without disregarding the interface.

Special session
SPE at 50: what remains?
In memoriam Morris Halle
The Sound Pattern of English appeared in 1968, fifty years ago. The book laid out acomprehensive theory of phonology, formulating and developing hypotheses inmost areas of the discipline, including phonological representations, phonologicalderivations, the relationship between phonology and other components ofgrammar, phonological acquisition, phonological typology, and phonologicalchange. Many of the ideas proposed or elaborated in SPE went on to become
everyday tools of the trade for phonologists: a widely used theory of segmental
features, rewrite rules, extrinsic rule ordering, morpheme structure constraints,boundary symbols, the transformational cycle, markedness statements, theevaluation measure, etc. It is thus not surprising that, since its publication, SPE has
repeatedly provided a reference point for phonological argumentation, withphonologists often presenting they work either as a direct continuation, a partial
reformation, or a direct rejection of the SPE programme.
At the distance of half a century, this special session is intended to offer achance to reflect on how the field now views SPE: what remains? Is theabstractness possible in SPE's derivations a good thing? Are multi-stage
derivations necessary? Are multiple levels? Should we retain or return to thephonological rule? (And if so, then what are rules and how are they constrained?)
Or have phonological targets and effects been rightly and irrevocably separated?
Are the analyses proposed in SPE learnable? Have models proposed since
SPE improved in terms of learnability? Where should we stand in terms ofrepresentations: return to the simple binary features of SPE, or retain the enriched
representations that emerged in late twentieth century phonology, or dosomething else entirely? Where does markedness now stand? SPE covered a lot ofground: are there ideas that have fallen from view that should be reintroduced into
phonology? The invited participants in this session will address some of these andother related questions.
This session has been cast in a sad light, given the news of Morris Halle's deathon 2nd April 2018. The session is now dedicated to his memory and will featuresome commemoration of his overall contribution to phonology.
Invited speakers (in order of speaking)• David Odden (Ohio State University)• Silke Hamann (University of Amsterdam)• Anne-Michelle Tessier (University of Michigan and Simon Fraser University)
Invited discussant• Joan Mascaro (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)

The phonetics-phonology interface and the role of orthography in SPE andbeyondSilke Hamann (University of Amsterdam)
In this talk, I will discuss Chomsky & Halle’s (1968) conception of phonetic
implementation and how their focus on the production process had a lasting
influence on the field of phonology. I will furthermore deal with the question how agenerative phonologist can decide whether a process is phonological or phonetic
and why this question should matter.
In the last part of the talk, I will re-evaluate Chomsky & Halle’s ideas on therole of orthography for phonology, and discuss potential experimental evidence for
an influence of orthographical knowledge on phonological representations.

Formal and Metatheoretical Contributions of SPE to Phonological Theory
David Odden (Ohio State University)
In this presentation, I review some of the contributions to phonology in The Sound
Pattern of English, the foundational work in generative phonology published 50
years ago. SPE’s contributions fall into two areas. The easiest to identify arevarious technical claims about the language faculty, such as the formal theory ofrules, principles of ordering, or the nature of the representations that rules act on.
SPE is also a vehicle for conveying a methodology of phonology, a metatheory ofwhat linguistics is about, and how we should construct theories. It is in shaping
metatheory that SPE had its longest-lasting effect.
One very prominent driving force behind SPE’s theory and analysis is“capturing generalizations”, an elusive notion. This desideratum leads to a complex
formal system of rule-formulation where certain partial similarities in rules arefactored out and multiple rules can be condensed into one. This condensing ofrules feeds into a second desideratum, that of maximally compressing the rules
and representations in a grammar, driven by the “evaluation metric”, anddetermines the exact grammar to be acquired for a language. A third feature of SPE
theorizing is that it makes free use of the notion of Universal Grammar, whereby
any aspect of a language that could be attributed to UG is to be removed from thegrammar, thus incurring no acquisitional cost.
While most of the technical devices that were specific to SPE were abandoned
relatively early in the development of phonology, certain ideas proved more
resilient, especially those ideas that pertain to encoding speaker intuitions into agrammar. The specific machinery of Morpheme Structure Rules and Markedness /Linking fell into disuse, but the underlying ideas of stating well-formedness
constraints as part of a grammar, and of letting automatic substantive principles
guide the derivation persisted up to the present.

The legacy of SPE and theories of phonological learning, 50 years later
Anne-Michelle Tessier (University of Michigan and Simon Fraser University)
My talk will deal with a series of fundamental questions about how generative
phonological grammars are learned. In each case, I will raise a question thatremains central to theory construction and evaluation in the phonological learning
literature; I will remind myself and possibly others of how SPE framed, approachedor avoided the question; then I will sketch to varying degrees of detail how thequestion and its SPE treatment have addressed in subsequent literature.
The questions I intend to raise are as follows:
1) How do learners compile their data for phonological learning? How do they
relate what they perceive to a possible mental representation for phonologicalanalysis? What are the theoretical consequences of the sequential, noninstantaneous nature of learning?
2) How do learners choose between grammar hypotheses to account for
observed data? How do they calculate the relative value or explanatory
adequacy of one hypothesis compared to another? What assumptions about
the building blocks of phonological theory determine the winners in suchcalculations?
3) What are the learners’ assumptions about underlying representations? What is
the role of morpheme structure rules, constraints or filters? How do the
choices the learner makes when storing underlying forms interact with theircurrent grammatical hypotheses?
4) What is the role and nature of exceptions in relation to the phonological
generalizations of a language? How do learners identify exceptions and how dothey bear on the grammar?
In the spirit and the words of SPE, I will try to focus on the ways in which both thequestions and their answers are ‘empirical’ and ‘interesting’ – that is, what types ofevidence can choose between answers, and how they might get us closer to real
and/or satisfying generalizations about linguistic knowledge. In a similar spirit, I
will aim to end with more questions and fewer answers than I started with.