Linguistics Department

This work is about two ‘generation problems’ for classic Optimality Theory, chain shifts and saltations. The issues for OT posed by traditional analyses of chain shifts and saltations have led to various embellishments of the classic theory, typically in the form of novel constraint types. Reiss (2021a,b) proposes a general solution to the problem of chain shifts and saltations that relies more directly on different assumptions about representations than about constraints. Specifically, Reiss assumes that underlying representations may be underspecified, and that a map ‘counts’ as a chain shift or as a saltation so long as the surface alternants from a uniform underlying representation match the respective observed alternants. We report here on three results from our ongoing formal assessment of Reiss’s proposed solution.

Cameron et al. (2010) and Fruehwald & Gorman (2011) present the pattern of homorganic consonant cluster reduction in Catalan as a challenge to Baković’s (2005) theory of antigemination, which predicts that any feature ignored in the determination of consonant identity for the purposes of antigemination in a given language must independently assimilate in that language. I argue that the pattern in Catalan is not a counterexample to this prediction if the reduction process is analyzed as coalescence, following Wheeler (2005), rather than as deletion.

Learnability of complex phonological interactions: an artificial language learning experiment

No abstract available.

Recent research suggests that speaking a tone language confers benefits in processing pitch in nonlinguistic contexts such as music. This research largely compares speakers of nontone European languages (English, French) with speakers of tone languages in East Asia (Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai). However, tone languages exist on multiple continents-notably, languages indigenous to Africa and the Americas. With one exception (Bradley, Psychomusicology, 26(4), 337-345, 2016), no research has assessed whether these tone languages also confer pitch processing advantages. Two studies presented a melody change detection task, using quasirandom note sequences drawn from Western major scale tone probabilities. Listeners were speakers of Akan, a tone language of Ghana, plus speakers from previously tested populations (nontone language speakers and East Asian tone language speakers). In both cases, East Asian tone language speakers showed the strongest musical pitch processing, but Akan speakers did not exceed nontone speakers, despite comparable or better instrument change detection. Results suggest more nuanced effects of tone languages on pitch processing. Greater numbers of tones, presence of contour tones in a language's tone inventory, or possibly greater functional load of tone may be more likely to confer pitch processing benefits than mere presence of tone contrasts.

Despite many acoustic, articulatory and phonological studies of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) vowel contrasts and vowel harmony, studies of the perception of ATR contrasts by speakers of languages with ATR vowel distinctions are lacking. This paper explores how vowels which differ for ATR or height, or both, are distinguished by speakers of Akan, a Kwa language of Ghana. We examine whether the phonological contrastive status of the vowels impacts perception or whether it is driven by acoustic similarity. Results from two experiments reveal that vowels that differ only for ATR are well distinguished, even those that are in an allophonic relationship. Yet, vowels that are contrastive and differ by both ATR and height features, but are acoustically similar, are poorly perceived. We suggest that these vowel contrasts constitute a case of perceptual near-merger.

Positional licensing refers to the observation that elements (e.g. particular feature values or feature value combinations) can be limited to specific positions (e.g. syllable onsets, initial syllables, stressed syllables, etc.). Positional licensing patterns have been analyzed using either positional markedness or positional faithfulness constraints in OT and HG. In this paper we demonstrate that the predictions of OT and HG diverge in deep but structured ways once there are more than two licensing positions. We propose an account for this structured divergence based on 3-position systems, and confirm the validity of that account with an analysis of 4-position systems. We also describe how conjoined constraints impact positional licensing patterns, and in doing so provide a counter-example to a claim made in our previous work (Mai & Baković 2020).

We show that, in general, Optimality Theory (OT) grammars containing a restricted family of locally-conjoined constraints (Smolensky 2006) make the same typological predictions as corresponding Harmonic Grammar (HG) grammars. We provide an intuition for the generalization using a simple constrast and neutralization typology, as well as a formal proof. This demonstration adds structure to claims about the (non)equivalence of HG and OT with local conjunction (Legendre et al. 2006, Pater 2016) and provides a tool for understanding how different sets of constraints lead to the same typological predictions in HG and OT.

This squib sheds light on the relationship between two types of overapplication opacity, counterbleeding and self-destructive feeding, by demonstrating how one can be formally converted into the other. This demonstration further clarifies the relation between self-destructive feeding and cross-derivational feeding interactions, which have also been identified as involving overapplication opacity (Baković, 2007; 2011).

Kisseberth (1970b) distinguishes rules in Tunica (Haas 1940) that are subject to a constraint penalizing adjacent stresses from rules that are not subject to this constraint. This distinction appears on the surface to be particularly suited to a straightforward analysis within OT (Prince & Smolensky 1993): No-Clash is ranked above constraints responsible for the rules that are subject to it and below constraints responsible for the rules that are not. The full range of relevant facts in Tunica suggest that No-Clash is only crucially dominated and violated lexically, however; postlexically, No-Clash is undominated and there are no adjacent stresses on the surface. An analysis is within Stratal OT (Bermúdez-Otero 1999, Kiparsky 2000) is proposed and defended.