Preface Acknowledgements Symbols and abbreviations 1. What is markedness? 2. Theory 3. Markedness reduction 4. Preservation of the marked 5. Conflation in reduction 6. Markedness conflation in preservation 7. Markedness conflict: vowels 8. Prediction and alternatives 9. Conclusions References Subject index Language index.

Markedness: Reduction and Preservation in Phonology

Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Positional Augmentation: Markedness Constraints for Prominent Positions Chapter 2: A Theory of Positional Augmentation Constraints Chapter 3: Augmentation of Phonetically Strong Positions Chapter 4: Augmentation of Psycholinguistically Strong Positions Chapter 5: Positional Augmentation and Positional Neutralization Chapter 6: Conclusions, Implications, and Future Directions Bibliography Index

Phonological Augmentation in Prominent Positions

When a medial consonant cluster is simplified by deletion or place assimilation, the first consonant is affected, but never the second one: /patka/ becomes [paka] and not *[pata]; /panpa/ becomes [pampa] and not [panta]. This article accounts for that observation within a derivational version of Optimality Theory called Harmonic Serialism. In Harmonic Serialism, the final output is reached by a series of derivational steps that gradually improve harmony. If there is no gradual, harmonically improving path from a given underlying representation to a given surface representation, this mapping is impossible in Harmonic Serialism, even if it would be allowed in classic Optimality Theory. In cluster simplification, deletion or Place assimilation is the second step in a derivation that begins with deleting Place features, and deleting Place features improves harmony only in coda position.

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The gradual path to cluster simplification

/pdf/optimal-interleaving-serial-phonology-morphology-interaction-y0qk3snapc.pdf

Optimal interleaving: Serial phonology -morphology interaction in a constraint-based model

/pdf/laryngeal-contrast-and-phonetic-voicing-a-laboratory-4oxc0w13rd.pdf

Laryngeal contrast and phonetic voicing : a laboratory phonology approach to English, Hungarian, and Dutch

This article provides empirical evidence against the claims that [voice] is a privative feature and that word-internal devoicing can occur in a language without word-final devoicing. The study of voice patterns in a number of languages shows that the feature value [-voice] although it is the unmarked value of the laryngeal feature [voice], can be active phonologically in a fashion parallel to the marked value [+ voice]. Across languages, voice assimilation may occur independently of devoicing and, although it normally affects both [+ voice] and [-voice], it may affect only one value in some languages.

The Typology of Voicing and Devoicing

We propose that contour nasals come from two principal sources. One source, articulatorily driven, comes from underlying voiced stops, as nasal venting in order to sustain voicing. The other, perceptually driven, comes from underlying nasal consonants, as shielding next to con-trastively oral vowels. Although both processes are phonetically well motivated, we argue that the contoured allophones specifically arise in languages in which systemic or phonotactic restrictions allow for easy recoverability of the corresponding underlying segment. Finally, we present a few cases of contour nasals in preconsonantal contexts that seem to be neither venting nor shielding, and suggest that these arise due to place-of-articulation enhancement in clusters. We offer diagnostics for distinguishing nasal venting from shielding and present case studies from South American languages in which understanding such phenomena as enhancement involves analytical commitments to what is contrastive in the language.

W. Leo Wetzels

Papers

The Typology of Voicing and Devoicing

Prenasalized and Postoralized Consonants: The Diverse Functions of Enhancement

An OT analysis of the basic voicing typology and voice assimilation in Dutch