Phonological Argumentation: Essays on Evidence and Motivation

by Steve Parker (Editor)

Overview

This volume presents a series of original papers focusing on phonological argumentation, set within the framework of Optimality Theory. It contains two major sections: chapters about the evidence for and methodology used in discovering the bases of phonological theory, i.e., how constraints are formed and what sort of evidence is relevant in positing them; and case studies that focus on particular theoretical issues within Optimality Theory, usually through selected phenomena in one or more languages, arguing in favor of or against specific formal analyses.

A noteworthy detail of this book is that all of the contributors are connected with the program in phonology and phonetics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, either as current professors or former graduate students. Consequently, all of them have been directly influenced by John McCarthy, one of the major proponents of Optimality Theory. This collection will therefore be of interest to anyone who seriously follows the field of Optimality Theory. The intended readership is primarily graduate students and those already holding an advanced degree in linguistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845532215
Publisher:	Equinox Publishing
Publication date:	12/30/2009
Series:	Advances in Optimality Theory
Pages:	387
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction 1

Part I Phonological Argumentation and the Bases of Optimality Theory 7

1 Grammar is both categorical and gradient Andries W. Coetzee 9

2 Phonological evidence Paul de Lacy 43

3 Underphonologization and modularity bias Elliott Moreton 79

4 Contrast, comparison sets, and the perceptual space M?ire Ni Chios?in Jaye Padgett 103

5 Morpheme-specific phonology: Constraint indexation and inconsistency resolution Joe Pater 123

6 Source similarity in loanword adaptation: Correspondence Theory and the posited source-language representation Jennifer L Smith 155

Part II Case Studies in Phonological Argumentation 179

7 Exploring recursivity, stringency, and gradience in the Pama-Nyungan stress continuum John Alderete 181

8 Acoustics of epenthetic vowels in Lebanese Arabic Maria Gouskova Nancy Hall 203

9 The onset of the prosodic word Junko Ito Armin Mester 227

10 Infixation as morpheme absorption Ania &Lstroke;ubowicz 261

11 Vowel length in Arabic verb stems Sam Rosenthall 285

References 308

Author index 348

Index of constraints 355

Index of languages 358

Subject index 361