Perspectives on Element Theory

Sabrina Bendjaballah, Ali Tifrit, Laurence Voeltzel, Sabrina Bendjaballah, Ali Tifrit, Laurence Voeltzel

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9783110691979
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Syntax in Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Element Theory (ET) covers a range of approaches that consider privativity a central tenet defining the internal structure of segments. This volume provides an overview and extension of this program, exploring new lines of research within phonology and at its interface (phonetics and syntax). The present collection reflects on issues concerning the definition of privative primes, their interactions, organization, and the operations that constrain phonological and syntactic representations. The contributions reassess theoretical questions, which have been implicitly taken for granted, regarding privativity and its corollaries. On the empirical side, it explores the possibilities ET offers to analyze specific languages and phonological phenomena.

The role of the elements in diphthong formation and hiatus resolution: Evidence from Tokyo and Owari Japanese

Youngberg Connor

LLING (UMR-6310) & Université de Nantes

Abstract

This chapter examines vowel sequences and hiatus resolution processes in Tokyo and Owari Japanese. I aim to account for the peculiar behaviour of the diphthongs /ai, oi, ui/ versus vowels in hiatus such as /ae/. The former display tonal restrictions and no segmental changes, and the latter exhibit gliding, epenthesis and surfacing of hiatus with no tonal restrictions. To account for the context sensitive nature of hiatus resolution, I invoke the role of the elements, building on previous work in Element Theory (Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud 1985, Backley 2011) and Government Phonology (Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud 1990, Yoshida S. 1996, Yoshida Y. 1999). I propose an inter-segmental relation called Intervocalic Government. I utilize this novel form of government in combination with the Empty Category Principle (ECP). From the point of view put forth in this paper, hiatus resolution processes aim to satisfy the ECP either through government or the realisation of a consonantal position. The proposal rejects the role of the Complexity Condition (Harris 1990) and incorporates the role of |A| as a structural configuration (Pöchtrager 2006) in order to account for the fact that mid and low vowels cannot be the governee within a heavy diphthong.

Keywords: diphthongs, syllable structure, vowels, Japanese, hiatus,

1 Introduction

In this paper, I present a formal account of diphthong formation and hiatus resolution (HR) within Element Theory (Kaye, Lowenstamm and Vergnaud 1985, Charette and Göksel 1998, Backley 2011) and CV phonology (Lowenstamm 1996). While this article assumes some familiarity with the theories at hand, I discuss relevant concepts throughout. I focus on data from Tokyo and Owari Japanese. The first claim is that HR has a single trigger within various languages, which is the presence of an empty position and its need to be governed. The second claim is that diphthongs are formed through Intervocalic Government, which I propose here, and which is sensitive to the elemental structure in each vocalic position. The overall claim is that HR processes in general have one trigger with multiple repair solutions, with surface hiatus being fundamentally dispreferred and marked in phonological structures.

1.1 Hiatus, diphthongs and hiatus resolution

Diphthongs and hiatus have received a number of definitions over the years (Andersen 1972, Casali 2011), with a general understanding that both diphthongs and vowels in hiatus are adjacent heterogenous vocoids. In terms of phonological representation, vowels in hiatus are formed of two adjacent and independent nuclei, while a heavy diphthong is formed of two vocoids associated to a branching nucleus or the same syllable, exhibiting a unified metrical behaviour and patterning with long vowels (Selkirk 1982; Kaye and Lowenstamm 1984; Levin 1985; Kaye, Lowenstamm and Vergnaud 1990). Light diphthongs, or glide-vowel sequences, pattern metrically and phonotactically as short vowels and are, for example, represented as a vowel with a preceding glide attached to either the Onset or Nucleus (Kaye and Lowenstamm 1984; Kaye, Lowenstamm and Vergnaud 1990). More neutrally, I define hiatus as a bimoraic heterogenous V₁V₂ sequence where V₂ is independent for metrical purposes. I define diphthongs as bimoraic heterogenous V₁V₂ sequences where V₂ is not a possible site of accent, tone or stress. This papers focuses on the representation and triggering context of hiatus and heavy diphthongs with particular reference to Japanese.

Languages often contain both diphthongs and hiatus, with Tokyo Japan...