Markedness Relations and Implicational Universals in the Typology of Onset Obstruent Clusters
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Morelli, Frida.
Markedness Relations and Implicational Universals in the Typology of Onset Obstruent Clusters. Retrieved from
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TitleMarkedness Relations and Implicational Universals in the Typology of Onset Obstruent Clusters
PublisherGLSA (Graduate Linguistic Student Association), Dept. of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts
Date Created1998
Extent14 p.
DescriptionComplex onsets consisting of two obstruents violate the Sonority Sequencing Principle, nevertheless a significant number of languages allows them as part of their inventories. I show that a cross-linguistic study reveals that the occurrence of the four possible obstruent clusters (i.e. FS, SF, FF and SS - F(fricative) and S(stop)) strictly obeys certain implicational universals. It is observed that the presence of FF implies the presence of FS, and that the presence of SS implies SF which in turn implies FS. Based on these implications, there are only six ways in which inventories of obstruent clusters can be constructed, and consequently only six possible grammars. Assuming implications as a means to determine markedness, the following markedness relations are established among the obstruent clusters. FF clusters are therefore shown to be more marked than SF clusters and SS clusters more marked than SF which in turn are
more marked than FS.
I argue that an inviolable sonority scale that assigns a higher sonority rank to fricatives cannot account for the generalizations which are observed in the typology. Following Clements (1990), I assume that the two classes of sounds differ only in terms of the feature [continuant], which is not relevant for sonority.
I propose an analysis of obstruent clusters based on Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). The relative harmony (i.e. markedness) of these clusters is formally derived by evaluating them against a set of structural constraints. I propose two OCP constraints, one for each value of the feature [continuant] and a constraint that disallows a stop as first member of the cluster (*SO). Interaction of these constraints with Faithfulness allows to construct the six different
constraint hierarchies, which account for the six different typological classes of languages. The implicational universals follow from entailment considerations on the rankings established to admit the relevant structures in the typological grammars.
NoteThe definitive version of this article was published in Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 28 : University of Toronto (1998) and is available at http://glsa.hypermart.net/
NoteMorelli, F. (1998). In. P. N. Tamanji, K.Kusumoto & North Eastern Linguistic Society (Eds.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 28 : University of Toronto. Amherst, MA: GLSA (Graduate Linguistic Student Association), Dept. of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts.
GenreConference Paper or Lecture
LanguageEnglish
CollectionRutgers Optimality Archive
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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