Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

What tone teaches us about language

Larry M. Hyman

2018

In 'Tone: Is it different?' (Hyman 2011a), I suggested that 'tone is like segmental phonology in every way—only more so', emphasizing that there are some things that only tone can do. In this presidential address my focus extends beyond phonology, specifically addressing what tone tells us about the integration (vs. compartmentalization) of grammar. I discuss some rather striking examples that demonstrate problems for the strict separation of phonology, morphology, and syntax, each time posing the question, 'What else is like this outside of tone?'. A particularly interesting...

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Phonological typology

Larry M. Hyman

Frans Plank

2018

Despite earlier work by Trubetzkoy, Jakobson and Greenberg, phonological typologyis often underrepresented in typology textbooks. At the same time, most phonologistsdo not see a difference between phonological typology and cross-linguistic (formal)phonology. The purpose of this book is to bring together leading scholars to addressthe issue of phonological typology, both in terms of the unity and the diversity ofphonological systems.

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Sound change and the structure of synchronic variability: Phonetic and phonological factors in Slavic palatalization

Khalil Iskarous

Darya Kavitskaya

2018

This article investigates the development of the palatalization contrast in Slavic from diachronic, synchronic, and phonetic perspectives. The diachrony of this contrast is an important test case for theories of the actuation of sound change, since the Slavic language family shows an impressive diversity in the realization of the original contrast, with Russian, for instance, preserving the contrast, Slovak maintaining it only for some consonants, and Slovenian showing complete merger. A diachronic study of the contrast reveals a generalization about which consonant pairs are more or...

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Modeling the effect of palate shape on the articulatory-acoustics mapping

Sarah Bakst

Keith Johnson

2018

Articulatory variability is reduced for people with flatter palates [Bakst and Lin (2015). Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences; Brunner, Fuchs, and Perrier (2009). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125(6), 3936–3949]. Brunner, Fuchs, and Perrier [(2009). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125(6), 3936–3949] hypothesized that this is because the mapping between articulation and acoustics depends on palate depth. Articulatory synthesis was used with three different palate shapes to generate productions of /r/. The parameter spaces of the articulatory synthesizers were searched for vocal...