Ling 603: Topics in Phonology Non-Categorical Phonology Prof. Gene Buckley Fall 2005 Mondays 1-3 633 Williams Hall

The broad issue for this fall is places where phonological generalizations (if that's what they are in such cases) appear to be non-categorical. Two obvious examples are proposals to incorporate gradient phonetic effects in a formal phonology, and attempts to model sociolinguistic variation. Other examples might be lexical diffusion as related to variation; or lexical classes in which some generalizations hold, but they don't hold of the entire language (e.g. the Japanese lexicon).

This is a lot of territory, so we'll have to narrow it. Based on student feedback so far, we'll probably focus on variation and lexical diffusion, but the emphasis can shift as we continue through the semester. As this is a seminar, the format will emphasize discussion rather than lecture.  Each student will present an article to the class at least once during the term.  The grade will be based primarily on a final paper.

Sept 12

We'll begin with a look at some work that Benjamin Bergen has done on this general issue. His 2001 dissertation, Of sound, mind, and body: Neural explanations for non-categorical phonology, is of obvious relevance. Read chapters 1 and 2 of his dissertation [pdf]; but rather than section 2.3 on phonaesthemes, read his 2004 paper in Language, "The psychological reality of phonaesthemes" [pdf]. Consider whether you think these generalizations are "phonological" or even "linguistic", and what phonological theory should have to say about them (and why).

Sept 19

Michael will present chapters 3 and 4 of Bergen's dissertation, on French liaison [same pdf]. Note that Bergen also has a related paper from 2000, "Probability in phonological generalizations: Modeling optional French final consonants" [pdf].

Sept 26

We'll read two papers by Joan Bybee on examplar or usage-based representations in the lexicon.

• Gillian will present Bybee's 2001 paper, "Frequency effects on French liaison", from J. Bybee and P. Hopper (eds.) Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 337-359.
• Aaron will present a more general paper from 1999, "Usage based phonology", from M. Darnell, E. Moravcsik, F. Newmeyer, M. Noonan and K. Wheatley (eds.) Functionalism and formalism in linguistics, volume I: General papers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 211-242. Both will be available as xeroxes in the department office by Tuesday afternoon.

There's also an informal write-up of the LSA presidential address Bybee gave in January 2005, "The impact of use on representation: grammar is usage and usage is grammar" [pdf], which is a useful supplement.

Oct 3

Two papers, including the French liaison paper that we didn't get to last time.

• Gillian will present Bybee's 2001 paper, "Frequency effects on French liaison", from J. Bybee and P. Hopper (eds.) Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 337-359.
• Maya will present Steve Goldinger's widely cited 1998 paper, "Echoes of echoes? An episodic theory of lexical access", Psychological Review 105, 251-279. It is available by pdf, but a xerox has been put in the mailboxes of those who attended the seminar on Sept 26.

Oct 10

Lukasz will present Delphine Dahan, James S. Magnuson, and Michael K. Tanenhaus (2001), "Time Course of Frequency Effects in Spoken-Word Recognition: Evidence from Eye Movements", Cognitive Psychology 42, 317–367.

Oct 24

Keelan will present two short papers on lexical diffusion by Wang and Cheng (and vice versa).

• C.-C. Cheng. & William S.-Y. Wang. 1977. Tone Change in Chao-Zhou Chinese: A Study in Lexical Diffusion. In W. Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change, 86-100. The Hague: Mouton.
• William S.-Y. Wang & C.-C. Cheng. 1977. Implementation of Phonological Change: the Shuang-Feng Chinese Case. In The Lexicon in Phonological Change, 148-158.

Lucy will present Kiparsky's approach to lexical diffusion, based on two sources.

• Paul Kiparsky. 1988. Phonological Change. In F. Newmeyer (ed.), The Cambridge Survey of Linguistics, Vol. 1, pp. 363-415. [Especially section 4.]
• Paul Kiparsky. 1995. The Phonological Basis of Sound Change. In John Goldsmith (ed.) Handbook of Generative Phonology, pp. 640-670. [Reprinted in Richard Janda and Brian Joseph (eds.) Handbook of Historical Linguistics, 2003.]

Oct 31

Lucy will continue with the second Kiparsky paper, "The Phonological Basis of Sound Change". Augustin will present a paper by Geert Booij, "Lexical Storage and Phonological Change", which is available by pdf here. A few phonetic characters don't display properly, at least on my computer, but it's pretty obvious what they should be (e.g. chi should be schwa, lower-case omega should be short-i, angma is blank, etc.).

Nov 7

Damien will present Janet Pierrehumbert (2002) "Word-specific phonetics", in C. Gussenhoven and N. Warner (eds) Laborato

Nov 14

Maya will present Jennifer Hay, Stefanie Jannedy, and Norma Mendoza-Denton (1999), "Oprah and /ay/: Lexical Frequency, Referee Design, and Style", Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. The paper is available as html.

Gillian and Michael will present Malcah Yaeger-Dror and William Kemp (1992), "Lexical Classes in Montréal French: The Case of (E:)", Language and Speech 35, 251-293. I will distribute xeroxes later today. They may also present material from a paper that we won't read together: Kemp & Yaeger-Dror (1991), "Changing realizations of a in (a)tion in relation to the front a - back a opposition in Quebec French", in P. Eckert, New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change, pp. 127-184.

Nov 21

Keelan will present Arto Anttila's paper "Variation and Optionality", to appear in Paul de Lacy, (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology. Cambridge University Press.

Lukasz will present Gregory Guy's (1997) paper "Violable is variable: Optimality theory and linguistic variation", Language Variation and Change 9, 333-347.