LINGUIST List 10.1966

Sun Dec 19 1999

Review: Correction to review of Coleman

Editor for this issue: Andrew Carnie <carnielinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Stefan, Re: review of Coleman's book

Stefan Ploch: Corrigendum in relation to my review of 

John Coleman, 1998, Phonological Representations. Their Names,
Forms and Powers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al.:

In my summary of Coleman's formalisation of Dresher & Kaye's (1990)
computational learning model for metrical phonology (cf. C)
Synopsis of CLM's chapter 4), I wrote that "Coleman can
successfully reformulate ... P(arameter) 5 'Feet are
quantitative-sensitive [Yes/No]' as '(syllable) --> O R' ". This is
a misrepresentation and occurred when I was eliminating
'unnecessary' information from the review text. Coleman's
reformulation goes a follows: The 'No' setting of P5 is already
captured by Coleman's formalisation of the syllable and quantity
sensitivity. His phrase structure rule for syllables is '(syllable)
- > O R' (CLM:156). Quantity sensitivity is expressed by the
feature [heavy], with [+heavy] for rhymes dominating branching
structure and [-heavy] or possibly unspecification for other
rhymes, in combination with a rule that specifies that syllables
are assigned the same weight as their rhyme: '(syllable):heavy =
R:heavy' (ibid.). For the 'Yes' setting of P5, Coleman proposes the
inclusion of an additional constraint in the grammar of a language:
'If P5 = Yes then [+heavy] (logical implication) (strong syllable)'
(ibid.). Finally, Coleman points out that this reformulation does
not cater for Dresher & Kaye's (1990:145) requirement that "in
quantity-sensitive stress systems all heavy syllables are
stressed". This "depends on the setting of the independent
parameter P7" (CLM:146), i.e. 'A strong branch of a foot must
itself branch [No/Yes]' (cf. CLM:157f. for further discussion of
P7).