LINGUIST List 13.261

Thu Jan 31 2002

Qs: Focus, Vowel Alternations & Consonant Voicing

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sharbani, Focus
Elliott Moreton, Vowel alternations conditioned by consonant voicing

Message 1: Focus

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 12:26:02 +0530
From: sharbani <sharbe

vsnl.net>
Subject: Focus





Hi everybody,
 Can anybody explain to me WHY and HOW Focus is related to the EVENT 
of the clause? One might wonder IF it is at all related to the EVENT of 
the clause--but my Bangla data seems to suggest that it IS related to 
the EVENT of the clause.
I would also like to know which other language(s) clearly show such a 
connection.
 It would be a great help if some explanation is given along with the
suggestions on the literature--because, I may not be able to get the 
relevant literature.The explanation would then help me complete my paper 
on 'Object Shift'.I am stuck because I am unable to solve this problem.
 I'll ofcourse post a summary if I get a response.
Thanks in advance
Sharbani Banerji
Sharbevsnl.net
(C/o Centre for Applied Linguistics & Translation Studies,
University Of Hyderabad
Hyderabad-500,046.)

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Message 2: Vowel alternations conditioned by consonant voicing

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 11:16:01 -0500 (EST)
From: Elliott Moreton <moreton

vonneumann.cog.jhu.edu>
Subject: Vowel alternations conditioned by consonant voicing


Dear Linguists:

I am searching for examples of synchronic or diachronic 
vowel-quality alternations conditioned by the [+/- voice] 
status of neighboring consonants. Only three examples are 
known to me right now:

(1) Canadian Raising / Southern Monophthongization (English) 
- a very widespread alternation in which /ai/, and sometimes 
also /au/, is higher before voiceless codas than voiced ones 
(Chambers 1973 CanJLing 18:113-135):

			CR		SM

	tight		t^It		taIt
	tide		taId		ta:d

(2) Raising in Polish -- a morphophonemic alternation in 
which some /o/s surface as [u] before an underlying voiced 
coda consonant (Gussmann 1980 _Studies in Abstract Phonology_; 
Kenstowicz 1994 _Phon. in Gen. Gr._ 74-78):

	nom. sg.	m[u]d		'fashion'
	gen. pl.		m[o]da

(3) A "well-known sound change" in German in which long 
vowels are shortened and lowered before voiceless consonants 
(mentioned briefly in Kohler 1984 Phonetica 41:150-174):

	M[U]tter	'mother'
	Br[u:]der	'brother'

Surely there are more out there. If you know of one, please 
write. I'll post a summary in a month.

Many thanks,
Elliott Moreton
Dept. of Cognitive Science
Johns Hopkins

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