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Title:
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Ghost Vowels and Syllabification. Evidence from Bulgarian and French.
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Author:
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Georgi Jetchev
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Advanced Normal School, Pisa
, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia
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Degree Date:
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1997
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Phonology
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Subject Language(s):
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Bulgarian
French
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Director(s):
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Pier Marco Bertinetto
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Abstract:
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The dissertation treats of the vowel-zero alternations ('ghost vowels') and the so-called 'liquid metathesis' in modern standard Bulgarian, as well as of the similar phenomenon in modern standard French (a rather conservative variant of the Parisian dialect of French) known as 'mute E'.
All Bulgarian morphemes exhibiting one of these alternations are listed and classifed according to different criteria. On the basis of the description and classification, assumptions are made about the correct underlying representations for the different classes of alternating morphemes. Consequently, a sample list of examples has been established for testing the phonological theories accounting for these alternations.
Previous theoretical treatments of the Bulgarian alternations - Scatton (1975), in the classical generative framework, and Zec (1988), in a mora-based and cyclic autosegmental framework - are subjected to critical analysis. Since the underlying forms assumed on the basis of the new interpretation of the data in chapter 1 are different both from those of Scatton and Zec, a modified generative model using only stem-internal jers is introduced in order to be matched against the proposed post-generative models. Shortcomings of such an analysis within linear phonology are then enumerated. The dissertation offers two models in the two currently used frameworks of phonological analysis: Harmonic Phonology (J. Goldsmith 1991, 1993) and Optimality Theory (in its Correspondence Theory version, J. McCarthy and A. Prince 1993). Both are matched against the modified linear analysis and against each other.
The diachronic view on the Bulgarian alternations with 'ghost vowels' and 'liquid metathesis' traces the historical scenario that is likely to have transformed the Proto- Slavic and Old Bulgarian forms into the modern forms, giving rise to different patterns of alternation.
The modern French alternations traditionally called 'mute E' have been given a treatment under the label of 'ghost [ ] vowels'. This analysis in the framework of Harmonic Phonology assumes that there are no word-final ghost vowels in French underlyingly. It gives the chance to compare the mechanisms of 'ghost vowel' alternation within the same theoretical framework in two distantly related languages: Bulgarian and French.
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