Query Details
| Query Subject: |
Chain shifts with deletion or epenthesis
|
| Author: | Elliott Moreton |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email |
| Query: |
Dear Linguists: We are searching for examples of synchronic or diachronic chain shifts (i.e., counterfeeding rule interactions, such that /A/->[B] while /B/->[C]) in which segments are inserted or deleted. For example, in Catalan, there is a process which deletes a word-final post-nasal stop, and another which deletes a word-final nasal; however, word-final nasals created by stop deletion are not themselves deleted: /bint/->[bin] 'twenty', /bin/->[bi] 'wine'. In the Catalan example, /A/->[B] and /B/->[C] are both deletions, bu we would also be interested in hearing of cases in which both were insertions (hypothetical /q/->[qa], /qa/->[qat]), or one was an insertion and the other a change (hypothetical /q/->[qi], /qi/->[ki]), etc. The most interesting case for us would be one which involved both a deletion and an insertion: /AxB/->[AB], /AB/->[AyB]. We know of only one claimed such case (Donegan & Stampe in Dinnsen (ed.) 1979). We also count "sole-survivor effects", i.e., cases in which *all* instances of surface [B] are derived from underlying /A/. In Optimality Theory, these must be analyzed as chain shifts: /A/->[B], /B/->[something else]. A language in which, e.g., all surface clusters were derived by syncope would therefore be of interest to us. A summary of all responses will be posted to the list (we can be relied upon to do this; see LINGUIST 13.450, 2002 Feb. 14). Many thanks, Elliott Moreton and Paul Smolensky Department of Cognitive Science Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. |
