Summary Details
| Query: |
Sum: Maximal Onsets
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| Author: | Ivan A Derzhanski | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Discourse Analysis
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| Summary: |
My belated but very cordial thanks to David Deterding <DETERDINGD@am.nie.ac.sg> John Coleman <jsc@indy.phon.ox.ac.uk> Mohamed Embarki <Mohamed.Embarki@ufc.univ-fcomte.fr> Grover Hudson <hudson@pilot.msu.edu> Richard Krause <adeptt@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Alex Monaghan <alex@CompApp.DCU.IE> Rob Pensalfini <rjpensal@MIT.EDU> Marc Picard <picard@vax2.concordia.ca> Marc Pierce <marcp@umich.edu> John Reighard <reigharj@alpes-net.fr> Jane Setter <egjanes@polyu.edu.hk> David Stampe <stampe@hawaii.edu> Joe Stemberger <stemberg@maroon.tc.umn.edu> Suzanne Wash <6500wash@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu> for their replies to my query on the Maximal Onset Principle (MOP) in issue 8.391 of Linguist. My (very general) questions were: > * Do I understand correctly that the Maximal Onset Principle implies > that a VCCV sequence will always be syllabified as V-CCV if the CC > cluster in question can occur word-initially in the same language? Four respondents addressed this question specifically: JSe: `Basically, yes.' RK: `Yes, that is the usual interpretation.' JSt: `Yes and no. If the CC in word-initial position is an onset, then yes, the Maximal Onset Principle implies that. However, there are instances where some phonologists claim that the first consonant of the CC is not part of the onset. This is especially common for clusters that don't fit the Sonority Sequencing Principle [...].' JC: `No: the set of word onsets is a superset of the set of syllable onsets. The MOP refers to syllable onsets, not word onsets.' >* Is the Maximal Onset Principle an absolute universal? If not, what > are (some of) the exceptions? RK wrote: `There are many exceptions to this "rule" in classical Greek, classical Latin, Finnish, Estonian, English, Huichol, etc. as indicated among other things by poetic meter and location of accent/stress'. English was also brought up as a language which violates the MOP by JSe, DD, GH, DS, JR, JSt and AM, and so were Arrernte (Australia), Barbaren~o Chumash (California), French and Gothic (by RP, SW, ME and MPie, respectively). Here are some of the points that were made: * `The first problem is deciding just what syllables are, and like angels, not everybody believes in them.' (JR) * The requirement for a maximal onset may clash with a requirement for a minimal coda (that is, VCV may be syllabified as VC.V if the first V may not occur in an open syllable). This is the case in English (_better_ ['bEt.@] and the like). * A single intervocalic consonant may not be able to begin a word. According to the MOP `'sinner' would be syllabified 'si-nner', but 'singer' as 'sing-er', which doesn't seem very elegant.' (DD) * `[T]he MOP [...] does not hold after accented vowels in "stress-timed" languages like English, where VCCV, if the second syllable is unaccented, syllabifies as VCC.V, if CC is a possible word-final cluster, e.g. in "pentagon", where n is elided and t is flapped in N. American English or glottalized in non-RP British English, exactly as in "pent up". Contrast e.g. pentagonal [...], where t is aspirated, exactly as in "on time".' (DS) * `[T]he word 'Wisconsin' is sometimes pronounced with an aspirated [k] and sometimes not, evidencing both V-CCV and VC-CV syllabifications, even though [sk] IS a possible word initial sequence.' (GH) * Morphology may come into the picture. `[A] word like 'discard' may be pronounced with an aspirated [k], again showing syllabification as VC-CV because, presumably, the dis- prefix is recognized, which determines a syllable boundary.' (GH) * `[T]he whole distributional approach is questionable since many languages exhibit medial consonant sequences which cannot be satisfactorily resolved into permissible word-initial and word-final clusters, e.g. Finnish.' (RK) * `Not to worry. It's just linguistics...' (JR) And now for a short history of my query (followed by a more specific question). It was prompted by a passage from Donca Steriade's article `Syllables in Phonology' in _The International Encyclopaedia of Lx_: The MOP explains the difference between the syllabification of obstruent-sonorant clusters in IE and Semitic: such clusters are possible syllable-initials in IE, as indicated by their occurrence word-initially [...]; but they are not in Semitic, where only one consonant may begin a syllable. The MOP connects these differences in the phonotactics [...] with the difference in syllabic assignment of obstruent-sonorant clusters (e.g. _li.bra_ vs. _lib.ra_), and thus explains the latter. Indeed, Classical Arabic and Latin have virtually identical rules for stress placement (stress the penult if it is heavy and the antepenult otherwise), but they differ in the two ways referred to in the quote, in which a causal connexion seems to be implied: Latin stress follows a `muta cum liquida' rule precisely because in Latin a word can begin with an obstruent-sonorant cluster. I know of a language (but not a natural one) which has the same stress rules as Arabic and permits word-initial obstruent-sonorant clusters - but does not have a `muta cum liquida' rule. It is Sindarin, one of JRR Tolkien's languages. So my next question is: Is there (or can there be) a natural language which behaves in that (or a similar) way? Thanks again! - "reH Sov yInej 'ej Dap yImuS, <dOstI bA mardom-e dAnA nEkO-st, jagh val qaq law' jup QIp qaq puS" do^sman-e dAnA beh az nAdAn dOst> (Sheikh Muslihuddin Abu Muhammad Abdullah Saadi Shirazi) Ivan A Derzhanski <iad@banmatpc.math.acad.bg> H: cplx Iztok bl 91, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria <http://www.math.acad.bg/~iad/> W: Dept for Math Lx, Inst for Maths & CompSci, Bulg Acad of Sciences |
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| LL Issue: | 8.647 | |
| Date Posted: | 02-May-1997 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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