LINGUIST List 17.2446
Thu Aug 31 2006
Diss: Phonology: Ichimura: 'Anti-Homophony Blocking and its Product...'
Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales
<hannahlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Larry
Ichimura,
Anti-Homophony Blocking and its Productivity in Transparadigmatic Relations
Message 1: Anti-Homophony Blocking and its Productivity in Transparadigmatic Relations
Date: 30-Aug-2006
From: Larry Ichimura <LIchimuraaol.com>
Subject: Anti-Homophony Blocking and its Productivity in Transparadigmatic Relations
Institution: Boston University
Program: Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2006
Author: Larry Ichimura
Dissertation Title: Anti-Homophony Blocking and its Productivity in Transparadigmatic Relations
Linguistic Field(s):
Phonology
Subject Language(s): Japanese (jpn)
Dissertation Director:
Jonathan Barnes
Bruce T. Moren
Donca Steriade
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation addresses "anti-homophony blocking" in transparadigmaticrelations, where an application of a particular phonological process isblocked in order to avoid homophony creation by neutralization of distinctinputs between morphologically unrelated words.
Past research was concerned with anti-homophony blocking but only withinthe inflectional paradigm. The possibility that this principle is alsoapplied to transparadigmatic relations has not been pursued. In recentliterature, anti-homophony constraints in paradigmatic relations have beenproposed (Crosswhite 1999, 2001, among others) within the framework ofOptimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). However, no attempt has beendocumented that proves that anti-homophony blocking is in fact a productiveprocess. I examine these two key issues: first that anti-homophony blockingapplies to transparadigmatic relations; second that it is productive, usinga case of anti-homophony blocking in Japanese.
The main data comes from 'contracted forms' (Kikuzawa 1935, Toki 1975) inderived environments in Japanese, created by syncope along with lenition ordeletion of the adjacent consonant. Within the framework of OptimalityTheory, I will demonstrate that the contraction process and anti-homophonyblocking in transparadigmatic relations are accounted for by particularconstraints and ranking specific to the contraction grammar. I propose ananti-homophony constraint called CONTRAST, which is integrated into thecontraction grammar. Analyses are given as to why homophony is created ininflectional morphology, as it could be counterevidence to my claim ofanti-homophony blocking. I will argue that the anti-homophony principlemust be phonology-internal which is embedded in the phonological grammar.
I conducted an experiment to test the extent to which anti-homophonyblocking is part of the phonological grammar of Japanese, which providessome evidence in support of the claim that contraction and anti-homophonyblocking are productive processes. Using a Japanese corpus, I found thatthere is no positive influence of word frequency and word familiarity onthe occurrence and blocking of contractions.
This dissertation concludes that anti-homophony blocking is not limited toan inflectional paradigm but also occurs in transparadigmatic relations,and it is part of the productive phonological grammar.
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