Leiden University Student Repository

Hugte, Thom van (2021)

Issues in the Representation of Tone in Element Theory

Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)

In order to formally explain consonant-tone interactions in Element Theory, it has been assumed for many years that tone can be represented on the segmental tier with the elements |H| and |L|. However, this assumption has never been fully developed within Element Theory. When one attempts to represent complex tonal inventories, it immediately becomes apparent that there are fundamental representational issues. For example, it is unclear how to generate more than two tonal contrasts or how to represent contour tones on short vowels. In this thesis, I consider how these issues could be solved while maintaining Element Theory’s central principles. The two most crucial ideas developed in this thesis are that tone needs to be represented by unheaded elements and that information on the tonal tier is visible during phonetic implementation. With these assumptions, |H| and |L| can freely appear within the same elemental expression and tones do not necessarily need to be specified at the...Show moreIn order to formally explain consonant-tone interactions in Element Theory, it has been assumed for many years that tone can be represented on the segmental tier with the elements |H| and |L|. However, this assumption has never been fully developed within Element Theory. When one attempts to represent complex tonal inventories, it immediately becomes apparent that there are fundamental representational issues. For example, it is unclear how to generate more than two tonal contrasts or how to represent contour tones on short vowels. In this thesis, I consider how these issues could be solved while maintaining Element Theory’s central principles. The two most crucial ideas developed in this thesis are that tone needs to be represented by unheaded elements and that information on the tonal tier is visible during phonetic implementation. With these assumptions, |H| and |L| can freely appear within the same elemental expression and tones do not necessarily need to be specified at the segmental level. The result is a flexible representational system for tone with a restricted but sufficient generative capacity.Show less

Element Theory

subsegmental phonology

tone

Author

Hugte, Thom van

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Dr. Bert Botma

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en