Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
The laryngeal specification of obstruents, especially in Germanic, has been the subject of extensive study. However, most work has focussed on the laryngeal contrast in stops, while fricatives have...Show moreThe laryngeal specification of obstruents, especially in Germanic, has been the subject of extensive study. However, most work has focussed on the laryngeal contrast in stops, while fricatives have received comparatively little attention. This thesis presents a detailed examination of fricatives in Germanic languages from the perspective of Element Theory (ET), which, following the ‘laryngeal realism’ approach, distinguishes between H-languages (‘aspiration languages’) and L-languages (‘voicing languages’). The results of this examination show that fricatives do not always show the same behaviour as stops. First, in laryngeal contrasts, stops can always be distinguished by a laryngeal specification, whereas this is not always the case for fricatives, as voiced fricatives are sometimes not laryngeally specified. This is particularly true in North Germanic languages, since many voiced fricatives are better described as approximants, i.e. sonorants. Furthermore, while the stops in German and Dutch employ a laryngeal contrast, fricatives are argued to possibly differ in length instead. Second, the distribution of fricatives in syllable structure does not always parallel that of stops. Fricatives are pervasive in rhymal adjunct positions, whereas stops are primarily favoured in onsets. Of the fricatives, sibilants are the most ubiquitous in the rhymal adjunct position, and can in some cases even occur in the rhymal adjuncts of empty-headed syllables.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
closed access
Secondly, ^^Directionality in sound change, the phenomenon that a segment can change into a certain other segment but not vice versa, has generally been assumed, but has not been studied...Show moreSecondly, ^^Directionality in sound change, the phenomenon that a segment can change into a certain other segment but not vice versa, has generally been assumed, but has not been studied systematically. Previous studies are mainly concerned with a general discussion on the role of phonology in sound change, often attributing directionality in sound change to phonetic bias. On the basis of a sample of 5,769 historical sound changes, the current study shows that directionality in sound change is not a prominent phenomenon in absolute terms. In general, lenition is more frequent than fortition. There are two main findings. Firstly, laterals are likely to change into approximants, but not vice versa. Secondly, an asymmetry was found for segments changing into /h/ or /ʔ/. Adopting the framework of Element Theory, a phonological analysis was presented to account for those directionality patterns. Firstly, vowel elements do not add (L)Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis discusses the subsegmental structure of glides and liquids. These segments are characterised by two seemingly contrastive characteristcs: phonological uniformity and phonetic diversity....Show moreThis thesis discusses the subsegmental structure of glides and liquids. These segments are characterised by two seemingly contrastive characteristcs: phonological uniformity and phonetic diversity. It will become apparent that these two contrastive characteristics make glides and liquids unlike other natural classes, which instead show both phonological and phonetic uniformity. This different nature of glides and liquids makes it difficult to establish which phonological features are present in the subsegmental structure of these segments, since it will be shown that features are unable to capture both the phonological uniformity and phonetic diversity at the same time. In order to overcome this problem, this thesis will argue in favour of abandoning a feature-based approach to subsegmental structure and instead resorting to an element-based approach. Unlike features, element are able to capture phonological uniformity and phonetic diversity at the same time. Moreover, it will be shown that the phonetic details and phonological behaviour of glides and liquids supports an element-based approach.Show less
