Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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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|....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
Using a wide variety of languages I investigate numerous rhotic-vowel interactions and extrapolate that the account of Element Theory is quite successfull in dealing with rhotics as a class.^...Show moreUsing a wide variety of languages I investigate numerous rhotic-vowel interactions and extrapolate that the account of Element Theory is quite successfull in dealing with rhotics as a class.^^Rhotics are an interesting class of phones in the range of human speech sounds as they are tied together by their similar phonological behaviour rather than their phonetic proporties. For this reason previous generative phonological accounts have trouble defining and accounting for the class of rhotics. This thesis researches whether the phonological theory titled Element Theory is able to account for the unified behaviour of rhotics by interpreting rhotics as the vowel primitive (A)Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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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
The triggering of a phonological rule by a sonority related feature might provide insight into the phonological process behind the input and output of a phonological rule. Is a sonority-based...Show moreThe triggering of a phonological rule by a sonority related feature might provide insight into the phonological process behind the input and output of a phonological rule. Is a sonority-based feature possibly a key factor in the change towards sonorant sounds in a language? One of the ways of finding a possible influence of sonority would be to look at sounds that change from being phonologically [-sonorant] to [+sonorant], and analyzing whether this change can be attributed to the presence of a sonorous sound as described above for the SV theory. Or if this change might be better explained by other phonological theories like Element Theory, or by looking at different phonological processes like lenition? This paper wil argue that analyzing changes to sonorant segments can be explained intuitively by using Element Theory and a lenition based viewpoint.Show less
