Prosodic Phonotactics

The first chapter summarizes the goals of the dissertation and introduces most of the constraints used later in the work. The main goal of this work is to characterize sequences of consonants by characterizing codas in the most general way possible. Since this one of the earlier works employing Prince and Smolensky's 1993 Optimality manuscript, I include an introduction to the theory in this chapter. The second chapter includes a factorial typology involving several of the constraints introduced in chapter 1. This typology builds on Prince and Smolensky's factorial typology by employing a more detailed syllable structure. Also, there are analyses of facts from the languages Wiyot and Italian. The constraint *LONG-VOWEL is introduced in this chapter (and plays a role in chapter 4). Another question dealt with here is the content of underlying form--in particular, the result of specifying a "weight by position" mora in the lexicon. I also discuss the role of lexical levels in OT. The third chapter deals with intervocalic consonant sequences of Finnish. A search of a machine readable dictionary revealed a coronal asymmetry in Finnish. Essentially, in Finnish a hypercharacterized syllable may be closed by a geminate or by a coronal consonant, but not by a non-coronal, non-geminate. An Optimality Theoretic analysis of this fact is offered. One aspect of this analysis is that no root not meeting the coronal only requirement would be posited by a Finnish language learner (Stampean Occultation). The fourth chapter includes analyses of two languages, Fula and Koya, both of which permit long vowels before sequences of consonants, but not before geminates. This is analyzed by means of a syllable appendix--a consonant directly adjoined to the syllable node without an intervening mora. This version of an appendix consonant differs from the word-final version. Both Fula and Koya have cases where we might expect long vowels to precede geminates. In Fula, these cases surface with a simple consonant (corresponding to the geminate), while in Koya, these forms surface with a short vowel. Optimality Theoretic analyses for these mappings are given. The fifth chapter focuses on the topic of syllable appendixes and appendixal consonants. The main part of the chapter is a discussion of several (closely related) Australian languages and why they should be analyzed employing appendix consonants. I provide a sketchy Optimality Theoretic analysis. The balance of the chapter is devoted to questions about the appendix position. The idea of analyzing appendixes by means of Alignment is discussed, including how this could derive different sites for adjunction (word, syllable, and so forth). The nature of the coronal asymmetry is discussed and a phonetic scale is offered as a possible explanation. The sixth chapter deals with topics not dealt with earlier in the dissertation, including a comparison between the Optimality Theoretic approach and an approach where constraints are set to on or off. Also discussed is the Linked Gemination approach to the representation of geminates, which is at odds with the moraic theory of geminates. Another matter covered was the role of linking, both in connection with Linked Gemination and the Coda Condition Approach, including discussion of an approach to hyper characterization that employs coda conditions.Ph.D