Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:27:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana.pdf: 565436 bytes, checksum: 78e800d87b17168304503365fada1e3c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-02-21 / This research aimed to investigate the acquisition of external sandhi as part of the phonological development in children whose native language is Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Starting with a literature review on the process of external sandhi in adults, by following the analysis developed in Bisol (2003), this study proposes an optimality-theoretical analysis of both the production and the avoidance of external sandhi by Brazilian children. The corpus of the study encompassed the longitudinal data obtained from four Brazilian children, showing normal phonological development, aged 2:0 to 3:0 (years:months). Results show that it is possible to consider the same constraint ranking to account for the production of the three external sandhi processes Degemination, Elision and Diphthongization -, as we follow the ranking proposed by Bisol (2003); with this constraint ranking, the processes of Elision and Diphthongization may be regarded as in variation. As for the acquisition process, the children applied two external sandhi avoidance strategies: 1) a pause between words and 2) V2, rather than V1, deletion in the vowel sequence which would allow external sandhi to occur. V2 deletion also represented the process of Elision in children s phonological development, unlike the adult Elision pattern found in Brazilian Portuguese. In order to account for these avoidance strategies, we have employed conjoined constraints, following Bisol (2003). We have also discussed the non-application of external sandhi when blocked by a VV sequence whose second vowel carries primary stress, or by stress clash. The study reveals that children start applying external sandhi processes at an early age, though they also present sandhi avoidance strategies. By following Bisol (2003), we see that Optimality Theory proves efficient in the analysis of the data discussed / A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar a aquisição do processo de sândi externo como parte do desenvolvimento fonológico em crianças falantes nativas do Português Brasileiro (PB). Após a retomada dos estudos já realizados sobre o processo de sândi externo, o trabalho propõe, com fundamentos na Teoria da Otimidade, particularmente a partir da proposta de Bisol (2003), uma análise do processo do sândi externo na aquisição, bem como das estratégias de evitação desse processo na aquisição da fonologia do PB. O corpus foi constituído por dados de quatro crianças falantes nativas do PB, com desenvolvimento fonológico normal, com idade de 2:0 a 3:0 (anos: meses), acompanhadas longitudinalmente. Os resultados apontaram que, com a mesma hierarquia de restrições, foi possível mostrar a aplicação, pelas crianças, dos três processos de sândi Degeminação, Elisão e Ditongação , tomando por base a mesma hierarquia proposta por Bisol (2003); com essa hierarquia, os processos de Elisão e Ditongação podem estar em variação. Em se tratando de aquisição, as crianças aplicaram duas estratégias de evitação do processo de sândi externo: a pausa entre palavras e o apagamento da V2 em lugar do apagamento da V1, na seqüência de vogais que constitui contexto para os processos de sândi externo; essa última estratégia também manifestou-se como caracterizadora do processo de Elisão no período de aquisição da fonologia, em contraposição ao que ocorre no padrão adulto do uso do PB. No presente trabalho, para a explicitação dessas estratégias, seguindo Bisol (2003), utilizamos restrições conjuntas. Também discutimos o não emprego do processo de sândi externo, na aquisição da fonologia, por bloqueio do sistema do PB, isto é, pela presença de acento primário na segunda vogal da seqüência VV e de choque de acento. O estudo aqui realizado traz evidências de que as crianças, desde cedo, aplicam as operações fonológicas identificadas como processos de sândi externo, embora também apresentem estratégias para evitar a sua realização. O trabalho mostrou, seguindo a proposta de Bisol (2003), que a OT se revelou modelo teórico pertinente para a análise dos dados estudados

碩士 / 華梵大學 / 東方人文思想研究所 / 94 / In the field of Sanskrit education, little emphasis has been placed on pronunciation. On the one hand, the academics cannot agree or verify the actual pronunciation of ancient Sanskrit. On the other hand, there is a lack of research on the teaching methods. Language instruction should include pronunciation to aid the recall and the learning process. Sanskrit is a phonogram language. If one cannot pronounce it, it would not only hinder the learning process but also thwart the understanding of the external Sandhi, internal Sandhi, and the case (or morpholexical) variations. Because one cannot associate the sound with changes in the word forms, rote memory of the grammar becomes the only way to learn the language. As a result, it would be difficult to increase students learning interest and even intimidate most learners. This thesis aims to first locate the pronunciation of the ancient Sanskrit that does not have sounds yet. This study will search for the pronunciation from the pronunciations of Mandarin, Tibetan, Pali, Hindu languages and the linguistic framework. The second step will be to explore the causes of variations and transformation of the Sanskrit pronunciation from the angle of modern phonetics. Subsequently, the revisions on the structure of the long double vowels found in the ancient Sanskrit grammar books will be made. After verifying the pronunciation and formation patterns of the long double vowels (sajyukta), general rules and the exceptions of the Sandhi will be established. This is to assist with the comprehension of Sandhi. Learners should know the primary and secondary rules instead of resorting to rote memory. In dealing with the morpholexical variations, it is proposed to first learn the male, singular “basic case variations” before learning the “common case variations” of different cases. Through learning pronunciation and understanding Sandhi, we can reduce the difficulties in learning Sanskrit and increase learner interest. If Sanskrit education can be improved, it will boost the interest in learning Sanskrit and thus enhance the quality of Buddhism research.

Orientador: Maria Bernadete Marques Abaurre / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-03T16:14:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Veloso_BrendaSilva_M.pdf: 3034780 bytes, checksum: d701095e77bf19b05f7a34ede1c9a0a6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / Resumo: O objetivo principal desta dissertação é analisar a elisão de monomorfemas em casos de sândi vocálico externo em três variedades específicas do português, a saber: no português arcaico, no português europeu e no português brasileiro. A partir da análise da elisão nessas três gramáticas, foi possível constatar uma freqüência do bloqueio da elisão quando a primeira vogal (que deveria ser elidida) é um monomorfema. Através da discussão de modelos teóricos como a Fonologia Lexical, a Morfologia Prosódica Clássica, a Morfologia Prosódica baseada na Teoria de Otimalidade e a Morfologia Distribuída, tentou-se obter uma compreensão do fenômeno, chegando-se à conclusão de que seria mais plausível considerar o bloqueio da elisão como o resultado de restrições prosódicas, pela impossibilidade de se apagar um monossílabo, do que considerar o bloqueio como resultante da interação entre fatores fonológicos e morfológicos. / Abstract: This thesis presents an analysis of final vowel syncope in cases of external vowel sandhi when that vowel is part of one syllable morphemes, observing three different varieties of Portuguese: Archaic, European and Brazilian Portuguese. The analysis showed a high frequency in the underapplication of the syncope sandhi rule when the vowel to be deleted is a one syllable morpheme. In order to investigate the reasons that block this post-Iexical rule, we discuss some theoretical models, like Lexical Phonology, "Classical" Prosodic Morphology, Prosodic Morphology based on Optimality Theory, and Distributed Morphology. Finally, we conclude that prohibition of vowel syncope in cases of sandhi in monomorphemes can be better explained if we consider the underapplication of this rule as a result of prosodic constraints, instead of the result of the interaction of phonological and morphological rules. / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística

Dans cette thèse est analysée la morphophonologie du chinois standard (CS), dans un essai de transposition du modèle CVCV, un modèle phonologique post -génératif. Dans la Partie 1, nous situons l’analyse dans son contexte historique, pour comprendre l’état de l’art qui résulte des consitions internes et externes à la science et mettre en perspective la partie 2, dédiée à l’étude phonologique même.Dans la Partie 2, nous proposons, en adoptant une approche déductive, d’unifier l’explication d’ un grand nombre de phénomènes en CS à la fois en phonologie (syllabe), tonologie (représentation du ton, sandhi tonal, ton neutre) et morphologie (composition , réduplication), jusqu’alors traités séparément, de façon isolée et dans des cadres différents, tout en restant économique et cohérent, avec le même dispositif théorique : le modèle CVCV. / In this phd thesis is analyzed the morphophonology of Standard Chinese, in an attempt to transpose the CVCV theory, a post-generative phonological model.Part 1 situates the analyses in their historical context, in order to understand the state of the art resultingfrom internal and external conditions to the science and to put into perspective Part 2, dedicated to the phonological studies themself.Part 2 proposes adopting a deductive approach to unify the explanation of many phenomena in StandardChinese in phonology (syllable), tonology (representation tone, tone sandhi, neutral tone) and morphology(composition, reduplication), previously treated separately, in isolation and in different frameworks, while remaining economical and coherent, with the same theoretical tool: the CVCV theory.

This work aims at studying the prosodic influences on external sandhi processes from the hypothesis which claims that even if there is no structural restriction the expected realizations of elision, degemination and diphthongization still do not occur due to the influence of someprosodic elements such as pause, lengthening and emphasis. In the theoretical background a description of the occurrences and restrictions on the external sandhi processes is presented as well as a review on intonation, prosody and analysis parameters. To test the hypothesis and to verify the objective the corpus of POBH (The Sound Pattern of Brazilian Portuguese of Belo Horizonte), proposed by Magalhães (2000), was used. The analyzed four subjects generate 3641 examples which comprise propitious contexts for the realization of elision, degemination and diphthongization. Contrary to what is theoretically expected, 3171 contexts of non-occurrences - due to some elements of speech - and only 470 occurrences of the external sandhi were found. Byusing the software Microsoft Excel, version 2003 and Minitab 15 the data were statistically analyzed. The Praat software, version 5.0.0.2, was used to analyze duration, the minimum and maximum fundamental frequency and the melodic variation. It was possible to conclude that therelation between the F0 and melodic variation values range according to the quality of the vowels, the external sandhi processes and the occurrence or non-occurrence of these processes.As to the duration, the values are higher in the non-occurrence of elision and diphthongization than in the occurrence of these processes. In regard to the degemination, what happens is exactly the opposite: the duration is higher in the occurrence than in the non-occurrence of the sandhi processes. / Partindo da hipótese de que, não havendo impedimento categórico, os processos esperados de sândi vocálico externo, ainda assim, deixam de acontecer devido à influência da combinação de elementos da prosódia como, por exemplo, pausas, alongamentos, ênfases, estetrabalho tem como objetivo estudar as influências prosódicas na elisão, na degeminação e na ditongação. No construto teórico, é apresentada uma descrição das ocorrências e das restrições dos processos de sândi vocálico externo, bem como uma revisão sobre entonação, prosódia e parâmetros de análise. Para testar a hipótese e verificar o objetivo, foi utilizado o corpus do Projeto POBH (O padrão sonoro do português de Belo Horizonte, modalidade culta), proposto por Magalhães (2000). Foram analisados quatro informantes que geraram 3641 exemplos contendo ambientes propícios para a realização da elisão, da degeminação e da ditongação. Desses ambientes, 3171 são, contrariamente ao teoricamente esperado, de não-ocorrência, devidoa elementos da dinâmica da fala, e 470 são de ocorrência dos processos de sândi vocálico externo. Utilizando-se o programa Microsoft Excel, versão 2003 e Minitab 15, os dados foram analisados estatisticamente. Através do programa Praat, versão 5.0.0.2, medidas de freqüência fundamental mínima e máxima, variação melódica e duração foram feitas. Foi possível concluir que a relação entre os valores de F0 e de variação melódica varia de acordo com a qualidade das vogais envolvidas, com os processos e com a ocorrência ou não-ocorrência desses processos. No que se refere à duração, os seus valores para a não-ocorrência de elisão e de ditongação foram superiores aos de ocorrência para os mesmos processos. No que tange à degeminação, temos uma situação inversa: a duração é maior na realização do que na não-realização.

Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-07T19:01:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 000431557-Texto+Completo-0.pdf: 1366634 bytes, checksum: 0fddef8fa2c10ede196aebae3f228c5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / This study presents an analysis of the external sandhi rules in Italian. According to Bisol (1996a, 1996b, 2003), the sandhi resyillabification is a process which occurs at the juncture of two lexical items, motivated by the shock of syllabic nuclei. The deletion of one syllable results in floating elements, which are prosodically licensed, generate sandhi phenomena: degemination, elision and diphthongization. The aspects to be examined are: the role of the phonological phrase main stress and the role of morphology in the process. In Italian diphthongization, elision and degemination freely occur when the two vowels are unstressed, but faces two obstacles: the frasal main stress and plural morpheme. This study shows that the blocking of sandhi is not the word stress, but the phrasal stress. Therefore, this study is limited to the words borders within the phonological phrase. In Italian, the sandhi phenomena were objects of studies Nespor (1987, 1990, 1993) and Nespor and Vogel (1982, 1986) in light of the Prosodic Theory and Garrapa (2006, 2007) in light of the Optimality Theory. In Brazilian Portuguese, sandhi phenomena were studied by Sousa da Silveira (1971), Bisol (1996a, 1996b, 2003), Tenani (2002), among others. This work is based on principles of Prosodic Theory and the Theory of Optimality. The first specifically defines the domain of phonological phrase and the second provides a set of constraints, among them those named Faithfulness, that control the relationship between input and output and those named Markedness that refer to the proper formation of the output. To account for these results, we need the local conjunction proposed by Bisol (2003) for Brazilian Portuguese, which is responsible for controlling the sandhi at word limits, where the second vowel carries the phrasal stress and the constraint MaxMorphPl to control the role of the Italian plural morphology. We argue that the interaction between phonological and morphological constraints is responsible for mapping the results in the Italian language. / Este estudo apresenta uma análise do sândi em italiano em fronteira de palavras. Segundo Bisol (1996a, 1996b, 2003), o sândi é um processo de ressilabação, que ocorre na juntura de dois itens lexicais, motivado pelo choque de núcleos silábicos. Do apagamento de uma das sílabas resultam elementos flutuantes que, ao serem licenciados prosodicamente, geram fenômenos de sândi: degeminação, elisão e ditongação. Os aspectos a serem analisados são o papel do acento principal da frase fonológica e o papel da morfologia no processo. Em italiano, a ditongação, a elisão e a degeminação ocorrem livremente, quando duas vogais são átonas; no entanto, se a segunda vogal for portadora de acento principal, a elisão e a degeminação são bloqueadas. Frases bloqueadas, se reestruturadas pelo acréscimo de uma palavra, sobre a qual recai o acento principal, ficam liberadas para a aplicação da regra. No entanto, outro obstáculo existe no italiano, pois a primeira vogal da sequência VV pode ser morfema de plural, o qual tende a ser preservado. Esta pesquisa limita-se ao contexto de fronteira de palavras lexicais dentro da frase fonológica, considerando a sua possível reestruturação. Em língua italiana, os fenômenos de sândi foram objeto de estudos de Nespor (1987, 1990, 1993) e Nespor e Vogel (1982, 1986), na perspectiva da teoria prosódica e de Garrapa (2006, 2007) na perspectiva da OT. No português brasileiro, os fenômenos de sândi foram estudados por Sousa da Silveira (1971), Bisol (1996a, 1996b, 2003), Tenani (2002), entre outros. Este trabalho fundamenta-se nos princípios da Teoria Prosódica e da Teoria da Otimidade. A primeira define especificamente o domínio da frase fonologia e a segunda provê um conjunto de restrições, entre as quais, as de fidelidade que controlam a relação entre input e output e as de marcação que se referem à boa formação do output. Para dar conta desses resultados, valemo-nos da restrição conjunta proposta por Bisol (2003) para o português brasileiro, responsável por controlar o sândi vocálico em limite de palavras, em que V2 é portadora de acento frasal e, para controlar o papel da morfologia dos plurais do italiano propomos uma hierarquia na qual a restrição MaxMorphPl ocupa um lugar alto no ranqueamento. Argumentamos que a interação entre restrições fonológicas e morfológicas é responsável pelo mapeamento dos resultados no italiano.

Chapter 1; INTRODUCTION: A brief introduction of the land, language, people and their occupations and society are presented. The historical, political divisions of the land, influence of other languages on Telugu, and the caste system that exists in Telugu society are explained. The controversy that exists between the traditional school and the modern school in the fields of education and language policy is touched upon. A survey of earlier work on different aspects of Telugu phonology is given at the start of each chapter. This is followed by my own analyses in terms of prosodic phonology. Chapter 2: TELUGU PHONEMIC SYSTEMS: A review of previous accounts of the Telugu phonological system is given and it is shown how each system proposed is inadequate in the circumstances that obtain in the Telugu language today. Chapter 3: SYLLABLE STRUCTURE AND STRESS: Stress plays an important role in Sandhi, harmony and rhythm. Word stress is dealt with in this section. Syllable structure is treated along with stress so as to account for loss of syllables, syllable weight and so on. Problems related to social dialects are offered a solution. Chapter 4: COMPOUND WORDS AND RHYTHM: Scholars have grouped reduplicative forms, onomatopoeic forms and echo words together with compound noun forms. A new classification of these forms, on the basis of phonetic, phonological and semantic criteria is attempted in this section. The rhythm of compound words is described here. Chapter 5: HARMONY: The prosodic treatment of vowel harmony will be seen to be not only more economical but also more complete than previous analyses, i.e. it will cover many nominal and verbal suffixes hitherto unexplored. Chapter 6: SANDHI: The term Sandhi is used loosely for various kinds of morphological processes. An attempt is made to show how Telugu scholars gave different interpretations to the Sandhi phenomena. A phonetic-phonological classification of the processes is made and Sandhi rules are presented in terms of prosodic phonology. Chapter 7: REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS - PROBLEMS OF STANDARDISATION: Speakers are able to choose among alternative linguistic means, any of which would satisfactorily communicate the propositional information. Selection among these alternatives defines the social situations. The question of standardisation is considered. Phonological systems in terms of prosodic theory are presented so as to account for differences between regional, social dialects and the 'standard' language. Chapter 8: CONCLUSIONS: The major findings of the thesis are summarized and discussed.

博士 / 國立清華大學 / 臺灣語言研究與教學研究所 / 106 / This dissertation investigates how native speakers of Northern Sixian (NS) Hakka produce the six lexical tones in isolation, in tonal coarticulation, and in tone sandhi, motivated by the disagreement in the descriptions of the tone system of NS Hakka among previous studies due to differences in research approaches adopted or procedures for processing acoustic data, and to the sparsity in studies of interaction between adjacent tones and the nature of tone sandhi in NS Hakka. To achieve our research goal, methodologically, tones on mono-syllabic and disyllabic words produced by 6 male and 6 female middle-aged native speakers were collected for acoustic and statistical analysis. For the speech corpus, we addressed the issue of efficacy of F0 normalization strategies for speaker variability. The study found a log z-score normalization method optimal in reducing F0 variation across speakers from the raw data, and this normalization strategy was applied to converting all the raw F0 data for acoustic and statistical analysis into log z-score values so as to attain an accurate understanding of the acoustics of tones in NS Hakka. Meanwhile, we also proposed a mixed method of polynomial and statistical modeling, which affords acoustic indices for the mean F0, linear slope, and curvature of tonal contours, and estimate differences in these aspects between tones. Regarding the issue of tonal representations for the tone system of NS Hakka, our data on the T-value normalized (Shi, 1990) F0 values for the isolated tones showed that the tone values calculated in this study for the six individual tones are highly consistent with those suggested by Chang (1995) to the exception of the checked Yang Ru tone. The study clarified the confusing tonal contrast between Yin Ru and Yang Ru found in Chang (1995), who annotated the contrast as [52] vs. [53], by proposing the contrast as [52] vs [55], a contrast of more differential distinctiveness. With respect to the issues associated with tonal coarticulation, the study found that: (1) both carryover and anticipatory tonal coarticulation were attested for NS Hakka with the former predominantly assimilatory and the latter dissimilatory, as reported in most previous studies for other tone languages; (2) however, unique to NS Hakka, word-final falling tones, such as T2 [51], T4 [52], T5 [31], were susceptible to assimilatory carryover effects primarily triggered by a word-initial rising T1, whereas the word-final rising T1[35] was prone to dissimilatory carryover effects induced by the two high level T3 [55] and T6 [55] in the word-initial position; based on (2) therefore, (3) a Contour/Level asymmetry was suggested regarding better effect undergors for carryover coarticulation, a pattern different from the High/Low asymmetry reported in previous studies on tonal coarticulation for other tone languages; (4) in terms of anticipatory coarticulation, patterns were quite consistent with findings from the past studies for other tone languages in that a High/Low asymmetry was found with respect to the better effect triggers, i.e. the low onset of a word-final mid-falling T5 [31] triggering a pitch raising effect on the word-initial tones, and with respect to better effect undergoers, i.e. the high pitch target of a word-initial tone that was particularly raised due to the dissimilatory anticipatory effects from the word-final T5 [31]; (5) the effect size associated with different coarticulation directions depended on the specific tones. Carryover effect size was not necessarily bigger than the anticipatory effect size; and finally (6) to make accurate interpretation of tonal coarticulation, not only phonetic groundings but also phonological motivations should be taken into account.. Finally, the acoustic study on tone sandhi in NS Hakka addressed the phonetic motivation underlying the pattern of the Yin Pin T1 sandhi in NS Hakka, and the completeness of tonal neutralization of the sandhi T1 [31] with the lexical T5 [31], to which T1 is alleged to turn in the sandhi contexts. We proposed that the synchronic phonological tone sandhi pattern in NS Hakka was a phonologized result of phonetic interactions between the word-initial Tone 1 [35] and the following sandhi context tones. First, a reduced rising form of the word-initial T1 was induced due to a high offset loss when the high offset raised the pitch level of the following sandhi context tones, and in the meantime, it was absorbed or realized in the following sandhi context tones. Second, in the T1T1 sequence, a contour dissimilatory effect was on the word-initial T1 in a reduced form by the following T1, whereby an already-reduced rising T1 in the word-initial position gradually turned a mild mid-falling tonal contour. Third, when T1 preceded the two high level T3 [55] and T6 [55], a pitch level dissimilation occurred on the realization of T1 in reduced form by the two following high level tones; in other words, a dissimilatory effect maximally lowered the pitch of the word-initial T1 to the lowest pitch range. Finally, the word-initial position, where tone sandhi occurs, is “prosodically weak,” implying that tones in this position tend to be affected by the word-final tones, and also leaving less time to fully realize the high offset target of the word-initial T1. Regarding the issue of completeness in neutralization, the study found the nature of tone sandhi in NS Hakka was gradient instead of categorical given the statistically significant differences in the realizations of tonal F0 contours and velocity contours between the sandhi T1 [31] and the lexical T5 in the same sandhi contexts. Key words: Northern Sixian Hakka, tonal representations, isolated tones, tonal coarticulation, tone sandhi, tonal neutralization, and polynomial modeling

La présente thèse propose une description multidimensionnelle (phonologique, phonéticoacoustique et sociolinguistique) des caractéristiques phonético-phonologiques de l’anglais néo-zélandais (NZE) contemporain ainsi qu’une étude théorique et empirique de l’évolution de cette variété. Notre travail de recherche s’inscrit dans le cadre du programme PAC (Phonologie de l’Anglais Contemporain : usages, variétés et structure) et se fonde sur les données authentiques et récentes du corpus PAC Nouvelle-Zélande que nous avons constitué à Dunedin, la capitale de l’Otago, au sud de l’île du Sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande. Notre analyse se concentre sur deux phénomènes qui permettent d’étudier la variation et le changement en NZE : la rhoticité et le ‘r’ de sandhi, ainsi que les changements vocaliques impliquant notamment les voyelles antérieures brèves des ensembles lexicaux KIT, DRESS et TRAP. En nous appuyant sur une étude phonético-acoustique des voyelles produites par les locuteurs du corpus PAC-NZ, nous proposons une modélisation des changements impliquant ces voyelles dans le cadre de la Phonologie de Dépendance. Nous intégrons également une réflexion théorique sur les modélisations linguistiques et sociolinguistiques qui ont été proposées dans la littérature sur le changement linguistique en général, et sur l’évolution du NZE en particulier, et montrons la nécessité d’intégrer des facteurs internes et externes pour rendre compte de l’évolution d’une variété comme le NZE contemporain. / This thesis offers a multidimensional description (phonological, phonetic-acoustic and sociolinguistic) of the phonetic and phonological characteristics of contemporary New Zealand English (NZE) as well as a theoretical and empirical study of its evolution. Our work fits into the framework of the PAC program (Phonology of Contemporary English: usage, varieties and structure) and is based on the recent and authentic data collected for the PAC New Zealand corpus recorded in Dunedin, the capital of Otago, in the south of the South island of New Zealand. Our analysis focuses on two phenomena that allow us to study variation and change in NZE: rhoticity and sandhi-r, as well as vocalic shifts, which notably involve the short front vowels in the lexical sets of KIT, DRESS and TRAP. On the basis of a phonetic-acoustic study of the vowels produced by the PAC-NZ informants, we provide an account of the shifts involving these vowels within the framework of Dependency Phonology. We also integrate a theoretical reflection on the linguistic and sociolinguistic accounts that have been presented in the literature on linguistic change generally and on the evolution of NZE specifically, and show that it is necessary to take internal as well as external factors into account when modeling the evolution of a variety such as contemporary NZE.

Neste trabalho, observamos os processos que ocorrem para evitar choque entre núcleos silábicos em fronteira de palavras, processos conhecidos como sândi externo. Dos três processos de sândi descritos na literatura, propusemos uma nova divisão em dois grupos, levando em conta resultados de pesquisas anteriores: elisão e degeminação ocorrem para reparar qualquer sequência de duas vogais (hiato ou ditongo), enquanto a ditongação ocorre apenas para reparar hiato. O foco desta tese então é fazer uma análise dos processos que compõem o primeiro grupo. Nesse sentido, retomamos os processos em três eixos: (a) a relação entre processos fonéticos (gradientes) e processos fonológicos (categóricos); (b) a relação entre estrutura prosódica e estrutura morfossintática; e (c) uma análise do sândi em termos de restrições. Quanto ao primeiro eixo, fazemos a distinção entre processos fonéticos e fonológicos de acordo com as ideias de Bermúdez-Otero (2007; 2012). Tomamos a posição de que o sândi seja um processo categórico (não gradiente), embora não excluindo processos co-articulatórios em fronteira de palavra. Quanto ao segundo eixo, argumentamos a favor de que os processos de sândi não têm acesso direto a informações de categoria morfológica ou sintática, assim como prevê a teoria da Fonologia Prosódica. Para explicarmos os casos de bloqueio dos processos na combinação V + palavra, defendemos que essa vogal não sofre modificação pois se encontra em início de palavra prosódica, nesse caso palavra prosódica recursiva - como em [a[esquina]w]w ou [a[américa]w]w -, porção que normalmente se mostra mais resistente. Quanto ao terceiro eixo, propusemos uma análise otimalista dos processos de sândi, considerando as questões relacionadas aos dois primeiros eixos. Em primeiro lugar, a consideração de que o sândi seja um processo fonológico sustenta a abordagem por restrições, e a consideração de que o sândi seja um processo variável pode ser explicada pelo modelo de restrições parcialmente ordenadas. Além disso, em relação à questão da preservação das vogais que portam acento primário, podemos encontrar as seguintes tendências: a elisão é bloqueada em caso de V1 e V2 acentuadas, principalmente se em V2 também recair o acento principal; já a degeminação apenas é bloqueada em casos de V2 receber acento primário e principal. Para os casos de V1 acentuada, consideramos uma restrição que proíbe apagamento de vogal acentuada - MAXVacent. Esta restrição é violada pelos candidatos que aplicam a elisão, mas não pelos candidatos que aplicam a degeminação, já que consideramos que nesse caso não há apagamento, mas fusão das vogais adjacentes. Para os casos de bloqueio da elisão e da degeminação quando V2 receber o acento frasal, relacionamos a questão à proposta da ambiprosodicidade da sílaba formada após a aplicação dos processos. Nesse caso, argumentamos que, sempre que os processos se aplicam, temos a formação de uma sílaba ambiprosódica, mas, no caso de esta sílaba portar o acento frasal, ela não pode manter essa configuração. A restrição relevante aqui é a que proíbe uma sílaba ambiprosódica que porte acento frasal - *σsambiprosódica[+ac.fr.]. A partir da discussão das questões relevantes para os fenômenos de sândi, conseguimos propor um único ranqueamento que desse conta da escolha dos candidatos ótimos em ambos os processos considerados: elisão e degeminação. / In this study, we observed the processes that occur to avoid clash between syllabic nuclei across word boundaries, processes known as external sandhi. Among the three cases of sandhi described in literature, we proposed a new division into two groups, taking into account the results of previous research: elision and degemination occur to repair any sequence of two vowels (hiatus or diphthong), while diphthongization occurs only to repair hiatus. Therefore the focus of this work is to analyze the processes that compose the first group. In this sense, we observed the processes in three areas: (a) the relationship between phonetic processes (gradient) and phonological processes (categorical); (b) the relationship between prosodic structure and morphosyntactic structure; and (c) an analysis of sandhi with constraints. About the first area, the distintion between phonetic and phonological processes is based on ideas from Bermúdez-Otero (2007, 2012). We considered that sandhi is a categorical process (not gradient), but we did not exclude co-articulatory processes across word boundaries. About the second area, we argued that sandhi processes do not have direct access to morphological or syntactic information, as well as Prosodic Phonology Theory predicts. In order to explain why the processes do not occur in combinations like V + word, we argued that this vowel can not be modified because it is in prosodic word initial position, in this case recursive prosodic word - as in [a[esquina]w]w or [a[américa]w]w -, portion that usually is more resistant to modifications. About the third area, we proposed an optimalist analysis of sandhi processes, considering issues related to the previous two areas. In the first place, the ideia of sandhi as a phonological process supports the analysis with constraints, and the consideration that the sandhi is a variable process can be explained by the partially ordered constraints model. Furthermore, regarding the issue of preservation of vowels that carry primary stress, we can find the following: elision is blocked when V1 and V2 are stressed, especially when V2 carries also frasal stress; degemination is blocked only when V2 carries primary and frasal stress. For the cases that V1 is stressed, we considered a constraint that prohibits deletion of a stressed vowel - MAXVacent. This constraint is violated by candidates that apply elision, but not by candidates that apply degemination, since we considered that in this case there is not deletion, but fusion of adjacent vowels. For the cases that V2 carries frasal stress, we related the blocking of processes to the ambiprosodic question. We argued that, when sandhi processes occur, we have the formation of an ambiprosodic syllable. However, in cases that this syllable receives phrasal stress, it can not keep the ambiprosodic setting. The important constraint here is *σsambiprosódica[+ac.fr.], that prohibits an ambiprosodic syllable with phrasal stress. From this discussion, we proposed a single ranking that can explain the choice of optimal candidates in both processes considered: elision and degemination.