I argue that the shift of explanatory burden from the generator to the evaluator in OT syntax – together with the difficulties that arise when we try to formulate a working theory of the interfaces of syntax – leads to a number of assumptions about syntactic structures in OT which are quite different from those typical of minimalist syntax: formal features, as driving forces behind syntactic movement, are useless, and derivational and representational economy are problematic for both empirical and conceptual reasons. The notion of markedness, central in Optimality Theory, is not fully compatible with the idea of synactic economy. Even more so, seemingly obvious cases of blocking by structural economy do not seem to result from grammar proper, but reflect (economical) aspects of language use.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Stuttgart, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-245).

This thesis investigated the realization of the English voiceless post-alveolar affricate and the voiceless post-alveolar fricative in native Panamanian speakers learning English as a second language. The Spanish of Panama has a typical deaffrication process where the post-alveolar affricate phoneme is mostly pronounced as a fricative; as a result, the Spanish affricate has two allophones, the voiceless post-alveolar affricate and the voiceless post-alveolar fricative that occur in free variation in the Spanish of Panama. The word positions tested were word initially and finally only. Thus, the purpose of the study was to determine the dominant sound in the Spanish of Panama, to identify dialectal allophonic transfer from the Spanish of Panama, and to verify the accomplishment of the phonemic split in English through the frequency of usage of the target sounds. Subsequently, in order to exemplify the deaffrication phonological process of Panama, I developed and discussed a Feature Geometry of the Spanish language along with the Underspecified consonants of the Spanish language. In addition, I tested three main theories about acquisition of contrastive target sounds, Markedness, and similarity and dissimilarity of sounds. The results showed that these Panamanian learners of English produced the English voiceless post-alveolar fricative significantly more target appropriately than the English voiceless post-alveolar affricate. This indicates that the dominant sound in the Spanish of Panama is the dialectal allophone, the voiceless post-alveolar fricative, which I suggest may become the default post-alveolar phoneme in the Spanish of Panama. Subsequently, the high frequency of the voiceless post-alveolar fricative also indicates that the participants transferred their Panamanian Spanish dialectal allophone, the voiceless post-alveolar fricative, into English and more importantly, they have not reached the phonemic split for these two English target sounds. Taking the dialectal allophone, the voiceless post-alveolar fricative, as the default post-alveolar phoneme in the Spanish of Panama, The Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) accounts for the observed trends described as follows: the learning of the less marked sound (English voiceless post-alveolar fricative) was easier to acquire and the learning of the more marked sound (English voiceless post-alveolar affricate) was difficult to acquire.

Previous research done in sociophonetic variation of second language speakers has often looked at constraints of formality affecting degree of foreign accent and how this degree of formality can have effects on what speaking styles speakers choose to employ. Furthermore, other social constraints of convergence and divergence of speech affect speaker speaking style. However, no known previous research has examined interdental fricative /θ ð/ substitution based on each speaker's interlocutor. This study explores second language speakers' English interdental fricative substitution sounds in terms of sociophonetic variation of formality and speaker interlocutor(s). Five native language pairs of Arabic, Cantonese, French, Portuguese, and Vietnamese origin were part of the study, comprising ten participants in total. The study finds age of English onset, as verified by the literature, to be the most determining factor for accurate articulation of these marked fricatives. However, other constraints for substitution choice are at hand including phonological limitations and estimated linguistic experience based on demographic information given by survey participants. The primary aim of the study is to associate some of the interdental fricative substitutions with a social variable. Data for the study include recordings of each participant reading a poem by him/herself, a dialogue with the other same native language participant, and a dialogue with a native speaker of American English. The data analysis examined the replacement sounds in terms of native language background, linguistic experience variables, and phonological constraints. In addition, quantities and ratios of specific replacement sounds for each participant per recording and per native language pair were compared and contrasted to find if speech accommodation theory (SAT), as proposed by Giles et al. (1991), played a role in any of the participants' choices for substitution. The study finds both convergence and divergence of interdental fricative substitutions to be characteristic of speakers with less linguistic experience in English. An additional stronger finding is that most participants' most common sound substitutions for the voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives were independent in place and manner, the voiced most commonly replaced by dental and alveolar plosives [ḏ d] and the voiceless most commonly replaced by labiodental fricative [f], which could be an indication of each fricative's acoustic and phonemic representation in each non-native speaker's phonological component, supported by findings of Brannen (2002). Some literature suggests that varying values of [continuant] in speakers' native languages are the means by which speakers choose the replacement sounds they do. However, such an explanation cannot be the only valid one when inherent variability comes into play and different places and manners of articulation are chosen for both interdental fricatives.

This master's thesis investigated realizations of typologically marked structures (word final stops) in the interlanguages of 15 ESL learners across Arabic, Brazilian-Portuguese and Japanese first languages (L1s). In general, previous theories of markedness (see Eckman's MARKEDNESS DIFFERENTIAL HYPOTHESIS and STRUCTURAL CONFORMITY HYPOTHESIS) and transfer (such as Major's ONTOGENY MODELS) were upheld in that more marked structures proved more problematic than less marked areas. Where uniformity of modification strategies was found, OPTIMALITY THEORY was implemented to illustrate process of acquisition undertaken during interlanguage development. In an isolated speech task, participants who demonstrated acquisition of more marked structures (ie., voiced final stops) were also successful with their less marked counterparts (voiceless final stops), but not vice versa. In connected speech, more advanced participants' modifications of target structures (such as assimilation of voicing and place of articulation) were more similar to patterns exhibited by native speakers of the target language while less advanced participants' productions (ie., lack of intervocalic voicing) were more reflective of their L1. These findings support the hypothesis that interlanguages adhere to universal grammar and, thus, behave as natural languages. Finally, future directions such as potential research of L1/L2 perception issues and pedagogical implications of the study's results are explored.

This study examines the coda clusters in Classical Arabic and how Najdi speakers, modern inhabitants of the central area of Saudi Arabia, pronounce them. Fourteen Najdi participants were asked to read a list of thirty-one words that took into account falling, equal, and rising sonority clusters, consisting of obstruents, nasals, liquids, and glides. The instrument contained one, two, and three steps of sonority for each level of sonority (falling and rising) to determine the minimal sonority distance used in Najdi Arabic. Specifically, obstruent + nasal, nasal + liquid, and liquid + glide were included for falling sonority clusters of one step, obstruent + liquid and nasal + glide were used for falling sonority clusters of two steps, and only obstruent + glide for falling sonority clusters of three steps. To test the rising sonority clusters, the elements in the clusters were transposed for each combination; for example, instead of using obstruent + nasal, clusters of nasal + obstruent were considered. However, for equal sonority clusters, only obstruent + obstruent and nasal + nasal were examined. Obstruents were dealt with separately in the instrument at first to see whether they caused any difference in the results. The results showed that the subjects added epenthesis in the rising sonority clusters and equal sonority clusters containing sonorants. However, they did not add epenthesis in the falling sonority clusters or equal sonority clusters containing obstruents. Thus, no matter the distance in sonority between the two segments in the rising sonority clusters (one, two, or three steps), the participants always epenthesized them. In addition, no matter how many sonority steps there were between the two segments in the falling sonority clusters, the participants always produced them without modification. In case of equal sonority, when the two segments of the cluster were sonorants, the participants added epenthesis; however, when the two segments of the cluster were obstruents, the participants produced them without modification.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / Esta tese trata do estudo das construÃÃes gerundivas em LÃngua Portuguesa, a partir de dados provenientes dos sÃculos XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX e XX, sob o suporte teÃrico do Funcionalismo LinguÃstico Norte-americano, para cumprir trÃs objetivos principais: a) constituir um corpus diacrÃnico, de natureza e caracterÃstica semelhantes, determinado por parÃmetros bem regulares, para se analisar o funcionamento das construÃÃes gerundivas nas variedades do PortuguÃs europeu e brasileiro, em perspectiva sincrÃnica e diacrÃnica, garantindo-se uma amostra equÃnime do material analisado; b) descrever o domÃnio funcional aspecto-temporal do gerÃndio, no qual sÃo codificadas as funÃÃes de tempo, aspecto e modalidade; c) descrever o domÃnio funcional aspecto-circunstancial do gerÃndio, em que sÃo expressas as circunstÃncias associadas a aspecto. Foram encontradas 3.910 ocorrÃncias de gerÃndio, das quais 1.671 estÃo distribuÃdas no domÃnio aspecto-temporal e 2.239 estÃo distribuÃdas no domÃnio aspecto-circunstancial. As construÃÃes gerundivas foram submetidas a tratamento estatÃstico no programa Goldvarx, cuja frequÃncia de uso foi verificada a partir das seguintes categorias: valores semÃntico-sintÃticos, valores circunstanciais, noÃÃes temporais, noÃÃes aspectuais, modalidade, relevo discursivo, sÃculo e variedade do PortuguÃs. Os resultados foram avaliados mediante o PrincÃpio da MarcaÃÃo, proposto por GivÃn (1990, 1991), e revelaram que: no domÃnio funcional aspecto-temporal, o gerÃndio adjetivo e o gerÃndio coordenado apresentam-se como categorias nÃo-marcadas; o gerÃndio independente, o gerÃndio imperativo e o gerÃndio conectivo como categorias intermediÃrias; e o gerÃndio narrativo e o gerÃndio descritivo como categorias marcadas. No domÃnio funcional aspecto-circunstancial, as circunstÃncias de modo, tempo, causa sÃo categorias nÃo-marcadas; as circunstÃncias de consequÃncia, condiÃÃo e finalidade sÃo categorias intermediÃrias; e as circunstÃncias de concessÃo, proporÃÃo, comparaÃÃo e conformidade sÃo circunstÃncias marcadas. / This thesis deals with the study of constructions with gerund in Portuguese, researched from data from XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX and XX centuries, by the theoretical perspective of North American Functionalism, to get three main purposes: a) to compose a diachronic corpus of similar nature and characteristic, determined by regular parameters in order to analyze the functioning of the constructions with gerund in Brazilian and European Portuguese, in synchronic and diachronic perspective, establishing an equal sample of the material analyzed; b) to describe the tense-aspect functional domain of gerund, in which the functions of tense, aspect and modality are codified; c) to describe the aspect-circumstantial functional domain of the gerund in which the circumstances are associated with the aspect. It was found 3,910 ocurrences of gerund, 1,671 from them are distributed in tense-aspect domain and 2,239 are distributed in circumstantial-aspect domain. The gerund constructions were submitted to statistical analysis in Goldvarx program, whose frequency of use was verified from the following categories: syntactic-semantic values, circumstantial values, tense notions, aspect notions, modality, grounding, century and variety of Portuguese. The results were analyzed by Markedness Principle, proposed by GivÃn (1990, 1991), and they have revealed that: in the tense-aspect functional domain, the adjective gerund and coordinated gerund appear as marked categories; independent gerund, imperative gerund and connective gerund as intermediate categories; and the narrative and descriptive gerund as marked categories. In the circumstantial-aspect functional domain, the circumstances of mood, tense, cause are non- marked categories; the circumstances of consequence, condition and finality are intermediate categories; and the circumstances of concession, proportion, comparison and conformity are marked circumstances.

This study explored the relationship between syntax and semantics in an effort to provide evidence against a strict theory of the Autonomy of Syntax. The evidence was provided by an acceptability survey given to 20 native, adult Mexicans who ranked both declarative and wh-questions which manifested a filler-gap relationship where the gap was located in an embedded noun clause. The main verbs were controlled for semantic depth by being ranked within verbal categories according to external evidence of markedness or semantic depth. The primary hypothesis was that semantically deeper verbs would add to the already increased strain on working memory associated with filler-gap processing, thereby resulting in decreased acceptability. The results of the survey showed that, while this hypothesis held true to some degree, further research will be required to confirm the results and to further understand the intricate interactions between syntax and semantics.

No description available.

The dissertation argues for the following thesis: Velars to have a phonological representation where place specification may be accomodated, but this hosting site is left empty. In other words, I assume velars to be placeless in their phonological representation. This hosting site can have a number of formulations, depending on the particular phonological model. It can be conceived as a Place node, like in Feature Geometry, or an element tier as in Government Phonology, or a particular dependency relation as in Dependency Phonology. According to the thesis, velars share the presence of this hosting site in their representation with labial and coronal consonants (and with vowels, of course), while differing from labials and coronals in not having anything to occupy this hosting site. The thesis is supported by phenomena from a range of languages. The placelessness of velars goes against received assumptions where coronals are considered unmarked due to their absence of place specification. I will demonstrate that quite a number of the most frequently cited cases in support of the unmarked status of coronals do not seem to constitute firm evidence for coronal unmarkedness (and in fact for markedness in general). This suggests that if coronals are still to be considered unmarked, it will have to have a different reason.