published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

This dissertation proposes a formal model of phonological performance, Double Lookup, that also has empirical consequences for theories of phonological competence. The most significant of these is the Productivity Hypothesis, the claim that the ordering of rules derives from their relative productivity. According to Double Lookup, the use of phonological knowledge during speech production occurs in two steps. First, forms are retrieved from memory; second, phonological rules are retrieved from memory and applied, if appropriate, to the retrieved forms. Phonological patterns may be applied during speech in this way or be prepatterned (stored as patterns across lexical items in memory). The productivity of a rule is defined to be the likelihood of its being retrieved and applied during speech production. In general, less productive rules are more likely to be prepatterned than more productive rules. The Productivity Hypothesis then follows: Because prepatterned forms are retrieved before rules are retrieved and applied, less productive rules will be ordered before more productive rules. Double Lookup and the Productivity Hypothesis are tested in several ways. First it is shown that the ordering of partially productive rules in English, as determined using standard linguistic methods, corresponds with their ranking in productivity, as determined through experiments described in the literature and through original surveys of speech errors. The application of fully productive rules in English is also shown to be consistent with the Productivity Hypothesis; fully productive rules do not apply in a linear sequence, but rather interact in accordance with universal principles. All apparent counterexamples actually involve less than fully productive rules. Next it is shown that the phenomenon referred to in the literature as cyclicity is correctly predicted to arise under certain well-defined circumstances, as when a rule is both prepatterned and very productive. In addition, it is shown that there are large categories of examples that cannot be handled by the notion of cyclicity at all, but find a simple account within Double Lookup. Finally, evidence for the model is summarized by comparing it with other models of rule ordering which face conceptual and empirical problems Double Lookup avoids.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-144).

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In this thesis I investigate the crucial role played by government in phonology in explaining various processes such as epenthesis, vowel deletion, vowel harmony, consonant assimilation, as well as the syllabification of skeletal points along with their segments into constituents, and the organization of these constituents in the word. It is argued that all these phonological processes are determined by governing relations units contract with each other. / Given that government applies in phonology defining the constraints under which it operates is an integral part of such a research program. The aim of this thesis then, is to analyze different phonological processes in terms of government and to determine what the relevant constraints are. The processes that are considered involve governing relations between nuclei that are adjacent at the level of nuclear projection. I show that in considering branching constituents as governing domains, government within such domains is subject to a special constraint, viz. the Minimality Condition that has been proposed by Chomsky (1986). In addition I demonstrate that only the immediate projection of a given head counts as a barrier to government from the outside. / Another proposal of this thesis concerns the treatment of the alternations between schwa and zero in French in terms of a relation of proper government. From such a perspective, I show that an empty nucleus is realized as zero when it is properly governed by a following nucleus. Proper government is a stronger case of government and is subject to certain additional conditions. Among them are the following: the proper governor must have phonetic content and subject to parametric variation, it can only properly govern one empty governee.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [211]-223).

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Linguistics. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Lisa Green. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.