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Autosegmental Phonology

Phonetics k Phonology

(Hall, Chapter 6)

Christian Ebert

christian.ebert@uni-bielefeld.de

Universität Tübingen

Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft

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Linear Phonology

generative phonology as introduced by (Chomsky & Halle, 1968) is linear.

representations are linear sequences of feature matrices

+cons-son-voice-cont-nasCOR+ant

-consDORS+back-high+low-tense+long

+cons-son+voice-cont-nasDORS

/t/ /a:/ /g/

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Linear Phonology

features are properties of single segments

segments are ordered linearly (as in a chain)

within a segment, features are unordered and 'simultaneous'

problem:not all features seem to fit into this picture

examples are tone (≈ distinctive use of pitch), quantity (≈ duration of phonological units) and intonation (≈ pitch variation in speaking).

since these features are independent of single segments and may be related to multiple segments they are called suprasegmental

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Tone

in many languages of the world pitch is decisive for determination of the meaning of a word

these tonal languages comprise african languages, american indian languages and east-asian languages

tone means that phenomenon that distinguishes the meaning of lexical elements by their pitch

tone must be kept apart from intonation, which means the variation in pitch during speaking („Sprachmelodie“):

Peter schläft Peter schläft

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Tone

tonal language show up to five different tone levels (noted as 1...5)

there are two types of tones:

register tonesremain on one tone level; may be described by a sequence of two identical numbers (11, 22, 33, 44, 55)

contour toneschange in level during articulation; may be described by a sequence of two or more non-identical numbers (eg. 51, 214, etc.)

the actual pitches that correspond to different tone levels are idiosyncratic to a language and cannot be compared across languages

usually vowels carry a tone, rarely sonorants, too

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Tone

the IPA provides different diacritical symbols to describe tones

another option: a vertical line shows the range of levels from 1 to 5; a horizontal line indicates the actual level of the tone

register tones in the IPA:eå ó 55 extra-higheæ ô 44 higheç õ 33 middleeè ö 22 loweé ÷ 11 extra-low

example from the west-african language Nupe:

[beæ] „to come“ [beç] „to add to“ [beè] „to resemble sth.“

IPA

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Tone

contour tones are noted as follows:

e< ø risingeì ù fallingeí ú high risingeî û low risingeñ ü rising fallingeò ý falling rising

with the number and vertical bar notation, many more contour tones can be noted

IPA

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ToneIPA

example from Mandarin:[ó ma] 55 „mother“ [ú ma] 35 „hemp“[ý ma] 214 „horse“ [ù ma] 51 „to rant“

example from Hmong (spoken in Laos, Vietnam):[ó po] 55 „ball-like“ [po] 53 „female“[õ po] 33 „pancreas“ [po] 24 „to throw“[ö po] 22 „thorn“ [poÐ] 42 „father's father“

[po?] 31 „to see“examples from Cantonese:

[ó si] 55 „poem“ [si] 21 „time“[õ si] 33 „to try“ [si] 24 „to cause“[ö si] 22 „thing“ [si] 23 „city“

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Toneas a distinctive feature

in the system of generative phonology tone could in principle be expressed by features, eg.

[+H] high tone [-H] low tone

[+R] rising tone, ...

-cons+son+cont-nasDORS+back-high+low+H

/aæ/-cons+son+cont-nasDORS+back-high+low-H

/aè/-cons+son+cont-nasDORS+back-high+low+R

/a</

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Tone

in the chadic language Margi (spoken in Nigeria) on observes the following variation wrt. the suffix /aær/ (indicating definiteness):

(a) after stem-final consonant:[saæl] [saælaær] „man“[kuèm] [kuèmaær] „meat“

(b) after stem-final vowel with high tone:[?æmæ] [?æmjaærè] „water“[kuæ] [kwaærè] „goat“[taæguæ] [taægwaærè] „horse“

(c) after stem-final vowel with low tone:[tè] [tja<rè] „morning“[huè] [hwa<rè] „grave“[uæ?uè] [uæ?wa<rè] „fire“

as a distinctive feature

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Tone

observations and rules:

the high tone of the suffix-initial vowel changes to a rising tone after stem-final vowel with low tone:

R1: [+H] > [+R] / [-cons, -H]+ __

stem-final [i] and [u] change into corresponding semi-vowels [j] und [w] (before suffixes with initial vowel), see (b) and (c):

R2: /i u/ > [j w] / __ +[-cons]

as a distinctive feature

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Tone

This yields correct derivations:

/saæl+aærè/ /kuæ+aærè/ /huè+aærè/ UR

--- --- â rule R1

saæl+aærè kuæ+aærè huè+a<rè

--- â â rule R2

[saælaærè] [kwaærè] [hwa<rè] SR

as a distinctive feature

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Autosegmental Phonology

these rules correctly derive the observed data; but they do not explain, why the high tone of the suffix-initial vowel changes to a rising tone after stem-final low tone vowel

autosegmental phonology (Goldsmith, 1976) gives such an explanation

basic Idea: features are arranged in independent tiers (dt. „Schichten“)

segmental features occur on the segmental tier, tone features on an (independent) tone tier

on each tier, the segments are arranged linearly, but the segments on different tiers are connected only by association linies

in this sense, these representations are non-linear/non-concatenative

Basics

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we start with one binary feature [±H] on the tone layer and we write H for [+H] and L for [-H]

-cons+son+cont-nasDORS+back+low

/aæ/+cons+son+cont-nasCOR+ant+apic

/r/-cons+son+cont-nasDORS-back+high-low

/ è/

H L

segmental tier

association lines

tone tier

Autosegmental PhonologyBasics

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a segment on the segmental tier that is associated with a tone is called tone bearing unit (TBU)

what segments can function as TBUs depends on the language;eg. in Margi only vowels can be TBUs

contour tones are represented by association of one TBU with more than one tone:

/aì/

[a]

H L

/a</

[a]

L H

segmental tier

association lines

tone tier

Autosegmental PhonologyBasics

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Autosegmental Phonology

in autosegmental phonology the Margi data can be explained:

Reminder: /uæ?uè+aærè/ > [uæ?wa<rè]

Example 1: Margi

/u ? u + a r i/

H L H Lthe 'glide' rule R2 for changing /i u/ into [j w] works only on the

segmental tier:

/i u/ > [j w] / __ +[-cons]

the underlying autosegmental representation is as follows:

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application of the 'glide' rule R2 yields the following result

remember: only vowels (and not semi-vowels) can be TBUs in Margi; hence the low tone feature looses its anchor and becomes a floating tone

At this point, the floating tone is associated with the next possible TBU:

/u ? w + a r i/

H L H L

/u ? w + a r i/

H L H L

Autosegmental PhonologyExample 1: Margi

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in addition to the 'glide' rule R2 we only need another rule that specifies what happens with floating tones:

[-cons]

L Hrule R1 states that a floating low tone is to be associated with the

following high tone vowel

this illustrates tone stability:the tone remains, although its TBU is gone; it's reassociated with another TBU

Autosegmental PhonologyExample 1: Margi

R1:

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Autosegmental Phonology

Another example for the analysis of contour tones as sequence of tone features: tone assimilation in Margi

the underlying suffix for the infinitive /+na/ does not carry any tone; in combination with the stem it receives the last tone of the stem:

/saæ+na/ > [saænaæ] „to loose“/ndaèl+na/ > [ndaèlnaè] „to throw“/n@<+na/ > [n@<naæ] „to plan“

this assimilation can be explained, if contour tones are represented as sequences of two tone features and if it is assumed that the last feature spreads

Example 2: tone assimilation

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/sa+na/

H

> /sa+na/

H

/ndal+na/

L

> /ndal+na/

L

/n@+na/

HL

> /n@+na/

HL

assimilation rule:

[-cons][-cons]

[αH]

here, two elements on the segmental tier are associated with one feature on the tone tier

again we see: tone features are not segmental

Autosegmental PhonologyExample 2: tone assimilation

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in many languages the number of felicitous tone patterns is limited

eg. in the Bantu language Etung we find four tones: H, L, HL, LH

The distribution of these tones in Etung is limited:

one syllable: kpaæ, kpeè, naì, no<

two syllables: oæbaæ, eèkaæt, oèboì, oædaè, aæbo<*aìboæ, *a<boæ

three syllables: eækuæeæ, oækpuègaè, bèsoæNeæ, aædèmbaæ*aædèmbaì, *aædìmbaè, *aìdèmbaè, *aædæmbaè, *aèdèmbaæ

No Crowding Constraint, No Crossing Constraint and the OCP

Autosegmental Phonology

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these data can be explained in an autosegmental analysis if we assume that there are certain underlying tone patterns

these are associated with TBUs according to universal association conventions

tone patterns in Etung: L H L H H L L H L H L Hassociation conventions (after Goldsmith, 1976):

associate...(a) ... tone features with TBUs 1-on-1 from left to right,(b) ... remaining TBUs with the last tone feature,(c) ... floating tone features with the last TBU

No Crowding Constraint, No Crossing Constraint and the OCP

Autosegmental Phonology

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Examples: /kpa/

H

/na/

H L(a) (a) (c)

in many languages the number of tone features that can be associated with one TBU is limited → no crowding constraint

in Etung, this number is two; hence the following is disallowed:

* /na/

L H Lin tone languages without contour tones this number is one

No Crowding Constraint, No Crossing Constraint and the OCP

Autosegmental Phonology

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Examples: /oba/

H

/oda/

H L(a) (a) (a)

the no crossing constraint is implicit in the association conventions

no crossing constraint: association lines must not cross

(b)

/abo/

H L(a) (a) (c)

H

* /oda/

H L(a) (a)

the no crossing constraint is an implication of the assumed linearity of the single tiers

No Crowding Constraint, No Crossing Constraint and the OCP

Autosegmental Phonology

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in the case of /oæbaæ/ one could think of two alternative tone patterns:

/oba/

H

/oba/

H Hthe right alternative is ruled out by a general constraint, called the

Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP):

Adjacent identical tones are disallowed

the OCP is the reason for assuming the postulated underlying tone patterns, instead of eg. H H or L L H

(see exercise 2. for what goes wrong without the OCP)

No Crowding Constraint, No Crossing Constraint and the OCP

Autosegmental Phonology

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Summary

some phenomena such as tone are suprasegmental

a non-linear autosegmental analysis, where features are located on different independent tiers, is capable of explaining observed data much better than a traditional linear analysis

next to segmental rules, there are association conventions and association rules, which describe how features are associated and how they spread

in each tonal language the maximal number of tone features per tone bearing unit is limited

the no crossing constraint, the no crowding constraint and the OCP restrict the distribution and association of features across tiers.

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Exercise 8

(1) Use the tone patterns of Etung and the association conventions on p. 22 to derive the tone distribution for eækuæeæ, bèsoæNeæ, und aædèmbaæ.

(2) Consider the following inflected form from Margi (cf. p.10ff):

/laèguè+aærè/ > [laègwaærè]

Provide the underlying autosegmental representation and derive the surface form using the 'glide' rule R2 (on p.16) and the association rule R1 (on p.18)

Assume that the OCP would not hold and that the underlying tone pattern for the stem was L L. Which incorrect derivation would one get for /laèguè+aærè/ ?