The Arizona Phonology Conference is a conference publication of the Linguistics Circle, the Graduate Student Organization of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona.

Volume 1 (1988). Edited by Megan Crowhurst.

Excerpt from the Preface:

This special volume of the Coyote Papers contains the proceedings of the first annual Arizona Phonology Conference. The Arizona Phonology Conference was held at the University of Arizona on March 25-26, 1988 as a forum for phonologists from UCLA, USC, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Arizona. Papers were presented by Mutaka Ngessimo, Lee Bickmore, Robin Schafer, Abigail Cohn, Hyunsook Kang, Cari Spring, Morris Halle, Bruce Hayes, Juliette Levin, Jose Hualde, Yen-Hwei Lin, Megan Crowhurst, Doug Pulleyblank, Armin Mester, and Prathima Christdas. This volume contains papers by Mutaka Ngessimo, Robin Schafer, Hyunsook Kang, Cari Spring, Jose Hualde, Yen-Hwei Lin, and Bruce Hayes.

Recent Submissions

  • Preface (Arizona Phonology Conference, Volume 1, 1988)

    Crowhurst, Megan (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
  • Marshallese Single Segment Reduplication

    Spring, Cari; Crowhurst, Megan; University of Arizona (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
  • A Structural Analysis of Mutation

    Schafer, Robin; Crowhurst, Megan; University of Arizona (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
  • Tonal Evidence for an INFL Cycle in the Kinande Verb

    Mutaka, Ngessimo; Crowhurst, Megan; University of Southern California (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
  • Nasal Segments in Taiwanese Secret Languages

    Lin, Yen-Hwei; Crowhurst, Megan; University of Texas at Austin (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
    Language games have fascinated linguists in that they can provide unusual insight into the grammars of languages. The evidence provided by the study of a language game has usually been used by linguists to argue for certain phonological and morphological analysis of the source language. Recent studies of the mechanism that derives language games also discuss broader theoretical issues like the nature of this mechanism, its reflection of internal structure of the syllable and morpheme, its relationship with the morphological and phonological processes in natural languages, and the proper phonological and prosodic representations in describing the formation of language games (e.g., McCarthy 1981, 1982; Yip 1982 ). Chinese secret languages are language games spoken by children, thieves, or fortune tellers. They are also called Fanqie languages because their formation follows the traditional Chinese Fanqie principle which divides a syllable into an Initial and a Final. (1) gives some examples illustrating this traditional division of syllables . (1) Initials and Finals in Chinese (Tones are omitted): a. /ma/; Initials: /m/; Finals: /a/ b. /kuai/ [kway]; Initials: /k/; Finals: /uai/ [way] c. /pan/; Initials: /p/; Finals: /an/ d. /tuan/ [twan]; Initials: /t/; Finals: /uan/ [wan] e. /uan/ [wan]; Initials: none; Finals: /uan/ [wan]. Within a syllable the first consonant is the Initial, what remains is the Final. (1) e. is an example of the "zero Initial" syllable. Chao (1931) describes eight varieties of Chinese secret languages in terms of this traditional view on the Chinese syllable. In these languages each syllable is typically split into two syllables with the addition of a fixed Initial and /or a Final. For example, one of the Mandarin secret languages derives [may ka] from the base word /ma/, the fixed Initial /k/, and the fixed Final /ay /. Departing from this traditional view, Yip (1982) proposes to treat the formation of these secret languages as instances of reduplication within the framework of CV phonology (McCarthy 1979, Clements & Keyser 1983). In this paper I examine the behavior of nasal segments in Taiwanese secret languages described by Li (1985) in the hope of revealing the relationship between the phonological structure of the source language and that of the secret languages, and throwing some light on the understanding of the formal mechanism and principles employed by Chinese secret languages. I follow Yip in treating the formation of Chinese secret languages as reduplication,3 and assume an autosegmental model of phonology that incorporates underspecification (e.g. Archangeli & Pulleyblank 1986) and feature geometry (e.g. Clements 1985a; Sagey 1986). In Section 1, an introduction of three types of Taiwanese secret languages is given. Section 2 shows that the spreading of nasality of the nasalized vowels throughout the whole reduplicated domain in the secret language argues for the existence of a floating nasal feature in Taiwanese and the treatment of this domain as a basic morphological word. The behavior of the syllable final consonants in these Taiwanese secret languages presented in Section 3 calls for an assimilatory treatment rather than the dissimilatory one proposed by Yip (1982). Section 4 discusses some theoretical implications with respect to the theory of reduplication in analyzing the syllabic nasals in Taiwanese secret languages. Finally, a conclusion summaries the preceding sections.
  • Is Plane Conflation Bracket Erasure?

    Kang, Hyunsook; Crowhurst, Megan; University of Texas at Austin (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
  • Palatalization in Biscayan Basque and Feature Geometry

    Hualde, Jose; Crowhurst, Megan; University of Southern California (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
    Archangeli (1987) has pointed out that the hierarchical model of feature representation combined with the statement of phonological rules in terms of conditions and parameters offers the advantage that it allows the expression as a single rule of unitary processes that must be stated as multiple operations within other frameworks. In this paper I will offer an example of this (cf. Hualde, 1987 for another example). I will show that a seemingly complex process of palatalization that must be stated as two related but different operations within a linear model, can be straightforwardly captured in the hierarchical /parametrical approach by taking into account the geometrical structures on which the palatalization rule applies; in particular, the branching structures created by a rule of place assimilation. I will assume that assimilatory processes have the effect of creating complex structures where features or nodes are shared by several segments. From this assumption we can make predictions about how other rules may apply to the output of a process of assimilation. These predictions are very different in some cases from what one would expect from a formulation of the rules in a linear, feature -changing framework. In the case to be examined here, the predictions made by taking into account derived geometrical structures receive very strong confirmation. I will consider a rule of palatalization in two Basque dialects. In one of them, the process of palatalization can be captured quite simply by a linear rule. In the other dialect, the facts appear as more complex and requiring several operations within a linear framework, but are actually simpler to state within a geometrical /parametrical framework. Only within such a theory can we capture the fact that the more pervasive palatalization observed in this second dialect arose from a simplification in the rule that other dialects possess.
  • Diphthongization and Coindexing

    Hayes, Bruce; Crowhurst, Megan; University of California, Los Angeles (Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1988)
    The tree model of segment structure proposed by Clements (1985) is an important innovation in phonological theory, making possible a number of interesting and arguably correct predictions about the form of assimilation rules, locality of rule application, and the organization of the distinctive feature system. Clements's proposal has given rise to an expanding literature, including Sagey (1986), Schein and Steriade (1986), Archangeli and Pulleyblank (forthcoming), and McCarthy (forthcoming). In this paper, I argue that the tree model as it stands faces a serious empirical shortcoming: it fails to provide an adequate account of diphthongization rules, here defined as rules that convert a segment (vowel or consonant) into a heterogeneous sequence. I propose a revised tree model, which for clarity and explicitness uses coindexation rather than association lines to indicate temporal association. I argue that my proposal solves the diphthongization problem, and that it also makes it possible to restrict the power of segment structure theory in the following way: the "feature- bearing units" (Clements 1980) for any feature are always elements of the prosodic tier, and not nodes in the segment tree.