1. Simple Rules and Metrical Phonology
Phonology II
Simple Rules and Metrical Phonology

2. Plan
In the last class, we saw how the phonology of a language operates in terms of features that collectively make up speech sounds
It is essential to remember that phonological operations make reference to features; in the first part of today’s class, we’ll look at how to treat such operations in terms of rules.
In the second part of the class, we’ll look at another level of phonological organization, which concerns how sounds are organized into syllables and larger units.

3. Review: Alternations
In our last lecture, we saw alternations: cases in which an object that is “one thing” at some level of analysis surfaces with distinct variants
That’s a more precise way of saying that e.g. the English plural morpheme has some underlying form (I.e., /z/), but surfaces in different forms: /z/, /s/,
This alternation is phonological in nature
Other alternations are not; consider that the plural of box is boxes, but the plural of ox is oxen. This alternation is morphological nature.

4. Introducing phonological rules
We need a way of formalizing these changes
As a basic assumption, we’ll assume that every word and morpheme has an Underlying Representation, or UR.
The UR is the basic sound form of that object; that is, how it is stored in the memory of speakers
These UR’s are subject to operations-- rules-- that derive the surface forms of the words

5. Rules, abstractly
In the basic form that we’ll be using here, rules have some sort of input that specifies what the rule applies to, and an output that shows the change that is effected
Abstractly, these can be written as follows:
X  Y/ __ Z
Informally, a rule of this type says that X (the input) is converted into Y (the output) when X is to the left of Z.

6. An example
Remember from above we saw some examples from Old English in which there’s a single phoneme underlying [f] and [v] on the surface
Let’s assume that this is underlyingly /f/
Recall the distribution: [v] occurs between vowels.
We can express this semi-formally as follows:
f  v/ V__ V
This rule says that f becomes v between vowels
If we needed to be more precise about this, we could specify this in terms of features. Then, what would change is a specification of the [voc] feature (I.e., the rule would change it from [-voc] to [+voc]
This more precise rule would have to be written to voice /f/ intervocalically! Notice that if we are not careful, we might have a rule that voices too many consonants

7. Another example Let’s take an assimilation process
Consider (a subset of…) words prefixed with in- in English; these express contradiction/negation:
inappropriate
intolerant
insincere
In these forms, the idea is that we are adding a morpheme to express the negative part
Based on the examples we see above, we would think that the nasal consonant in this morpheme is /n/

8. In-prefixation, continued
Notice now that not all words with this prefix have the same pronunciation of that component:
impossible
imbalanced
impure
In fact, the change in pronunciation is even reflected in the spelling (not all changes are!)
What’s the pattern? We get the m-realization in front of labial consonants (labial stops)

9. Accounting for the pattern
There are some more details about the in- prefix that we could look at; for the moment, think just about the facts we have seen
We want to say that a nasal consonant becomes labial when a labial stop follows. One way of doing this:
C[+nas]  C[+nas,+lab]/__ C[+obst,+lab]

10. Think about it…
The rule on the last slide shows how rules work. There’s actually more to be said about the facts of assimilation:
Not all morphemes behave the same; compare unpopular with impossible…
What about glides? I.e. unwelcome… are there any in- words like this?
What about other consonants? How do people say e.g. incapable? What about unclear?

11. Types of rules: Summary
Phonological rules effect many different types of changes:
Some make adjacent sounds more similar; these are often called Assimilation rules (remember e.g. English plurals)
There are also Dissimilation rules, that make nearby sounds more distinct
Some rules add a consonant or a vowel or a consonant that isn’t there in an Underlying Representation. These are called rules of Epenthesis.
The most important thing in most cases is to find the environment in which the rule is triggered, so that you are stating the generalization about the environment correctly

12. Rule Interactions
When linguists analyze the phonology of a language, they often find that many different rules apply to derive the surface forms
That is, any given word that you see might be the result of more than one rule
One difficult issue is that in many cases, rules have to apply to a form in a specific order
This is kind of an advanced topic, but worth considering

13. Illustration
Here’s a simplified example; some nouns in Polish, in singular and plural:
sg pl trans
ruk rog’i ‘horn’
lut lodi ‘ice’
There are two things going on in these nouns:
One rule devoices voiced consonants at the end of words
Another rule raises /o/ to /u/ when a voiced consonant follows
In order to get the correct results, the vowel raising rule has to apply before the consonant devoicing rule!
Take home lessons: (1) there are some cases in which more than one rule has to be posited; (2) sometimes rule ordering is crucial

14. Syllables and Metrical Structure
Transition: To this point, we have been looking at the smaller units in phonological analysis: features, and their arrangement into segments (along with the question of what the phoneme is)
One large part of the phonology of a language concerns the orgranization of segments into larger objects: syllables.
Syllable structure is relevant both for generalizations about segment distributions and for generalizations about stress (and related phenomena) in a language

15. The Syllable
A familiar notion is that of the syllable: as in, ‘Philadelphia’ has five syllables
A refined set of hypothesis about the syllable is important for many linguistic generalizations
Definitions (initial):
Onset: the beginning of the syllable
Nucleus: vowel in the middle of the syllable
Coda: consonant(s) at the end of a syllable
As we will see in the next slide, these three do not count the same

16. Syllable Structure A single syllable’s (s) structure:
Monosyllabic cat: s
Onset Rhyme k
Nucleus Coda
æ t

17. Comments
Each of the different components of the syllable may be relevant for different generalizations (what goes into an onset versus what can appear in the coda)
The nucleus and the coda form a unit together that excludes the onset
The motivation for this arrangement has to do with the fact that onsets appear to be irrelevant for some aspects of syllable structure (e.g. nuclei and codas count together for syllable weight)
Just focus on the different parts for the moment, not the motivation for this internal arrangement

18. Onsets and Speech Errors
Spoonerisms (Rev. Dr. W. A. Spooner, )
Target: dear old queen
Output: queer old dean
Target: You have wasted the whole term
Output: You have tasted the whole worm.
Target: You missed my history lectures.
Output: You hissed my mystery lectures.

19. Pig Latin A language game showing sensitivity to structure:
Hat > Athey
Thin > Inthey
Strong > Ongstrey
Linguistics > Inguisticsley
Apple > Appleey
Pattern: Add a syllable to the end of the word;
copy the onset of the word-initial syllable to the
onset of the word-final; add ‘ey’ to the rhyme.

20. Further aspects of the syllable
Onsets:
English normally allows two consonants.
[s] can be added initially in many cases as well, resulting in onsets with three consonants (e.g. splash)
All sounds can occur in this position with the exception of [ng]. Thus the subdivision of the syllable is crucial for stating this generalization.
The Nucleus:
Sometimes a consonant can function as a nucleus, like in kitten.
The coda:
English normally allows two consonants, although again there are cases where more stack up (e.g. belts)
Sometimes the morphology produces something that is hard to pronounce: consider cases like the pronunciation of 3/8

21. Syllables and well-formedness
Conditions on syllable structure define a set of (phonologically) possible words in a language; for instance:
Actual words, obstruent + liquid: brick, true, free, crab, etc.
Non-words that are possible words of English: blick, clee, flork
Impossible words, e.g. obstruent + nasal: *bnick, *fnee, *dmay
Compare: words in which historical change has made an initial consonant silent: knee, knight, gnat

22. Differences bzdura "nonsense"
Languages differ in terms of the constraints they impose on syllable structure:
E.g. Hawaiian:
No coda consonants
Maximum of one consonant per onset
Examples: ink > 'înika
Norman > Nolemana
E.g. Polish: many consonant clusters at the beginning of words that are impossible in English:
bzdura "nonsense"
babsk "witch"
grzbiet [gzhbyet] "back"
marnotrawstw [mar-no-trafstf] "of wastes"

23. Metrical Structure Illustrating our tacit knowledge of abstract
properties of language.
English Stress:
indePENdent
twenty-SEven
LEgislator
MissisSIppi

24. Metrical structure, cont.
An active topic in phonological research concerns the stress patterns of words.
It appears that the world’s languages group syllables into feet, like the iamb and the trochee:
Iamb: (’)
Trochee (’)
You will have seen something similar before in the study of metrical verse (poetry); one member of the foot is prominent (stressed).
Languages differ in terms of what types of feet they use, whether they involve iterative feet throughout a word, and so on.
English stress turns out to be sort of complicated for stress for a variety of reasons, but we can see some aspects of foot structure nevertheless.

25. The Rhythm Rule Remember those words we saw above?
TWEnty-seven MISsissippi LEgislators
I.e., without having been taught this rule,
speakers automatically calculate a shift in stress
Not a rule like that coming from English teachers
(e.g. “No split-infinitives”); part of what speakers
know unconsciously
Consider e.g. thirteen Japanese bamboo tables

26. Expletive Infixation We’ll do morphology next week; for fun now:
Suffix: Attached to the end of a word (work-ed)
Prefix: Beginning (un-important)
Infix: Inside a word
What is an example of an infix in English? There
is at least one phenomenon with the relevant
properties.

27. Patterns Expletive Infixation is not something that our
English teachers instruct us in; yet we know
a great deal about it:
1) *fanta-f*cking-stic
fan-f*cking-tastic
2) unrea-f*cking-listic
*unreali-f*cking-stic
*unre-f*cking-alistic
*indepen-f*cking-dent
inde-f*cking-pendent

28. Abstract Metrical Structure
Stress placement involves computation over abstract
representations, and these define expletive infixation.
Recall: grouping into feet; one syllable in the
foot receives prominence (stress):
E.g.
Àppalàchicóla
Has three binary feet (s s):
(Àppa)(làchi)(cóla)
In which the first member of each foot is prominent.

29. The Rule The placement of the expletive is governed by
the following condition:
Expletive Insertion: The expletive is inserted immediately before a non-initial stress foot of the word:
(Appa)(lachi)(cola)
Has two such junctures; so either
Appa-f*cking-lachicola, or Appalachi-f*cking-cola
(Disclaimer: the rule is actually more complicated…)