Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-ks5gx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-20T06:48:29.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Segmental complexity and phonological government*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2008

Jonathan Kaye  and
John Harris
John Harris
Affiliation:
University College London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In this article, I explore a class of phonological reduction phenomena which highlight the role of segmental complexity in phonological government. I discuss a condition on phonological representations which requires that a segment occupying a governed position be no more complex than its governor, where complexity is straightforwardly calculated in terms of the number of elements of which a segment is composed. More generally, the present enterprise is to be seen as part of a wider programme in which reduction phenomena, including those traditionally referred to as lenition, are examined for the light they shed on the internal structure of consonants.

Type
Phonological government
Information
Phonology , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , May 1990 , pp. 255 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Amastae, Jon (1989). The intersection of s-aspiration/deletion and spirantization in Honduran Spanish. Language Variation and Change I. 169–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, John M. & Cohn, J. Ewen (1987). Principles of dependency phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, John M. & Charles, Jones (1974). Three theses concerning phonological representations. JL 10. 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archangeli, Diana & Douglas, Pulleyblank (forthcoming). The content and structure of phonological representations. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Aronoff, Mark & Richard, Oerhle, T. (eds.) (1984). Language and sound structure.Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, , Laurie, (1988). What is lenition? JL 24. 381–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadbent, , Judith, (1985). Aspects of Leeds phonology. Ms, Central School of Speech and Drama, London.Google Scholar
Brockhaus, , Wiebke, (1990). Colourful leagues: a government phonology approach to final obstruent devoicing in German. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 2. 270–297.Google Scholar
Browman, , Catherine, P. & Louis, Goldstein (1989). Articulatory gestures as phonological units. Phonology 6. 201–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charette, , Monik, (in press). Constraints on governing relations in phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1985). The geometry of phonological features. Phonology Yearbook 2. 225–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1987). Phonological feature representation and the description of intrusive stops. CLS 23:2. 29–50.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1989). A unified set of features for consonants and vowels. Ms, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Cornyn, William S. (1964).Outline of Burmese grammar. Lg 20. Supplement.Google Scholar
Durand, Jacques (1986). On the phonological status of glides: the evidence of Malay. In John, Anderson & Jacques, Durand (eds.) Explorations in dependency phonology. Dordrecht: Foris. 79–107.Google Scholar
Escure, G. (1977). Hierarchies and phonological weakening. Lingua 43. 55–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farid, M. Onn (1980). Aspects of Malay phonology and morphology: a generative approach. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.Google Scholar
Foley, James, (1977). Foundations of theoretical phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, John (1989). Licensing, inalterability and harmonic rule application. CLS 25. 000–000.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1986). English plosive allophones and ambisyllabicity. Gramma 10. 119–141.Google Scholar
Harris, , John, (1985). Phonological variation and change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, John (1990), Reduction harmony. Paper presented at the 1990 GLOW phonology workshop, London.Google Scholar
Harris, John & Jonathan, Kaye (1988). A tale of two cities: London glottalling and New York City tapping. Paper presented at the meeting of the Linguistic Association of Great Britain, Exeter.Google Scholar
Hayes, , Bruce, (1986 a). Assimilation as spreading in Toba Batak. LI 17. 467–499.Google Scholar
Hayes, , Bruce, (1986 b). Inalterability in CV phonology. Lg 62. 321–351.Google Scholar
Hayward, Dick (1984). The Arbore language: a first investigation. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar
Hooper, Joan B. (1976). An introduction to Natural Generative Phonology. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hulst, , Harry, van der (1989). Atoms of segmental structure: components, gestures and dependency. Phonology 6. 253–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, , Larry, M. (1975). Phonology: theory and analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Itâ, Junko (1986). Syllabic theory in prosodic phonology. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Iverson, Gregory K. (1989). On the category Supralaryngeal. Phonology 6. 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Daniel (1976). Syllable-based generalizations in English phonology. PhD dissertation, MIT. Published 1980, New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Kaye, , Jonathan, (1989). Phonology: a cognitive view. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kaye, , Jonathan, (1990). Government in phonology: the case of Moroccan Arabic. The Linguistic Review 6. 131–159.Google Scholar
Kaye, , Jonathan, , Jean, Lowenstamm & Jean-Roger, Vergnaud (1985). The internal structure of phonological elements: a theory of charm and government. Phonology Yearbook 2. 305–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul (1979). Metrical structure is cyclic. LI 8. 421–442.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger (1971). Boundaries as obstruents: Old English voicing assimilation and universal strength hierarchies. JL 7. 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lass, Roger (1976). English phonology and phonological theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger (1984). Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger & John, M. Anderson (1975). Old English phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leslie, David (1983). Left capture and British voiceless stop allophony. Ms, University College London.Google Scholar
Leslie, David (1989). Lenition systems. Paper presented to the London Phonology Seminar, University of London.Google Scholar
Levin, , Juliette, (1985). A metrical theory of syllabicity. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Lindsey, Geoff & John, Harris (1990). Phonetic interpretation in generative grammar. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 2. 355–369.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. (1988). Feature geometry and dependency: a review. Phonetica 45. 84–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maran, La Raw (1971). Burmese and Jingpho: a study of tonal linguistic processes. Occasional Papers of the Wolfenden Society on Tibeto-Burman Linguistics 4.Google Scholar
Nesp⊙r, Marina & Irene, Vogel (1986). Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Ní, Chasaide Ailbhe (1989). Sonorization and spirantization: a single phonetic process? Ms, Trinity College, Dublin.Google Scholar
Pike, Kenneth L. (1947). Phonemics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Prentice, D. J. (1971). The Murut languages of Sabah. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Prince, Alan S. (1984). Phonology with tiers. In Aronoff & Oehrle (1984). 234–244.Google Scholar
Rice, Keren D. (1990). On deriving sonority: a structural account of sonority relationships. Ms, University ⊙f Toronto.Google Scholar
Sagey, , Elizabeth, (1986). The representation of features and relations in non-linear phonology. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Schaefer, Ronald P. (1981). A strength hierarchy for Tswana. Studies in African Linguistics 12. 114–117.Google Scholar
Schane, Sanford S. (1984). The fundamentals of particle phonology. Phonology Yearbook I. 129–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selkirk, Elizabeth O. (1982). The syllable. In Harry, van der Hulst & Norval, Smith (eds.) The structure of phonological representations. Part 2. Dordrecht: Foris. 337–384.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elizabeth O. (1984). On the major class features and syllable theory. In Aronoff & Oerhle (1984). 107–136.Google Scholar
Smith, Norval S. H. (1988). Consonant place features. In Harry, van der Hulst & Norval, Smith (eds.) Features, segmental structure and harmony processes. Part 1. Dordrecht: Foris. 209–235.Google Scholar
Vennemann, Theo (1972). On the theory of syllabic phonology. Linguistische Berichte 18. 1–18.Google Scholar
Vennemann, Theo (1988). Preference laws for syllable structure and the explanation of sound change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Vennemann, Theo & Peter, Ladefoged (1973). Phonetic features and phonological features. Lingua 32. 61–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar