It is a familiar observation that phonological processes frequently fail to apply to geminates. A number of previous proposals attempted to account for these geminate inalterability effects in terms of a distinction between singly and multiply linked autosegments. Subsequent research, however, has observed that geminate inalterability is inviolable only in the domain of lenition processes. In this article, an account of this generalization is couched within a general optimality theoretic treatment of lenition, in which a scalar effort minimization constraint interacts with a set of lenition-blocking constraints. The geminate inalterability generalization follows from this effort-based approach to lenition, coupled with certain assumptions concerning the effort involved in geminates and their lenited counterparts.

This article tests earlier claims about the universality of patterns of polysemy and semantic extension in the domain of perception verbs. Utilizing data from a broad range (approx. 60) of Australian languages, we address two hypothesized universals. The first is Viberg's (1984) proposed unidirectional pattern of extension from higher to lower sensory modalities (i.e. intrafield extensions, like ‘see’ > 'hear'). The second hypothesized universal is that put forward by Sweetser (1990) regarding the extension of perception verbs to cognition readings (i.e. transfield extensions, like 'see' > 'know'). She suggests that vision has primacy as the modality from which verbs of higher intellection, such as 'knowing' and ‘thinking’, are recruited, and proposes that verbs meaning ‘hear’ would not take on these readings, although they often extend to mean ‘understand’ or ‘obey’. Though both hypotheses assign primacy to vision among the senses, the results of our Australian study show that Viberg's proposal remains intact, while Sweetser's is proved false. Australian languages recruit verbs of cognition like ‘think’ and ‘know’ from ‘hear’, but not from ‘see’. It appears that, at least as far as perception verbs are concerned, transfield semantic changes are subject to greater cultural variability than intrafield semantic changes. We argue that the same semantic domain can have its universal and its relativistic side, a foot in nature and a foot in culture, and conclude by demonstrating that there are good social and cultural reasons driving the extension of ‘hearing’, but not ‘seeing’, to ‘know’ and ‘think’ in Australian Aboriginal societies.

Milyilyi-lu kulirninpa, langa kulirninpa-lu brain-erg hear/think, ear hear-at him/her ‘Our brain thinks/hears, our ears think/hear’ Kukatja, from Peile 1997

This article shows that endoclitics do exist in Udi, a language of the North East Caucasian family, and this fact poses a challenge to the lexicalist hypothesis. Clitics may be positioned between the morphemes of complex verb stems and immediately before the final segments of monomorphemic verb stems. The author argues, on the basis of accepted tests for wordhood, that complex verb stems are single words, not phrases. On the basis of criteria developed by Zwicky and Pullum (1983), it is argued that the clitics of Udi are true clitics. An analysis of the placement of clitics in various positions inside verb stems is proposed in optimality theory. The author shows that phonological phenomena do not provide an alternative basis for positioning these clitics and concludes that clitics in Udi are a counterexample to the lexical integrity hypothesis.

Previous studies have been largely unsuccessful in investigating Middle English quantity changes in terms of moraic or foot structure. The present study approaches quantity changes as the consequence of the phonologization of a syllable cut prosody (Trubetzkoy's (1939) 'Silbenschnittkorrelation') and provides new evidence for the relevance of syllable cut to the diachronic phonology of English. The evidence is from the author's partial reconstruction of the phonological system of the early Middle English dialect represented in the Ormulum (Northeast Midlands, circa 1180), based solely on the orthographic and metrical evidence provided by its author, Orm. Although Orm's innovative orthographic system previously defied analysis, it is fully interpretable once the role of syllable cut is recognized. The analysis provides crucial support for the relevance of syllable cut to the diachronic phonology of English, and ultimately to the explanation of the pan-Germanic similarities in the 'breakdown' of phonological quantity.

Some Korean-Japanese comparisons involving Japanese coronals complicate the internal reconstruction of pre-Old Japanese. Post-OJ verb forms that end uniformly in, for example, ki have distinct OJ final syllables (ki ≠ kwi) according to the form or paradigm of the verb. This is not true for OJ syllables like ti, but scholars have assumed that pre-OJ *ti ≠ *twi, etc., were distributed in corresponding verb forms in the same way as OJ ki ≠ kwi, etc. Whitman, however, has introduced K-J etymologies requiring that pre-OJ *ti > si, *ri and *ni > i, and hence that all OJ ti < *twi, etc. These conflicting results can be resolved if other pre-OJ sound changes supported by Korean etymologies are properly integrated into the internal reconstruction of Japanese verb paradigms.

The authors propose that the typologically uncommon combination of labial and palatal constriction in Twi has arisen from a convergence created by general patterns of coarticulation of consonants and vowels. This convergence has been systematized in a (consonantal) acoustic dimension partially independent from the original (vocalic) dimensions of contrast for which the rounding and palatal articulations were specified. These conclusions are based on an examination of distributional patterns, palatograms of the articulation of secondarily articulated consonants, and acoustic analyses. Contrastiveness and quantal considerations can be seen as contributing to the occurrence of typologically odd sounds, provided one keeps in mind how an articulatory gesture functions within a language's contrastive system.