Analyzing Sound Patterns An Introduction to Phonology

Introduction

This chapter examines the restrictions on the distribution of syllable and syllable-internal structures. We show that the distribution of syllable, just like the distribution of segments, may exhibit co-occurrence restrictions and that an understanding of the restrictions is important not only in defining what is a well-formed syllable but also in understanding alternation processes such as epenthesis. The data we use to illustrate the syllable distribution come from Ponapean, a Micronesian language spoken by about 18,000 people on the island of Ponape, an island located roughly halfway between Hawaii and Indonesia. We select Ponapean because Ponapean syllables reveal a number of common restrictions. These restrictions make it far from straightforward to define the well-formed syllable and determine what is or is not allowed. By analyzing the syllable and syllable-internal restrictions in Ponapean, we highlight what an analysis of syllable distribution entails and how linguists go about analyzing these restrictions.

This chapter has three key objectives. First, it introduces the distributional restrictions on syllable and syllable-internal constituents. It develops your understanding of these restrictions. Second, we compare two theories of syllabification. In one theory, syllable structures are defined by rules; syllabification is viewed as applying a set of ordered rules (Steriade 1982; Levin 1985). The second theory characterizes syllable as a template and conceives syllabification as mapping segments to the template (Itô 1989; Archangeli 1991). This comparison shows how syllable is represented and how syllabification is viewed in these two theories that attempt to capture the predictable nature of syllable structures. This presentation provides the background to analyses of phenomena such as epenthesis, tone, and stress because an understanding of syllable plays an important role in accounts of these phenomena. Finally, through the analysis of Ponapean syllables, this chapter develops your ability to analyze the syllable-related distributional restrictions.