papers & research

Papers

Optimal Domains in Harmonic Serialism: Feature Spreading & Shifting and Opacity & Transparency.
2011. Unpublished squib.     show summary hide summary
An account of tone shift that also incorporates an analysis for segmental and tonal opacity (blocking) and transparency (skipping) in feature spreading building on the earlier work on feature spreading in Harmonic Serialism (McCarthy 2009, forthcoming) by incorporating some of the core ideas of Optimal Domains Theory (Cole and Kisseberth 1995, Cassimjee and Kisseberth 1998, 1999). The association of a feature and a segment or tone-bearing unit is divorced from the phonetic realization of a feature on that segment or TBU. Constraint interaction governs whether a feature is realized phonetically. Typical vowel harmony, then, is feature association with phonetic realization while tone shifting is feature association sans realization. Similarly, transparent segments are associated with a feature, which is not phonetically realized, while opaque segments lack both feature association and phonetic realization. Trimoraic/trisyllabic tone shift is briefly considered since it is a potential challenge to a derivation theory because the shift process is non-surface true (counterfeeding opacity) in longer wordforms. Utilizing Harmonic Serialism retains the solutions for several too-many-repairs pathologies that exist in standard treatments of harmony and tonal spreading in classic OT.

Strength in Harmony Systems: Trigger and Directional Asymmetries.
2011–submitted. Unpublished manuscript.     show summary hide summary
This paper proposes an account of harmony systems that have asymmetries in directional spreading, directional blocking, directional bounds, and trigger strength. I show that adopting a derivational version of Optimality Theory with weighted constraints – Serial Harmonic Grammar – as the analytic framework can successfully generate these systems in a general way without relying on problematic Local Constraint Conjunction. Additionally, building on earlier work, the serial nature of the grammar is used in order to prevent predictions of implausible typological pathologies found in existing parallel Optimality Theory and Harmonic Grammar analyses. Small typologies generated by this grammar are presented, and a complex test case from Chilcotin is examined. [ROA–1134]

Implications of Harmonic Serialism for Lexical Tone Association.
2011–submitted. Unpublished manuscript co-authored with John J. McCarthy and Brian W. Smith.     show summary hide summary
A possible challenge to Harmonic Serialism is addressed: Lexical linking of tones is incompatible with Richness of the Base under Harmonic Serialism (serial Optimality Theory). Since the lexicon cannot be used to encode systematic differences between languages, lexical linking of tones cannot be systematically banned in one language and allowed in another. The fully predictable system of tone association in Kikuyu cannot be analyzed in Harmonic Serialism if there are linked tones in the lexicon. Lexical tonal contrasts are either non-problems (for example, Venda) or require the use accent diacritics. [An earlier 2010 version of this paper is available as ROA–1096.]

Copying Prosodic Constituents.
2010–submitted. Unpublished manuscript co-authored with John J. McCarthy and Wendell Kimper.     show summary hide summary
The weight of a syllable-sized reduplicant is never dependent on the syllabification of the base – that is, no language has a reduplicative morpheme that copies a coda in [pat-pat.ka] but no coda in [pa-pa.ta]. Yet this behavior is attested in the second syllable of foot-sized reduplicants: [pa.ta-pa.ta.ka], [pa.tak-pa.tak.ta]. Why is dependence on base syllabification possible in foot-sized reduplicants, but not in syllable-sized ones? This article provides an answer to that question in the form of a novel theory of reduplication called Serial Template Satisfaction, which is situated within Harmonic Serialism (a derivational variant of Optimality Theory). In Serial Template Satisfaction, a reduplicative template of type X can be filled by copying constituents of type X-1 from the base. A foot-sized reduplicant can be filled by copying syllables, but not a syllable-sized reduplicant, which must be filled by copying segments. Lacking base–reduplicant correspondence constraints, Serial Template Satisfaction has no way of forcing segment copying to depend on base syllabification, so it cannot produce the unattested pattern. This article also fleshes out Serial Template Satisfaction as a general theory of reduplication that can be compared to other approaches in Optimality Theory and rule-based phonology. Phenomena discussed include reduplicant size, locality, and identity of base and reduplicant. [ROA–1080]

Grammatical Constraints and Descriptive Adequacy.
2011–in preparation. Unpublished manuscript.     show summary hide summary
This is an argument against Optimality Theoretic analyses that depend upon lexical prespecification. Arguments in favor of prespecification analyses over grammatical (diacritic) analyses in terms of elegance of analysis lose their force if prespecification analyses are descriptively inadequate. I show that a prespecification analysis cannot account for the distribution of lexical stress in Guahibo (under standard assumptions). A grammatical analysis using lexically-indexed constraints, however, can easily account for Guahibo stress showing that grammatical analyses, in contrast, are descriptively adequate.

Diachronic Rhinoglottophilia in Apachean.
2011–in preparation. Unpublished note.     show summary hide summary
Several instances of apparent spontaneous vowel nasalization in various Apachean (Southern Athabascan) languages may be due to rhinoglottophilia since most unexpected nasal vowels occur in the context of neighboring fricated obstruents or aspirated stops. Verb stem vowels (mostly from Navajo) are compared with reconstructed Proto-Athabascan forms. Variation between languages is also apparent.

Comment on McCarthy’s 2009 SHARE.
2011–in preparation. Unpublished manuscript.     show summary hide summary
A pathology of the SHARE(feature) constraint within Harmonic Serialism is noted: feature delinking when feature spreading is not possible. A solution is suggested in the form of the constraint LINK(feature) and an adjustment to the possible operations of serial GEN.

Acoustic Correlates of Advanced Tongue Root in Dholuo.
2011–in preparation. Unpublished manuscript.     show summary hide summary
An acoustic description of the differences between [+ATR] and [–ATR] vowels in Dholuo (Luo), an understudied Nilo-Saharan language of Kenya and Tanzania. Although this study is currently in progress, the tentative measurements considered are vowel formants, spectral flatness (including whether it varies throughout the vowel), and vowel length. I also consider whether the medial stem vowel differs from the final suffix vowel, which is reported to assimilate to the [ATR] value of the stem vowel. The study is based on the speech of two native speakers (one male, one female).

Apachean Historical Phonology with Special Reference to Obstruents.
2008. Unpublished manuscript.     show summary hide summary
A reconstruction of Proto-Apachean (Southern Athabascan) obstruents that supersedes earlier research. It includes the beginnings of an Apachean comparative lexicon. [This is being formatted into XeLaTeX. It will be posted here soon thereafter.]

Conference/Workshop Talks

Strength in Harmony.
Paper presented at the UMass Amherst Linguistics second-year mini-conference in 2010 May.

Guahibo Stress: Lexical Specification.
Paper presented at 2009 HUMDRUM at UMass Amherst.

Topics in Southern Athabaskan Historical Phonology.
Paper presented at the 2007 Athabascan/Dene Language Conference in Tsaile, AZ.

Development of an Online XML Chiricahua Apache Lexicon.
Paper presented at the 2007 Athabascan/Dene Language Conference in Tsaile, AZ.

Western Apache Recipes: Pragmatics and Discourse Structure.
Paper presented at the 2005 SSILA conference in Oakland, CA. Co-authored with Willem J. de Reuse.

Reviews

Review of Dictionary of Jicarilla Apache: Abáachi Mizaa Iłkee’ Siijai by Phone, Olson, Martinez, Axelrod, Gómez de García, et al.
2011–in preparation.

Other Projects

OT-Help 2.0 User Guide.
2010. Co-authored with Brian W. Smith, Joe Pater and John J. McCarthy.     show summary hide summary
The user guide for the new release of OT-Help version 2.0. OT-Help is an open source program that generates typology calculations for parallel “classic” Optimality Theory, parallel Harmonic Grammar (Optimality Theory with weighted constraints), serial Optimality Theory (or Harmonic Serialism), and serial Harmonic Grammar. The earlier version OT Help 1.2 lacks the serial typology options. This work was supported by the NSF grant BCS-0813829.

Online Chiricahua Apache lexicon.     show summary hide summary
A linguistic lexicon of Chiricahua Apache in XML. This includes all the published and unpublished data of Harry Hoijer aside from the short ethnobotany of Hoijer and Morris Opler (which lacks tonal marking). I also have not looked at his handwritten notebooks housed at the American Philosophical Society to see if there is anything more in the margins. Further expansions might include reconstructed wordforms using comparative Apachean data and older material which would require philological analysis. The initial stages of this work involved collaboration with Willem J. de Reuse. The lexicon is currently in a very preliminary state, and I will probably not be able to work on it seriously again until after graduation. One result of the project has been Chiricahua–English and English–Chiricahua noun lists that were provided to the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma for pedagogical use.

Meitei tone.     show summary hide summary
I have done some preliminary acoustic work on tone in Meitei (Tibeto-Burman) that remains unfinished. Besides a general description, the phonological behavior of tone in compounds warrants further study.