| ROA: | 180 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Metathesis in Phonological Theory: The Case of Leti |
| Authors: | Elizabeth Hume |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 35 |
| Abstract: | Metathesis in Phonological Theory: The Case of Leti Elizabeth Hume Ohio State University Metathesis in the Austronesian language Leti, is not only regular and productive, but may be driven by purely phonological considerations. This paper examines two types of metathesis in Leti, the first being motivated by a requirement that all phrases end in a vowel, and the second, by syllable well-formedness conditions: syllables have onsets and tautosyllabic consonant clusters are avoided. Drawing on recent work in Correspondence Theory, a unified account of the Leti facts is obtained through the subordination of the constraint Linearity to syllable structure and phrasal alignment constraints. Further, it is argued that violations of Linearity are evaluated in a gradient manner. Additional constraints are also motivated as a means of accounting for the observation that it is consistently the final vowel and consonant of a given morpheme that metathesize, even though metathesis involving other segments would result in equally well-formed Leti words. A comparison of this CT account with a rule-based account of metathesis is also included. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |