| ROA: | 579 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Coronal epenthesis and markedness |
| Authors: | Linda Lombardi |
| Comment: | to appear in Phonology |
| Length: | 60 |
| Abstract: | Recent work on the special properties of coronal consonants (e.g. Paradis and Prunet 1991) has shown that coronals behave in some ways as unmarked consonants. In this paper I will address the claim that epenthetic segments tend to be coronal. This behavior has been used to argue that coronals are Placeless. However, laryngeal consonants (?,h) are also common epenthetic segments and have also been argued to be Placeless. Obviously it is problematic if both laryngeals and coronals need to be Placeless, since we must be able to distinguish them by place of articulation within a language. The empirical basis for the claim about coronal epenthesis has also been unclear, with only a single example commonly cited. In Optimality Theory, it is possible to analyze markedness phenomena without underspecification by the use of markedness constraints: in this case, the proposal of Prince and Smolensky 1993, Smolensky 1993 that there is a universally ranked hierarchy *Dor, *Lab >> *Cor. I will argue first of all that by extending this hierarchy to include the laryngeals, we can account for their appearance as the 'unmarked' epenthetic segment. I will then show that coronals do sometimes occur as epenthetic segments, but that this is only the case in limited situations, showing the classic signs of constraint conflict. For example, in some cases of coronal epenthesis higher-ranked constraints demand that the consonant be sonorant; therefore the lowest-marked Place that is possible will be Coronal. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | Phonology |
| Article: | Version 1 |