Chapter 15

Exercises:

1. Describe the constraints on coda consonants in Selayarese (a language of Indonesia). OK to state them informally. (Piggott, G. L. 1999. At the right edge of words. The Linguistic Review 16;2: 143- 185.)

sambaŋ / to trip
lampa / to go
ʔondaŋ / invite
benteŋ / pole
taŋgoŋ / guarantee
laŋkasa / tall
sappo / missing front teeth
battu / come
tukkaŋ / walking stick
kassi / sour
rammaŋ / cloud
bannaŋ / thread
ballo / beautiful
laʔba / lack of salt
taʔmuri / smile
taʔdoʔdoʔ / be sleepy
sahalaʔna / his/her profit
taʔgaraŋ / get stained
seŋre / one
seŋla / saddle

2. Take a poll of ten or more friends: How many syllables in words like "oil," "film," "Carl," "hour"? (Mix in some uncontroversial words as well.) Do your find any disagreement or hesitation?

3. Here are some more English words to practice on. Transcribe each word into IPA. Draw sonority profiles, and syllable structure trees (both onset-nucleus-coda and mora-based) for each.

practice

vengeful

cataclysmic

misanthropic

condescendingly

corruption

conversation

prescriptivist

boundary

forcefulness

4. Choose the correct syllabification, and explain why each alternative is incorrect. What principle is violated in each case?

correction / [kə.rɛk.ʃən] vs. [kər. ɛk. ʃən] vs. [kə.rɛ.kʃən]
contemplate / [kɑn.tɛmp.let] vs. [kɑn.tɛm.plet]
relate / [rə.let] vs. [rəl.et]
hamburger / [hæ.mbə.rgər] vs. [hæɛm.bər.gər]
fulcrum / [fʊ.lkrəm] vs. [fʊl.krəm] vs. [fʊlk.rəm] vs. [fʊlkr. əm]

5. Assume the constraints and constraint rankings shown in the tableau. Fill in the constraint violations, and indicate the winner, to determine how to say "Merry Christmas" in Setswana.

meri krismas / *ComplexOnset / Max / NoCoda / Dep
meri krismas
meri kismas
meri kirismas
meri kirisimasi

6. This exercise prompts you to a more complete analysis of the Yowlumne epenthesis data presented in Chapter 15. (As noted there, the data is orginally from Stanley Newman, 1944, Yokuts Language of California, cited in Kenstowicz 1994, Generative Phonology, and many other publications.)

futuredubitativegerundivenonfuturegloss

paʔt - enpaʔt - alpaʔit - mipaʔit - hinfight

lihm - enlihm - allihim - milihim - hinrun

logw - enlogw - ollogiw - milogiw - hinpulverize

ʔugn - onʔugn - alʔugun - muʔugun - hundrink

All verb roots are underlyingly of the form CVCC, but they sometimes surface with an epenthetic vowel, CVCvC, as in the gerundive and nonfuture forms shown here. For the purposes of the exercise, you may ignore differences in vowel quality, which are determined by vowel harmony.

  1. Draw syllable structure trees for [ʔugnal] and [ʔugunmu], assuming the standard set of syllable-structure constraints.
  2. Write an SPE rule for the epenthesis alternation.

Now, consider an OT analysis:

  1. What Faithfulness constraint is violated by epenthesis?
  2. What (syllable-based) Markedness constraint seems to be driving the alternation? (Hint: what would be wrong with the faithful parse [ʔugnmu], for example)
  3. List one or two other repairs that might have been possible.
  4. Provide tableaux that shows the correct input-output pairs for [ʔugnal] and [ʔugunmu]. Be sure to include in your tableaux the faithful parse, the winner, and at least two plausible losers.