Syllabification in Chukchee: A constraints-based analysis
One measure of progress in linguistic theory is when descriptive insights and generalizations that are theoretically recalcitrant suddenly become expressible with a change in perspective. In this paper we develop this point through a study of syllabification in Chukchee--in particular the complex pr...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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1994
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.387.4338 http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/30-1094/30-1094-KENSTOWICZ-0-0.PDF |
| Summary: | One measure of progress in linguistic theory is when descriptive insights and generalizations that are theoretically recalcitrant suddenly become expressible with a change in perspective. In this paper we develop this point through a study of syllabification in Chukchee--in particular the complex process of schwa epenthesis. I shall argue that the most insightful analysis does not build these complexities into the rules of epenthesis. Rather they are the byproduct of competing UG representational constraints. In essence, there is free insertion of schwa and the job of the constraints is to block all but the correct output. Our analysis is couched within the constraints-based approach to phonology known as Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993). Chukchee is a member of the Paleo-Siberian language family spoken on the Kamchatka Peninsula in far-eastern |
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