Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:32:18.291Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Phonotactic constraints and sub-syllabic structure: A difficult relationship1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2014

THOMAS BERG  and
CHRISTIAN KOOPS
THOMAS BERG*
Affiliation:
Department of English, University of Hamburg
CHRISTIAN KOOPS*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico
*
Authors' addresses: (Berg) Department of English, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 6, 20146 Hamburg, Germany[email protected]
(Koops) Department of Linguistics, 1 University of New Mexico, MSC03 2130, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Of late, a controversy has arisen over the internal structure of Korean syllables. While there is general agreement that non-phonotactic criteria argue for left-branching, Lee & Goldrick's (2008) left-branching phonotactic analysis is contradicted by Berg & Koops's (2010) claim as to a phonotactically symmetrical syllable structure. A comparison of the methodologies of the two studies, a revisit of the previous data and a new analysis cement the conclusion that there is neither a left-branching nor a right-branching phonotactic effect in Korean syllables. An investigation of the phonotactic structure of Finnish CVC syllables, which exhibit a psycholinguistic left-branching bias much like Korean, reveals that word-initial syllables possess a largely symmetrical organization whereas word-final syllables tend to show a right-branching slant. This curious set of results is consistent with the following three hypotheses: (i) The phonotactic criterion has an inherent VC bias. (ii) Symmetrical syllable structures represent a compromise between left- and right-branching effects. (iii) The strength of phonotactic constraints increases from earlier to later portions of words. The bottom line of this analysis is that, contra all previous claims, phonotactic constraints cannot be used as an argument for sub-syllabic constituency. We discuss the proposal that the basis of the left-branching bias in Korean syllables is instead to be found in the high degree of coarticulation between the onset consonant and the following vowel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 3 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[1]

We extend our gratitude to Florian Biermann and especially to Frauke Gebauer for performing the Herculean task of coding the Finnish data as well as to You-Mi Seo and Frauke Gebauer for their native-speaker advice on languages which we are not so familiar with. The reports of the JL referees are also acknowledged with gratitude.

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Sven & Port, Robert. 1994. Evidence for syllable structure, stress and juncture from segmental durations. Journal of Phonetics 22, 283–315.Google Scholar
Beckman, Jill N. 1997. Positional faithfulness, positional neutralization and Shona vowel harmony. Phonology 14, 1–46.Google Scholar
Berg, Thomas. 2007. A typology of suprasegmental structure. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 53, 53–73.Google Scholar
Berg, Thomas. 2009. Structure in language: A dynamic perspective. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berg, Thomas & Koops, Christian. 2010. The interplay of left- and right-branching effects: A phonotactic analysis of Korean syllable structure. Lingua 120, 35–49.Google Scholar
Bertinetto, Pier Marco. 2001. Blends and syllable structure: A four-fold comparison. In Lorente, Mercé, Alturo, Núria, Boix, Emili, Lloret, Maria-Rosa & Payrató, Lluis (eds.), La gramática i la semántica en l'estudi de la variació, 59–112. Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias.Google Scholar
Breen, Gavan & Pensalfini, Rob. 1999. Arrernte: A language with no syllable onsets. Linguistic Inquiry 30, 1–25.Google Scholar
Browman, Catherine P. & Goldstein, Louis. 1995. Gestural syllable position effects in American English. In Bell-Berti, Fredericka & Lawrence, Raphael J. (eds.), Producing speech: Contemporary issues, 19–33. New York: AIP Press.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan & Scheibman, Joanne. 1999. The effect of usage on degrees of constituency: The reduction of don't in English. Linguistics 37, 575–596.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 1980. The psychological and sociological reality of Finnish vowel harmony. In Vago, Robert M. (ed.), Issues in vowel harmony, 245–270. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 1986. Testing phonology in the field. In Ohala, John J. & Jaeger, Jeri J. (eds.), Experimental phonology, 163–173. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cho, Taehong, Jun, Sun-Ah & Ladefoged, Peter. 2002. Acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of Korean stops and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics 30, 193–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, George N. & Keyser, Samuel Jay. 1983. CV phonology: A generative theory of the syllable. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cole, Ronald A. & Jakimik, Jola. 1978. Understanding speech: How words are heard. In Underwood, Geoffrey (ed.), Strategies of information processing, 67–116. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
De Cara, Bruno & Goswami, Usha. 2002. Similarity relations among spoken words: The special status of rimes in English. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 34, 416–423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dell, Gary S., Juliano, Cornell & Govindjee, Anita. 1993. Structure and content in language production: A theory of frame constraints in phonological speech errors. Cognitive Science 17, 149–195.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L. 2007. What's in CVC-like things? In Solé, Maria-Josep, Beddor, Patrice S. & Ohala, Manjari (eds.), Experimental approaches to phonology, 325–338. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fudge, Erik. 1987. Branching structure within the syllable. Journal of Linguistics 23, 359–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimes, Stephen M. 2010. Quantitative investigations in Hungarian phonotactics and syllable structure. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce & Wilson, Colin. 2008. A maximum entropy model of phonotactics and phonotactic learning. Linguistic Inquiry 39, 379–440.Google Scholar
Hokkanen, Tapio. 2001. Slips of the tongue: Errors, repairs, and a model. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar
Jun, Jongho. 1994. Metrical weight consistency in Korean partial reduplication. Phonology 11, 69–88.Google Scholar
Kang, Kyung-Shim. 2003. The status of onglides in Korean: Evidence from speech errors. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 9, 1–15.Google Scholar
Kapatsinski, Vsevolod. 2009. Testing theories of linguistic constituency with configural learning: The case of the English syllable. Language 85, 248–277.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Abby. 2011. How much homophony is normal? Journal of Linguistics 47, 631–671.Google Scholar
Karlsson, Fred. 1999. Finnish: An essential grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Katara, Pekka & Schellbach-Kopra, Ingrid. 1997. Suomi–saksa-suursanakirja [Finnish–German dictionary]. Poorvo: Söderström.Google Scholar
Kaye, Jonathan D. & Lowenstamm, Jean. 1981. Syllable structure and markedness theory. In Belletti, Adriana, Brandi, Luciana & Rizzi, Luigi (eds.), Theory of markedness in generative grammar, 287–315. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore.Google Scholar
Kessler, Brett & Treiman, Rebecca. 1997. Syllable structure and the distribution of phonemes in English syllables. Journal of Memory and Language 37, 295–311.Google Scholar
Kim, Hyunsoon & Jongman, Allard. 1996. Acoustic and perceptual evidence for complete neutralization of manner of articulation. Journal of Phonetics 24, 295–312.Google Scholar
Kim, Minsu, Ko, Yengkun, Im, Hongpin & Lee, Sungcay (eds.). 1991. Kukətεsacən [Korean dictionary]. Seoul: Kum Sung Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Kim, Mi-Ryoung, Beddor, Patrice S. & Horrocks, Julie. 2002. The contribution of consonantal and vocalic information to the perception of Korean initial stops. Journal of Phonetics 30, 77–100.Google Scholar
Kim, Young-Suk. 2007. Phonological awareness and literacy skills in Korean: An examination of the unique role of body-coda units. Applied Psycholinguistics 28, 69–94.Google Scholar
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key. 1986. The syllable in Korean phonology. In Kim-Renaud, Young-Key (ed.), Studies in Korean linguistics, 31–44. Seoul: Hanshin.Google Scholar
Ko, Eon-Suk. 2003a. Korean telephone conversations: Transcripts. Philadelphia, PA: Linguistic Data Consortium.Google Scholar
Ko, Eon-Suk. 2003b. Korean telephone conversations: Speech. Philadelphia, PA: Linguistic Data Consortium.Google Scholar
Krakow, Rena A. 1999. Physiological organization of syllables: A review. Journal of Phonetics 27, 23–54.Google Scholar
Kubozono, Haruo. 1995. Perceptual evidence for the mora in Japanese. In Cornell, Bruce & Arvaniti, Amalia (eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV, 141–156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Langenscheidt Universal-Wörterbuch Finnisch. 2004. Berlin: Langenscheidt.Google Scholar
Lee, Chang Hwan, Lee, Yoonhyoung & Kim, Kyungil. 2010. The role of antibody in Korean word recognition. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 39, 457–464.Google Scholar
Lee, Sang-seop & Seo, Sang-kyu. 1998. Yonsei Korean dictionary. Seoul: Doosan Dong'a.Google Scholar
Lee, Yongeun. 2006a. Sub-syllabic constituency in Korean and English. Ph.D. dissertation. Northwestern University, Evanston.Google Scholar
Lee, Yongeun. 2006b. Statistical regularities in the distribution of consonants and vowels in the Korean lexicon – their implications for the internal structure of Korean syllables. In Bunting, Jacqueline, Desai, Sapna, Peachey, Robert, Straughn, Christopher & Tomková, Zuzana (eds.), Papers from the main session of the 42nd Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 42), 197–211. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Lee, Yongeun & Goldrick, Matthew. 2008. The emergence of sub-syllabic representations. Journal of Memory and Language 59, 155–168.Google Scholar
Lee, Yongeun & Goldrick, Matthew. 2011. The role of abstraction in constructing phonological structure. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the LSA, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Levelt, Clara C., Schiller, Niels O. & Levelt, Willem J. M.. 2000. The acquisition of syllable types. Language Acquisition 8, 237–264.Google Scholar
Liberman, Alvin M. 1957. Some results of research on speech perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 29, 117–123.Google Scholar
Liberman, Alvin M., Cooper, Franklin S., Shankweiler, Donald P. & Studdert-Kennedy, Michael. 1967. Perception of the speech code. Psychological Review 74, 431–461.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Paul M. & Schnitzer, Ronald D.. 1967. A statistical study of the structure of the Spanish syllable. Linguistics 37, 58–72.Google Scholar
Malone, Kemp. 1936. The phonemic structure of English monosyllables. American Speech 11, 205–218.Google Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, William D. 1975. Sentence perception as an interactive process. Science 189, 226–228.Google Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, William D. & Tyler, Lorraine K.. 1980. The temporal structure of spoken language understanding. Cognition 8, 1–71.Google Scholar
Nam, Hosung, Louis Goldstein & Saltzman, Elliot. 2010. Self-organization of syllable structure: A coupled oscillator model. In Chitoran, Iona, Pellegrino, François, Marisco, Egidio & Coupé, Christophe (eds.), Approaches to phonological complexity, 1–29. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Nam, Hosung & Saltzman, Elliot. 2003. A competitive, coupled oscillator model of syllable structure. 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 15), Barcelona, 2253–2256.Google Scholar
Niemi, Jussi & Laine, Matti. 1997. Slips of the tongue as linguistic evidence: Finnish word initial segments and vowel harmony. Folia Linguistica 31, 161–175.Google Scholar
Nimmo, Lisa M. & Roodenrys, Steven. 2004. Investigating the phonological similarity effect: Syllable structure and the position of common phonemes. Journal of Memory and Language 50, 245–258.Google Scholar
Otake, Takashi, Hatano, Giyoo, Cutler, Anne & Mehler, Jacques. 1993. Mora or syllable? Speech segmentation in Japanese. Journal of Memory and Language 32, 258–278.Google Scholar
Park, Chang-Hai. 1967. The structure of Korean phonemics and phonotactics. Ms.Google Scholar
Perruchet, Pierre & Peereman, Ronald. 2004. The exploitation of distributional information in syllable processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics 17, 97–119.Google Scholar
Pike, Kenneth L. & Pike, Eunice Victoria. 1947. Immediate constituents of Mazatec syllables. International Journal of American Linguistics 13, 78–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, Jiaxuan. 1993. Slips of the tongue and the syllable structure of Mandarin Chinese. In Yan, Shun-chin (ed.), Essays on the Chinese language by contemporary scholars, 139–162. Paris: Editions Langages Croisés.Google Scholar
Sohn, Ho-min. 1994. Korean. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sproat, Richard & Fujimura, Osamu. 1993. Allophonic variation in English /l/ and its implications for phonetic implementation. Journal of Phonetics 21, 291–311.Google Scholar
Stemberger, Joseph P. 1994. Rule-less morphology at the phonology–lexicon interface. In Lima, Susan D., Corrigan, Roberta L. & Iverson, Gregory K. (eds.), The reality of linguistic rules, 147–169. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Sulkala, Helena & Karjalainen, Merja. 2012. Finnish. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Suomi, Kari, Juhani, Toivanen & Ylitalo, Riikka. 2008. Finnish sound structure: Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody. Oulu: University of Oulu.Google Scholar
Sussman, Harvey H., Nicola Bessell, Eileen Dalston & Majors, Tivoli. 1997. An investigation of stop place of articulation as a function of syllable position: A locus equation perspective. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 101, 2826–2838.Google Scholar
Tabain, Marija, Gavan, Breen & Butcher, Andrew. 2004. VC vs. CV syllables: A comparison of Aboriginal languages with English. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34, 175–200.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca, Brett, Kessler, Stephanie Knewasser, Ruth Tinkoff & Bowman, Margo. 2000. English speakers’ sensitivity to phonological patterns. In Broe, Michael B. & Pierrehumbert, Janet B. (eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology V, 269–282. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vago, Robert M. 1985. The treatment of long vowels in word games. Phonology Yearbook 2, 329–342.Google Scholar
Vago, Robert M. 1988. Vowel harmony in Finnish word games. In der Hulst, Harry van & Smith, Norval (eds.), Features, segmental structure and harmony processes, part II, 185–205. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Ventura, Paulo, Régine, Kolinsky, Brito-Mendes, Carlos & Morais, José. 2001. Mental representations of the syllable internal structure are influenced by orthography. Language and Cognitive Processes 16, 393–418.Google Scholar
Walker, Jill A. & Dell, Gary S.. 2006. Speech errors reflect newly learned phonotactic constraints. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 32, 387–398.Google Scholar
Yi, Kwangoh. 1999. The internal structure of Korean syllables. 2nd International Conference on Cognitive Science and the 16th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society Joint Conference, 978–981. Tokyo: The Japanese Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar
Yoon, Hye-Kyung, Bolger, Donald J., , Oh-Seek Kwon & Perfetti, Charles A.. 2002. Sub-syllabic units in reading: A difference between Korean and English. In Verhoeven, Ludo, Elbro, Carsten & Reitsma, Pieter (eds.), Precursors of functional literacy, 139–163. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Yoon, Yeo Bom & Derwing, Bruce L.. 2001. A language without a rhyme: Syllable structure experiments in Korean. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 46, 187–237.Google Scholar
Zamuner, Tania S., Gerken, LouAnn & Hammond, Michael. 2004. Phonotactic probabilities in young children's speech production. Journal of Child Language 31, 515–536.Google Scholar