R

1
RJ Chapter 8

• The Timing Tier
• the Great Vowel Shift
• and Modern English Front Vowel Alternations

2
Linear Representations of Vowel Length wksht
A

• Taxonomic representation used a diacritic
• bit vs. bi?d
• Chomsky used a feature
• i i?
• high high
• -low -low
• -back -back
• -round -round
• -long long

3
Problem with Linear Representations of Vowel
Length

• Diacritics indicate a difference in vowel
  quality in kQ?d vs. mQ3?d there are two
  different vowels
• Features also indicate a difference in vowel
  quality a high vowel like i is different
  from a -high vowel like E
• This is not the case with bit vs. bi?d here
  vowel quality is the same

4
Representation of Length in a Spectrogram

• Length is represented on the horizontal axis
• Quality is represented on the vertical axis (as
  formant frequencies for vowels)
• The Punch Line length is represented on a
  different dimension
• This notion is the origin of autosegmental
  phonology

5
Autosegmental Representation of Vowel Length

• Segment length is a matter of timing it takes
  more time to say i? than i
• we can capture this by showing time on the
  horizontal axis
• X X X
• i? i
• i? is associated with two timing units, i
  with one

6
Multiple Tiers for different aspects of a sound

• Timing Tier X X
• (length)
• Melody Tiers high
• (quality) -low
• -back
• -round

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The tiers are often represented as the pages of a
splayed out book.
H L H Tonal Tier
back
Back Tier
C V C V C V
Anchor or Timing Tier
Voicing Tier
-voice voice
wksht B
8
A Puzzle with Affricates

• Affricates appear monosegmental
• English words dont start with 2 obstruents
• tsAr dzAr tSIl dZIl
• Affricates appear bisegmental
• English words start with s plus obstruent
• steI skIl stSeI stSIl
• nouns ending in tS pluralize like plain S
• wAS?z wAtS?z

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Solving the Affricate Puzzle

• Timing tier X monosegmental
• Melody tier t S bisegmental
• d Z

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Front Vowel Alternations wksht C,D

• In Early Middle English, the alternations were
  based completely on length, or vowel quantity
• divi?n(e) divinity
• sere?n(e) serenity
• sQ?n(e) sQnity
• Final e was already silent.

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Capturing the Timing of the Alternations

• X X X
• -cons -cons
• Which is the basic form, the one with the long
  vowel or the short? Do we start with
• divin- as in divinity
• or divi?ne as in divine

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The derivation of the alternate form

• X ? X X
• -cons -cons
• divin(e) ? divi?n(e)
• trim ? tri?m
• pin ? pi?n
• acid ? aci?d

• X X ? X
• -cons -cons
• divi?n(e) ? divinity
• divi?n(e) is the basic, or lexical, form

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The derivation of the alternate form (2)

• We can derive the short vowel in divin- from
  the long vowel in divin without generating
  ungrammatical forms like pin
• This means that divin is the basic form
  (according to Chomsky and Halles SPE)

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Front Vowel Alternations, again

• In Modern English, the alternations are based on
  vowel quantity and vowel quality
• divaIn(e) divInity
• serin(e) serEnity
• seIn(e) sQnity
• There is a diachronic explanation for the
  differences in vowel quality. It is called the
  Great Vowel Shift. (E and GVS)

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The Great Vowel Shift for Front Vowels (Chart)
i?
1a
2
e?
?i
3 4c
1b
E
4b
Q
aI
a
4a
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The Great Vowel Shift for Front Vowels (Table)

• Short Vowels
• ME EMnE
• I I
• E E
• a Q
• divInity
• serEnity
• sQnity

• Long Vowels (GVS)
• ME EMnE
• i? ?i aI
• e? i
• a? Q? E? e
• divaIne
• serin
• sen

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The GVS destroyed the surface relation between
vowel pairs

• the pairing of long and short vowels was still
  relatively easy in ME because they were
  qualitatively similar. However, the GVS
  destroyed this match (even though it was often
  retained in spelling). That is, for ME speakers
  the vowels of bit bIt and bite bi?t were
  still clearly similar if not identical except for
  length. After the GVS, these words were bIt
  and baIt the phonological relationship between
  the two vowels had been destroyed.
• Millward, C.M. A Biography of the English
  Language

18
SPEs claim

• SPE claims that we still have a synchronic
  relation between these vowel pairs
• SPE speakers of Modern English carry a remnant
  of the Great Vowel Shift
• Diachronic - referring to the historical changes
  in a language
• Synchronic - referring to the properties of a
  language at a given point in time

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Underlying Representations are the same as in
Middle English

• divInity divine
• serEnity seren
• sQnity san
• sane gets the e, serene gets the i and
  divine gets the a

20
Notational Conventions of SPE

• ?feature stands for feature OR
• -feature
• if ?feature stands for feature
• then -?feature stands for -feature
• if ?feature stands for -feature
• then -?feature stands for feature

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Notational Conventions of SPE (2)

• X ? Y
• Z
• is a single rule, with the subpart Z applying
  immediately after the subpart Y

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Rules (1) and (2) change the height of a -low
vowelfrom worksheet G

• -cons ? -?high/ ______
• ?high
• -low
• a high vowel is rewritten as a mid vowel
• a mid vowel is rewritten as a high vowel

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Rules (3) and (4) change the height of a -high
vowelfrom worksheet G

• -cons ? -?low/ _____
• ?low
• -high
• a low vowel is rewritten as a mid vowel
• a mid vowel is rewritten as a low vowel

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A Single Rule for Vowel Shift in Modern English

• -?high/ ______
• ?high
• -low
• -cons ? -?low/ ______
• ?low
• -high

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From QI to aI

• Backness dissimilation before a glide
• -cons ? - ?back/ _____ -cons
• ?back
• low

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Vowel Alternation the Timing Tier

• X X X X
• cons -cons cons
• coronal -high coronal
• distr -low -distr
• s e n

• X X X
• cons -cons cons
• coronal -high coronal
• distr low -distr
• s Q n (ity)

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Umlaut plus GVS!

• How did we get mice as the plural of mouse and
  found as the past of find?
• Pre Old English mus musiz
• find findon