Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton June 9, 2016

Icelandic post-lexical syllabification and vowel length in CVCV phonology

  • Marcin Fortuna EMAIL logo
From the journal The Linguistic Review

Abstract

The paper aims at providing a CVCV analysis of the Icelandic syllabification phenomena and the distribution of vocalic quantity. Two syllabification algorithms are reported to exist in Icelandic: lexical and post-lexical (Árnason 1998, 2011). The article will focus on the post-lexical algorithm, which determines vowel length in derivatives with class 2 suffixation, compounds, and across word boundaries. A modified model of CVCV will be argued for, which combines the insights from Scheer’s (2004, 2012) and Cyran’s (2003, 2010) model. It will be proposed that phonological computation applies only once to the whole string (preferably the whole sentence) and that the activity of the interface boils down to representational intervention (in accordance with Scheerian Direct Interface). It will be proposed that manipulation of Final Empty Nuclei (at least in the form of distributing parametric government) is a possible interface operation, as assumed in earlier CVCV (Scheer 2004). The complex pattern of two syllabification algorithms in Icelandic arises via an intricate interplay of sonority profiles of consonants and the needs of intervening empty nuclei (some of which are parametrically governed, while some others are not).

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the three anonymous TLR reviewers for many thought-provoking remarks, which significantly raised the quality of the paper. I also thank Péter Szigetvári, Sławomir Zdziebko, Connor Youngberg and the participants of GPRT 9 (Budapest), LAGB 2013 meeting (London), and RTS (Paris) for providing feedback on earlier versions of the analysis presented in the paper. Obviously, all shortcomings are only mine.

References

Árnason, Kristján. 1980. Quantity in Historical Phonology: Icelandic and Related Cases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Árnason, Kristján. 1998. Vowel shortness in Icelandic. In Wolfgang Kehrein & Richard Wiese (eds.), Phonology and morphology of Germanic languages, 3–25. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.10.1515/9783110919769.3Search in Google Scholar

Árnason, Kristján. 2011. The phonology of Icelandic and Faroese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199229314.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Backley, Phillip. 2011. An Introduction to Element Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo. 2011. Cyclicity. In Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume & Keren Rice (eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology. Vol. 4: Phonological interfaces, 2019–2048. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Booij, Geert. 1986. Icelandic vowel lengthening and prosodic phonology. In Frits H. Beukema & Aafke Hulk (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 1986, 9–18. Dordrecht: Foris.10.1515/9783112419502-005Search in Google Scholar

Botma, Bert. 2008. Aspiration, fricatives, and the multiple features hypothesis in Icelandic. Paper presented at Meertens Institute, 11 September.Search in Google Scholar

Charette, Monik. 1990. Licence to govern. Phonology 7. 233–253.10.1017/CBO9780511554339.007Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.21236/AD0616323Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: Life in Language, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Cyran, Eugeniusz. 2003. Complexity scales and licensing strength in phonology. Lublin: KUL.Search in Google Scholar

Cyran, Eugeniusz. 2010. Complexity scales and licensing in phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110221503Search in Google Scholar

Czarnecki, Przemysław. 2013. The phonology of quantity in Icelandic and Norwegian. Poznań: Adam Mickiewicz University dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Davis, Stuart. 1998. Syllable contact in optimality theory. Korean Journal of Linguistics 23. 181–211.Search in Google Scholar

Einarsson, Stefán. 1945. Icelandic. grammar, texts, glossary. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.10.56021/9780801801877Search in Google Scholar

Embick, David & Rolf Noyer. 2001. Movement operations after syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 32. 555–595.10.1162/002438901753373005Search in Google Scholar

Embick, David & Rolf Noyer. 2007. Distributed morphology and the syntax-morphology interface. In Gillian Ramchand & Charles Reiss (eds.), The oxford handbook of linguistic interfaces, 289–324. Oxford: OUP.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199247455.013.0010Search in Google Scholar

Fodor, Jerry A. 1983. Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/4737.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Fortuna, Marcin. 2013. Icelandic vowel length and representational theories of phonology. In Balázs Surányi (ed.), Proceedings of the second Central-European conference in linguistics for postgraduate students, 88–108. Budapest: Pázmány Péter Catholic University.Search in Google Scholar

Gouskova, Maria. 2004. Relational hierarchies in optimality theory: The case of syllable contact. Phonology 21(2). 201–250.10.1017/S095267570400020XSearch in Google Scholar

Guðfinnsson, Björn. 1946. Mállýzkur I. Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja.Search in Google Scholar

Gussmann, Edmund. 1985. The morphology of a phonological rule: Icelandic vowel length. In Edmund Gussmann (ed.), Phono-morphology: Studies in the interaction of phonology and morphology, 75–94. Lublin: RW Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego.Search in Google Scholar

Gussmann, Edmund. 2002. Phonology: analysis and theory. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9781139164108Search in Google Scholar

Gussmann, Edmund. 2006a. Icelandic vowel length and governing relations in phonology. Lingua Posnaniensis XLVIII. 21–41.Search in Google Scholar

Gussmann, Edmund. 2006b. Icelandic and universal phonology. Greifswald: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald.Search in Google Scholar

Haugen, Einar. 1958. The phonemics of modern Icelandic. Language 34. 55–88.10.2307/411276Search in Google Scholar

Halle, Morris & Alec Marantz. 1994. Some key features of Distributed Morphology. In Andrew Carnie & Heidi Harley (eds.), MITWPL 21: Papers on phonology and morphology, 275–288. Cambridge, Mass.: MITWPL.Search in Google Scholar

Harris, John. 1994. English sound structure. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Kaye, Jonathan. 1995. Derivations and interfaces. In Jacques Durand & Francis Katamba (eds.), Frontiers of phonology: Atoms, structures, derivations, 289–332. London: Longman Linguistics Library.Search in Google Scholar

Kaye, Jonathan & Jean Lowenstamm. 1981. Syllable structure and markedness theory. In Adriana Belletti, Luciana Brandi & Luigi Rizzi (eds.), Theory of markedness in generative grammar. Proceedings of the 1979 GLOW conference, 287–315. Pisa: Scuola normale superiore.Search in Google Scholar

Kiparsky, Paul. 1984. On the lexical phonology of Icelandic. In Claes Cristian Elert, Irène Johansson & Eva Strangert (eds.), Nordic prosody III. Papers from a symposium, 135–164. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Search in Google Scholar

Kiparsky, Paul. 1998. Paradigm effects and opacity. Ms. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.Search in Google Scholar

Larsen, Uffe Bergeton. 1998. Vowel length, Radoppiamento Sintattico and the selection of the definite article in modern Italian. In Patrick Sauzet (ed.), Languages et grammaires II & III: phonologie, 87–102. Paris: Université de Paris 8.Search in Google Scholar

Lowenstamm, Jean. 1999. The beginning of the word. In John R. Rennison & Klaus Kühnhammer (eds.), Phonologica 1996: Syllables !?, 153–166. The Hague: Thesus.Search in Google Scholar

Lowenstamm, Jean. 2003. Remarks on Mutae cum Liquida and Branching Onsets. In Stefan Ploch (ed.), Living on the Edge: 28 Papers in Honor of Jonathan Kaye, 339–363. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110890563.339Search in Google Scholar

Murray, Robert W. & Theo Vennemann. 1983. Sound change and syllable structure. Language 59(3). 514–528.10.2307/413901Search in Google Scholar

Nespor, Marina & Irene Vogel. 1986. Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Search in Google Scholar

Pak, Majorie 2008. The postsyntactic derivation and its phonological reflexes. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Rennison, John R. Contour segments with subsegmental structures. In Eugeniusz Cyran (ed.), Structure and Interpretation: Studies in Phonology, 227–245. Lublin: Folium.Search in Google Scholar

Samuels, Bridget 2009. The structure of phonological theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Scheer, Tobias. 2004. A lateral theory of phonology. volume I: What Is CVCV, and why should it be? Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110908336Search in Google Scholar

Scheer, Tobias. 2011. A guide to morphosyntax-phonology interface theories. How extra-phonological information is treated in phonology since Trubetzkoy’s Grenzsignale. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110238631Search in Google Scholar

Scheer, Tobias. 2012a. Direct interface and one-channel translation. A non-diacritic theory of morphosyntax-phonology interface. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9781614511113Search in Google Scholar

Scheer, Tobias. 2012b. At the right edge of words (again). McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 22(1). 1–28.Search in Google Scholar

Scheer, Tobias & Markéta Ziková. 2010. The coda mirror V2. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 57(4). 411–431.10.1556/ALing.57.2010.4.4Search in Google Scholar

Ségéral, Philippe & Tobias Scheer. 2008. The Coda Mirror, stress and positional parameters. In Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Tobias Scheer & Philippe Ségéral (eds), Lenition and Fortition, 483–518. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110211443.3.483Search in Google Scholar

Vennemann, Theo. 1972. On the theory of syllabic phonology. Linguistische Berichte 18. 1–18.Search in Google Scholar

Zdziebko, Sławomir. 2012. Issues in Scottish vowel quantity. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2016-6-9
Published in Print: 2016-6-1

©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton

Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/tlr-2015-0004/html
Scroll to top button