Rachel Walker (UCSC) will give a virtual talk (Zoom information below).
Title: Temporally Complex Segments and Weight-by-Position
Abstract: The assignment of moraic weight to coda consonants is traditionally calculated over root nodes for consonants in the rhyme (Hayes 1989). In this talk I argue that weight-by-position is instead calculated over sequenced subsegmental elements, represented phonologically as gestures (Browman & Goldstein 1986, 1989). Evidence comes from a case study of phonotactics in General American English, examining moraic limits on syllable size and its interaction with neutralization of vowel contrasts, especially in the context of coda liquids. Coda liquids in North American English are temporally complex, involving a controlled sequence of constrictions (e.g. Sproat & Fujimora 1993, Browman & Goldstein 1995, Gick 1999, Campbell et al. 2010). In conjunction with a real-time MRI study of speech articulation in liquid-final rhymes, the phonotactic patterns studied here support phonological representations that include structured overlap and sequencing of gestures in a liquid consonant and preceding vowel. The assignment of weight in the rhyme is sensitive to these configurations, and accordingly, a revised version of the Weight-by-Position constraint is proposed that operates over gestural sequencing. By contrast, the phonotactics of rhymes with coda liquids are problematic for a theory in which sequencing and weight is based on root nodes. Extensions of this approach to “sesquisyllables” such as ‘fear’ and ‘file’ are discussed, for which speakers are prone to have syllable count judgments of greater than one syllable (Tilsen & Cohn 2016, Popescu & Chitoran 2022).
Zoom information:
- Meeting link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/62613568265?pwd=YldrcnFtaWZPYVBOSXRpVy9rcWhhQT09
- Meeting ID: 626 1356 8265
- Passcode: 790397
