Cornell University Linguistics Department

SEARCH CORNELL:

Pages People more options

Cornell dissertations available through CLC Publications
are listed alphabetically by author below.
Click on the dissertation author to link to its abstract.

Maher Bahloul (1994):
The Syntax and Semantics of Taxis, Aspect, Tense and Modality in Standard Arabic

250 pages

     This thesis investigates various aspects of clausalinterpretation and structure in Arabic. The findings indicate that whileTaxis and Aspect are inherent to verbal forms, Tense has rather sententialproperties. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the verbal particle QAD revealsthat it denotes assertive modality and patterns with negation, a categorywith which it heads a projection called "Assertive Phrase".

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Hedi M. Belazi (1991):
Multilingualism in Tunisia and French/Arabic Code Switching Among Educated Tunisian Bilinguals

178 pages

     This thesis deals with such sociolinguistic issues asbilingualism, diglossia, code switching, and attitudes of educated Tunisianstoward these phenomena. It also attempts to posit a principled account ofthe grammar of French-Arabic code switching among educated Tunisian bilinguals.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Ann R. Bradlow (1993):
Language-Specific and Universal Aspects of Vowel Production and Perception: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Vowel Inventories

170 pages

     This thesis examines in parallel the production andperception of the vowels of English and Spanish. By examining the acousticand perceptual characteristics of the vowel systems of two languages thatdiffer in the size of their vowel inventories, this study reveals some ofthe language-specific and universal principles that determine the acousticand perceptual structure of vowel systems.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Ioana Chitoran (1997):
The Phonology and Morphology of Romanian Glides and Diphthongs: A Constraint-based Approach

426 pages

     This dissertation is a first attempt at providing a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the synchronic phonology and morphologyof Romanian, focusing on the distribution of glides and diphthongs. The analysisproposed to account for the facts is couched in the framework of OptimalityTheory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince 1993), thus testingthe predictions made by the theory in an in-depth study of one linguisticsystem.

     In Romanian, all glides, epenthetic and non-epenthetic,can be analyzed as derived from underlying vowels. The systematic analysisof the stress system of Romanian shows that, for a significant part of thevocabulary, the distribution of high vowels and glides is predicted by thestress pattern. Contrary to previous descriptions of Romanian stress as purelylexical, I show that the stress pattern is only apparently unpredictable,due mainly to its complex interaction with morphological structure. Accordingto the analysis proposed, primary stress is assigned by right edge prominenceon the rightmost syllable of the stem, while secondary stress is assignedby foot structure on the rest of the word.

     The surface occurrence of high vowels and glides is alsopredicted by the internal organization of the lexicon, by factors such asthe degree of nativization of a word, its frequency of usage, and register.Constraints which refer to these factors are shown to block gliding, thusensuring that a surface distinction is maintained between native and non-nativewords.

     The distribution of the diphthongs [ea] and [oa], problematicin a derivational approach, is accounted for by treating diphthongizationas resulting from pressure on the mid vowels /e/ and /o/ to lower understress.Vowel harmony constraints conflict with vowel lowering, thus blockingdiphthongization in certain forms.

     Additional information on glides and diphthongs is foundin their acoustic structure. The phonological analysis and representationsproposed for these segments are supported by the results of an integratedperception-production study of the diphthongs, and by a phonetic survey ofglides and high vowels. The findings reinforce the importance of integratedphonological-phonetic studies in providing linguistic information.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Katharine Davis (1991):
Phonetic and Phonological Contrasts in the Acquisition of Voicing: A Linguistic and Developmental Study of Voice Onset Time Production in Hindi and English

214 pages

     The results of this study suggest that acoustic differencesbetween phonemes predict developmental patterns of contrastive productionbetter than feature specifications of the phonemes. A new model of phonologicalacquisition incorporating these results with three levels of psychologicalrepresentation (acoustic, featural, and segmental) is presented. Also discussedare a redefinition of voice onset time and the role of breathy voice in theHindi voiced aspirates.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Y. Dobashi (2003):
Phonological Phrasing and Syntactic Derivation

251 pages

     In this thesis, I propose a theory of syntax-phonology mapping within the framework of the Minimalist Program incorporating Multiple Spell-Out and Label-free phrase structure (Chomsky 2001a, b, Collins 2001, Uriagereka 1999). I claim that a phonological string mapped to the phonological component by Spell-Out corresponds to a phonological phrase. In Chapter 1, I propose a theory of Linearization within the framework of the Multiple Spell-Out and Label-free theories. I argue that the initial element in the domain of Spell-Out should escape the mapping to the phonological component in order to establish a linear order between the two units of Spell-Out. Under the proposed theory of Linearization, I claim that the string that is mapped to the phonological component corresponds to a phonological phrase. In Chapter 2, I examine some cross-linguistic variation in phonological phrasing within the proposed theory. I argue that the prosodic condition that a phonological phrase contain two or more phonological words triggers restructuring of phonological phrases (Inkelas and Zec 1995). I propose that the prosodic condition be parametrized, and that the direction of the restructuring be parametrized. In Chapter 3, I examine phonological phrasing in the Japanese DP. I claim that the derivational approach to syntax plays a crucial role in syntax-phonology mapping, by showing that restructuring should apply each time a phonological string is mapped to the phonological component. In Chapter 4, I examine focus and its effects on phonological phrasing in KiYaka and Sandawe. I propose that the IP-external FocP is a strong phrase (Frascarelli 200, Rizzi 1997). I show the theory of syntax-phonology mapping proposed in Chapter 1 accounts for the phonological phrasing in these languages. In Chapter 5, I attempt to construct a strictly derivational theory of phonological phrasing, by suggesting that the phonological phrase be eliminated. In Chapter 6, I conclude the dissertation.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Tobey Lynn Doeleman (1999):
The Role of Phonological Features in the Internal Representation of American English Consonants: Evidence from Behavioral, Neuroimaging, and Computational Modeling Approaches

232 pages

     The primary aim of this study was to obtain evidence regarding the structure and composition of the internal representations of phonemes through an investigation of feature processing in Consonant perception. An interdisciplinary approach combining phonetic and psycholinguistic experimentation, neuroimaging, and computational modeling was used to this end. The experimental results reveal differences in processing within and among voicing, place, and manner features, implying unequal contributions of these features to the phoneme representations.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Kirsten Anne Fudeman (1999):
Topics in the Morphology and Syntax of Balanta, an Atlantic Language of Senegal

448 pages

      This dissertation examines the morphology and syntax of Balanta (Ganja dialect) in light of recent developments in syntactic theory. The picture that emerges is a highly unified one, with clauses and noun phrases having similar structures, and verbal morphology reflecting the hierarchical organization of the syntax. The match between morphological and syntactic structures is not exact, however, as some Balanta inflectional morphology is realized by clitics whose position is phonologically determined.

     Chapter 1 contains an introduction to Balanta and to the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995). Chapters 2 and 3 explore Balanta verb morphology, including the status of grammatical-function-changing affixes, the distribution of subject prefixes, and the properties of verbal clitics. Pronominal clitics are claimed to be of two types, those that are base-generated, and those that reach their surface position via raising and adjunction. Tense and mood clitics, I argue, are phonologically positioned.

     In chapter 4, I show Balanta to be an asymmetrical object language. I derive differences between ditransitive constructions in symmetrical and asymmetrical object languages from differences in the mapping of arguments to the syntax and the requirement that A-movement be specifier-to-specifier movement, and thus structure-preserving in the strongest sense (Bowers 1993). I relate parallels between locative applicatives and English locative inversion to constraints on the checking of subject agreement features.

     I address the noun phrase in chapters 5-7. Balanta genitive pronouns and genitive phrases have different distributional properties. I argue that this results from their being generated in different positions and to the proposal that genitive case licensing involves multiple-feature-checking. An unusual morphological distinction between adjectives modifying events and those modifying individuals is shown to support Larson's (1995, 1998) theory of event modification.

     In chapter 8, I present two focus constructions. The analysis reinforces parallels noted between CP and DP in previous chapters, as well as between wh-formation and focus.

     I have included four appendices: Appendix 1 is an overview of Balanta's noun class system; Appendix 2 contains three texts; Appendix 3 is a Balanta-English lexicon; and Appendix 4 is a comprehensive bibliography of work on the Atlantic family.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Antony Dubach Green (1997):
The Prosodic Structure of Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Manx

267 pages

     This dissertation is an examination of the prosodic structureof the closely related Goidelic languages: Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Manx.Several important claims about the prosodic hierarchy are made, using factsof stress placement, weight-to-stress effects, and syllabification. Evidencefrom non-Goidelic languages is brought tobear as well.

     The approach is both synchronic and diachronic; thetheoretical underpinnings are those of prosodic phonology and OptimalityTheory. A theory of how phonological change is to be captured in an OptimalityTheoretic framework is presented: it is argued that a phonological changehappens when a constraint against a marked phonological pattern is promotedabove other constraints. Further, it is shown that paradigm leveling canbe accounted for within OT by means of faithfulness constraints governingrelated output forms.

     The continuing role of the Weight-to-Stress Principle(WSP) in the history of the Goidelic languages is examined. It is shown thatthe WSP has had a recurring effect on the prosodic development of Old Irishfrom Proto-Insular Celtic and on the evolution of Old Irish into Middle andEarly Modern Irish, and thence to the modern Goidelic languages.

     It is further argued that a prosodic constituent calledthe colon must be included in the prosodic hierarchy between the prosodicword and the foot, with evidence from both Goidelic and non-Goidelic languagesthat certain facts of stress and prosodic size cannot be explained adequatelywithout reference to the colon. In particular, it is shown that the so-called"forward stress" pattern of Munster Irish, East Mayo Irish, and Manx aremost insightfully explained with the colon. Finally, syllabification ofconsonants and consonant clusters is reviewed, with an argument that arequirement that stressed short vowels be in close contact with a consonantresults in ambisyllabicity in Irish. The syllabification of rising-sonorityconsonant clusters is examined, and it is shown that shallower rises in sonorityare permitted only at higher levels on the prosodic hierarchy; also examinedis epenthesis in Irish and Scots Gaelic into clusters of falling sonority.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

William Hallett Ham (1998):
Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Geminate Timing

421 pages

     This dissertation examines the timing properties of geminates in Bernese (a dialect of Swiss German), Hungarian, Levantine Arabic, and Madurese (an Austronesian language of Indonesia). These languages differ as to whether vowel length is underlyingly contrastive, whether long vowels may precede geminates and whether non-medial geminates are allowed. Two questions of primary interest are in what ways these phonological differences influence phonetic duration, and how geminates are integrated into the overall timing strategies of the languages. Acoustic studies were carried out for each of the four languages, comparing the durational properties of singleton and geminate stops in all possible phonological environments.

     Results show that durational differences between singletons and geminates are confined to the closure phase, and that none of the four languages show significant differences in VOT or burst duration in this regard. The magnitude of the difference in closure duration varies widely, spanning from a mean of 43% in Bernese to 116% in Hungarian. I argue that differences in geminate timing are ultimately correlated with whether a language is syllable- or mora-timed, such that geminates in the former type are typically shorter. This observation is accounted for in a model of geminate timing which integrates phonetic and phonological factors with both syntagmatic and hierarchical influences.

     Results also show that geminates are subject to less durational variability than singletons due to differences in such factors as voicing and place of articulation. Given phonological arguments by Hyman (1985) and Hayes (1989), and the durational stability of moras discussed by Hubbard (1994), this outcome is predicted, and lends strong empirical support to the view that geminates are inherently moraic consonants. Here, I propose that all geminates are moraic, but that all long consonants are geminates. To account for 'weightless geminates', I suggest that some languages tolerate doubled consonants (sequences of two timing slots which are, in effect, clusters), and that both geminates and doubled consonants may occur within the same language. I further argue that word final geminates are simple moraic consonants without additional structure, predicting that all languages which allow final geminates also treat word-final singletons as extrametrical.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Jeong-Im Han (1996):
The Phonetics and Phonology of "Tense" and "Plain" Consonants in Korean

     This study has two main goals. One is to reexamine the representation of the underlying phonation contrasts in Korean consonants.The other is to show that there is a systematic relationship between abstractphonological notions such as timing and featural structures, and more concrete,quantifiable phonetic events such as closure duration.

     Instead of assuming a standard three-way underlying phonationcontrast (plain, tense and aspirated), I propose that Korean tense consonantsare underlyingly geminated plain segments and that the feature [constrictedglottis] is redundantly specified.

     Geminate analyses of tense consonants have been generallyrejected on the grounds that Korean has a syllable structure constraintprohibiting multiple consonants in the onset position. However, I argue thatword-initial tense consonants lose one timing slot due to Stray Erasure,while intervocalic tense consonants keep both timing slots during the derivation.The application of Stray Erasure is supported by the results of acousticand perceptual experiments. The closure duration of word-initial tense consonantsis shown to be significantly shorter than that of intervocalic ones. Througha series of perceptual experiments, closure duration is observed to be animportant cue to differentiate tense and plain consonants in intervocalicposition, but not in word-initial position.

     The phonological arguments and the results of phoneticexperiments presented in this study demonstrate that quantity and tensionin the phonological structure are systematically reflected in their acousticmeasurements and the listeners' perception, thereby supporting recent workby Pierrehumbert (1990), Cohn (1990, 1993) and many others. Based on suchevidence, I propose an analysis to explain how phonological timing and thefeature [CG] are mapped to their phonetic representations in Korean.

     In addition, I extend the analysis of Korean presentedhere to attempt to answer broader questions about the general propertiesof tension cross-linguistically. I argue that an analysis similar to thatfor Korean can explain the behavior of tense/plain segments in languagessuch as Berber and Odawa.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Michael Jessen (1996):
Phonetics and Phonology of the Tense and Lax Obstruents in German

289 pages

     This study provides an acousticinvestigation of the opposition between the tense obstruents /p,t,k,f,s/and lax obstruents /b,d,g,v,z/ in standard German. Data from six speakerswere measured for stop aspiration, fricative duration, voicing duration,as well as F0-perturbation and breathy voice quality (measured as H1-H2)at the beginning of the following vowel. The results showed that tense vs.lax stops are significantly and consistently distinguished by aspirationduration, and tense vs. lax fricatives by both total duration and voicingduration. Voicing duration in stops was not significant for most speakersand most contexts. F0-perturbation values were consistently higher followingtense than lax obstruents, but, as a tendency, the effect was only significantif the obstruents differed in terms of the presence and absence of voicing,which was often not the case in stops. H1-H2 values after tense obstruentsturned out to be significantly higher than after lax obstruents, independenlyof the occurrence of voicing. These H1-H2 differences are interpreted asevidence for a difference in glottal opening between tense and laxobstruents.

     The acoustic results are analysed interms of the theory of distinctive features proposed and developed by RomanJakobson, including his work with Linda Waugh. It is argued that German stopsemploy the feature [tense] distinctively with a common phonetic denominatorbased upon duration. The feature [voice] is rejected for the distinctiverepresentation of German stops because voicing is not stable across contexts.German fricatives are proposed to employ both tenseness and voicing. Thedifferences between stops and fricatives are explained by markedness theory,supported by facts about German phonotactics and data from child language,aphasia, and phonological universals. It is proposed that in their stop systemslanguages constitute a typology between the selection of [voice] (e.g. Russian)and [tense] (e.g. German, English), but that in their fricative systems languagesuniversally tend towards a syncretism involving voicing and tensenesstogether.

Back to list of dissertations andprices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Tamar I. Kaplan (1993):
The Second Language Acquisition of Functional Categories: Complementizer Phrases in English and Japanese

194 pages

     This dissertation contains a discussion of CP structuresin English and Japanese, and the results of a 9-month longitudinal studyof the second language acquisition of Japanese CP structures by English speakers.The author uses the results to (1) argue against the maturational hypothesisof first language acquisition, and (2) argue for the use of second languageacquisition research to determine the validity of theoretical proposals inthe realms of syntactic theory and first language acquisition. The authoralso discusses implications of these results for the use of grammaticalityjudgment and elicited imitation tasks in second language acquisition research.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Ruriko Kawashima (1994):
The Structure of Noun Phrases and the Interpretation of Quantificational NPs in Japanese

     This thesis investigates (i) the formal syntactic propertiesof noun phrases containing numerals and quantifiers, and (i) the varyingquantificational force exhibited by quantificational noun phrases in Japanese,with particular attention to WH-pronouns and the suffix mo (henceforth, WH/mo).I argue for a structure of noun phrases in which numerals and quantifierseach head their own maximal projections: Number Phrase and Quantifier Phrase,respectively (Kawashima 1993). More specifically, I propose the followingstructure of noun phrases:

     (1) [QP [Q' [DP [D' [NumP [Num' [NP [N' [ N ]] Num ]]D]] Q]]

     Based on the articulated structure of noun phrases (1),the syntactic distribution of numerals and quantifiers is shown to followfrom a general condition: the Condition on Feature-Checking Extraction, withinthe Minimalist framework (Chomsky 1993). Under the proposed analysis,scramblability of numerals and non-scramblability of quantifiers are capturedby the independently motivated principle of derivational economy: ShortestMove (Chomsky 1993, 1994, Collins 1994).

     The proposed analysis is further extended to noun phrasescontaining Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). I argue that NPIs head QPs, andthat the syntactic licensing condition of NPIs is derivable from theindependently motivated principle of feature-checking: the Feature CheckingRequirement (Chomsky 1993). My proposal also provides a unified analysisof cross-linguistic variation between English and Japanese concerning subjectNPIs (Kawashima and Kitahara 1993).

     Finally, I examine the varying quantificational force(existential vs. universal) exhibited by WH/mo, in comparison with any inEnglish. I argue that assuming the theory of indefinites (cf. Heim 1982),the varying quantificational force exhibited by WH/mo is deducible from generalsemantic properties of polarity sensitive items: widening and strengthening(Kadmon and Landman 1993). A striking contrast between English and Japanese- WH/mo receives a universal interpretation in the affirmative non-genericcontext where any is not licensed - is also explained uniformly by the proposedanalysis, assuming that the distributive operator is available as a licensorin the case of Japanese.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Hyunsoon Kim (1997):
Phonological Representation of Affricates: Evidence from Korean and Other Languages

     This work is concerned with formal representation ofaffricates. Our cross-linguistic survey of affricates provides strong evidencein support of the view that affricates are strident stops, as first proposedby Jakobson, Fant and Halle (1963). From the survey, we propose that theairstream feature [strident] as well as [continuant] is binary-valued, notsingle-valued, structurally located higher than Place features in a nonlinearmodel of feature organization.

     As a case study, we focus on Korean affricates in bothphonetic and phonological respects. We first identify, from our own articulatoryand acoustic study, Korean affricates are alveolar with no inherentpalatalization. From the phonetic study and our proposed model of affricates,we propose that Korean affricates are specified for [-continuant, +strident],with no secondary vocalic feature [coronal] like the other obstruents.Phonological behavior of affricates in Korean Umlaut and affrication providesevidence for our proposed representation of affricates, and also for ourphonetic study.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Yetunde Olabisi Laniran (1992):
Intonation in Tone Languages: The Phonetic Implementation of Tones in Yoruba

221 pages

     This experimental investigation of Yoruba intonationincreases our understanding of the interface between phonology and phonetics.Left-to-right downstep relationship between H and L tones in alternatingHL tone sequences is analyzed as right-to-left upstep. This upstep analysisalso explains the long distance dependency between H tones and L tones thatare not adjacent. Finally, it is argued that phonetic rules have access toa 'window' of at least the first intonational phrase in the sentence.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Lisa Marie Lavoie (1999):
Phonological Patterns and Phonetic Manifestations of Consonant Weakening

267 pages

     Consonant weakening, or lenition, is comprehensively examined in this dissertation which consists of acoustic and articulatory phonetic studies of consonant strength, as well as a cross-linguistic survey of phonological patterns of lenition and fortition. A goal of this study is to locate phonetic parallels to the phonological patterns. I examine the strength of consonants of American English and Mexican Spanish in the two cross-cutting environments of position in word and position with respect to stress to determine the relative contribution of each positional factor.

     In the acoustic study, I analyze durations, intensity and spectral properties in closely matched disyllabic stress pairs. In the articulatory study, I measure degree of linguopalatal contact using electropalatography (EPG) in real and nonsense words. I find clear evidence for strong and weak positions, as well as the phonetic patters that characterize consonant strength. Somewhat surprisingly, I find that some phonetic characteristics pattern simply as general indicators of manner of articulation, while others pattern simply as general indicators of manner of articulation, while others pattern clearly by position. The positional factors are found not to augment each other's effects, except in English flapping. Despite robust phonetic effects in the pre-stress position, stress is not a factor that conditions historical change whereas duration is.

     In addition, I test numerous hypotheses about consonant strength and find evidence for aspects of several prevalent phonological views of lenition. The acoustic and articulatory studies reveal both similarities to phonological weakening and differences. An elaborated sonority hierarchy best describes phonological weakening while a scaled down hierarchy best describes phonetic weakening. While gestural duration and magnitude are not found to decrease in tandem for phonetic weakening as Articulatory Phonology predicts, Articulatory Phonology accounts very nicely for the variation in weakening outcomes. Phonologically, voicing and fricativization are common steps in lenition, but the phonetic studies find no evidence of either. I attribute the frequency of voicing lenition to the documented tendency for shorter segments to be perceived as voiced and I attribute the frequency of lenition described as fricativization to reinterpretation of an incomplete seal as a fricative. I argue, based on the phonetics and the phonology, that the prototypical weakening is approximantization.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Rebecca Susan Letterman (1997):
The Effects of Word-Internal Prosody in Sinhala: A Constraint-based Analysis

345 pages

     This dissertation explores the phonology of Sinhala withinthe framework of Optimality Theory and examines the significance of theword-internal prosodic hierarchy within the context of such a phonologicalanalysis. The Introduction previews the types of alternations for which anaccount is given and provides an overview of Optimality Theory, the ProsodicHierarchy, and extensions of the hierarchy to constituents within the word.The second chapter, Segmental Phoneme Inventory and Basic Syllabification,presents general background on the Sinhala language. An overview of Sinhalasyllabification is presented in terms of various constraints on well-formedness.

     The third chapter, Epenthesis, outlines basic lexicalrepresentations argued for vowels and glides, crucially differentiating betweenhigh vowels which are [-consonantal] and which are sometimes parsed as onsets,and glides which are underlyingly [+consonantal]. Both vowel and glide epenthesisare analyzed; parallels and contrasts between the nominal and verbal systemsin the language, including differences in epenthetic melodies and varyingenvironments for epenthesis, are argued to fall out from a single constrainthierarchy.

     The fourth chapter, Gemination, presents the argumentthat virtually all gemination triggered by morphological concatenation innominal and verbal forms in Sinhala occurs as a result of realizing lexically"floating" (non-coindexed) moras in output forms. In one case, glide assimilationis also argued to produce so-called false geminates. In the final sectionof the chapter, it is argued that prenasalized stops pattern phonologicallyas single segments in the language, particularly in regards to gemination.

     The fifth chapter, The Role of the Metrical Foot, arguesthat data on minimal word alternations, stress assignment, and vowel reductionprovide evidence that the foot is fundamental to an adequate account of Sinhalaphonology. The sixth chapter, Word-final Long Vowel Shortening, argues thatvowels in both suffixes and reduplicative prefixes shorten in certainenvironments so as to be properly incorporated into higher prosodic structure.Contrasts between consonant-final and vowel-final roots are argued to fallout from alignment constraints on the constituents of the root, prosodicword and syllable.

     The Conclusion presents an overall constraint hierarchyfor the analysis, and reviews its implications both for Optimality Theoryand for other aspects of phonological theory including the extension of theProsodic Hierarchy to constituents within the word. This work thus contributesa thorough analysis of virtually an entire phonological system and demonstratesthe efficacy of Optimality Theory for such a task.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Enrique Mallen (1989):
The Internal Structure of Determiner Phrases

271 pages

     It is argued that post-nominal de-phrases in Spanishare not evenly linked as sisters of a single projection, but rather aredistributed in hierarchically distinct positions. Thus the internal configurationof NPs is parallel to that of VPs. Moreover, it is proposed that this parallelismcan be extended to nominal functional categories: NP is dominated by twofunctional heads, D(eterminer) corresponding to the sentential C(omplementizer)and Q(uantifier) corresponding to the sentential I(nflection). The lineardistribution of nominal arguments is attributed to the directionality ofcase and thematic role assignment.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Erika Jeane Mitchell (1993):
Morphological Evidence for Syntactic Structure: The Finno-Ugric Languages and English

376 pages

     This thesis examines the inventory of the verbal functionalcategories and their relative ordering in the Finno-Ugric languages and English.Of the functional categories, the relative order of Tense and Mood is foundto vary across languages, while the order of Aspect, Voice, and Negationappears to be fixed. Agreement is found to be relational rather than functional.Detailed appendices contain complete verbal paradigms and the correspondingsyntactic structures for each of the Finno-Ugric languages and English.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Kunio Nishiyama (1998):
The Morphosyntax and Morphology of Japanese Predicates

256 pages

     This thesis argues for a non-lexical view of theagglutination characteristic of Japanese predicates. Inflectional featuresare concatenated syntactically or post-syntactically, without any phonologicalfeatures. Phonological features are supplied at Morphological Structure aftersyntax, through the mechanism of phonological insertion rules ordered bysubset relations (Distributed Morphology, Halle and Marantz 1993).

     After reviewing several approaches to morphology in Chapter2, I discuss in Chapter 3 two seemingly distinct subclasses of Japaneseadjectives. I claim that there is no syntactic (i.e., categorical) differencebetween them. Rather, the difference is morphological in the sense of DistributedMorphology. Since the difference can be captured only at the morphologicallevel, the analysis provides strong support for the view of morphology asan independent level. The analysis also gives morphological evidence forBowers' (1993) theory of predication, which claims that whenever there ispredication, there is a syntactic projection associated with predication.

     Japanese verbs show overt morphological alternationsin transitive-intransitive pairs. Chapter 4 claims that such alternatingmorphemes head a syntactic projection that determines transitivity of theclause, supporting recent views on clause structure where the external argumentis introduced by a phrase that selects lexical VP.

     Based in the results of Chapter 4, I argue in Chapter5 that V-V compounds in Japanese are formed in the syntax. More specifically,V-V compounds are cases of verb serializations of the sort widely known fromKwa languages of West Africa (Collins 1997b). The analysis provides anotherpiece of support for the clause structure argued for in Chapter 4. A naturalconsequence of the (post)-syntactic view of morphology of the thesis is thatV-V compounds cannot be formed in the lexicon. I show that previous lexicalaccounts for these constructions cannot cover the full range of data in aprincipled way.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Sainz, Susana (1992):
A Noncyclic Approach to the Lexical Phonology of English

192 pages

     The focus of this dissertation is a noncyclic analysisof English stress and vowel shortening processes. Central questions addressedare the interaction of phonology and morphology and the status of thephonological cycle as proposed in the theory of Lexical Phonology, wherean intrinsic cyclic interaction is claimed to exist between at least somemorphological strata and the phonological component.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

David James Silva (1992):
The Phonetics and Phonology of Stop Lenition in Korean

196 pages

     This study investigates the phonetic and phonologicalbehavior of the Korean stop consonants when they occur in positions traditionallydescribed as sites for lenition. Acoustic data collected by the author indicatethat the weakening of stops between sonorants is conditioned by the targetsegment's phonation characteristics and its position in the prosodic hierarchy.Based on these data, a new account for phonological and phonetic lenitionis proposed, one that views lenition as a process whereby segments undergoa loss of structure.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Mandy Simons (1998):
"OR" Issues in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Disjunction

346 pages

     Grice (1989) observes that the primary discourse function of disjunction is the presentation of alternatives, each of which is relevant in the same way to a given topic. After a brief introduction (Chapter One), I offer in Chapter Two an account of Grice's observation and of further felicity conditions on disjunction, for example, the constraint against disjunctions in which one disjunct entails another. Using an enriched version of the Stalnakian model of assertion, I define two constraints on information update -- Relevant Informativity and Simplicity -- and show that these suffice to account for the observations.

     I then argue that the requirement to abide by Relevant Information and Simplicity provides a basis for an account of two further properties of disjunctive sentences: their presupposition projection properties and the possibility of anaphora between disjuncts. I argue that presuppositions project in disjunction except where projection would lead to infelicity of the kind characterized in Chapter Two. Two state this account, a treatment of presupposition which allows projection to be sensitive to considerations of felicity is required. I show that the Stalnakian view of presupposition, combined with Heim's (1983) notion of local accommodation, provides the necessary framework.

     Similarly, I argue that anaphora across disjunction is disallowed only when it leads to an infelicitous disjunction. In certain configurations, anaphora between disjuncts leads to entailment between disjuncts, which is ruled out independently. The account is given using a version of Neale's (1990) E-type analysis of unbound anaphora. I show that the analysis has further desirable consequences with respect to more complex examples of inter-disjunct anaphora.

     Throughout Chapters Three and Four, I contrast my own proposals with accounts given in the Dynamic Semantic literature, offering a critique of Dynamic Semantic approaches to the phenomena discussed.

     In Chapter 5, I examine anaphora between NP's contained inside a disjunction and a pronoun in the following sentence. I argue that these pronouns are also E-type, but show that these cases require a reformulation of the E-type analysis. I develop a new account in which the interpretation of E-type pronouns is derived compositionally from the content of the antecedent clause.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Ayako Tsuchida (1997):
Phonetics and Phonology of Japanese Vowel Devoicing.

321 pages

      In this study, phonetic and phonological aspects ofvowel devoicing in Standard Japanese are investigated. The goals of the studyare to provide a comprehensive analysis of the devoicing process and to developa model which expicitly accounts for the mapping of phonological laryngealfeature specifications to the phonetics.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Alice Elizabeth Turk (1993):
Effects of Position-in-Syllable and Stress on Consonant Articulation

208 pages

     The results of this x-ray microbeam study provide phoneticevidence for the ambisyllabicity of intervocalic consonants preceding unstressedvowels. A new methodology for measuring consonant articulation is alsointroduced.

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Back to list of phonetics dissertations

Adam Zachary Wyner (1994):
Boolean Event Lattices and Thematic Roles in the Syntax and Semantics of Adverbial Modification.

247 pages

Back to list of dissertations and prices

Eun-Young Yi (1997):
Re- and De-Constructing Coordination in Korean

322 pages

     This thesis investigates various constructions that havebeen claimed to involve coordinate structures in Korean. The investigationarrives at the following results. The NP-coordination pattern, representedby the -hako construction, is argued to be the only pure instanceof syntactic coordination in Korean. It provides strong evidence for anasymmetrical coordinate structure analysis in which conjunctions are treatedas functional heads, conjoining DP's in their Spec and complementpositions.Although Korean is widely known as a head-final language, it isdemonstrated that &P structure is invariably head-initial. Conjunctionfinal constructions are demonstrated to derive from head-initial constructionsby complement-to-spec movement. The functional head, &, shares with otherfunctional heads the capability of being specified as [+/- strong], [+/-multiple]. A number of crosslinguistic differences in the syntax of coordinatestructures will be shown to follow from different choices of specificationfor these features. -Ko coordination, which has been claimed to involveVP/clausal coordination is shown to be an adjunction structure where thefirst conjunct which contains -ko is the adjunct clause. The-ko attached to the apparent first conjunct is in fact the complementizerof an adjunct clause. Various non-ATB extraction tests, constituency tests,and Neg interpretation are advanced in support of this conclusion. Finally,the V1-e V2 pattern in Korean, which has been claimed to involveV/VP-coordinate structure, also involves neither the symmetrical coordinatestructure nor the asymmetrical &P structure. Instead, a subtype of theV1-e V2 pattern in Korean actually involves the adjunction structuresof the -ko construction, whereas another subtype of the V1-eV2 pattern is a type of serial verb construction (SVC) well known from WestAfrican languages. In particular, SVCs in Korean have a VP-complement structure,and the compounding results from syntactic incorporation of V1 into V2. SVCsin Korean show a close parallelism with better studied examples of SVCs inWest African languages. In particular, important properties such as objectsharing are held by both while important differences are related to differencein feature strength of T, and to difference in head directionality of lexicalcategories.

Back to list of dissertations and prices