Through an investigation of glottalisation in several languages of North America, this article examines the role of perception in the grammatical distribution of segments. Specifically, we consider the hypothesis that perceptual factors on the timing of glottalisation in consonants determine the arrangement of such consonants phonologically. Our conclusion is in the negative. In the cases we study, the distribution of glottalisation appears to be governed by syllable structure, not by glottal timing. We interpret the patterns presented as evidence for a modular theory of phonetics and phonology rather than a theory where properties of articulator timing are directly referenced by phonological constraints. Patterns of glottalisation result from the interaction of phonological submodules that are largely independent of each other, though properties of particular modules may be influenced by phonetic factors.
Optimality Theory predicts that harmonic scales can be encoded in grammar in one of two ways: either as markedeness hierarchies or else as faithfulness hierarchies. Although most current researchers assume that harmony is encoded as markedness, many investigators have argued that some harmonic relations are better captured as faithfulness hierarchies that prevent the deletion or insertion of less harmonic elements. We demonstrate that at least two perceptually-motivated harmonic scales — notably relative vowel height as well as consonant glottalisation — need to be encoded in the grammar as faithfulness hierarchies which require that more harmonic elements, which are also more perceptible, are more faithfully adhered to. Ourharmony-as-faithfulnessanalysis captures the fact that the same elements which undergo deletion also undergo insertion.
Optimality Theory predicts that harmonic scales (eα βf) can be encoded in grammar as markedness hierarchies (e*β R *αf) or else as faithfulness hierarchies (eFAITHβ R FAITHαf or eFAITHα R FAITHβf). Most research assumes that harmony is encoded as markedness (e.g., eCOR LABf j e*LAB R *CORf), though many investigators have argued that some harmonic relations are better captured as faithfulness hierarchies which forestall deletion/insertion of less harmonic elements (e.g., eCOR LABf j eFAITHLAB R FAITHCORf). We demonstrate in this paper that at least two perceptually-motivated harmonic scalesone concerning vowel quality, the other concerning glottalisation on consonants-need to be grammatically encoded as faithfulness hierarchies which ensure that more harmonic elements which are also more perceptible are more faithfully adhered to (eα βf, where |α| |β| j eFAITHα R FAITHβf).
This article describes the use of negation in three corpora representative of early to mid-19th century African American English: the Ex-Slave Recordings (Bailey, Maynor, & Cukor-Avila, 1991), the Samaná Corpus (Poplack & Sankoff, 1981), and the African Nova Scotian English Corpus (Poplack & Tagliamonte, 1991). The specific structures studied are the negative form ain't, negative concord to indefinites and to verbs, negative inversion, and negative postposing. It is found that Early African American English (i) is far more conservative than modern African American Vernacular English; (ii) is generally similar to Southern White Nonstandard English; and (iii) displays no distinct Creole behavior. In other words, our study suggests that the negation system of Early African American English derived directly (i.e., without approximation or creolization) from colonial English, contrary to the findings of Rickford (1977, 1995), Labov (1982), Winford (1992), De Bose and Faraclas (1993), DeBose (1994), and others.
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