11.654, Disc: Underlying Schwa?

The LINGUIST Network linguist at linguistlist.org
Wed Mar 22 15:53:55 UTC 2000


LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-654. Wed Mar 22 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.654, Disc: Underlying Schwa?

Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
            Andrew Carnie, U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Associate Editors:  Ljuba Veselinova, Stockholm U. <ljuba at linguistlist.org>
		    Scott Fults, E. Michigan U. <scott at linguistlist.org>
		    Jody Huellmantel, Wayne State U. <jody at linguistlist.org>
		    Karen Milligan, Wayne State U. <karen at linguistlist.org>

Assistant Editors:  Lydia Grebenyova, E. Michigan U. <lydia at linguistlist.org>
		    Naomi Ogasawara, E. Michigan U. <naomi at linguistlist.org>
		    James Yuells, Wayne State U. <james at linguistlist.org>

Software development: John Remmers, E. Michigan U. <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
                      Sudheendra Adiga, Wayne State U. <sudhi at linguistlist.org>
                      Qian Liao, E. Michigan U. <qian at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded jointly by Eastern Michigan University,
Wayne State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karen at linguistlist.org>

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Wed, 22 Mar 2000 09:38:44 -0600
From:  "Geoffrey S. Nathan" <geoffn at siu.edu>
Subject:  Disc: Underlying Schwa?

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 22 Mar 2000 09:38:44 -0600
From:  "Geoffrey S. Nathan" <geoffn at siu.edu>
Subject:  Disc: Underlying Schwa?

An additional source for evidence of morphological relatedness is errors in
morphology homework problems.  I say this because I just graded an
elementary exercise in derivational morphology from _Language Files_.  At
least one student, a native speaker, did not recognize the following
morphological relatednesses:

explosion (didn't think of it as made up of 'explode+ion')
active (didn't see 'act' in it)
responsibility (didn't see 'responsible')

One of the problems with clever underlying forms based on relatedness
between words is that there is great individual variation among native
speakers as to whether there IS a common form-meaning pairing.  In
Mohanan's old book on lexical phonology, for example, he uses the pair
'native': 'nation' as evidence for a level one rule of palatalization.  But
how many would argue for a synchronic semantic connection between those
two?  Etymological, sure, and obviously, orthographic.  But the core
meanings of 'native' (something like 'aboriginal') and 'nation' (political
entity) are sufficiently distant to argue against a common lexical entry,
which is what 'underlying form' is all about.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Department of Linguistics
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Carbondale, IL, 62901-4517
Phone:  (618) 453-3421 (Office) / FAX (618) 453-6527
         (618) 549-0106 (Home)
                                                         geoffn at siu.edu

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-11-654



More information about the LINGUIST mailing list