27.4397, Calls: Phonetics, Phonology, Typology/Switzerland

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-4397. Fri Oct 28 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.4397, Calls: Phonetics, Phonology, Typology/Switzerland

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Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:58:51
From: Natalia Kuznetsova [nkuzn at yandex.ru]
Subject: Vowel Reduction and its Phonological Consequences

 
Full Title: Vowel Reduction and its Phonological Consequences 

Date: 10-Sep-2017 - 13-Sep-2017
Location: Zurich, Switzerland 
Contact Person: Cormac Anderson
Meeting Email: cormacanderson at gmail.com

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics; Phonology; Typology 

Call Deadline: 20-Nov-2016 

Meeting Description:

The workshop will investigate the processes of vowel reduction and loss and
their phonological and morphonological consequences in the cross-linguistic
and general theoretical perspective.

Vowel reduction and loss is a cross-linguistically frequent phenomenon, but
its full typological properties have yet to be discovered. In many language
descriptions, this phenomenon is simply stated as a fact, with little further
interrogation of its causes, mechanisms or consequences. However, ongoing
reduction can be a challenge for the synchronic phonological description of a
language, especially a non-standardized one without a literary tradition. For
some major language groups (Slavic, Romance, Germanic, Greek, Finno-Ugric)
there exists a long tradition of research on reduced vowels, where most often
their phonotactic properties, relation to stress and full vowels, and acoustic
features are studied.

Works taking a cross-linguistic and general theoretical approach to vowel
reduction and loss are however scarce. There are few comparative phonetic
studies in this field, and phonological surveys (Crosswhite 2001, Barnes 2006)
mostly tackle qualitative, but not quantitative reduction. Vowel reduction is
typically defined as a positional neutralization of vowel contrast. However,
it does not necessarily result in the neutralization, e.g. a contrast of long
and short vowels can be transformed into a contrast of reduced and short
vowels. Not yet enough is known about the exact changes in structure of a
phonetic pool of variation during ongoing reduction, as well as the
correlation between production and perception/categorization of reduced
vowels.

Much work remains to be done on the typology of the consequences for phonology
and morphology of vowel reduction and loss. What types of vocalic and
consonantal systems are likely to emerge in languages which have undergone
strong reduction and/or widespread loss of vowels? Under the same phonetic
conditions, why do we often observe asymmetries in the outcomes of loss of
vowels of different quality (as in Russian or Irish)?

There is also still no consensus about the physiological origins and phonetic
mechanisms of vowel reduction. Is formant undershoot always the function of
decrease in vowel duration (Lindblom 1963)? Is there a conflict between the
needs to reduce prominence and to enhance contrast (Harris 2005)? What is the
balance between the needs of speakers and listeners in the course of
reduction?

Organizers:

Cormac Anderson (Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck
Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena), e-mail:
cormacanderson at gmail.com
Natalia Kuznetsova (Institute for Linguistic Research, Russian Academy of
Sciences, St. Petersburg), e-mail: nkuzn at yandex.ru



Call for Papers:

This workshop aims to address the issues listed in the conference description.
We especially invite papers which interrogate vowel reduction phenomena in a
cross-linguistic and general theoretical perspective. The topics include:

- The phonetic causes and mechanisms for vowel reduction and loss;
- The phonological contexts in which it is most likely to occur;
- Its typical and atypical trajectories of vowel reduction;
- Typological, areal, diachronic explanations for the cross-linguistic
distribution of reduction;
- Asymmetries in the reduction of vowels of different qualities;
- Perception and categorisation of reduced vowels by L1 and L2 speakers; 
- Challenges for the description of languages with an ongoing reduction;
- The consequences of vowel reduction and loss for phonology and
morphophonology.

Preliminary abstracts (DOC and/or PDF, max. 300 words excluding references)
for 20 minute talks should be sent via email to both workshop organizers by
November 20 (cormacanderson at gmail.com, nkuzn at yandex.ru).

References:

Barnes, J. 2006. Strength and weakness at the interface. Berlin.
Crosswhite, K. 2001. Vowel reduction in Optimality Theory. New York; London.
Harris J. 2005. Vowel reduction as information loss. In: Headhood, elements,
specification and contrastivity. Amsterdam, 119–132.
Lindblom, B. 1963. Spectrographic study of vowel duration. In: The Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America 35 (11), 1773-1781.




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