Phonology question

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:09 PM -0700 3/16/08, David Borowitz wrote:
>A possible explanation for syllabifying "distaste" as "dis.taste" jumps to
>mind: s followed by an aspirated t is not a valid onset, and aspiration
>somehow happens before syllabification. So "di.staste" would need to have an
>aspirated t, which is not allowed, hence "dis.taste." (Not that I have the
>energy to reword that in proper OT...)

Not being a phonologist either, my sense has always been that the
di.sC... is easier in articulatory terms but less transparent in
preserving morphological integrity. (I guess that is something
phonologists talk about in terms of faithfulness vs. markedness in
some guise or other.)  And similarly with "mis-" words.  So in cases
like "distaste", "mistape", or "mistook", where the compositionality
has been preserved, the prefix/root break is preserved as well, but
in cases like "disturb", "distinct", or "mistake", which are no
longer analyzed as dis + turb or mis + take, the /s/ has migrated to
the root syllable and the /t/ consequently loses its aspiration.
Frequency is a factor too; the more frequent words are more likely to
undergo the resyllabification.  It may be a bit tricky to sort out
the cause-and-effect, but the correlation is clear:  semantic
transparency (compositionality)/morphological integrity/no
resyllabification/ease of discrimination vs. semantic
opacity/morphological opacity/resyllabification/ease of articulation.

LH

>
>I don't know that my explanation has to do with certain prefixes per se,
>except insofar as different prefixes can have different lexical
>stress-shifting properties, which in turn affects aspiration. Nor am I
>really claiming the MOP is still popular among phonologists, not being one
>myself.
>
>On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 1:35 PM, Scot LaFaive <scotlafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Scot LaFaive <scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Phonology question
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  >Where doesn't it work?
>>
>>  It seems like the principle doesn't work for some prefixes, such as
>>  "distaste," but perhaps it isn't supposed to work there. I honestly know
>>  some about it, though phonology wasn't a large part of my program and we
>>  were merely told about the principle and that it works. Are there more
>>  intricacies about it?
>>
>>  Scot
>>
>>  On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 6:58 PM, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  > -----------------------
>>  > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  > Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>>  > Subject:      Re: Phonology question
>>  >
>>  >
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  >
>>  > Lots of us still like it. Where doesn't it work?
>>  >
>>  > dInIs
>>  >
>>  > >---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  > >-----------------------
>>  > >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  > >Poster:       Scot LaFaive <scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM>
>>  > >Subject:      Phonology question
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > >
>>  > >This isn't a dialect question, but I know there are some smart
>>  > phonologists
>>  > >on this list who can answer my question. I'm curious if the Maximal
>>  Onset
>>  > >Principle is still considered valid in today's linguistics. I ask this
>>  > >because sometimes it doesn't seem to be working in speech and I don't
>>  > know
>>  > >if another theory has taken its place. (Or maybe there are certain
>>  > >environments it doesn't work in that I'm unaware of.)
>>  > >
>>  > >Scot
>>  > >
>>  > >------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>  > >
>>  >
>>  > --
>>  > Dennis R. Preston
>>  > University Distinguished Professor
>>  > Department of English
>>  > Morrill Hall 15-C
>>  > Michigan State University
>>  > East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>  >
>>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>  >
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
>--
>It is better to be quotable than to be honest.
>-Tom Stoppard
>
>Borowitz
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org