28.470, Review: Morphology; Phonology; Typology: Gordon (2016)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-470. Mon Jan 23 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.470, Review: Morphology; Phonology; Typology: Gordon (2016)

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Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 14:03:35
From: Yolanda Rivera Castillo [riveray at gmail.com]
Subject: Phonological Typology

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-2124.html

AUTHOR: Matthew K Gordon
TITLE: Phonological Typology
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Yolanda Rivera Castillo, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

Phonological Typology by Matthew Gordon (2016, Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press) describes cross-linguistic patterns of phonological systems. It
provides explanations for these patterns by relying on formal studies of
system internal restrictions, experimental data from studies in phonetics and
perception, and statistical analysis of large corpora. This is a most welcome
approach that brings data from different fields to support the phonological
generalizations it describes. Ultimately, as the author states, most research
on phonology inevitably deals with typological issues (p. 1): 

Because phonological theory dating back to work by Trubetzkoy (1939), Hockett
(1955), Jakobson (1962), and Jakobson et. al. (1963) has characteristically
been concerned with explaining and modelling cross-linguistic variation,
typology has become largely inseparable from most research in phonology […].

The author indicates that, despite this connection, phonology has an
“impoverish[ed] position” in typology (p. 5). That explains why this book
plays an important role in this field since it delivers an overview of
research done so far in key areas: segmental inventories, segmental processes,
syllable structure, prosodic features, and prosodic morphology. 

Therefore, this book is of interest, not only to phonologists who work on
typology, but also to all those interested in sound systems. Additionally,
those interested in the interface between phonological subsystems and between
prosody and morphology will find this book informative and challenging since
the results of the data analysis contest some generalizations stated by
previous work.

This book offers in depth descriptions and analyses of sub-system interfaces
that are not always available in multi-feature large projects such as WALS. 
Nevertheless, the author draws data, precisely, from WALS, UPSID, Stress-TYP,
and similar projects in order to incorporate information from a large number
of languages, including different language families. 

This book incorporates data from phonological and phonetic analyses,
describing correlations between these, and facilitating generalizations
informed by phonetic data and their interpretation, following on previous work
by the author (Gordon 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2006). This goal should guide all
inquiries in phonology, according to proponents of Laboratory Phonology (Ohala
1990). However, some have argued that functional explanations to the emergence
of linguistic patterns should be sufficient, that there is no need to appeal
to structural motivations, such that all regular sound change is “phonetically
motivated” (Blevins 2008). Still, there are cases in which phonetic conditions
do not lead to the same results. For example, Svatensson and House (2006) have
demonstrated that dialects of the same language, that share numerous
similarities, can develop very different prosodic systems from the same
phonetic conditions. 

The author’s approach consists of combining phonetic and phonological
explanations, as he has stated in previous work (Gordon 2002: 54-55): “[…] the
phonology of weight is the result of a compromise between choosing weight
distinctions that are not only ideal phonetically but also structurally simple
in terms of the phonological predicates it manipulates.” This, together with
the integration of generalizations about different subsystems (i.e., segmental
and prosodic) into a coherent interpretation of cross-linguistic patterns,
elucidates the role of interface in phonological structure.

The book is organized as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Theory and Explanation in Phonological Typology
Chapter 3: Phonemic Inventories
Chapter 4: Syllables
Chapter 5: Segmental Processes
Chapter 6: Stress
Chapter 7: Tone and Intonation
Chapter 8: Prosodic Morphology

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the approaches applied in this
typological analysis. Both constraint-based and frequency-based explanations
are at the core of the study.  It combines findings from phonological theory
and typology (p. 5): “This book thus represents an attempt to provide a
synthesis of the fields of typology and modern phonological theory.” This
chapter also provides a list of languages (pgs. 10-14) included in the survey
for the purpose of drawing statistical generalizations, while indicating that
it incorporates a smaller set of major languages than WALS. 

Chapter 2: Theory and Explanation in Phonological Typology

In this chapter, the author discusses the classic issue of the relation
between phonetics and phonology in relation to the development of typological
generalizations: “An important unresolved issue among phonologists is the
extent to which phonological predicates themselves are sufficient to explain
patterns without recourse to phonetic and other functional factors.”

The author indicates that the role of phonetic factors in the typology of
phonological patterns is the subject of vigorous debate (p. 32). For example,
regarding the realization of laryngeal features (voicing or devoicing) in
different syllabic positions, he describes a phonetically driven approach,
such as Steriade’s (1999) analysis of Hungarian voicing, which reveals
advantages in predicting the location of voiceless consonants. However, the
author indicates, Steriade’s (1999) account does not capture four way
alternations in languages like Lezgian. Additionally, non-phonetically driven
accounts (Lombardi’s 1995) leaves some facts unexplained. The author concludes
that diachronic approaches, like those of Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins
2004, 2006), provide more accurate explanations to these specific facts. An
important question raised by these conclusions is whether these cases must be
treated synchronically as exceptions (listed in the lexicon), or if a
synchronic explanation is necessary.

Finally, Chapter 2 introduces this book’s guiding principle in phonological
explanations, which includes a combination of different approaches and types
of data, while avoiding analytical biases.
 
Chapter 3: Phonemic Inventories

The author presents generalizations concerning frequency of phonemes in
different languages. He demonstrates that the frequency of phones within
languages often matches frequency measures cross-linguistically. Then again,
the author’s explanation of phoneme frequency is grounded in phonological and
phonetic facts. For example, typically voiced fricatives are less frequent
than their voiceless counterparts. However, labial and non-sibilant dental
voiced fricatives (β/ɸ, ð/θ) are more frequent than their voiced counterparts.
He argues (pgs. 46-47) that this asymmetry regarding certain voiced fricatives
is due to the fact these phonemes, often described as fricatives, are actually
approximants in many languages. 

Moreover, regarding geminates, the author explains that, although voiceless
obstruent geminates (/tt/) are more easily perceived in perception
experiments, these are not necessarily more frequent than geminates (such as
/jj/ and /ll/), which are harder to perceive (p. 56). Therefore, the relation
between segmental frequency and perception is not a simple one.

The author puts forward numerous generalizations regarding segmental
inventories. The issue of distinctiveness is related to the articulatory
distance between phonemes. He summarizes different approaches that address the
issue of the distribution of vowels in the vowel space, frequency, and the
typology of phoneme inventories (pgs. 57-82). There is a critical assessment
of approaches such as Adaptive Dispersion Theory, Dispersion Focalization
Theory, Quantal Theory, proposals of articulatory complexity, perceptual
saturation, feature enhancement, and feature economy.

On the other hand, secondary features enhance auditory saliency (p. 65), among
which we find creaky and breathy voicing, aspiration, and prenasalization,
elaborated place features (labiodentals, palatoalveolars, retroflexes,
uvulars, and pharyngeal), and elaborated airstream mechanisms (clicks,
implosives, and ejectives). The conflict between auditory clarity and
articulatory difficulty is evident in the low frequency of segments with
secondary features (see Haspelmath 2006 for discussion).

Finally (p. 43), Gordon describes the “Correspondence Problem” (Corbett, 2008)
for datasets he accesses for his descriptions:

More generally, because UPSID relies on a collection of language descriptions
that vary considerably in their thoroughness and accuracy, it is susceptible
to occasional erroneous or misleading data […] These criticisms also pertain
to other large-scale surveys consulted for this book.

However, the author states that the more quantitatively robust typological
generalizations overcome these problems.

Chapter 4: Syllables

This chapter deals with generalizations on the composition of syllables
cross-linguistically and intra-linguistically. It includes descriptions of
common patterns at syllable edges as well as part of syllabic nuclei.

An important generalization made by this book is that the frequency of
syllable types does not determine which syllable types are basic and which are
not. For example, CV constitutes the basic type, found in all languages.
However, only 12.6% of languages allow only CV as a syllable type in the WALS
survey (p. 85), a generalization that runs against claims made about languages
such as Creoles, often described as allowing only CV structures (McMahon 1994;
Kinney 2005). Another interesting generalization is that languages allowing
onsetless syllables are as common as those licensing syllables with single
codas (CVC). This applies despite that fact that ONSET is a high-ranking
constraint in numerous languages, according to OT analyses, and has been
described as a requirement since early OT descriptions (Prince and Smolensky
1993).

Regarding intralinguistic sets of consonants, the author finds a correlation
between the number of consonants and syllable complexity. This follows from
Maddieson’s (2007, 2013) description,  which states that languages “with
simple syllables have a mean of 17.66 consonants and those with syllables of
intermediate complexity have an average 21.30 consonants, and those with
greater complexity possess a mean of 25.28 consonants. (p. 119)” Clearly, a
larger set of consonants provides a more divergent set of melodic profiles,
which allows for greater differentiation among adjacent segments. According to
the author, similar correlations emerge between the number of consonants and
the complexity of onsets and codas. 

Finally, this book does not question the validity of sonority scales despite
the fact that the author acknowledges that there are numerous exceptions in
cases of sonority reversals and in the fact that “[…] sibilant fricatives
disobey sonority sequencing principles and that dental/alveolar consonants are
more freely tolerated than other consonants at the periphery of clusters (p.
104).” The author demonstrates that syllabic constituency is not a matter of
simple formulas but a complex issue determined by numerous factors, including
but not limited to: the number of consonants in the language, the number of
vocoids in the nucleus, and the similarities in place features between
adjacent vowels and consonants.

Chapter 5: Segmental Processes

Gordon (p. 123) describes three key segmental processes: (a) alternations and
constraints on the “featural” properties of sounds induced either by adjacent
or nearby sounds or by position
(assimilation/dissimilation/fortition/lenition); (b) changes in the number of
sounds (deletion/insertion); and (c) alternations in the “ordering” of
adjacent or nearby sounds (metathesis).

Regarding assimilation, the author describes consonant-consonant,
consonant-vowel, vowel-vowel feature changes. Typologically, there are very
few instances in which a vowel influences a consonant (p. 127), except in
cases of palatalization. Other generalizations involve the directionality of
consonant-to-consonant assimilation, which is typically regressive. This is
true except in the case of sets of coronal consonants, due to the phonetic
saliency of the first consonant in these. 

This book addresses the fact that many frameworks lack the mechanisms to
explain long distance assimilation. For example, one of the strengths of
Autosegmental Theory is that it explains the presence of segments that “block”
or are “neutral” in long distance assimilation. However, the author points
out, if vowels and consonants belong to different tiers, AT cannot explain
cases of nasal feature spreading in Sundanese, since nasalization spreads to
vowels, glides, and glottal consonants, and is only blocked by oral vowels.

Finally, in the case of deletion and insertion, the author underlines the role
of stress and syllable structure constraints in determining when these
processes apply.

Chapter 6: Stress

This chapter outlines key issues regarding stress placement. There is
extensive discussion of analyses of syllable weight, moraic representation,
and metrical structure and the effectiveness of these in explaining the
variety and complexity of stress placement in different languages. 

The author includes data from the Stress-Typ project, a large project that
describes the stress systems based on whether stress assignment is bounded or
unbounded, if it is weight sensitive or not, among other criteria (Goedemans &
van der Hulst 2009). A number of languages (750) and, for the most part,
primary sources have become part of this project (van der Hulst 2014: 37).
There is also the Stress Pattern Database, created by Jeffrey Heinz in 2006,
which includes 403 languages (van der Hulst 2014:38).

He concludes that there is a core distinction between weight sensitive and
fixed stress systems. Gordon also explains the role of vowel quality in stress
placement. However, the issue of whether vowel quality is driven by stress
level or if it is the other way around, is not discussed in detail in this
chapter. Rather, the author approaches this issue by considering the relation
between vowel quality and rhyme weight. He proposes two scales based on his
previous work (p. 184, on Gordon 2006): one sensitive to the nucleus and its
melodic features, and one sensitive to rhyme weight. This overcomes the
circularity of approaches that claim vowel quality is determined by stress
level, while these also claim that stress falls on syllables with full vowels.

There is extensive discussion of binarity and the role of foot type in the
analysis of stress placement, while the author also suggests that
incorporating ternary feet in representations might explain some cases better
than by simply using binary feet (p. 203). The author also discusses the issue
of whether onsets play a role in syllable weight or not, concluding, based on
his own previous work on perception (Gordon 2005) that the auditory nerve
responds more acutely to vowels following an onset than to those in onsetless
syllables.

Chapter 7: Tone and Intonation

The author evaluates different surveys of prosodic systems in this chapter.
According to his conclusions, the majority of languages use tone to convey
lexical contrasts (p. 215). However, he recognizes that separating languages
into tone and stress groups is problematic. 

As indicated by the author, tone can be delimitative or culminative (quoting
Downing 1996). Moreover, he indicates that there are systems in which tone
assignment suggests the presence of a related metrical structure (p.218). This
brings up the question of what distinguishes tonal from stress systems. His
answer is that (quoting Hyman 2006) metrical prominence is obligatory in
stress systems but not in tone systems (p. 219). His assessment approaches the
issue of distinctions between prominence systems, and the possibility that
most languages have mixed features in their systems, as proposed by Duanmu
(2004).

This chapter addresses other issues, such as the “complexity” of tone systems
(number of tones), the geographic distribution of non-tonal languages, contour
versus level tones, frequency of tone types, the relation between syllable
weight and contour tones, tonal processes (like tone sandhi), tonogenesis,
depressor consonants, tonal crowding, and intonation, particularly final
intonation contours.

Chapter 8: Prosodic Morphology

This chapter considers the issue of word minimality constraints and the
structure of prosodic words. It also explains the role of minimality in
reduplication and repair strategies.

The author indicates (p. 263) that minimality constraints “may hold of certain
morphological classes of words but not others or may differ between
morphological classes.” He also states that minimality constraints run
contrary to weight scales, with the requirement that words be disyllabic (or
bimoraic sequences) as the most restrictive of all conditions. Some languages
have no constraints on word minima (such as English), while others (Mohawk)
require that verbs comply with disyllabic minimality (p. 264). Repair
strategies, including epenthesis, lengthening, among others, often apply to
fulfil minimality constraints. 

According to Gordon’s survey of 144 languages, only 35% of these exhibit
minimality constraints. Regarding frequency, the most frequent constraint in
Gordon’s (2006) survey (and the WALS sample) is that minimal words have a CVC
syllable structure. He finds, from different surveys, that whole root
reduplication is the most common type, and this may be ruled by morphological
rather than phonological constraints. 
 
EVALUATION

This book achieves its main goal, as stated by the author (p. 302):

This book has attempted to provide an overview of the cross-linguistic
distribution of a number of phonological properties by integrating results
from three sources: existing typological surveys in the literature, a survey
of various properties in the WALS sample of languages, and tabulations of
language-internal frequency data.

This book constitutes an important contribution to the field of phonological
typology. It also provides a unified description of some apparently unrelated
phonological phenomena, therefore contributing to understanding the subsystem
interface.

References:

Blevins, Juliette. 2008. Phonetic Explanation without Compromise. Diachronica
25(1). 1-19.

Corbett, Greville G. 2008. Universals and Features. Studies in Natural
Language and Linguistic Theory 76. 129-144.

Duanmu, San. 2004. Tone and Non-tone Languages: An alternative to language
typology and parameters. Language and Linguistics 5(4). 891-923.

Goedemans, Rob & Harry van der Hulst. 2009. StressTyp: A database for word
accentual patterns in the World languages. In Martin Everaert & Simon Musgrave
(eds.), The Use of Databases in Cross-linguistic Research, pp. 235-282. New
York/Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Gordon, Matthew K. 1999. Syllable Weight: Phonetics, Phonology, and Typology.
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles-California.

Gordon, Matthew K. 2002. A Phonetically Driven Account of Syllable Weight.
Language 78(1). 51-80.

Gordon, Matthew K. 2005. A Perceptually-driven Account of Onset-sensitive
Stress. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 23. 595–653.

Haspelmath, Martin. 2006. Against Markedness. Journal of Linguistics, 41.
25-70.

Kinney, Ashlynn Leigh. 2005. Serial Organization of Speech Sounds in Creole
Languages. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Texas-Austin, Austin-Texas.

McMahon, April S. 1994. Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Murray, Robert W & Theo Vennemann. 1983. Sound change and syllable structure
in Germanic phonology. Language 59(3). 514-528.

Ohala, John J. 1990. There is no interface between phonology and phonetics: A
personal view. Journal of Phonetics 18. 153–171.

Prince, Alan & Paul Smolensky. 1993. Optimality theory: constraint interaction
in generative grammar. Rutgers Optimality Archive; ROA-537-0802.

Svantesson, Olaf & David House. 2006. Tone Production, Tone Perception, and
Kamnu Tonogenesis. Phonology 23. 309-333.

Van der Hulst, Harry. 2014. The study of Word Accent and Stress: Past,
present, and future. In Harry Van der Hulst (ed.), Word Stress: Theoretical
and Typological Issues. Cambridge, pps. 3-55. UK: Cambridge University Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Yolanda Rivera-Castillo is currently a professor at the University of Puerto
Rico, Río Piedras campus. She has taught at different institutions in the US,
and has chaired first-year language programs as well as linguistics programs.
Her research interests include the study of the Papiamentu prosodic system, as
well as nasalization and vowel harmony in Papiamentu and other Atlantic
Creoles. She has published papers on Creole phonology as well as on the
Phonology-Syntax interface.





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