Part of
Beyond Markedness in Formal PhonologyEdited by Bridget D. Samuels
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 241] 2017
► pp. 23–46
Edited by Bridget D. Samuels
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 241] 2017
► pp. 23–46
Chapter 2Contrast is irrelevant in phonology
A simple account of Russian /v/ as /V/
Halle’s (1959) argument against a distinction between morphophonemic and phonemic rules can be understood as an argument against the relevance of contrast to phonology. After adducing further arguments against a role for contrast, the paper provides a simple contrast-free analysis of the classic problem of the voicing behavior of Russian /v/. This segment undergoes voicing assimilation (like other obstruents), but does not trigger it (thus acting like the sonorants). In contrast to a long history of treating /v/ as a covert sonorant, the paper attributes the behavior of Russian /v/, which surfaces always as an obstruent, to underspecification with respect to the feature Voice.
Keywords: contrast, unification, feature-changing, feature-filling, underspecification, Russian, Tangale, vowel harmony, neutralization, allophony, epistemology, Sonorant Voicing, natural class, rule, insertion, deletion, longdistance rules
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.How Halle (1959) banned contrast
- 3.Voicing and sonorants
- 4.Appeals to contrast are opportunistic
- 5.Russian voicing patterns
- 5.1Russian final devoicing
- 5.2Notation
- 5.3Feature changing final devoicing in two steps
- 5.4Feature-changing assimilation in two steps
-
6. ‘Inconsistent’ /v/ is really /V/
- 6.1/V/ is a target of final devoicing
- 6.2/V/ is not a trigger of voicing assimilation
- 6.3/V/ is a target of voicing assimilation
- 6.4Transmission of voicing via /V/
- 7.Conclusions
-
Notes -
References
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