Linguists have been attempting to define the range of locations in which infixescan occur since Ultan's pioneering work in 1975, but to date therehas been no unambiguous evidence for infixation after the first syllable,despite previous (now controversial) claims of its existence by Ultan (1975) andMoravcsik (2000), as well as its predicted existence by Yu's SalientPivot Hypothesis (‘phonological pivots must be salient at thepsycholinguistic or phonetic level’) (2003, 2007). Previouslyexamined potential examples are controversial due to restricted patterns and theacceptability of alternative analyses such as a first-vowel pivot or afoot-based pivot (Samuels 2010). In this article, I present strong evidence fromfieldwork on Yeri, an endangered Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea, thatimperfective and additive morphemes productively occur as infixes after thefirst syllable of the verb stem, and that a first-vowel or foot-based analysiscannot account for their position.

We are naturally pleased that Xu et al. (2015) have taken the trouble to address our critique of the PENTA model, and it is useful to have a concise restatement of PENTA's aims and assumptions. However, we believe that their reply does not address the key point of our earlier paper (Arvaniti & Ladd 2009), which was that syllable-by-syllable specification of F0 does not makes theoretical sense in a language where F0 functions at the phrase or utterance level, and does not permit adequate quantitative modelling of complex intonation contours in short utterances.

Obstruents in Russian have been claimed to assimilate in voicing in clusters when a sonorant consonant intervenes, e.g. ot mgly [dmg] ‘from the haze’. This phenomenon (‘sonorant transparency to voice assimilation’) is controversial: it is claimed to be a phonological rule of fast speech by some linguists, while its existence is denied by others. Previous studies have shown that voicing in presonorant obstruents (C1) in Russian is consistent with that of prevocalic obstruents in slow speech; however, no research has examined whether voicing in presonorant obstruents changes either as a function of the voicing of the rightmost (C2) obstruent in a cluster or in faster speech. This paper presents experimental results supporting the claim that the voicing of C2 obstruents does not affect voicing in presonorant C1 obstruents in slow or fast speech. The results suggest that obstruents do not assimilate through a sonorant in obstruent–sonorant–obstruent clusters in Russian.

Köhnlein (2016) proposes to represent the Franconian tone contrast as a difference in foot structure, whereby Accent 1 appears in lexically marked syllabic trochees and Accent 2 in default moraic trochees, as an alternative to analyses with an underlying privative tone for Accent 2. After sketching the two approaches, we argue against three arguments Köhnlein advances in favour of the metrical analysis. We then show that one of the disadvantages incurred by the metrically derived tonal representations is the introduction of a novel and otherwise unsupported concept of a single tone that incorporates two morphologically different but phonologically identical tones. We also evaluate Köhnlein's (2018) more recent proposal to use the syllabic trochee to account for subtractive plurals in tonal dialects. Finally, we compare the predictive powers of the metrical and tonal analyses of the Arzbach dialect.

A computational notion of locality, based on forbidden substructures of a fixed size, is applied to autosegmental representations, and tone-association patterns are argued to be local. This is significant for phonological theory, for two reasons. First, this notion of locality provides for an explicit theory of tonal well-formedness that is superior to previous explanations in that it makes clear, restrictive typological predictions. Second, it provides a clear path for understanding how these patterns can be learned. A brief survey of major tone-association patterns shows that association generalisations which are edge-based (Mende and Hausa), quality-specific (Kukuya) or positional (Northern Karanga Shona) are all local in this way. This is contrasted with previous explanations of the typology, which require global reference to the directionality of association, and can thus overgenerate.

Black (1991) proposes that the failure of Velar Glide Deletion in some contexts motivates an iambic typology in which a disyllabic iamb is better than a monosyllabic iamb. Velar Glide Deletion in Axininca fails when a demotion on the iambic scale would result from its application. However, empirical findings from epenthesis, the regressive marker, augmentation and comparative data from Caquinte Campa argue against this analysis. It is important to note the relationship between the assumption that the root + suffix constitutes the prosodic domain of Velar Glide Deletion, as argued by the typological analysis, and the conclusion that Velar Glide Deletion fails when a monosyllabic foot would result from a disyllabic one. If the suffix is abandoned as part of the prosodic domain for computing Velar Glide Deletion, the root alone is the prosodic domain prohibiting Velar Glide Deletion. In the latter case, the minimal word blocking Deletion is a regular, minimal quantity-sensitive foot.

We analyse the distribution of vowel laxness and stress alternations in Slovenian nouns (for example in the nominative and genitive forms of the masculine noun [ˈjɛzik ~ jeˈzika] ‘tongue’), showing that stress shifts away from mid lax vowels in initial syllables. A stress shift of this sort is predicted by positional faithfulness (Beckman 1997). We show that this prediction is correct, contra McCarthy (2007, 2010) and Jesney (2011). The productivity of the pattern is confirmed in a large-scale nonce-word task. Stress shift in Slovenian is a result of the markedness of mid lax vowels and, perhaps counterintuitively, faithfulness to laxness in initial stressed position.

A'ingae (or Cofán) is a language isolate spoken in the Ecuadorian and Colombian Amazon. This study presents a description and analysis of the language's morphologically conditioned verbal stress assignment. Specifically, I show that A'ingae verbal morphemes can be classified with two binary parameters: the presence or absence of prestressing and the presence or absence of stress deletion (i.e. dominance), which vary independently. I formalise my analysis in Cophonology Theory, a non-representational theory of the phonology–morphology interface, which captures morpheme-specific phonology with constraint rankings particularised to morphological constructions. I argue that while non-representational approaches such as Cophonology Theory can handle the facts of A'ingae stress deletion straightforwardly, representational approaches lack the expressive power necessary to capture the stress facts of the language.

Fungwa marks the diminutive by fronting non-high vowels of nominal roots and the augmentative by backing non-high vowels of nominal roots. The root-vowel mutation is considered to be an effect of diminutive and augmentative morphemes which have [―back] and [+back] features as their phonetic exponents. The form–meaning association of the morphemes is consistent with the pattern of sound-size symbolism in various languages. Thus Fungwa presents categorical and deterministic evidence for sound-size symbolism. To account for the realisation of the featural affixes, I assume featural correspondence constraints. Given that the featural affixes are not realised on high vowels, I argue that the realisation of the featural affixes involves a prominence-based licensing condition.

Šmartno is a critically endangered dialect of Slovenian that exhibits three interacting processes: final devoicing, unstressed high vowel deletion and vowel–glide coalescence. Their interaction is opaque: final obstruents devoice, unless they become final due to vowel deletion; high vowels delete, but not when created by coalescence. These patterns constitute a synchronic chain shift that leads to two emergent contrasts: final obstruent voicing and vowel length (due to compensatory lengthening). The paper examines all nominal paradigms, and complements them with an acoustic analysis of vowel duration and obstruent voicing. This work presents one of the most thoroughly documented instances of counterfeeding opacity on environment.

Correspondence is a relation between one representation and another (McCarthy & Prince 1993, 1994, 1995). This relationship may be between an underlying or lexical representation and a surface representation, that is: Input–Output forms; or between surface forms such as a reduplicant and its base (McCarthy & Prince 1995) or other derivationally related pairs (see for example Benua 1995, McCarthy 1995, Kenstowicz 1996) – i.e. Output–Output. Correspondence constraints over related words in a paradigm ensure uniformity within the paradigm. In earlier theories this effect was ensured by the Strict Cycle Constraint, which forbade structure-changing operations except in immediately derived environments and thus ensured that most of the base word stayed the same in derivation. In this paper we show that correspondence between derivationally related output forms (Benua 1995) is essential for the proper analysis of vowel length in Warray, a language of Northern Australia spoken near Darwin, and superior to an account making use of cyclicity. Correspondence constraints ensuring identity between output forms explain the pattern of vowel length in nouns, predicting both where long vowels occur as well as the apparently anomalous appearance of short vowels where long vowels might be expected.

Spatial location and direction are expressed in French primarily by means of prepositional phrases involving three different prepositions:en, dans and à. Disregarding the usual collection of fixed expressions, lexical idiosyncrasies and subtle pragmatic and stylistic effects, the large generalisation about spatial PPs is that dans and a tend to be used with objects understood referentially, as in (1) and (2) (such ‘determinate’ or ‘particularised’ NPs will typically have a determiner in them), while en is used with non-referential objects, as in (3) (these will typically lack a determiner):

(1) a. dans la prison ‘in(to) the prison’

b. dans une prison ‘in(to) a prison’

(2) a l'ecole ‘in(to) the school’

(3) en prison ‘in(to) prison’

In the Yakima dialect of Sahaptin, the smallest forms of words are CCV and CVC, as established by a study of lexical patterns and the obligatory augmentation of subminimal roots. We argue that CCV words cannot be considered a type of disyllable, nor do the initial consonants in CCV words exhibit properties (apart from minimality) that would allow them to be classified as moraic. We therefore propose that Yakima Sahaptin represents a previously unrecognised type of minimality, biconsonantal minimality. This kind of minimality requires a theoretical framework in which consonants can be distinguished from vowels, as do other phonological phenomena.

This article presents a selection of methods to analyse, compare, verify and formally prove properties about phonological generalisations. Drawing from both well-known and recent results in the domains of model checking and automata theory, a useful methodology for automating the task of comparing analyses and inventing counterexamples is explored. The methods are illustrated by practical case studies that are intended to both resolve concrete issues and be representative of typical techniques and results.

This paper reports a new kind of tone polarity, where the phenomenon is seen in a language with four level tones, Tenyidie (also known as Angami). I show that the polarity is in the features of the tones, i.e. at a subtonal level. The data also provide evidence that tones themselves can be broken down into smaller features. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the polarity pattern observed in the language is an epiphenomenon, a reflex of the Obligatory Contour Principle, not a phonological process in its own right. I show this with the help of a new type of tonal representation. Theoretical discussions of tone polarity have so far been almost entirely restricted to African tone systems, and to languages with just two tones. This paper brings into the discussion a Tibeto-Burman language with four tones.

While the use of categorical features seems to be the appropriate way to express sound patterns within languages, these features do not seem adequate to describe the sounds actually produced by speakers. Examination of the speech signal fails to reveal objective, discrete phonological segments. Similarly, segments are not directly observable in the flow of articulatory movements, and vary slightly according to an individual speaker's articulatory strategies. Because of the lack of a reliable relationship between segments and speech sounds, a plausible transition from feature representation to the actual acoustic signal has proven elusive. This paper utilises a theory of information processing, known as PARALLEL DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING (PDP) NETWORKS (also called neural networks), to propose a model which begins to express this transition: translating the feature bundles indicated in a broad phonetic transcription into continuous, potentially variable articulator behaviour.

This paper employs a computational framework to demonstrate that two competing feature-geometric models of tonal representation are notationally equivalent. A model-theoretic analysis of these structures using a low-complexity logic yields two main results. First, the current study demonstrates that the models do not differ in their empirical coverage of assimilatory tone-sandhi processes in Chinese dialects, contrary to previous claims. Second, the models are shown to be bi-interpretable (using a more restrictive definition of bi-interpretability than earlier studies), thus providing a formally rigorous demonstration that the differences between the structures of the models are superficial, rather than substantive. The computational characterisation pursued here is well suited to questions of notational equivalence, because it allows for a principled comparison of the empirical coverage and structural content of two models using a single formalism.

It is generally acknowledged, by both its proponents and detractors, that Optimality Theory has provoked a reexamination, in recent years, of the role of functional considerations, and their typological reflexes, in phonological theory. April McMahon's Change, chance, and optimality attempts an in-depth examination of this issue, particularly from the perspective of the relation between synchrony and diachrony in linguistic theory. The issue, and OT's general stance towards it, are summarised by Prince & Smolensky (1993: 198):

One might feel compelled to view a grammar as a more-or-less arbitrary assortment of formal rules, where the principles that the rules subserve (the ‘laws’) are placed entirely outside the grammar, beyond the purview of formal or theoretical analysis, inert but admired. It is not unheard of to conduct phonology in this fashion. We urge a reassessment of this essentially formalist position. If phonology is separated from the principles of well-formedness (the ‘laws’) that drive it, the resulting loss of constraint and theoretical depth will mark as major defeat for the enterprise. The danger, therefore, lies in the other direction: clinging to a conception of Universal Grammar as little more than a loose organizing framework for grammars. A much stronger stance, in accord with the thrust of recent work, is available. When the scalar and the gradient are recognized and brought within the purview of theory, Universal Grammar can supply the very substance from which grammars are built: a set of highly general constraints which, through ranking, interact to produce the elaborate particularity of individual languages.