Vowel reduction in European Portuguese and the removal of structure
Abstract
This article applies the proposals for the internal structure of vowels made within Government Phonology (GP) 2.0 (Pöchtrager 2006, 2018) to vowel reduction in European Portuguese. GP 2.0 assumes that openness is a structural property and that reduction consists in removing parts of that structure. This approach not only allows us to model various reduction patterns, but also makes it possible to establish a non-arbitrary link between differences in the extent of reduction and the context where it occurs. As will be shown throughout the text, taking aperture as structural has broader cross-linguistic coverage than existing alternatives.
Keywords
European Portuguese, Government Phonology, elements, vowel reduction, structure, apertureReferences
Anderson, John & Colin J. Ewen. 1987. Principles of Dependency Phonology. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511753442
Backley, Phillip. 2011. An Introduction to Element Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748637447
Baker, Mark C. 2008. The macroparameter in a microparametric world. In T. Biberauer (ed.), The limits of syntactic variation, 351–373. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.132.16bak
Botma, Bert, Ewen, Colin J. & Erik Jan van der Torre. 2008. The syllabic affiliation of postvocalic liquids: An onset-specifier approach. Lingua 118: 1250–1270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2007.09.004
Broadbent, Judith M. 1991. Linking and intrusive r in English. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 3: 281–301.
Broadbent, Judith M. 1996. The Representation of Coronal Segments. Ph.D. thesis, University of London. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104494/1/10017228.pdf
Broadbent, Judith M. 1999. A new approach to the representation of coronal segments. In S. J. Hannahs & M. Davenport (eds.), Issues in Phonological Structure: Papers from an International Workshop, 1–25. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.196.04bro
Carvalho, Joaquim Brandão de. 1994. What are vowels made of? Studia Linguistica 48: 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9582.1994.tb00847.x
Carvalho, Joaquim Brandão de. 2011. Contrastive hierarchies, privative features, and Portuguese vowels. Revista de Estudos Lingusticos da Univerdade do Porto 6(1): 51–66. https://ojs.letras.up.pt/index.php/EL/article/view/2737/2523
Charette, Monik. 1990. Licence to govern. Phonology 7: 233–253. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675700001196
Charette, Monik. 1991. Conditions on phonological government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511554339
Cobb, Margaret. 1997. Conditions on nuclear expressions in phonology. Ph.D. thesis, University of London/SOAS. https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29754/1/10752726.pdf
Cristófaro Alves da Silva, Thaïs. 1992. Nuclear Phenomena in Brazilian Portuguese. Ph.D. thesis, University of London/SOAS. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00028459
Cyran, Eugeniusz. 1997. Resonance Elements in Phonology: A Study in Munster Irish. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Folium.
Enguehard, Guillaume & Noam Faust. 2018. Guttural ghosts in Modern Hebrew. Linguistic Inquiry 49(4): 685–721.
Faust, Noam. 2017. Get that into your head: Tigre vowel harmonies as templatic. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 2(1, article 95): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.466
Fudge, Erik C. 1969. Syllables. Journal of Linguistics 5: 253–286. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700002267
Goh, Yeng-Seng. 1997. The Segmental Phonology of Beijing Mandarin. Taipei: Crane Publishing.
Hall, Tracy Alan. 2002. Against extrasyllabic consonants in German and English. Phonology 19: 33–75. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675702004268
Harris, John. 1990. Segmental complexity and phonological government. Phonology 7(2): 255–301. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675700001202
Harris, John. 1997. Licensing Inheritance: an integrated theory of neutralisation. Phonology 14: 315–370. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675798003479
Harris, John. 1999. Release the captive coda: the foot as a domain of phonetic interpretation. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 11: 165–194. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/PUB/WPL/99papers/harris.pdf
Harris, John & Geoff Lindsey. 1995. The elements of phonological representation. In J. Durand & F. Katamba (eds.), Frontiers of Phonology: Atoms, Structures, Derivations, 34–79. London, New York: Longman.
Hayes, Bruce. 1986. Inalterability in CV Phonology. Language 62(2): 321–351. https://doi.org/10.2307/414676
Heo, Yong. 1994. Empty Categories and Korean Phonology. Ph.D. thesis, University of London/SOAS. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029201
Honeybone, Patrick. 2005. Sharing makes us stronger: Process inhibition and segmental structure. In P. Carr, J. Durand & C. J. Ewen (eds.), Headhood, elements, specification and contrastivity, 167–192. Amsterdam: Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.259.12hon
Kaye, Jonathan. 1990. ‘Coda’ Licensing. Phonology 7: 301–330. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675700001214
Kaye, Jonathan. 1995. Derivations and interfaces. In J. Durand & F. Katamba (eds.), Frontiers of Phonology: Atoms, Structures, Derivations, 289–332. London, New York: Longman.
Kaye, Jonathan. 2000. A user’s guide to government phonology (GP). Unpublished Ms.
Kaye, Jonathan, Jean Lowenstamm & Jean-Roger Vergnaud. 1985. The internal structure of phonological elements: a theory of charm and government. Phonology Yearbook 2: 303–328. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675700000476
Kaye, Jonathan, Jean Lowenstamm & Jean-Roger Vergnaud. 1990. Constituent structure and government in phonology. Phonology 7(2): 193–231. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952675700001184
Kaye, Jonathan & Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2013. GP 2.0. SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics & Phonetics 16: 51–64.
Martins, Maria Raquel Delgado. 1982. Aspects de l’accent en portugais. Hamburg: Buske.
Mateus, Maria Helena & Ernesto d’Andrade. 2000. The Phonology of Portuguese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2006. The structure of length. Ph.D. thesis, University of Vienna.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2010. The structure of A. Paper presented at the 33rd GLOW Colloquium, Wrocław, 13–16 April.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2012. Deconstructing A. Paper presented at the MFM Fringe Meeting on Segmental Architecture, University of Manchester, 23 May.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2013. On A. Paper presented at the Workshop on Melodic
Representation, University College London, 12 March.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2015a. Beyond the segment. In E. Raimy & C. E. Cairns (eds.), The Segment, 44–64. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555491.ch3
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2015b. Binding in Phonology. In H. van Riemsdijk & M. van Oostendorp (eds.), Representing Structure in Phonology and Syntax, 255–275. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2017. Transparent vowels: Small cogs in large machines. Paper presented at MFM25, University of Manchester, 26 May.
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2018. Sawing off the branch you are sitting on. Acta Linguistica Academica 65(1): 47–68. https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2018.65.1.3
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2020. Tense? (Re)lax! A new formalisation for a controversial contrast. Acta Linguistica Academica 67(1): 53–71. https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2020.00005
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2021a. English vowel structure and stress in GP 2.0. In S. Bendjaballah, A. Tifrit & L. Voeltzel (eds.), Perspectives on Element Theory, 157–183. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110691948
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2021b. Towards a non-arbitrary account of affricates and affrication. Glossa 6(1) 61: 1–31. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1116
Pöchtrager, Markus A. 2023. The Unbearable Lightness of Being High: Openness as Structure and the Consequences for Prosody. In J. van de Weijer (ed), Segmental Structure and Representations (Part I), 71–90. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730098-004
Schane, Sanford A. 1984. The fundamentals of particle phonology. Phonology Yearbook 1: 129–155. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675700000324
Segundo, Silvia de Oliveira. 1993. Stress and related phenomena in Brazilian (Natal) Portuguese. Ph.D. thesis, University of London/SOAS. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00028669
Selkirk, Elisabeth. 1982. The syllable. In H. van der Hulst & N. Smith (eds.), The Structure of Phonological Representations (Vol. 2), 337–383. Dordrecht & Cinnaminson: Foris. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112423325-010
Schein, Barry & Donca Steriade. 1986. On Geminates. Linguistic Inquiry 17(4): 691–744.
Vaux, Bert & Andrew Wolfe. 2009. The appendix. In E. Raimy & C. E. Cairns (eds.), Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonology, 101–143. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262182706.003.0005
Wheeler, Max W. 2005. The Phonology of Catalan. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Wetzels, W. Leo. 1995. Mid-vowel alternations in the Brazilian Portuguese verb. Phonology 12(2): 281–304. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675700002505
Živanovič, Sašo & Markus A. Pöchtrager. 2010. GP 2.0 and Putonghua, too. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 57(4): 357–380. https://doi.org/10.1556/aling.57.2010.4.1
Published
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2024 Markus Pöchtrager
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
