Current Issues in Phonology, 152900041 Assignment 1
Dr George Starling
gs56@soas.ac.uk
Japanese (Japonic, Japan)
This assignment requires you to present a constraint-based analysis in the Optimality Theory. The goal of your analysis is to describe an intermediate stage within children’s acquisition of the prosodic structure of Japanese. This assignment will focus on the production of geminates, diphthongs and nasal codas.
Stage 1 |
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Child Form |
Target Form |
Gloss |
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nada |
nanda |
‘what’s that?’ |
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wawa |
waðwað |
‘doggie’ |
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ha |
hai |
‘yes’ |
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na |
nai |
‘all-gone’ |
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jate |
jat:e |
‘do (it)’ |
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mama |
mam:a |
‘food’ |
The data above indicate that children reduce geminates to singletons, produce short vowels for diphthongs, and do not realise postvocalic nasal consonants. The data further suggest that three markedness constraints are highly ranked within children’s early grammars.
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*P/coda Ban plosives from occurring in the coda. |
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*N/coda Ban nasals from occurring in the coda. |
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*Diph Ban the occurrence of diphthongal vowels. |
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Stage 2 |
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Child Form |
Target Form |
Gloss |
Child Form |
Target Form |
Gloss |
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na:da |
nanda |
‘what’s that?’ |
sa: |
sað |
‘three’ |
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ma:ma |
mam:a |
‘food’ |
pa:da |
panda |
‘panda’ |
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pe:gi: |
peNgin |
‘penguin’ |
da:go |
daNgo |
‘dumpling’ |
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ha: |
hai |
‘yes’ |
mi:na: |
mienai |
‘can’t see’ |
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omo: |
omoi |
‘heavy’ |
na: |
nai |
‘all-gone’ |
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jat:e |
jat:e |
‘do (it)’ |
kuk:u |
kuk:u |
‘shoe’ |
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op:a: |
op:ai |
‘breast’ |
deS:a |
deNSa |
‘train’ |
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gek:i |
geNki |
‘ ne’ |
> |
> |
‘all-gone’ |
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dZap:u |
dZampu |
Stage 3
Children produce adult-like forms for all geminates, diphthongs and nasal codas: their productions match the target forms for all of the words above.
Present a uni ed analysis of children’s productions in stage 2, making references to the following questions. You do not need to answer these questions in order:
- What aspects of prosodic structure are children’s productions faithful to in stage 2 that they weren’t in stage 1? Think about which faithfulness constraints are relevant and how they are ranked relative to markedness.
- Do children permit any coda consonants in stage 2? Are the markedness constraints above su cient to explain what you observe?
- Illustrate your constraint rankings with tableau. Provide tableau that indicate your ranking has [gek:i] and [pa:da] as optimal for /geNki/ and /panda/ respectively.
- Can the di erences between stage 1 and 2 be explained through reranking? What about those between stage 2 and 3? Comment brie y on how the demotion of constraints a ects prosodic structure.
Please note:
- Many patterns and errors in manner, place, and voicing that occur in the original data have been simpli ed. You can assume that child productions are consistent and exceptionless.
- Faithfulness constraints include Dep, Max, and Ident(F), where F is any feature. You may apply Max and Dep to features, segments, and mora. Each of these three general constraints can be used in speci c environments: for example, Ident(F)/Onset.
- In addition to the markedness constraints given, you may propose your own. Please de ne them clearly. Such constraints should take the form *XYZ where XYZ is a marked feature, segment or natural class. As above, these can be used in speci c environments: for example, *N/coda.
- You do not need to exhaustively explain the forms that are reported for stages 1 and 3 or provide tableaux for either of these stages. You may provide an account of these forms and accompany them with tableaux, however, in order to justify your answer to (4).
Word count: a maximum of 2,500 words, excluding tables, examples, rules, and references. Please convert your assignment into a .pdf before you upload it to Moodle. Upload your submissions under ‘AS1 – Japanese’.