Cover not available
Part of
The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form: Essays in honor of Jean Lowenstamm
Edited by Sabrina Bendjaballah, Noam Faust, Mohamed Lahrouchi and Nicola Lampitelli
[Language Faculty and Beyond 12] 2014
► pp. 193–208

Staying away from the weak left edge

A strengthening strategy

| Tel-Aviv University
The left edge of the word is a strong position; it tends to resist phonological processes and be the left anchor in the formation of hypocoristics, in Hebrew (e.g. [matitjáhu] → [máti]) as well as in other languages. However, when the left edge of the base name hosts a weak segment, it has a good chance of being truncated (e.g. [jisʁaéla] → [ʁéli]). Truncation at the left edge (apheresis), as I show, is gradual; the weaker the segment at the left edge of the base, the greater the tendency to truncate this edge. Truncation at the left edge, as I argue, is a strengthening strategy – strengthening by avoiding the weak.
Published online: 17 December 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.12.15bat
References (38)
References
Adam, Galit, and Outi Bat-El. 2009. “When Do Universal Preferences Emerge in Language Development? The Acquisition of Hebrew Stress.” Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 1: 1–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bat-El, Outi. 2002. “True Truncation in Colloquial Hebrew Imperatives.” Language 78: 651–683. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2005. “The Emergence of the Trochaic Foot in Hebrew Hypocoristics.” Phonology 22: 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Laurie. 1983. “Consonant Strength Hierarchies and Danish.” Nordic Journal of Linguistics 6: 115–128. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beckman, Jill N. 1998. Positional Faithfulness. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Ben-David, Avivit. 2012. “The Development of Prosodic Structure: Evidence from Typical Longitudinal Data.” Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 4: 55–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carvalho, Joaquim Brandão de, Tobias Scheer, and Philippe Ségéral (eds). 2008. Lenition and Fortition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dinnsen, Daniel A., and Ashley W. Farris-Trimble. 2008a. “Developmental Shifts in Phonological Strength Relations.” In Strength Relations in Phonology, ed. by Kuniya Nasukawa, and Phillip Backley, 113–148. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
. 2008b. “The Prominence Paradox.” In Optimality Theory, Phonological Acquisition and Disorders, ed. by Daniel Dinnsen, and Judith Gierut, 277–308. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Escure, Geneviève. 1977. “Hierarchies and Phonological Weakening.” Lingua 43: 55–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foley, James. 1977. Foundations of Theoretical Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goodglass, Harold, Arthur Wingfield, Mary R. Hyde, Jean Berko Gleason, Nancy L. Bowles, and Roberta E. Gallagher. 1997. “The Importance of Word-initial Phonology: Error Patterns in Prolonged Naming Efforts by Aphasic Patients.” Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 3: 128–138.Google Scholar
Halicki, Eric C. 2008. “Accorciamenti, Hypocoristics, and Foot Structure: Against the Ternary Foot in Italian.” IULC Working Papers Online. Catalina Mendez-Vallejo, and Ken De Jong (eds) 7: 1–13.Google Scholar
Harris, John. 1990. “Segmental Complexity and Phonological Government.” Phonology 7: 255–300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. “Why Final Devoicing is Weakening.” In Strength Relations in Phonology, ed. by Kuniya Nasukawa, and Phillip Backley, 9–46. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Honeybone, Patrick. 2008. “Lenition, Weakening and Consonantal Strength: Tracing Concepts through the History of Phonology.” In Lenition and Fortition, ed. by Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Tobias Scheer, and Philippe Ségéral, 9–92. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hyman, Larry M. 1975. Phonology: Theory and Analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Katamba, Francis. 1979. “How Hierarchical and Universal Is Consonant Strength?” Theoretical Linguistics 6: 23–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karni, Noa. 2012. “Minimizing Faithfulness Violations in the Acquisition of Onset.” Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 4: 80–103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaye, Jonathan, Jean Lowenstamm, and Jean-Roger Vergnaud. 1985. “The Internal Structure of Phonological Elements: A Theory of Charm and Government.” Phonology Yearbook 2: 305–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kirshner, Robert M. 1998. An Effort-based Approach to Consonant Lenition. Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA.Google Scholar
Kula, Nancy, and Lutz Marten. 2009. “Defining Initial Strength in Clusterless Languages in Strict CV.” In Strength Relations in Phonology, ed. by Kuniya Nasukawa, and Phillip Backley, 47–77. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lipski, John. 1995. “Spanish Hypocoristics: Towards a Unified Prosodic Analysis.” Hispanic Linguistics 6/7: 387–434.Google Scholar
Lowenstamm, Jean. 1999. “The Beginning of the Word.” In Phonologica 1996: Syllables!?, ed. by John R. Rennison, and Klaus Kühnhammer, 153–166. The Hague: Thesus.Google Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, William. 1987. “Functional Parallelism in Spoken Word Recognition.” Cognition 25: 71–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, William, and Pienie Zwitserlood. 1989. “Accessing Spoken Words: The Importance of Word Onset.” Journal of Experimental Psychology 15: 576–585.Google Scholar
Nasukawa, Kuniya, and Phillip Backley (eds). 2009. Strength Relations in Phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Nicole. 1998. “Mixed Anchoring in French Hypocoristic Formation.” RuLing Papers 1 (Working Papers from Rutgers University): 185–199.Google Scholar
Piñeros, Carlos Eduardo. 2000. “Prosodic and Segmental Unmarkedness in Spanish Truncation.” Linguistics 38: 63–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rice, Keren D. 1992. “On Deriving Sonority: A Structural Account of Sonority Relationships.” Phonology 9: 61–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ségéral, Philippe, and Tobias Scheer. 2008a. “Positional Factors in Lenition and Fortition.” In Lenition and Fortition, ed. by Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Tobias Scheer, and Philippe Ségéral, 131–172. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
. 2008b. “The Coda Mirror, Stress and Positional Parameters.” In Lenition and Fortition, ed. by Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Tobias Scheer, and Philippe Ségéral, 483–518. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Shiraishi, Hidetoshi. 2009. “Modeling Initial Weakening.” In Strength Relations in Phonology, ed. by Kuniya Nasukawa, and Phillip Backley, 183–218. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jennifer L. 2002. Phonological Augmentation in Prominent Positions. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca. 1994. “Positional Neutralization and the Expression of Contrast.” Ms., UCLA.
Thornton, Anna M. 1996. “On Some Phenomena of Prosodic Morphology in Italian: Accorciamenti, Hypocoristics, and Prosodic Delimitation.” Probus 8: 81–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weeda, Donald S. 1992. Word Truncation in Prosodic Morphology. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Weir, Andrew. 2012. “Left­edge Deletion in English and Subject Omission in Diaries.” English Language and Linguistics 16: 105–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Alber, Birgit & Sabine Arndt‐Lappe
2023. Clipping and Truncation. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Morphology, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Jang, Hayeun
2023. Monosyllabic Affective Hypocoristics of Korean Names. Names 71:2 ► pp. 46 ff. DOI logo
Ben-David, Avivit & Outi Bat-El
2016. Paths and stages in acquisition of the phonological word in Hebrew. In Acquisition and Development of Hebrew [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 19], ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.