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Allomorphy The Hebrew University June 2014. A fault of default Local and global default in Hebrew feminine verbs. Outi Bat-El Tel-Aviv University obatel@post.tau.ac.il www.outibatel.com. Default. A llomorphy. Given two or more surface allomorphs, which one is the default?
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Allomorphy The Hebrew University June 2014 A fault of default Local and global default in Hebrew feminine verbs Outi Bat-El Tel-Aviv University obatel@post.tau.ac.il www.outibatel.com
Default Allomorphy • Given two or more surface allomorphs, which one is the default? • The answer is often trivial
Two types of allomorphy - two types of default • Phonologically-conditioned allomorphy – the default is identical to the underlying representation (basic)* *Zwicky, M. Arnold. 1986. The general case: Basic form versus Default form. Proceedings of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 305-314.
Two types of default • Phonologically-conditioned allomorphy – the default is identical to the underlying representation (basic) • Non-phonologically-conditioned allomorphy – the default is NOT irregular & NOT limited in distribution (???)
Default X: In the absence of any information to the contrary, assume X* The default allomorph appears whenever the specific one fails – it is the elsewhere case** English Plural Information to the contrary specific [X]sg [X-en]pl X = ox, … No information default [X]sg [X-z]pl *Reiter, R. 1980. A logic for default reasoning. Artificial Intelligence 13:81-132. **Kiparsky, Paul. 1973. ‘Elsewhere’ in phonology. In S.R. Anderson and P. Kiparsky (eds), A Festchrift for Morris Halle. 93-106. Hold, Rinehart and Winston.
Question addressed Which of the two FM.SG suffixes appearing in present tense verbs in Hebrew is the default? -etor -a?
On the menu • Data: The distribution of the FM.SG suffixes • Take I: Default -et • Take II: Default -a • Claim: Both default – local and global default • OT analysis • V final stems – free variation • Experimental results • More questions Part A: Life is good Part B: Life is not perfect
Suffixes in the verb paradigm Present No person contrast
Suffixes in the verb paradigm Plural Past and Future No gender contrast
Suffixes in the verb paradigm Future Prefixes provide further contrast
FM.SG suffixes in the verb paradigm -tand -etcan serve as the only surface cue for tense contrast
FM.SG suffixes in the verb paradigm -a appears in both Past and Present
FM.SG suffixes in the verb paradigm -a appears in both Past and Present
FM.SG suffixes in the verb paradigm -a appears in both Past and Present
FM.SG suffixes in the verb paradigm -a appears in both Past and Present
FM.SG suffixes in the verb paradigm Present FM.SG is the only case where one bundle of morphosyntactic features corresponds to two exponents
Why? Present FM.SG is the only case where one bundle of morphosyntactic features corresponds to two exponents
Why? A historical note • Modern Hebrew (MH) drew the verb paradigm from Biblical Hebrew (BH) • MH present tense paradigm was not a verbal paradigm in BH* Present FM.SG is the only case where one bundle of morphosyntactic features corresponds to two exponents *דורון, עדית. תשס"ו-תשס"ז. רוזן על הסמנטיקה של מערכת זמני הפועל בעברית. העברית ואחיותיה ו-ז:268-249.
Why? A historical note • Modern Hebrew (MH) drew the verb paradigm from Biblical Hebrew (BH) • MH Present tense paradigm was not a verbal paradigm in BH* • Noun morphology is much more chaotic than verb morphology, • also with regard to the feminine suffixes** • The paradigm changed its status, but the chaos hasn’t yet disappeared Present FM.SG is the only case where one bundle of morphosyntactic features corresponds to two exponents **Schwarzwald, R. Ora. 1991. Lexical weight in Hebrew inflectional feminine formation. In Alan S. Kaye (ed.) Semitic Studies In honor of Wolf Leslau. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. 1409-1425.
Note: No commitment as to whether the two suffixes share an UR • If -aand -etdo not sharean UR • Then the default cannot be implied from the UR
Note: No commitment as to whether the two suffixes share an UR • If -aand -etshare an UR* • Then, the UR cannot serve as default since it differs from both allomorphs Phonological representationUR a t a t {at, CVCV} C V C V C V C V [-a] [-et] • Default – assuming we give “bad” markedness points to: • one-to-many association • floating segment *Faust, Noam. 2013. Decomposing the feminine suffixes of Modern Hebrew. Morphology 23:409-440.
The FM.SG. suffixes -etand -ain the present tense Which is the default? Take I: default -et
The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final verbs)* *אורנן, ע'. תשל"א. גישה חדשה לתיאור הפועל ולהוראתו והדגמתה בנטיית הבינוני. בתוך: ש' קודש (עורך) ספר קמרט. ירושלים: המועצה להנחלת הלשון. עמ' 44-32.
The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final verbs)
The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final verbs)
The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final stems)
The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final verbs) Specific Default
Quantitative distribution Natural speech tokens (2 hours recoding)* 498 most frequent verbs in written material** *Zadok, Gila. 2012. Similarity, Variation, and Change: In stability in Hebrew weak verbs. Ph.D. dissertation, Tel-Aviv University. **Complied and kindly provided by Shmuel Bolozky
Regularity: -aassociats with irregular verbs (more than -et) • -ashows higher percentage of tokens than types • -aappears with irregular verbs • The 10 most frequent verbs are irregular (in different ways) • 8 out of the 10 take -a • yexolá‘can’, osá‘do’,magiá‘arrive’, báa‘come’, roá‘see’, ʦrexá‘need’, roʦá‘want’ • oméret‘say’, yodáat‘know’* • *-et surfaces as -at after the historical pharyngeals
Summary of Take I The data suggest that -ais thespecific allomorph, thus -etis the default, based on three types of evidence:
Qualitative distribution The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final verbs) Specific Default
Quantitative distribution Natural speech tokens (2 hours recoding) 498 most frequent verbs in written material
Affiliation with irregular verbs Regularity: -aassociats with irregular verbs (more than -et) • -ashows higher percentage of tokens than types • -aappears with irregular verbs • The 10 most frequent verbs are irregular (in different ways) • 8 out of the 10 take -a • yexolá‘can’, osá‘do’,magiá‘arrive’, báa‘come’, roá‘see’, ʦrexá‘need’, roʦá‘want’ • oméret‘say’, yodáat‘know’* • *-et surfaces as -at after the historical pharyngeals
The FM.SG. suffixes -etand -ain the present tense Which is the default? Take II: default -a
The fault of the default • Default X: In the absence of any information to the contrary, assume X • The default allomorph appears whenever the specific one fails • Assuming with Take I that -et is the default, • we expect -etto appear whenever -afails • However … • -aappears whenever -etfails (blocked) • Therefore, -amust be the default
-a emerges when the preceding vowel is not mid and it cannot change to mid Phonological constraints on -et [ C V C V C ]Ft -lw -hi e t The suffix -etis preceded by a mid vowel in an open syllable The suffix -etis hosted by the weak syllable of a binary trochaic foot
-et has priority over -a in Present • oxélet‘eat’ • mevašélet‘cook’ • nixnéset‘enter’ • Monosyllabic verbs take -a in Present • šára‘sing’ • káma‘get up’ • ráʦa‘run’
Phonological constraints on -et [ C V C V C ]Ft -lw -hi e t The suffix -etis preceded by a mid vowel in an open syllable
MIDV-et The suffix -etis preceded by a mid vowel in an open syllable
FAITHVMONO A vowel in a monosyllabic input has an identical correspondent in the output
FaithV[high] A high vowel in the input has an identical correspondent In the output
The distribution of -a in the present tense (C-final verbs)
FAITHVMONO (FAITHVM) A vowel in a monosyllabic input has an identical correspondent in the output MIDV-et The suffix -etis preceded by a mid vowel in an open syllable
The distribution of -a and -et in the present tense (C-final verbs)