Saltation and the P-map
by Bruce Hayes (UCLA) and James White (University College London)
Provisionally accepted in Phonology
This page permits downloading of the journal-submitted version as well as supplemental files.
Abstract
We define a saltatory phonological alternation as one in which sound
A is converted to C, leaping over a phonetically intermediate sound B. For
example, in Campidanian Sardinian, intervocalic [p] is realized
as [<beta>] -- leaping over [b], which does not alternate. Based on
experimental evidence, we argue that saltatory alternation is a marked
phenomenon, in the sense that a UG bias causes language learners to disprefer
it. However, despite its marked status, saltation does arise from time to time
in the world's phonologies; we survey the diachronic origins of saltation and
suggest that it is never introduced as a sound change, but arises only
incidentally from a variety of historical accidents. Lastly, we propose a new
approach to the formal analysis of saltation, based on Zuraw's (2007, 2013) idea
of *Map
constraints and Steriade's (2001, 2008) notion of the P-map. Under our proposal,
saltation is predicted to be disfavored, since by definition it is not
P-map-compliant. We argue that this approach can account for the
psycholinguistic evidence for learning bias and is more restrictive than
previous proposals.
Paper
Supplementary materials
These are related to our full-scale analysis of Campidanian saltation. The pdf file is a set of illustrative tableaux; and the plain text file is a tab-delimited text file for OTSoft.