The Syllable in Optimality Theory

This 2003 book covers the role of the syllable in Optimality Theory.

Caroline Féry (Edited by), Ruben van de Vijver (Edited by)

9780521772624, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 January 2003

428 pages, 188 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.8 kg

Review of the hardback: '... There is much to admire in this book … It is well worth the time and energy necessary to read and digest it, and will hopefully find the wide readership it deserves.' Comptes Rendus

The syllable has always been a key concept in generative linguistics: the rules, representations, parameters, or constraints posited in diverse frameworks of theoretical phonology and morphology all make reference to this fundamental unit of prosodic structure. No less central to the field is Optimality Theory, an approach developed within (morpho-)phonology in the early 1990s. This 2003 book combines two themes of central importance to linguists and their mutual relevance in recent research. It provides an overview of the role of the syllable in OT and ways in which problems that relate to the analysis of syllable structure can be solved in OT. The contributions to the book not only show that the syllable sheds light on certain properties of OT itself, they also demonstrate that OT is capable of describing and adequately analyzing many issues that are problematic in other theories. The analyses are based on a wealth of languages.

1. Introduction Caroline Féry and Ruben van de Vijver
Part I. Syllable Structure and Prosodic Structure: 2. Sympathy, cumulativity, and the Duke-of-York gambit John McCarthy
3. The controversy over geminates and syllable weight Stuart Davis
4. The syllable as a unit of prosodic organization in Japanese Haruo Kubozono
5. Prosodic weight Draga Zec
Part II. Non-moraic Syllables and Syllable Edges: 6. Syllables and moras in Arabic Paul Kiparsky
7. Semi-syllables and universal syllabification Young-mee Cho and Tracy Holloway King
8. Onsets and non-moraic syllables in German Caroline Féry
9. Extrasyllabic consonants and onset well-formedness Antony Dubach Green
10. Beyond codas: word and phase-final alignment Caroline Wiltshire
Part III. Segments and Syllables: 11. On the sources of opacity in OT: coda processes in German Junko Ito and Armin Mester
12. Ambisyllabicity and fricative voicing in West-Germanic dialects Marc van Oostendorp
13. The CiV generalization in Dutch: what Petunia, Mafia, and Sovjet tell us about Dutch syllable structure Ruben van de Vijver
14. The relative harmony of/s+stop/onsets: obstruent clusters and the sonority sequencing principle Frida Morelli
Part IV. How Concrete is Phonotactics?: 15. The independent nature of phonotactic constraints: an alternative to syllable-based approaches Juliette Blevins.

Subject Areas: Phonetics, phonology [CFH]