| ROA: | 249 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Geminate Inalterability and Lenition |
| Authors: | Robert Kirchner |
| Comment: | 57 pages. Word file requires IPA Times font |
| Length: | 57 |
| Abstract: | Geminate Inalterability and Lenition Robert Kirchner UCLA This paper reexamines the phenomenon of geminate inalterability (cf. Hayes 1986, Schein and Steriade 1986, Inkelas & Cho 1993), demon- strating, from a broad typological survey, that geminate inalterabil- ity attains the level of a universal, inviolable principle only in the domain of lenition phenomena (accord, Churma 1988). A unified formal approach to lenition phenomena is presented, proceeding from the intui- tion that lenition is driven by the imperative to minimize articulatory effort, and relying on Optimality Theoretic constraint interaction. The geminate inalterability generalization is shown to follow from this effort-based approach to lenition, coupled with certain plausible phonetic assumptions concerning the effort involved in geminates and their lenited counterparts. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |