Vocoids and their prosodic distribution, with special reference to Italian and Arabic
This study attempts to characterize vocoids, i.e. vowels and semivowels, as a unified class of segments. In order to do so, it investigates the main phenomena concerning the quantitative distribution of these sounds, namely syllabic alternation, length alternations, deletion and insertion. Such phenomena are best analyzed by making reference to prosodic structure, and syllable structure in particular. Therefore, both frameworks adopted in this thesis take into consideration this type of representation. The main approach, which I refer to generally as Derivational Theory (DT), is based on the notion that surface phonetic forms are derived from underlying forms through a series of structural changes taking place at different levels of representation. This model is contrasted with the recently introduced (Prince and Smolensky 1993) Optimality Theory (OT), an output-oriented paradigm based on the parallel evaluation of candidate forms by means of universal but violable constraints. This thesis shows that OT offers some valuable insights into the phenomena under analysis, although there are areas in which it requires integration with derivational tools. This study also makes specific reference to two languages:
Bosisio, Nicole
Vocoids and their prosodic distribution, with special reference to Italian and Arabic. This study attempts to characterize vocoids, i.e. vowels and semivowels, as a unified class of segments. In order to do so, it investigates the main phenomena concerning the quantitative distribution of these sounds, namely syllabic alternation, length alternations, deletion and insertion. Such phenomena are best analyzed by making reference to prosodic structure, and syllable structure in particular. Therefore, both frameworks adopted in this thesis take into consideration this type of representation. The main approach, which I refer to generally as Derivational Theory (DT), is based on the notion that surface phonetic forms are derived from underlying forms through a series of structural changes taking place at different levels of representation. This model is contrasted with the recently introduced (Prince and Smolensky 1993) Optimality Theory (OT), an output-oriented paradigm based on the parallel evaluation of candidate forms by means of universal but violable constraints. This thesis shows that OT offers some valuable insights into the phenomena under analysis, although there are areas in which it requires integration with derivational tools. This study also makes specific reference to two languages:
prosodic distribution special_reference italian arabic study_attempt characterize vowel unified class segment order_investigate main phenomenon concern quantitative distribution sound namely syllabic alternation length alternation deletion insertion phenomenon best analyze make reference prosodic_structure syllable_structure particular therefore framework_adopt take_consideration type representation main refer generally derivational theory base notion surface phonetic form derive underlying form series structural_change take_place different_level representation model contrast recently introduce prince_smolensky optimality_theory output oriented paradigm base parallel evaluation candidate form mean universal constraint show offer valuable insight phenomenon analysis although area require integration derivational tool study also_make specific_reference two_language