Ch 9 – Productivity

Ch 9 & Ch 10Ch 9 & Ch 10Slide 1

Ch 9 – ProductivityProductivity – the capacity of a rule to apply to novel circumstances. P. 190

Vowel nasalization in English is a fully productive rule.

Postnasal /t/ deletion in English = not 100% productive. Isn’t a rule that applies 100% of the time (differences in casual versus careful speech for most)

Also – there are lexical exceptions, like intonation


Ch 9 – ProductivityPolish /n/ weakening (becoming a nasalized [w]) – shows some exceptions to

rule, so does that make it not productive?

No – the exceptions are borrowed words (sometimes they don’t follow typical phonological rules in a language – like borrowings from Yiddish into English allowing shl- as an onset)

Polish shows transference of this rule to other languages, indicating it as a productive rule.

Some exceptions are 100% (like intonation which never applies the rule) versus “part-time” exceptions like Polish (diff between careful and casual speech)


Ch 9 – ProductivityTheoretical problem for rules that aren’t 100% productive – are these exceptions

stored in the lexicon and each is memorized (like suppletive forms go~went)

The /f/ voicing rule for some English plurals is complicated, has many exceptions, and is not fully productive. If we create a new word in English, like spife then what is the plural?

Some cases that appear to be phonological rules (that is, we can see a systematic pattern) may be not productive and therefore not a rule at all. Sometimes, old phonological alternations become leveled (historical process that eliminate certain alternations in favor of a more productive one) and we are left with a handful of alternations. If they don’t show any productivity, then we must assume the rule has been lost and these are memorized in lexicon


Ch 9 – ProductivityShows that there are different types of rules

/f/ voicing is a minor rule and only applies to certain forms. Basically, this rule is memorized in the lexicon, rather than just memorizing the separate plural form. Has diacritic feature [+/f/ Voicing]

A major rule – normal productive rule

Can have a form with a diacritic feature [-Rule X] that blocks rule from applying.

3 degrees of productivity: minor rules, major rules with exceptions, and major rules without exceptions.

Lardil example of an exception to the Apocope and Final lowering rules.


Ch 9 – ProductivityWug test – ways to test productivity

Yidijn shows 2 morphemes to form the ergative case. Since there is no real phonological connection between them, we can say that these 2 morphemes are both underlying and which form gets selected depends on the form of the stem

Sometimes, a data pattern shows multiple allomorphs which cannot be derived from phonological rules (called Allomorphy)

Example of stem allomorphy in Persian. Shows a different stem for the present than for the past without any phonological connection between the two (we can’t easily apply phono rules to derive one from the other). Just 2 separate lexical entries


Ch 9 – ProductivityPossible to analyze Lardil /k/ epenthesis as allomorphy instead of a limited

phonological rule. If stem ends in nasal, then use 1 allomorph. If not, use the other.

A morphological or lexical account is required when an alternation is morpheme-specific and there is no phonological relationship between the allomorphs

A phonological analysis is required when the alternation is productively extended to new morphemes

There are intermediate cases where we cannot determine the correct analysis with our current knowledge.


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxBounding domain = rule only applies when all segments are within the same

domain.

Word-bounded rule = all parts of the environment string are within a word – discusses /ai/ raising – what about tai chi and chai tea?


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxPseudo-minimal pairs = when a domain issue creates minimal pairs – rice ales

vs. rye sales – because different words, looks like minimal pair but not

Some rules are non-bounded – although discusses r-epenthesis in British English – really utterance bound (meaning it won’t apply before pause in speech)


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxStem-bounded rule – alternation below shows that rule applies only within a

stem

VS.


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxHierarchy of domains


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxSome rules bounded by phrase-edge – Chimwiini lengthening and shortening

rules


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxSome rules bounded by phrase-edge – Chimwiini lengthening and shortening

rules


Ch 10 – Role of Morph and SyntaxSome rules only apply across boundaries – the rule indicates a domain and if that

domain is not encountered, then rule doesn’t apply – sometimes called derived environment

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Ch 9 – Productivity