Research

Ohio State Dissertations in Linguistics (OSDL)

Mary Bradshaw (1999)

A Crosslinguistic Study of Consonant-Tone Interaction

Advisor: David Odden

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Abstract:

This thesis undertakes a crosslinguistic study of interaction between consonants and tone in order to arrive at relevant phonological generalizations. Surveying over 25 tone languages from Africa and Asia, it is found that only voiced consonants are involved in such interactions. In consonant-tone interaction, L tones are inserted and H tones blocked after voiced consonants. Moreover, voiceless obstruents become voiced in the presence of L tone in several languages.

The involvement of voiced consonants and the lack of involvement of voiceless consonants in consonant-tone effects provide a new argument for the position that the feature which represents voicing is privative. Added to the arguments based on voicing dissimilation in Japanese (Mester & Ito 1989) and laryngeal neutralization (Lombardi 1994), the case for privativity of this particular feature is thereby strengthened.

Specifically, this thesis proposes a Multiplanar Hypothesis of Consonant-Tone Interaction which claims that (1) tone is dual in nature and must be so represented in feature geometry, (2) a single privative feature, referred to as [L/voice], encompasses both L tone and the traditional feature [voice], and (3) the feature [L/voice] can be associated subsegmentally to the Laryngeal node and/or prosodically to the mora. The resulting theory allows a principled and unified analysis of consonant-tone phenomena.

The proposal of a privative feature [L/voice] leads to a reexamination of the phonetic correlates of the traditional feature [voice] and their modification to accommodate the interaction of voicing and tone. Specifically, it is proposed that the phonetic correlate of [L/voice] is a laryngeal configuration, probably involving larynx height, in which the fundamental frequency of a vowel is lowered. After voiced obstruents, the onset pitch of a vowel is lowered. Vowels realized with a L tone are also characterized by lowered pitch.

This thesis also investigates the phonetic side of consonant-tone interaction and uncovers a mismatch between phonetically natural versus phonologicallyrelevant interactions. An investigation of this mismatch leads to the conclusion that the role of phonetics in the phonology must be limited by purely phonological factors when a conflict arises. In this case, the privativity of [L/voice] limits the interaction to voiced consonants, although voiceless obstruents have significant effects on pitch phonetically.