Contrast enhancement motivates closed-syllable laxing and open-syllable tensing
Benjamin Storme
November 2018 

This paper proposes that closed-syllable laxing and open-syllable tensing of nonlow vowels before the major places of articulation (e.g. / p t k /) are motivated by conflicting strategies of contrast enhancement in vowel-consonant sequences. Laxing enhances the distinctiveness of consonant contrasts by allowing for more distinct VC formant transitions. Tensing enhances the distinctiveness of vowel contrasts by providing more distinct formant realisations for vowels. Linguistic variation results from different ways of resolving the tension between maximising vowel dispersion and maximising consonant dispersion. Laxing typically applies before coda consonants as a way to compensate for the absence of good perceptual cues to consonant place of articulation in this context. The hypothesis that laxing enhances the distinctiveness of postvocalic consonant-place contrasts is supported by a study on mid-vowel laxing in French. If correct, this analysis corroborates the general claim that perceptual contrast plays a role in shaping phonotactic restrictions.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/003700 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Phonology 39 (read-only version: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/phonology/article/contrast-enhancement-as-motivation-for-closed-syllable-laxing-and-open-syllable-tensing/7350F08CB979EF7A2E0EC401C01F1753/share/186a301d693bd4a5b4c642d082644b8294712011))
keywords:	phonology, phonetics, perceptual enhancement, typology, dispersion theory, southern french
previous versions:	v1 [October 2017]
Downloaded:	730 times

 

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