Article
French schwa and gradient cumulativity
Glossa
(2019)
Abstract
We explore the interaction of two phonological factors that condition schwa–zero alternations in
French: schwa is more likely after two consonants than a singleton; and schwa is more likely between
stressed syllables than elsewhere. Using new data from a judgment study, we show that both factors
play a role in schwa epenthesis and deletion, and that the two factors interact cumulatively: they have a
stronger effect together than individually. Treating each factor as a constraint, we find that their cumulative
interaction is better modeled with weighted than with ranked constraints. We provide a characterization
of patterns of cumulativity in probability space in terms of the effect of constraint on its own
versus its effect in a cumulative interaction with another constraint. Stochastic OT can model cumulative
interactions, but only sublinear ones, where the effect of a constraint is weaker in the cumulative
context than on its own. Weighted constraint models, MaxEnt and Noisy HG, can model the full range
of cumulativity — sublinear, linear, and superlinear. In examining the ability of these models to fit our
experimental data, we find that Stochastic OT is hampered by the fact that the data displays superlinear
cumulativity. Noisy HG and MaxEnt fare better on this dataset, with MaxEnt yielding the best fit.
Keywords
- French,
- schwa,
- Harmonic Grammar,
- Optimality Theory,
- phonological variation,
- Maximum Entropy Gramar,
- Stochastic Optimality Theory
Disciplines
Publication Date
October, 2019
Citation Information
Brian W. Smith and Joe Pater. "French schwa and gradient cumulativity" Glossa Vol. To appear (2019) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joe_pater/39/