Structure of the course:     Unit I: Basic syllabification     Unit II: Syllable-internal structure     Unit III: Sonority and syllabification     Supplementary readings

1. Kahn, Daniel (1976). Chapter I: Preliminaries. Syllable-Based Generalizations in English Phonology. PhD dissertation, MIT. [New York: Garland, 1980], 20-67.

2. Clements, George N., and Samuel Jay Keyser (1983). Chapter 2: A three-tiered theory of the syllable. CV Phonology: A Generative Theory of the Syllable. Cambridge: MIT Press, 25-56.

3. [Steriade, Donca (1988). Review of Clements & Keyser (1983). Language 64(1):118-129.]
   To be postponed until later in the course.

4. Itô, Junko (1989). A prosodic theory of epenthesis. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 7(2):217-259.
   • Part 2 article presentation: Maki

5. McCarthy, John, and Alan Prince (1993). Chapter 2: Optimality Theory. Prosodic Morphology: Constraint Interaction and Satisfaction. Ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Rutgers University, 5-24.

   Here is an easier-to-read PDF file of Chapter 2 only (the section we will read for class). If you're interested, the entire manuscript is also available on the Rutgers Optimality Archive (ROA), #482.

6. Mester, Armin, and Jaye Padgett (1994). Directional syllabification in Generalized Alignment. Phonology at Santa Cruz 3:79-85.

   Easier-to-read files available: This paper is publicly accessible on the Rutgers Optimality Archive (ROA), #1. However, the only file formats posted there are ASCII and WordPerfect. Therefore, I have converted the WordPerfect version to a PDF file for easier accessibility.

   • Article presentation: Aaron

1. Broselow, Ellen (1995). Skeletal positions and moras. In J. Goldsmith, ed., The Handbook of Phonological Theory. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 175-205.
   • Article presentation (sections 0-1): Danyelle

2. Zec, Draga (1988). Chapter 2: Sonority constraints on moras. Sonority Constraints on Prosodic Structure. PhD dissertation, Stanford [New York: Garland, 1994], 11-61.
   • Article presentation (assignment #2): Denny
   • Article presentation (assignment #3): Alicia

3. Broselow, Ellen, Su-I Chen, and Marie Huffman (1997). Syllable weight: Convergence of phonology and phonetics. Phonology 14(1): 47-82.
   • Article presentation (assignment #1): Eva
   • Article presentation (assignment #2): Laura

1. Rubach, Jerzy, and Geert Booij (1990). Syllable structure assignment in Polish. Phonology 7(1):121-158.
   • Article presentation: Yohei
   • This paper will not be an assigned reading for class.

2. Baertsch, Karen (1998). Onset sonority distance constraints through local conjunction. In M. Catherine Gruber, Derrick Higgins, Kenneth S. Olson, and Tamra Wysocki, eds., CLS 34, vol. 2: The Panels. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, 1-15.
   • Article presentation: Matt

3. Gouskova, Maria (2002). Syllable contact as a relational hierarchy. Handout from talk presented at WCCFL 21, UC Santa Cruz, April 5, 2002. Paper to appear in Proceedings of WCCFL 21, Cascadilla Press.
   This paper was distributed in class. A few additional copies are available in an envelope on my office door.
   • Article presentation: Glenn

1. Steriade, Donca (1988). Review of Clements & Keyser (1983). Language 64(1):118-129.
   Available on 2-hour reserve and e-reserve for this course.

2. Hayes, Bruce (1989). Compensatory lengthening in moraic phonology. Linguistic Inquiry 20(2):253-306.
   You can find Linguistic Inquiry in the stacks in Davis Library.

   Suggested focus for a long reading reaction: Does Hayes prefer a theory of subsyllabic structure/syllable weight that makes use of moras, or one that makes use of X (C/V) slots? What evidence does he give to support his choice? (sections 3 & 4)

3. Morén, Bruce (1999). Distinctiveness, Coercion, and Sonority: A Unified Theory of Weight. PhD dissertation, U Maryland.
   This dissertation is available in MS Word format on ROA, #346, but my virus checker told me some of the online files have a virus. Here are clean copies of the chapter files in PDF format:

   Ch 1 (+ T of C)    |    Ch 2    |    Ch 3    |    Ch 4    |    Ch 5 (+ biblio.)

   Suggested focus for a long reading reaction: Look at Ch 1, which gives an overview of the dissertation, and find a topic that looks interesting. Then use the Table of Contents (included in the Ch 1 file) to find where Morén talks about that topic, and read the appropriate section.

   One idea: Morén claims that "coerced" weight obeys Zec's generalization about sonority levels for moraic segments, but "distinctive" weight does not. What are coerced and distinctive weight? What are a few examples of distinctive weight not obeying Zec's generalization? How does Morén account for this difference between coerced and distinctive weight in his theory?

4. Gerfen, Chip (to appear). Andalusian codas. To appear in Probus.
   This paper examines phonetic data that Broselow, Chen, & Huffman's (1997) approach wouldn't be able to explain. You can download a PDF version from Chip's web site.

   Suggested focus for a long reading reaction:

   • Descriptively, what is the phenomenon called "s-aspiration" that this paper is concerned with? Note that this term is not used in exactly the same sense as for, e.g., the "aspiration" of a stop in English. (section 1; section 2.3)
   • Why does Gerfen argue that assuming a mora-sharing structure, as in Figure 19 (based on the proposal in BCH 1997), is not detailed enough to predict the outcome of s-aspiration?
   • Why does Gerfen argue against a place-assimilation account of s-aspiration, as in Figure 23?
   • You do not need to provide detailed discussion of the phonetic experiments (section 2.1, 2.2), or of the "gestural phonology" and "aperture geometry" models that are discussed in section 3, because these are frameworks that haven't been covered in class.

5. Clements, G.N. (1990). The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In John Kingston and Mary E. Beckman, eds., Papers in Laboratory Phonology I: Between the Grammar and Physics of Speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 283-325.
   This paper develops a more formal theory of sonority, based on the major-class features of segments ([vocalic]=[consonantal], [sonorant], and a newly proposed feature [approximant]). The book containing this paper is on overnight reserve (not e-reserve) in Davis Library.

6. Selkirk, Elisabeth O. (1984). On the major class features and syllable theory. In M. Aronoff and R.T. Oerhle, eds., Language Sound Structure: Studies in Phonology Dedicated to Morris Halle by his Teacher and Students. Cambridge: MIT Press, 107-113.
   This paper, which predates Clements', takes a different view of the relationship between sonority and major-class features. The book containing this paper is on overnight reserve (not e-reserve) in Davis Library.

   In addition to examining either Clements (1990) or Selkirk (1984) in a reading reaction, another option would be to compare the ways these two papers propose to relate sonority and segmental features.

7. Some papers from the Rutgers Optimality Archive related to syllable structure -- the links below take you to the ROA abstract page for each paper, where you can find a short abstract of the paper and links for downloading it in one or more file formats.
   • #111: Barlow (1996). The development of onglides in American English.
              NOTE: Click here for a PDF version of this paper.
   • #142: Walker (1994). Buriat syllable weight and head prominence.
              NOTE: Click here for a PDF version of this paper.
   • #180: Hume (1997). Metathesis in phonological theory: The case of Leti.
   • #230: Carlson (1997). Sonority and reduplication in Nakanai and Nuxalk (Bella Coola).
   • #291: Face (1998). Re-examining Spanish 'resyllabification'.
   • #335: Alber & Plag (1999). Epenthesis, deletion and the emergence of the optimal syllable in Creole.
   • #381: Gussenhoven (2000). Vowel duration, syllable quantity and stress in Dutch.
   • #383: Morris (in press). Coda obstruents and local constraint conjunction in north-central Peninsular Spanish.
   • #408: Pineros (2000). Segment-to-syllable alignment and vocalization in Chilean Spanish.
   • #448: Goad & Rose (to appear). Input elaboration, head faithfulness and evidence for representation in the acquisition of left-edge clusters in West Germanic.
   • #491: Gouskova (to appear). Falling sonority onsets, loanwords, and syllable contact.

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