Loading...

Polish consonant clusters in the British mouth

A study in online loanword adaptation

by Marek Radomski (Author)
©2019 Monographs X, 238 Pages

Summary

The book offers a significant theoretical and empirical contribution to the ongoing vigorous debate on loanword phonology, its major mechanisms and various interpretations. It provides an in-depth analysis of a rich body of novel experimental data on online adaptation of Polish consonant clusters, absent in English, by native speakers of British English. The analysis is couched within the framework of Optimality Theory. The author argues for the phonological approach to loanword adaptation as well as for the core-periphery structure of the English lexicon and shows that the proposed perspective allows for a deep insight into the nature of the collected language data.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author(s)/editor(s)
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Introduction
  • 1 Introduction to linguistic borrowing and phonological loanword adaptation
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Definition and classification of borrowings
  • 3 Controversial issues in phonological loanword adaptation
  • 3.1 The nature of the input representation
  • 3.2 The channel of borrowing and the influence of spelling
  • 3.3 The degree of community bilingualism
  • 3.4 Problematic patterns in phonological loanword adaptation
  • 3.4.1 The too-many-solutions problem
  • 3.4.2 Divergent repair
  • 3.4.3 Unnecessary repair
  • 3.4.4 Differential importation
  • 3.4.5 Retreat to the unmarked
  • 4 History of borrowings into English
  • 4.1 Old English (450–1100)
  • 4.2 Middle English (1100–1500)
  • 4.3 Early Modern English (1500–1800)
  • 4.4 Present-Day English (since 1800)
  • 4.5 Polish loanwords in English
  • 5 Conclusions
  • 2 Major theoretical approaches to phonological loanword adaptation
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 The phonological approximation view
  • 2.1 Theory of Constraints and Repair Strategies Loanword Model
  • 2.2 Itô and Mester’s (1995, 1999, 2001) Optimality Theory account of lexical stratification in Japanese
  • 3 The phonetic approximation view
  • 3.1 The psycholinguistic three-level model of speech processing
  • 3.2 The bidirectional three-level model for L1 processing and loanword adaptation
  • 4 The phonetic-phonological approximation view
  • 4.1 Silverman’s (1992) two-tier model of loanword adaptation
  • 4.2 Perceptual similarity approach
  • 5 Conclusions
  • 3 Consonant clusters in English and Polish. A sonority-based and optimality theoretic perspective
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 CC and CCC consonant clusters in English
  • 3 CC and CCC consonant clusters in Polish
  • 4 The concept of sonority and cross-linguistic sonority-based generalisations
  • 4.1 Phonetic correlates of sonority
  • 4.2 Sonority scales
  • 4.3 Sonority Sequencing Principle
  • 4.4 Minimum Sonority Distance
  • 4.5 Syllable Contact Law
  • 4.6 Sonority Dispersion Principle
  • 5 Sonority-based comparison of English and Polish CC and CCC consonant clusters
  • 6 Other approaches to sonority
  • 6.1 Sonority in Government Phonology
  • 6.2 Sonority in Onset Prominence Phonology
  • 6.3 Sonority in Beats-and-Binding Phonology
  • 7 Sonority and syllable structure in Optimality Theory
  • 7.1 Basic assumptions of Optimality Theory
  • 7.2 Syllable structure in Optimality Theory
  • 8 Previous research on online adaptation
  • 9 Conclusions
  • 4 Adaptation of Polish CC consonant clusters by native speakers of English
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Experimental design
  • 2.1 Materials
  • 2.2 Participants
  • 2.3 Procedure and data categorisation
  • 3 Results
  • 3.1 General overview of repair strategies
  • 3.2 Targetlike reproduction
  • 3.3 Vowel epenthesis
  • 3.4 Segment change
  • 3.4.1 Affricates
  • 3.4.2 Other changes
  • 3.5 Consonant deletion
  • 4 Analysis and discussion
  • 4.1 Experimental results vs. predictions of different loan adaptation approaches
  • 4.2 Targetlike reproduction
  • 4.3 Vowel epenthesis
  • 4.3.1 Initial clusters
  • 4.3.2 Final clusters
  • 4.4 Segment change
  • 4.4.1 Affricates
  • 4.4.2 Other changes
  • 4.5 Consonant deletion
  • 5 Conclusions
  • 5 Adaptation of Polish CCC consonant clusters. Established versus online loans
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Results
  • 2.1 General overview of repair strategies
  • 2.2 Targetlike reproduction
  • 2.3 Vowel epenthesis
  • 2.4 Other modifications
  • 3 Analysis and discussion
  • 3.1 Targetlike reproduction
  • 3.2 Vowel epenthesis
  • 3.3 Other modifications
  • 4 Adaptation of consonant clusters in established vs. online loans
  • 5 Theoretical implications and conclusions
  • Conclusion
  • Appendix 1 CC clusters – experimental stimuli
  • Appendix 2 CC clusters – participants
  • Appendix 3 CC clusters – repair strategies
  • Appendix 4 CCC clusters – experimental stimuli
  • Appendix 5 CCC clusters – participants
  • Appendix 6 CCC clusters – repair strategies
  • List of figures
  • List of tables
  • List of tableaux
  • References
  • Series index

| 1 →

Introduction

Recent years have brought a considerable interest in the issue of phonological loanword adaptation. Various theoretical approaches to this phenomenon have been put forward with a view to accounting for the mechanisms which govern modifications in the sound structure of loans resulting from the differences between the sound systems of the source and the target languages. Given the variety of phenomena attested in loan nativisation, it comes as no surprise that different factors, e.g. phonology, perception and orthography, assume key importance in specific proposals. Three main approaches to loan assimilation have developed in the relevant literature. The phonological approximation view claims that loanword adaptation is performed mainly in the phonological component of grammar (e.g. Itô and Mester 1995, Paradis and LaCharité 1997). According to the phonetic approximation view, the majority of sound modifications occurring in borrowings take place at the perception stage (e.g. Peperkamp et al. 2008, Boersma and Hamann 2009). Finally, under the phonetic-phonological adaptation view, both perception and phonology are involved in computing loanword adaptation to different degrees (e.g. Silverman 1992, Kang 2003). All these theoretical proposals constitute the subject of an ongoing debate. This discussion is further complicated by numerous linguistic as well as extra-linguistic factors that may bear upon loan assimilation, such as the nature of the input representation, the role of bilingualism or the impact of spelling.

The present monograph is intended as a contribution to this debate. Its main focus is on online adaptation of Polish initial and final clusters consisting of two consonants (CC) and three consonants (CCC) by native speakers of Standard Southern British English. This is the first analysis of the nativisation of Polish consonant clusters found in the literature, which provides a new and rich body of data from English, the most studied language whose phonological structure has been examined in numerous works. The study reveals several completely new aspects of the phonological competence of native English speakers. Its major goal is to propose an adequate, in-depth formal analysis of the experimental results within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince and Smolensky 1993/2004, McCarthy and Prince 1995). The monograph offers strong empirical evidence for the validity of OT as a model of phonology capable of providing a coherent theoretical interpretation of the data obtained in the experiments. We identify the most frequent repair strategies used to adapt foreign phonotactic structures as well as uncover the mechanisms governing the nativisation ← 1 | 2 → process. In particular, our goal is to determine whether loan assimilation takes place in phonological production or in perception. Another aim is to verify the validity of various loan adaptation models. To this end, we confront the results of our experiments with the predictions made by the major approaches to loan assimilation.

The study focuses on online adaptations, i.e. loanwords adapted in real time in a repetition task, rather than on established borrowings since the former offer a unique insight into the source language phonology. On the other hand, the phonological shape of the latter is usually a combined effect of various sound changes, including those that took place at the moment of adaptation as well as at later stages. In some cases it may be difficult to determine exactly how a given item entered the target language and whether or not some other factors, such as orthography, played a role in its modification. Such problems do not exist in research on online adaptations, which offers unambiguous evidence for synchronic phonological phenomena.

Chapter 1 contains a brief introduction to the basic concepts and the most important issues relevant to the study of loanwords and phonological loan nativisation. It starts with a definition and a general classification of borrowings. Then, the major controversial issues in phonological loan adaptation are discussed, including the main factors shaping this phenomenon, such as the nature of the input representation, the channel of borrowing, the influence of spelling and the degree of community bilingualism, as well as some problematic patterns which may emerge in this process, e.g. the too-many-solutions problem, divergent repair, unnecessary repair, differential importation and retreat to the unmarked. Finally, since the present monograph deals with the phonological adaptation of loanwords into English, we find it useful to outline a general historical background of foreign lexical influence on this language.

Chapter 2 is devoted to a survey of various contemporary theoretical models of phonological loanword adaptation. We start with a presentation of selected analyses belonging to the phonological approximation view where loanword nativisation is claimed to be a function of the phonological production grammar, e.g. the Theory of Constraints and Repair Strategies Loanword Model (e.g. Paradis and LaCharité 1997) and Itô and Mester’s (1995, 1999, 2001) Optimality Theory account of lexical stratification in Japanese. Next, we focus on the phonetic approaches to the process in question which maintain that loan assimilation originates in perception and that the role of phonology is limited, i.e. a psycholinguistic three-level model of speech processing (Peperkamp and Dupoux 2002, 2003, Peperkamp 2005, Peperkamp et al. 2008) and a bidirectional three-level ← 2 | 3 → model for L1 processing and loanword adaptation proposed by Boersma and Hamann (2009). Finally, a variety of mixed models involving both the perception grammar and the production grammar are examined, such as Silverman’s (1992) two-tier model of loanword adaptation and the perceptual similarity approach (e.g. Kang 2003).

The primary aim of Chapter 3 is to put the experiments on online adaptation of Polish CC and CCC consonant clusters by native speakers of English in a broader theoretical perspective by investigating relevant aspects of the phonotactics and syllable structure of English as well as previous research on online adaptation. First, an overview of the phonotactic restrictions on the initial and final consonant sequences in English and Polish is provided. Next, we examine the notion of sonority and sonority-based cross-linguistic principles, such as the Sonority Sequencing Principle (e.g. Selkirk 1984), the Minimum Sonority Distance (e.g. Steriade 1982), the Syllable Contact Law (e.g. Murray and Vennemann 1983) and the Sonority Dispersion Principle (e.g. Clements 1990). We also briefly discuss selected frameworks in which the traditional notion of sonority is criticised or even rejected. The second goal of the Chapter is to provide an introduction to the model of Optimality Theory within which an analysis of the experimental data will be carried out in Chapters 4 and 5.

Chapter 4 reports on an online loanword adaptation experiment in which 30 native speakers of British English reproduced authentic Polish words containing word-initial and word-final CC consonant clusters which do not occur in English. First, the data belonging to each category of responses, i.e. targetlike reproduction, vowel epenthesis, segment change and consonant deletion, are presented and examined. Next, the experimental results are confronted with the predictions made by the major approaches to loan assimilation discussed in Chapter 2. It is argued that the relevant data can receive a straightforward explanation in an Optimality Theory analysis similar to Itô and Mester’s (1995, 1999, 2001) account of lexical stratification in Japanese. The results of the study thus lend support to a claim that there is no need for a separate loan phonology component if native phonology is understood as a partial ranking with floating faithfulness constraints.

Chapter 5 deals with the patterns of adaptation of Polish CCC clusters by native speakers of Standard Southern British English. Its major aim is to confront and compare the findings concerning CC sequences with another set of experimental data. The presentation of the results is followed by a formal OT account of the observed phenomena based on the same constraint rankings which were used for the analysis of CC clusters in Chapter 4. It is argued that both ← 3 | 4 → experiments confirm that loanword phonology is mainly native phonology in action supplemented with the mechanism of FAITH promotion or demotion. The role of perception in loanword integration is claimed to be relatively limited. Finally, we investigate the similarities and differences between the nativisation patterns of consonant clusters found in online adaptations and in established loanwords in English.

We sum up the results and the findings in Conclusion, which is followed by Appendices 1–6 with the full list of the experimental stimuli and results as well as details concerning the participants. The cited works are enumerated in the References.

| 5 →

1 Introduction to linguistic borrowing and phonological loanword adaptation

1 Introduction

This Chapter introduces the basic concepts and the most important issues relevant to the study of loanwords and phonological loan adaptation. It starts with a definition and a general classification of borrowings. Next, the major controversial issues in phonological nativisation are briefly examined, including the main factors shaping adaptation as well as some problematic patterns which may emerge in the process under discussion. Finally, since the present monograph deals with the phonological adaptation of loanwords into English, we find it useful and justified to outline a general historical background of foreign lexical influence on this language.

In Section 2 we introduce the issue of borrowings and their phonological nativisation, pointing to a variety of modifications they may undergo while being adapted into the target language. Then, a distinction between online adaptations and integrated loanwords is briefly explained. Finally, we discuss the definition as well as the classification of borrowings proposed in Haugen’s (1950) seminal work.

Section 3 deals with the main controversial issues in phonological loan adaptation. First, we address the major factors which, to varying degrees, influence the process in question. These include the nature of the input to loanword nativisation, with different predictions made by the phonological vs. the phonetic input views, the role of the channel of borrowing (spoken vs. written) and the related issue of the impact of orthography as well as the question of the borrowers’ level of bilingualism and its bearing on loanword integration. Next, we present and discuss several problematic patterns, identified by Kang (2011), emerging in phonological loanword adaptation, such as the too-many-solutions problem, divergent repair, unnecessary repair, differential importation and retreat to the unmarked. It is pointed out that the existence of all these phenomena further complicates the study of loanword assimilation and poses a considerable challenge to any theory of loan adaptation.

Details

Pages
X, 238
Year
2019
ISBN (PDF)
9783631772256
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631772263
ISBN (MOBI)
9783631772270
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631770443
DOI
10.3726/b14998
Language
English
Publication date
2019 (February)
Keywords
Loan phonology Optimality Theory Phonotactics Sonority Online borrowings
Published
Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2019. X, 235 pp., 15 fig. b/w, 32 tables

Biographical notes

Marek Radomski (Author)

Marek Radomski is an Assistant Professor at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, where he teaches courses in phonetics and phonology. He has published on loanword phonology, Optimality Theory and foreign accent perception

Previous

Title: Polish consonant clusters in the British mouth
book preview page numper 1
book preview page numper 2
book preview page numper 3
book preview page numper 4
book preview page numper 5
book preview page numper 6
book preview page numper 7
book preview page numper 8
book preview page numper 9
book preview page numper 10
book preview page numper 11
book preview page numper 12
book preview page numper 13
book preview page numper 14
book preview page numper 15
book preview page numper 16
book preview page numper 17
book preview page numper 18
book preview page numper 19
book preview page numper 20
book preview page numper 21
book preview page numper 22
book preview page numper 23
book preview page numper 24
book preview page numper 25
book preview page numper 26
book preview page numper 27
book preview page numper 28
book preview page numper 29
book preview page numper 30
book preview page numper 31
book preview page numper 32
book preview page numper 33
book preview page numper 34
book preview page numper 35
book preview page numper 36
book preview page numper 37
book preview page numper 38
book preview page numper 39
book preview page numper 40
250 pages