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The privileged status of locality in consonant harmony

► We demonstrate the privileged status of locality in long-distance phonological processes. ► We compare learning of first-order with second-order consonant harmony patterns. ► Learners generalize from second-order patterns to first-order patterns, but not vice-versa. While the vast majority of ling...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of memory and language 2011-07, Vol.65 (1), p.74-83
Main Author: Finley, Sara
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:► We demonstrate the privileged status of locality in long-distance phonological processes. ► We compare learning of first-order with second-order consonant harmony patterns. ► Learners generalize from second-order patterns to first-order patterns, but not vice-versa. While the vast majority of linguistic processes apply locally, consonant harmony appears to be an exception. In this phonological process, consonants share the same value of a phonological feature, such as secondary place of articulation. In sibilant harmony, [s] and [∫] (‘sh’) alternate such that if a word contains the sound [∫], all [s] sounds become [∫]. This can apply locally as a first-order or non-locally as a second-order pattern. In the first-order case, no consonants intervene between the two sibilants (e.g., [pisasu], [pi∫a∫u]). In second-order case, a consonant may intervene (e.g., [sipasu], [∫ipa∫u]). The fact that there are languages that allow second-order non-local agreement of consonant features has led some to question whether locality constraints apply to consonant harmony. This paper presents the results from two artificial grammar learning experiments that demonstrate the privileged role of locality constraints, even in patterns that allow second-order non-local interactions. In Experiment 1, we show that learners do not extend first-order non-local relationships in consonant harmony to second-order non-local relationships. In Experiment 2, we show that learners will extend a consonant harmony pattern with second-order long distance relationships to a consonant harmony with first-order long distance relationships. Because second-order non-local application implies first-order non-local application, but first-order non-local application does not imply second-order non-local application, we establish that local constraints are privileged even in consonant harmony.
ISSN:0749-596X
1096-0821
DOI:10.1016/j.jml.2011.02.006