Maria-Rosa Lloret
[https://webgrec.ub.edu/webpages/personal/cat/000832_mrosa.lloret.ub.edu.html]Ph. D. in Linguistics, Indiana University, 1988, with the thesis “Gemination and Vowel Length in Oromo Morphophonology”. Full professor at the Department of Catalan Philology, Universitat de Barcelona, where she began teaching in 1991. Research on phonology, morphology, and linguistic variation
Address: Departament de Filologia Catalana i Lingüística General
Universitat de Barcelona
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585
08007 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Address: Departament de Filologia Catalana i Lingüística General
Universitat de Barcelona
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585
08007 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
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Papers by Maria-Rosa Lloret
Abstract Due to the loss of the neutral gender in the evolution from Latin to Romance languages, three-ending Latin adjectives were adapted as two-ending adjectives in Catalan, usually with the marks Ø in the masculine and-a in the feminine, as in clar 'clear, masc.' ~ clar-a 'clear, fem.'; this pattern is transparent and maximally iconic. Two-ending Latin adjectives became invariable instead, as in old Catalan fort-Ø 'strong', giving rise to gender syncretic forms, which lack transparency and iconicity. Despite the naturalness challenges raised by syncretism, it can be maintained if invariable classes are defined by extramorpholog-ical properties that enhance their stability, as is the case of Spanish with the ending-e determining membership to the invariable gender class (e.g., fuert-e 'strong'). In Catalan, though, the lack of exclusive endings for invariable adjectives worsens their iconicity and transparency, and so the tendency to create analogical feminine forms (e.g., fort-a 'strong, fem.') is stronger than in Spanish.
Abstract Due to the loss of the neutral gender in the evolution from Latin to Romance languages, three-ending Latin adjectives were adapted as two-ending adjectives in Catalan, usually with the marks Ø in the masculine and-a in the feminine, as in clar 'clear, masc.' ~ clar-a 'clear, fem.'; this pattern is transparent and maximally iconic. Two-ending Latin adjectives became invariable instead, as in old Catalan fort-Ø 'strong', giving rise to gender syncretic forms, which lack transparency and iconicity. Despite the naturalness challenges raised by syncretism, it can be maintained if invariable classes are defined by extramorpholog-ical properties that enhance their stability, as is the case of Spanish with the ending-e determining membership to the invariable gender class (e.g., fuert-e 'strong'). In Catalan, though, the lack of exclusive endings for invariable adjectives worsens their iconicity and transparency, and so the tendency to create analogical feminine forms (e.g., fort-a 'strong, fem.') is stronger than in Spanish.
In this presentation, we will begin by briefly reviewing the conditionings of such harmonies, considering three factors (in line with Jiménez & Lloret’s 2020 work). First, the nature of the final consonant that concomitantly opens the rightmost vowel. Second, the conditionings on the possible triggers and targets of harmony. Third, the domains of harmony.
We will then concentrate on the results of the Granada variety, which shows variable patterns with respect to the domain in which harmony applies, targeting minimally stressed nonhigh vowels (e.g., tréboles [ˈtɾɛβolɛ] ‘clovers’, comemos [koˈmɛmɔ] ‘we eat’), and variably posttonic and pretonic nonhigh vowels (e.g., [ˈtɾɛβɔlɛ], [kɔˈmɛmɔ]). These data has contributed much to the debate on how the harmonizing features are transmitted and what drives metaphony, with favorable results for positional licensing approaches (e.g., Walker 2005, 2011; Lloret & Jiménez 2009; Kaplan 2018, 2021; Jiménez & Lloret 2020)
In previous works, enclitic pronouns (in clitic groups with a single pronoun) are described as triggering and targeting harmony under the same conditions (e.g., recógelos [reˈkɔhelɔ] ~ [reˈkɔhɛlɔ] ~ [rɛˈkɔhɛlɔ] ‘gather them’), but much less is said for proclitic pronouns and for the combination of two clitics. Hence, the main goal of this talk will be to complement the existing descriptions with clitic-group outcomes in order to check the suitability of previous analyses on the light of these new data set.
This study is based on the distribution of rhotics in three Catalan dialects: Algherese, Central Catalan, and Valencian. We focus on the study of two contexts: contexts in which variation typically occurs and contexts exhibiting less common changes such as lambdacism (or lateralization) and rhotacism derived from other consonants, which have been the focus of renewed interest lately (Pons-Moll 2008, 2011; Cabrera-Callís 2014).
We depart from previous claims according to which the overall distribution of rhotics depends on sonority-related segmental preferences for syllabification (Bonet & Mascaró 1997; Pons-Moll 2008, 2011). As a novelty, we show that any deviation from these tendencies derives from uniformity effects or contextually-marked and prominence-driven constraints taking precedence over sonority conditions.
Departing from spectrographic data of the least well-known phenomena, we incardinate our analysis in an Optimality-Theoretic framework. We expect that the tap, more sonorous, appears in margin 2 (M2), that is, in the second position of an onset (trenta) and in the first position of a coda (cor, arc ‘arch’, cor ple ‘full heart’) (Baertsch 2002). Although consonants appearing intervocalically occupy the first position of an onset (a margin 1, M1), the cross-linguistic preference for more sonorous segments to appear in that position as well (Uffmann 2007) upholds the presence of taps in intervocalic M1 (para, cor obert) (Pons-Moll 2011). Instead, the trill should be reserved for the remaining M1: the initial position of non-intervocalic onsets (roca, honra). This is approximately the pattern found in Valencian Catalan.
Divergences from this pattern in Central Catalan and Algherese stem from requirements not related to the sonority of rhotics. Central Catalan limits the contexts in which the tap can show up through the activation of contextual and prominence constraints above the constraint disfavoring trills in M2. Algherese presents further intricacies, but what singles out this dialect is the maximization of the contexts in which trills may occur. This result is obtained through the activation of constraints pursuing consistency in all rhotic realizations. The same constraints suggested for the distribution of rhotics can account for the outcomes of liquid neutralization in Algherese, selecting the most sonorous segment available in each position: [ɾ] in M2 generally, but the lateral [l] in preconsonantal codas.
In sum, Catalan dialects provide rich evidence for the variability of rhotics. Nevertheless, the variation that is found is far from random: there is an inclusive relationship between the contexts in which the tap can appear, in the order Algherese ⊂ Central Catalan ⊂ Valencian, indicating that the intervention of additional constraints progressively narrows the contexts in which this realization can occur.
To begin with, the Castilian Spanish data illustrate a case of a one-way adjusting variety. Castilian Spanish glides follow the general tendency of remaining weak both in coda position (ja[w]la ‘cage’, re[j] ‘king’) and as a second element of a complex onset (d[w]eño ‘owner’, p[j]e ‘foot’), which is captured in the analysis through the low ranking of the constraints referred to the glides in the *M2/λ hierarchy (Baertsch 2002). Likewise, they follow the general tendency of strengthening in onsets, either in word-initial position (huelo /welo/: [ˈɡwelo] ‘I smell’, [ɡw]eb, hierba /jeɾba/: [ˈʝeɾβa] ‘grass’) or in word-internal position (cacahuete /kakawete/: [kakaˈɣwete] ‘peanuts’, mayo /majo/: [ˈmaʝo] ‘May’), which reveals that in Castilian Spanish a glide is not allowed as the first element of an onset as a result of the pressure exerted by *M1/GLIDE at the top of the ranking.
Contrariwise, Central Eastern Catalan illustrates the case of a non-adjusting variety. As in Castilian Spanish, preservation without changes is the regular outcome for glides in codas (di[w] ‘he says’, re[j] ‘king’) and in the second position of onsets (q[w]estió ‘question’, miss[j]ó ‘mission’); however, both /w/ and /j/ tend to be maintained in simplex onsets as well ([w]eb, di[w]en ‘they say’; [j]ogurt, fe[j]a ‘I did’). Central Eastern Catalan is, thus, a faithful variety in which the markedness constraint *M1/GLIDE is consistently outranked by the faithfulness constraint IDENT-GLIDE.
Finally, Majorcan Catalan illustrates a case of a two-way adjusting variety. Although this variety does not differ from Central Eastern Catalan in the treatment of glides in codas (di[w], re[j]) and in the second position of onsets (q[w]estió, miss[j]ó), regarding simplex onsets it imposes much stronger requirements on glides than Central Eastern Catalan, but only when they are placed in intervocalic position. That is, while in word-initial position the two glides remain unchanged ([j]ogurt, [w]eb), in intervocalic position they present two opposite fates: the /w/ shifts into a labiodental fricative (di[v]en ‘they say’), whereas /j/ weakens to a slightly more centralized and open glide (fe[e̯]a ‘I did’), which may even undergo complete deletion in some varieties (fe[Ø]a). In order to account for these opposite outcomes, we resort to allomorphy and to the distinction between [+high] and [–high] glides ([j] and [w] are [+high], whereas [e̯] and [o̯] are [–high]). Word-initially, the ranking of IDENT-GLIDE above *M1/GLIDE[+HI] makes impossible the selection of candidates with strengthening strategies for both glides ([w]eb, [j]ogurt). In intervocalic position, the situation is more complex, and requires the addition of constraints referred to the surrounding environment. On these grounds, the weakening of intervocalic /j/ is explained by ranking the contextual constraint *VGL[+HI], M1V (‘Do not have a [+high] glide as an intervocalic M1’) and ONSET above *M1/GLIDE[–HI] and *VGL[–HI], M1V; as a result of this ranking, only the most sonorous palatal glide (fe[e̯]a) is allowed intervocalically (if ONSET is demoted in the ranking, the candidate with deletion, i.e. fe[Ø]a, can be chosen instead). The ranking established for the palatal glide has undesirable consequences for the labiovelar glide in intervocalic position, since a parallel form with a [–high] glide (e.g., di[o̯]en]) or with deletion (di[Ø]en) would enter the competition and be erroneously selected as optimal, instead of the grammatical strengthened candidate (di[v]en). To deal with this issue, we assume that the underlying representation of forms showing the alternation [w] ~ [v] (as di[w] ~ di[v]en) displays two allomorphs, one with the labiovelar glide and the other with the labiodental fricative. Moreover, we presume that the two allomorphs appear with the lexical precedence ‘fricative>glide’, as in {/div/>/diw/} for the root of diuen (on lexically ordered allomorphs, see Bonet et al. 2007 and Mascaró 2007). There are some empirical arguments that advocate for this allomorphic approach. Among others, the strengthening of the labiovelar glide in intervocalic position is a dubiously productive process, since loans or learned words such as Hawaii, Power or PowerPoint are realized with [w]. Moreover, such strengthening is not common in word-initial position, where it would be even more justifiable ([w]eb) because the target segment is not preceded by a vowel.
In sum, in our account of the data we demonstrate that glide phonotactics require, in addition to the reference to independent syllables that Baertsch’s (2002) split margin hierarchy provides, the consideration of segmental strings so as to incorporate the effects of the surrounding context into the analysis. Additionally, the analysis we present illustrates how the OT model is capable of deriving the whole typology of outcomes from the same constraint set, although enriched multi-input representations are sometimes needed.
The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the empirical side, we aim at contributing to the body of knowledge about the UR of words beginning with <esC>- in Catalan. On the theoretical side, and relying on the empirical results obtained, we provide arguments that support the free-ride approach to morphophonemic learning (McCarthy 2005). On the basis of the casuistry arising from the interaction between word-initial vowel epenthesis in Catalan and particular cases of underapplication of vowel reduction in Majorcan Catalan, we provide empirical arguments, lying inside the grammar, for the underlying absence of the initial vowel in words beginning with <esC>-. On the basis of these results, we show how Majorcan Catalan learners take a “free ride” in the process of constructing the UR of nonalternating forms by generalizing the pattern —and the subsequent input-output mapping— observed in cases with transparent morphophonemic alternations and a parallel syllabification problem.
The contributors form an international array of linguists from North America and Europe. A broad variety of languages serve as the empirical base for the volume, either in detailed case studies (e.g. Burushaski, Catalan, English, French, Italian, Moroccan Arabic, Sahaptin) or in encompassing typological surveys.
The volume is aimed at professional linguists with an interest in phonology, morphology, and the lexicon. With its broad coverage of allomorphy issues, the book’s content will also lend itself to courses in phonology and morphology for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
S’hi recullen les contribucions de vint-i-nou col·legues, professors i investigadors de diferents universitats catalanes i de l’estranger, que, per encàrrec de les editores, han abordat qüestions en l’àmbit de la fonologia i la morfologia catalanes que encara no havien estat explorades o bé que aporten un nou punt de vista a temes ja investigats en treballs anteriors, especialment en alguna de les nombroses publicacions de Wheeler.
Són poques les ocasions en què lingüistes que estudien el català —i encara menys fonòlegs i morfòlegs— treballen en projectes comuns. I aquest homenatge a Max W. Wheeler és una d’aquestes poques, valuoses, ocasions, en què això ha estat possible.