Brockhaus, Wiebke Gertrud; (1992) Final Devoicing: Principles and Parameters. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis addresses the problem of how to deal with the phonological event of final obstruent devoicing (FOD) in a theoretical framework based on principles and parameters rather than rules. The data used comes almost exclusively from German (Hochlautung). The first chapter presents the 'raw facts' of FOD. Its purpose is to provide an outline of the sort of data to be accounted for in the remainder of the thesis. Previous treatments of FOD in German are discussed and evaluated in the second chapter. All of them are shown to be associated with a number of problems, many of which are artifacts of inadequate theoretical frameworks. The third and fourth chapters address the questions of what FOD is and where it occurs. The proposed answer is couched in the framework of Government Phonology (Kaye, Lowenstamm & Vergnaud 1985, 1990), a phonological theory whose basic tenets are introduced in the course of the discussion. The conclusion drawn is that FOD is an instance of autosegmental licensing, where the laryngeal element L- requires licensing by a nuclear position with phonetic content. Chapter 5 explores the question of why FOD should exhibit the particular properties that it does. Both physical factors which are responsible for the general tendency of (final) obstruents to exhibit some degree of devoicing and the cognitive benefits which FOD can bring to speech recognition are investigated. The final chapter takes a new look at the concept of neutralisation in the context of FOD in German. It highlights Trubetzkoy's and Kiparsky's views of neutralisation and discusses some of the experimental work which has examined FOD as a putative process of neutralisation over the past decade. It is shown that apparent problems for phonological theory raised by the experimental studies can be resolved by Government Phonology.

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