the skeleton: its contents, its shape, its function

notes to session 5

licensing inheritance in a nutshell

In a phonological domain (e.g., a word) each skeletal position is licensed, except one, the head (typically the stressed vowel) of the domain. The stressed vowel licenses the unstressed vowel, each vowel licenses the consonant before it. Coda consonants are licensed by the following consonant (not by the preceding vowel). The longer the licensing path from the main licenser, the weaker the position of the given segment.

Therefore pretonic consonants (located before a stressed vowel) are stronger (less prone to undergo lenition) than non-pretonic ones, and coda consonants are weaker than onset consonants (since a coda is always indirectly licensed by the following onset, which in turn is licensed by the following vowel).

licensing in CV (and VC) skeletons

Since a C is always accompanied by a V, and vice versa, licensing is not indispensable: a position is either licensed (and therefore strong) or not (and therefore subject to lenition).

the missing relation: V-to-V licensing

V-to-V licensing defines long vowels, monophthongal and diphthongal alike. The C position enclosed within is not licensed (since the V licenses the other vowel) and governed, forthermore it is not linked to any melodic material, therefore it is totally vocalic.

the shape of the skeleton

• word-final empty nuclei are inert (don’t govern, don’t license), and it takes an extra stipulation to get them mute (being final they are neither governed, nor covered by a C-to-C government domain)
• word-initially we have to posit an empty vowel to
  • explain the strength of word-initial consonants
  • explain the markedness of word-initial consonant clusters
• conclusion: the skeleton begins with a V and ends in a C

elision

liaison

Liaison is the result of government, which forces the final consonant of the preceding morpheme to be pronounced.

word-internal C][V junctions

English does not allow syncope and high vowel gliding in pretonic syllables. At the same time pretonic consonants are strong, i.e., a stressed V does not govern either the preceding V or the preceding C. Hence the V and C before a stressed V are more closely bound than either is to the following V: VC][V.

The lack of C-to-V interactions follows from the hypothesis that skeletal points (a C or a V) within the same skeletal element (VC) do not interact. A skeletal point may only interact with the closest skeletal point to the left, which must not be in the same skeletal element (interacting points are underlined): VC][VC, VC][VC, VC][VC, but *VC][VC (because V is too far away), and *VC (because the two are in the same skeletal element).