This article explores the role of token frequency and global prosodic length in conditioning optional paradigm uniformity in Japanese voiced velar nasalisation, with data from two wug-tests carried out with speakers of T & omacr;hoku Japanese. Experiment 1 demonstrates that frequency-conditioning observed in corpus data is reproduced in existing and novel compounds and holds at the level of the speaker. Experiment 2 focuses on a typologically unusual pattern where overall compound length in mora seems to influence nasalisation, a candidate for a 'counting' pattern in phonology. We find that instead of overall length, speakers are sensitive to the length of the second member of the compound, undercutting the viability of the mora-counting analysis. We discuss the importance of the results in adjudicating between existing models of how token frequency impacts the phonological grammar and suggest that only theories that allow individual morphemes to exhibit frequency-sensitive behaviour are sufficiently expressive to model the finding.
We discuss three patterns of palatalisation in Czech, each of which is associated with certain suffixes. The data suggest that the trigger of palatalisation is not the initial vowel of these suffixes, but different sets of floating melodic features. We provide a formal analysis of the palatalisation patterns, as well as of the internal structure of the Czech phoneme inventory, in terms of Element Theory and strict CV. This allows us to straightforwardly model their lateral (leftward) effect, as well as some peculiar behaviour in the context of labials and the lateral . Besides Element Theory and strict CV, we argue that this analysis provides further support to a substance-free view of phonology, in which phonological representations do not necessarily have a universal, fixed phonetic implementation.
The subregular hypothesis posits that all phonological markedness constraints can be described by some principled, learnable subclass of the regular languages. In this article, I classify a wide range of attested long-distance phonological markedness constraints, covering stress, harmony and tone, with focus on interactions of constraints over multiple tiers. To this end, connections are established between propositional logic over multiple tiers and algebraic properties of formal languages. These techniques allow for mechanical verification or refutation of membership in a class. Modelling the constraints and their induced patterns as formal languages, I demonstrate that the entire range lies within the propositional level, including Uyghur backness harmony and Karanga Shona tone, which have been presented as challenges to aspects of the subregular hypothesis.
