Explaining sonority projection effects

• Published in: Phonology Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 197 - 234
• Main Authors: Daland, Robert, Hayes, Bruce, White, James, Garellek, Marc, Davis, Andrea, Norrmann, Ingrid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01-08-2011
• Subjects: Acceptability; Auditory Perception; Calculators; Correlations; English language; Evidence; Generative Grammar; Grammar; Linguistic Theory; Linguistics; Listening Comprehension; Modeling; Onset (Phonology); Phonetics; Phonology; Phonotactics; Sonority; Speech; Speech perception; Speech production; Stimuli; Syllabification; Syllables; Vowels; Well-formedness; Words; New York; Los Angeles California; California; United States > US
• ISSN: 0952-6757; 1469-8188
• DOI: 10.1017/S0952675711000145

The term sonority projection refers to behavioural distinctions speakers make between unattested phonological sequences on the basis of sonority. For example, among onset clusters, the well-formedness relation [bn]>[lb] is observed in speech perception, speech production and non-word acceptability (Davidson 2006, 2007, Berent et al. 2007, Albright, ms). We begin by replicating the sonority projection effects in a non-word acceptability study. Then we evaluate the extent to which sonority projection is predicted by existing computational models of phonotactics (Coleman & Pierrehumbert 1997, Hayes & Wilson 2008, inter alia). We show that a model based only on lexical statistics can explain sonority projection in English without a pre-existing sonority sequencing principle. To do this, a model must possess (i) a featural system supporting sonority-based generalisations, and (ii) a context representation including syllabification or equivalent information.