Table Of ContentRecent Developments in Historical Phonology
.
Trends in Linguistics
Studies and Monographs 4
Editor
Werner Winter
Mouton Publishers
The Hague · Paris · New York
.
Recent Developments
in Historical Phonology
edited by
Jacek Fisiak
Mouton Publishers
The Hague · Paris · New York
.
Professor Jacek Fisiak
Institute of English
Adam Mickiewicz University
Poznan, Poland
Papers prepared for the
International Conference on Historical Phonology
held at Ustronie, Poland, 17-20 March 1976.
ISBN 90 279 7706 2
© Copyright 1978 by Mouton Publishers, The Hague
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any form - by photoprint, microfilm, or any other means -
nor transmitted nor translated into a machine language without written permission from
the publisher. Typesetting: Η Charlesworth & Co Ltd, Huddersfleld, England.-
Printing: Karl Gerike, Berlin. Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer Buchgewerbe GmbH, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
Preface
The present collection of essays on historical phonology contains twenty-four
of the twenty-eight papers submitted for presentation at the International
Conference on Historical Phonology held at Ustronie (Poland) between 17th
and 20th March 1976 under the auspices of the Institute of English at Adam
Mickiewicz University, Poznan. Of the twenty-four papers, two were not
delivered at the conference, as their authors could not attend in person.
The aim of the conference was to bring together a number of scholars
working in the field of historical phonology, thus facilitating the presentation
of the most recent achievements in this area of linguistic research. The inten-
tion of the organizers was not to limit the theoretical bias of the conference
to one particular paradigm but rather to open a forum to the presentation
of ideas within any framework. Hence the present volume contains both
generative phonological works, forming the majority, as well as contributions
representing other theoretical views.
The papers presented at Ustronie and included in this collection seem to
represent fairly well the present state of historical phonology. The central
point of interest is still, as could be expected, phonological change. As in
earlier days, many questions still remain unanswered and many answers are
far from being definite. Thus, the need for more research is given support
and leads one to expect a further rise of interest in historical linguistics.
Although the majority of papers are general and theoretically oriented,
several valuable language-specific descriptive and data-oriented contributions
have also been offered. The languages analyzed or used for illustrations were
not limited exclusively to the Indo-European family. Some aspects of
historical phonology of Japanese, Korean, and Finnish, among other
languages, have been discussed. An attempt has also been made to formalize
one type of phonological change.
The conference has not settled any particular issue or solved any major
controversy. After all, that was not its aim. It is hoped, however, that it
vi Preface
brought about a better understanding of some phonological problems in a
historical perspective, and has helped to indicate areas awaiting further
investigation. It has also revealed some of the weaknesses of existing linguistic
theories, encouraging linguists to look for improvements and to search for
more powerful explanatory tools.
The conference could not succeed without the active participation of its
members and therefore we would like to thank them all for what they did to
make it as successful as it was.
Thanks are also due to the Rector of Adam Mickiewicz University for
providing more than adequate funding and all his help, to the administration
of the Ustronie conference centre for making our stay pleasant, and thus
inspiring scholarly efforts, and last but not least to Ms. Ewa Siarkiewicz for
her patience and skill in handling all the administrative details, so very
important for an efficiently organized meeting.
Poznaft, July 1976 Jacek Fisiak
Table of contents
Preface ν
List of Conference Participants ix
Henning Andersen
Perceptual and conceptual factors in abductive innovations 1
Stephen R. Anderson
Historical change and rule ordering in phonology 23
Raimo Anttila
The acceptance of sound change by linguistic structure 43
Jerzy Banczerowski
A formal approach to the theory of fortition-lenition: a preliminary
study 57
Xavier Dekeyser
Some considerations on voicing with special reference to spirants in
English and Dutch: a diachronic-contrastive approach 99
Gabereil Drachman
Child language and language change: a conjecture and some refu-
tations 123
Wolfgang Dressier
How much does performance contribute to phonological change?. . . 145
Martin B. Harris
The inter-relationship between phonological and grammatical
change 159
Henry M. Hoenigswald
Secondary split, typology and universale 173
Joan B. Hooper
Constraints on schwa-deletion in American English 183
viii Table of contents
David Huntley
Phonological models and Slavic palatalizations 209
Robert J. Jeffers
Restructuring, relexicalization, and reversion in historical
phonology 213
Chin-W. Kim
"Diagonal" vowel harmony?: Some implications for historical
phonology 221
Frederik Kortlandt
I.-E. palatovelars before resonants in Balto-Slavic 237
Roger Lass
Mapping constraints in phonological reconstruction: on climbing
down trees without falling out of them 245
James D. McCawley
Notes on the history of accent in Japanese 287
Witold Manczak
Irregular sound change due to frequency in German 309
Jerzy Rubach
Phonostylistics and sound change 321
Robert P. Stockwell
Perseverance in the English vowel shift 337
Guy A.J.Tops
The origin of the Germanic dental preterit: Von Friesen
revisited 349
Paul Valentin
The simplification of the unstressed vowel systems in Old High
German 373
Theo Vennemann
Rule inversion and lexical storage: the case of Sanskrit visarga 391
Nigel Vincent
Is sound change teleological? 409
Werner Winter
The distribution of short and long vowels in stems of the type
Lith. esti: vesti: mesti and OCS fasti: vesti: mesti in Baltic and
Slavic languages 431
Frederik Kortlandt
Comment on W. Winter's paper 447
Index of names 449
List of participants
at the International Conference on Historical Phonology held at Ustronie,
Poland, March 17-20, 1976
Director
Institute of English,
Professor Jacek Fisiak
Adam Mickiewicz University
Participants
Professor Henning Andersen Slavic Institute, University of Copenhagen
Professor Stephen R. Anderson Department of Linguistics, U.C.L.A.
Professor Raimo Anttila Department of Indo-European
Studies, U.C.L.A.
Docent Wiesiaw Awedyk Institute of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Poznan
Professor Jerzy Baiiczerowski Institute of Linguistics, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Poznan
Professor Broder Carstensen Gesamthochschule Paderborn
Docent Jan Cygan Institute of English, Wroclaw
University
Professor Xavier Dekeyser Department of English, University of
Antwerp
Mr James Dingley Department of German, University of
Reading
Mr Grzegorz Dogil Institute of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University
Professor Gaberell Drachman Institute of Linguistics, University of
Salzburg
Professor Wolfgang Dressier Institute of Linguistics, University of
Vienna
Professor James Foley Department of Modern Languages, Simon
Fraser University
χ List of participants
Dr Edmund Gussmann Institute of English, Maria Curie-
Sktodowska University, Lublin
Professor Martin B. Harris Department of Modern Languages,
Salford University
Professor Henry Μ. Hoenigswald Department of linguistics, University
of Pennsylvania
Professor Joan B. Hooper Department of Linguistics, SUNY —
Buffalo
Professor David Huntley Department of Slavic, University of
Toronto
Professor John Hutcheson Institute of English, University of
Silesia, Katowice
Professor George Horn Institute of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Poznan
Professor Frederik H.H.Kortlanc University of Leiden
Docent Roman Laskowski Institute of Polish Language, Polish
Academy of Sciences, Cracow
Dr Roger Lass Department of Linguistics, University of
Edinburgh
Professor James D. McCawley Department of linguistics, University of
Chicago
Professor Witold Manczak Institute of Romance Studies, University
of Cracow
Dr Boguslaw Marek Institute of English, Maria Curie-
Sktodowska University, Lublin
Docent Ruta Nagucka Institute of English, University of Cracow
Dr Jadwiga Nawrocka-Fisiak Institute of Linguistics, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Poznan
Professor Henri Niedzielski Institute of English, University of Cracow
Dr Mirostaw Nowakowski Institute of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University
Professor Wayne ΟΉείΙ Department of Humanities, MIT
Mr Stanislaw Puppel Institute of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University
Ms Teresa Retelewska Institute of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University
Dr Jerzy Rub ach Institute of English, University of Warsaw
