The Havlík Pattern and Directional Lower

Vowel-zero alternations are a classical topic in the study of Slavic languages and have produced an important body of literature. Since Lightner (1965), the Slavic pattern was accounted for by the so-called Lower rule. In this article we draw attention on another regularity that is found in Slavic l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLingBuzz
Main Authors Scheer, Tobias, Ziková, Markéta
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Tromso Universitetet i Tromsoe 01.01.2010
Subjects
Affixes
Cyclicity
Literature
Phonology
Slavic languages
Vocalization
Vowels
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Summary:Vowel-zero alternations are a classical topic in the study of Slavic languages and have produced an important body of literature. Since Lightner (1965), the Slavic pattern was accounted for by the so-called Lower rule. In this article we draw attention on another regularity that is found in Slavic languages, the Havlík pattern, which also concerns vowel-zero alternations but shows a different management of sequences of alternating vowels: instead of the vocalization of all alternating vowels in a row that is observed in the Lower pattern, only every other alternating vowel is vocalized (counting from the right edge) in systems that are governed by Havlík. Since the Lower and the Havlík pattern follow the same regularity except for the treatment of sequences of alternating vowels, an adequate analysis should be able to account for the Lower-Havlík variation in terms of a parametric choice that informs a basic mechanism. We show that a solution along these lines is available if Lower, which establishes a relationship between two nuclei, is made directional, i.e. applies from right to left. This perspective follows a short remark made by Jerzy Rubach in his 1984 book (Rubach 1984:190). Regressive Lower, which is called government in Government Phonology, may then describe the variation in terms of a lexical property of affixes: the concatenation of an affix may or may not trigger interpretation (Halle and Vergnaud 1987). In case it does (i.e. in case of cyclic affixes), Lower is derived, while their interpretation-neutrality (i.e. non-cyclicity) produces the Havlík pattern.