Segmental Environments of Spanish Diphthongization
by Adam Albright, Argelia Andrade, and Bruce Hayes
Department of Linguistics, UCLA
Spanish diphthongization is a well-known example of an exceptionful phonological
alternation. Although many forms do exhibit an alternation (e.g.
[sentámos] ~ [sjénto] we/I sit,
[kontámos] ~ [kwénto] we/I count),
many others do not (e.g. [rentámos] ~ [rénto]
we/I rent, [montámos] ~ [mónto]
we/I mount). Previous accounts of the alternation have largely
accepted this unpredictability at face value, focusing on setting up appropriate
lexical representations to distinguish alternating from non-alternating roots.
Our interest here is in whether Spanish speakers go beyond this, internalizing
rich and detailed knowledge of the ways in which diphthongization is conditioned
by the segmental environments.
We employed a machine-implemented algorithm to search a database of 1698
mid-vowel verbs. The algorithm yielded a large stochastic grammar, specifying
the degree to which diphthongization is favored or disfavored in particular
segmental contexts. We used this grammar to make predictions about the
well-formedness of novel roots. The predictions were then checked in a
"wug"-testing experiment with 96 native speaker consultants. We found that
the consultants intuitions (both in volunteered forms and in acceptability
ratings) were significantly correlated with the predictions of the
algorithmically-learned grammar. Our conclusion is that Spanish speakers
can indeed use detailed segmental environments to predict diphthongization.
We discuss this conclusion in light of various models of linguistic irregularity.
Last updated: 7/18/00