English Voicing in Dimensional Theory.

Area of Science:

• Phonology
• Linguistic Phonetics
• English Linguistics

Background:

• The study addresses two distinct English phonological phenomena: lexically specific fricative voicing in plurals (e.g., 'wives') and prosodically governed medial /t/ flapping in North American English.
• Existing frameworks often treat these as unrelated, necessitating a novel approach to uncover underlying connections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a unified phonological framework that explains both fricative voicing and /t/ flapping as structurally related.
• To demonstrate how privative features and laryngeal representation theories can account for these seemingly disparate patterns.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the Dimensional Theory of laryngeal representation.
• Applying the principle that English marks voiceless obstruents but not voiced ones.
• Analyzing the interaction between laryngeal weakening, speech rate, and segmental abbreviation.

Main Results:

• The paper posits that fricative voicing and coronal flapping are not independent rules but emerge from shared phonological principles.
• Lexical fricative voicing and medial /t/ flapping are interpreted as consequences of laryngeal features and phonetic processes.

Conclusions:

• An unexpected connection between fricative voicing and coronal flapping is revealed through the interplay of phonemic and phonetic factors.
• The proposed framework offers a more integrated understanding of English phonological variation.