B Elan Dresher
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 598530 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | B Elan Dresher |
| NOMBRES | B Elan |
| APELLIDO | Dresher |
| FIRMA | DRESHER B E |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5636-7616 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 26 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 27 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 25 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1978 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
Learning abstract underlying phonemes
This article discusses cases of phonological abstractness and opacity and shows how they are eminently learnable, given certain assumptions about the innate cognitive endowment that learners bring to acquisition. I argue that opacity is not a learning problem but its solution. I propose that a distinction in patterning between two types of i in Inuit dialects is best explained by positing that surface [i] represents a merger of two underlying vow…
On the poverty of the stimulus in phonology
Archibald’s excellent keynote article argues for the importance of mental representations in modelling the acquisition of a second and third language. In this commentary, I elaborate on his observations concerning the ‘poverty of the stimulus’. I argue that there is a fundamental incommensurability between the input data and the acquired mental representations. Through the lens of the projection problem I show why a rich theory of Universal Gramm…
Contrastive feature hierarchies and Germanic phonology
I discuss an analysis of changes in the Scandinavian runic alphabet, or futhark, by Jørgen Rischel (1966) . Rischel’s article accounts for some puzzling changes in the futhark by employing contrastive feature hierarchies represented as branching trees. Feature hierarchies can be traced back to the work of Roman Jakobson and his colleagues. They enjoyed a brief period of prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, but then disappeared from mainstream phono…
The foot in the history of English
Dresher & Lahiri (1991) propose that Old English displays ‘metrical coherence’: different phonological processes are sensitive to the same metrical structure. We consider how English has dealt with challenges to metrical coherence. We show that the resolved moraic trochee, assumed to characterize the early Old English foot ( Bermúdez-Otero manuscript ; Goering 2016a , b ), became untenable after the shortening of unstressed vowels, arguing that t…
Pausal Forms and Prosodic Structure in Tiberian Hebrew
Vincent DeCaen and Elan Dresher investigate the reasons that pausal forms in Tiberian Hebrew, which are expected to occur at the end of ‘intonational phrases’, at times appear where Tiberian accents are conjunctive rather than disjunctive. They challenge an earlier opinion that such mismatches represent different traditions or stages of interpreting the biblical text, maintaining instead that these mismatches are due to limitations inherent in th…
The road not taken
This article examines a turning point in the history of the theory of phonological distinctive features. In Morris Halle’s (1959) The Sound Pattern of Russian , features are organized into a contrastive hierarchy designed to minimize the number of specified features. Redundancy rules, however, ensure that the resulting underspecification has no real phonological consequences and, in subsequent generative approaches to phonology, contrastive hiera…
Old English and the Theory of Phonology
First published in 1985. This title is a study in the synchronic and diachronic phonology and morphology of the Mercian dialect of Old English. It is particularly concerned with issues in the theory of phonology that have been the subject of the ‘abstractness controversy’, which developed in response to the theory of phonology put forward by Chomsky and Hale. This title will be of interest to students of English language and linguistics.
Contrast in Phonology, 1867–1967
This article surveys the history of contrast in phonology from Bell's Visible Speech ( 1867 ) until Chomsky & Halle's Sound Pattern of English ( 1968 ). Phonological contrast can be viewed at the segmental and subsegmental (feature) levels. As contrast at the segmental level involves the phoneme, whose later history has been extensively documented, I concentrate on the origins of the concept in the work of Sweet. Subsequently, I focus on subsegme…
The motivation for contrastive feature hierarchies in phonology
The notion that phonological features are organized into contrastive hierarchies has been entertained at different times in the history of linguistics. My main focus will be on the motivation for such hierarchies: what principles govern the ordering of the features? I will show that they have been motivated by three different principles: a) Activity: to identify the contrastive features that are relevant to the phonological computation, b) Minima…
Palatalization and “strong i ” across Inuit dialects
Inuit dialects with palatalization all distinguish between “strong i ” and “weak i ”: instances of surface [i] that cause palatalization and those that do not, respectively. All dialects that have completely lost this contrast also lack palatalization. Why are there no /i, a, u/ dialects in which all instances of surface [i] trigger palatalization? We propose that this typological gap can be explained using a contrastivist analysis whereby only c…
The Contrastive Hierarchy in Phonology
'Contrast' - the opposition between distinctive sounds in a language - is one of the most central concepts in linguistics. This book presents a fascinating account of the logic and history of contrast in phonology. It provides empirical evidence from diverse phonological domains that only contrastive features are computed by the phonological component of grammar. It argues that the contrastive specifications of phonemes are governed by language-p…
Formal Approaches to Poetry
This volume represents some of the most exciting current thinking on the theory of meter. It includes papers from leading experts in the field, including Nigel Fabb, Kristin Hanson, Paul Kiparsky, Marina Tarlinskaja, Barry Scherr, among others. The book focuses on a wide variety of languages, including English, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Japanese, Somali, Old Norse, Latin, and Greek. It contains diverse theoretical approaches that are brought to…
Contrast and Phonological Activity in Manchu Vowel Systems
In the Manchu languages, contrast plays an important role in the patterning of vowel systems. Contrastive feature values are phonologically active, triggering rules of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) and labial harmony, whereas redundant feature values are phonologically inert. To determine which feature values are contrastive in any given segment, it is necessary to establish an ordering of features. This ordering, or contrastive hierarchy, determine…
Contrast and Phonological Activity in the Nez Perce Vowel System
Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003)
Phonological Contrast and Phonetics in Manchu Vowel Systems
Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003)
Prerequisites for a Theory of Diachronic Adaptation
Charting the Learning Path
This article argues for an approach to grammar acquisition that builds on the cue-based parametric model of Dresher and Kaye (1990). On this view, acquisition proceeds by means of an ordered path, in which cues to parameters become progressively more abstract and grammar-internal. A learner does not attempt to match target forms (contra Gibson and Wexler 1994), but uses them as evidence for parameter setting. Cues are local, and there is no globa…
Open Syllable Lengthening in West Germanic
Vowels in stressed syllables in the West Germanic languages—e.g. Middle English, Middle Dutch and Middle High German—were lengthened under certain circumstances. There have been two different explanations for this change. The traditional assumption is that a process of open syllable lengthening (OSL) was introduced to standardize the quantity of stressed syllables (Prokosch 1939, among others). The second, quite different, approach assumes that t…
Head–dependent asymmetries in phonology
Developments in phonological theory have led to the recognition that phonological representations have a layered constituent structure. Many, perhaps all, of these constituents contain elements which can be identified as heads. Heads enter into various kinds of relations with their dependents. In this article, we identify a phenomenon which is quite pervasive in every part of phonology which has heads and dependents, namely, the existence of head…
The Prosodic Basis of the Tiberian Hebrew System of Accents
I argue that the Tiberian system of accents which annotate the text of the Hebrew Bible has a prosodic basis. Accentual representations are constructed in terms of units somewhat similar to the modern prosodic hierarchy, and they deviate from syntactic constituency in ways that are characteristic of prosodic representations. They are constrained by the effects of syntactic edges, geometric properties of prosodic phrases, principles for organizing…
Richard M. Hogg (1992). A grammar of Old English . Vol. 1
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
A computational learning model for metrical phonology
Morris Halle & Jean-Roger Vergnaud (1987). An essay on stress. ( Current Studies in Linguistics 15 ). (Cambridge, Mass
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Diachronic and Synchronic Implications of Declension Shifts
The Germanic foot
Charting the Learning Path
This article argues for an approach to grammar acquisition that builds on the cue-based parametric model of Dresher and Kaye (1990). On this view, acquisition proceeds by means of an ordered path, in which cues to parameters become progressively more abstract and grammar-internal. A learner does not attempt to match target forms (contra Gibson and Wexler 1994), but uses them as evidence for parameter setting. Cues are local, and there is no globa…
The Prosodic Basis of the Tiberian Hebrew System of Accents
I argue that the Tiberian system of accents which annotate the text of the Hebrew Bible has a prosodic basis. Accentual representations are constructed in terms of units somewhat similar to the modern prosodic hierarchy, and they deviate from syntactic constituency in ways that are characteristic of prosodic representations. They are constrained by the effects of syntactic edges, geometric properties of prosodic phrases, principles for organizing…
Open Syllable Lengthening in West Germanic
Vowels in stressed syllables in the West Germanic languages—e.g. Middle English, Middle Dutch and Middle High German—were lengthened under certain circumstances. There have been two different explanations for this change. The traditional assumption is that a process of open syllable lengthening (OSL) was introduced to standardize the quantity of stressed syllables (Prokosch 1939, among others). The second, quite different, approach assumes that t…
The road not taken
This article examines a turning point in the history of the theory of phonological distinctive features. In Morris Halle’s (1959) The Sound Pattern of Russian , features are organized into a contrastive hierarchy designed to minimize the number of specified features. Redundancy rules, however, ensure that the resulting underspecification has no real phonological consequences and, in subsequent generative approaches to phonology, contrastive hiera…
Contrast in Phonology, 1867–1967
This article surveys the history of contrast in phonology from Bell's Visible Speech ( 1867 ) until Chomsky & Halle's Sound Pattern of English ( 1968 ). Phonological contrast can be viewed at the segmental and subsegmental (feature) levels. As contrast at the segmental level involves the phoneme, whose later history has been extensively documented, I concentrate on the origins of the concept in the work of Sweet. Subsequently, I focus on subsegme…
The motivation for contrastive feature hierarchies in phonology
The notion that phonological features are organized into contrastive hierarchies has been entertained at different times in the history of linguistics. My main focus will be on the motivation for such hierarchies: what principles govern the ordering of the features? I will show that they have been motivated by three different principles: a) Activity: to identify the contrastive features that are relevant to the phonological computation, b) Minima…
Old English Phonology
Old English Phonology
Diachronic and Synchronic Implications of Declension Shifts
A computational learning model for metrical phonology
Morris Halle & Jean-Roger Vergnaud (1987). An essay on stress. ( Current Studies in Linguistics 15 ). (Cambridge, Mass
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Richard M. Hogg (1992). A grammar of Old English . Vol. 1
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Prosodic Basis of the Tiberian Hebrew System of Accents
I argue that the Tiberian system of accents which annotate the text of the Hebrew Bible has a prosodic basis. Accentual representations are constructed in terms of units somewhat similar to the modern prosodic hierarchy, and they deviate from syntactic constituency in ways that are characteristic of prosodic representations. They are constrained by the effects of syntactic edges, geometric properties of prosodic phrases, principles for organizing…
Head–dependent asymmetries in phonology
Developments in phonological theory have led to the recognition that phonological representations have a layered constituent structure. Many, perhaps all, of these constituents contain elements which can be identified as heads. Heads enter into various kinds of relations with their dependents. In this article, we identify a phenomenon which is quite pervasive in every part of phonology which has heads and dependents, namely, the existence of head…
Prerequisites for a Theory of Diachronic Adaptation
Charting the Learning Path
This article argues for an approach to grammar acquisition that builds on the cue-based parametric model of Dresher and Kaye (1990). On this view, acquisition proceeds by means of an ordered path, in which cues to parameters become progressively more abstract and grammar-internal. A learner does not attempt to match target forms (contra Gibson and Wexler 1994), but uses them as evidence for parameter setting. Cues are local, and there is no globa…
Open Syllable Lengthening in West Germanic
Vowels in stressed syllables in the West Germanic languages—e.g. Middle English, Middle Dutch and Middle High German—were lengthened under certain circumstances. There have been two different explanations for this change. The traditional assumption is that a process of open syllable lengthening (OSL) was introduced to standardize the quantity of stressed syllables (Prokosch 1939, among others). The second, quite different, approach assumes that t…
Contrast and Phonological Activity in the Nez Perce Vowel System
Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003)
Phonological Contrast and Phonetics in Manchu Vowel Systems
Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetic Sources of Phonological Patterns: Synchronic and Diachronic Explanations (2003)
Contrast and Phonological Activity in Manchu Vowel Systems
In the Manchu languages, contrast plays an important role in the patterning of vowel systems. Contrastive feature values are phonologically active, triggering rules of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) and labial harmony, whereas redundant feature values are phonologically inert. To determine which feature values are contrastive in any given segment, it is necessary to establish an ordering of features. This ordering, or contrastive hierarchy, determine…
Formal Approaches to Poetry
This volume represents some of the most exciting current thinking on the theory of meter. It includes papers from leading experts in the field, including Nigel Fabb, Kristin Hanson, Paul Kiparsky, Marina Tarlinskaja, Barry Scherr, among others. The book focuses on a wide variety of languages, including English, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Japanese, Somali, Old Norse, Latin, and Greek. It contains diverse theoretical approaches that are brought to…
The Contrastive Hierarchy in Phonology
'Contrast' - the opposition between distinctive sounds in a language - is one of the most central concepts in linguistics. This book presents a fascinating account of the logic and history of contrast in phonology. It provides empirical evidence from diverse phonological domains that only contrastive features are computed by the phonological component of grammar. It argues that the contrastive specifications of phonemes are governed by language-p…
Palatalization and “strong i ” across Inuit dialects
Inuit dialects with palatalization all distinguish between “strong i ” and “weak i ”: instances of surface [i] that cause palatalization and those that do not, respectively. All dialects that have completely lost this contrast also lack palatalization. Why are there no /i, a, u/ dialects in which all instances of surface [i] trigger palatalization? We propose that this typological gap can be explained using a contrastivist analysis whereby only c…
Contrast in Phonology, 1867–1967
This article surveys the history of contrast in phonology from Bell's Visible Speech ( 1867 ) until Chomsky & Halle's Sound Pattern of English ( 1968 ). Phonological contrast can be viewed at the segmental and subsegmental (feature) levels. As contrast at the segmental level involves the phoneme, whose later history has been extensively documented, I concentrate on the origins of the concept in the work of Sweet. Subsequently, I focus on subsegme…
The motivation for contrastive feature hierarchies in phonology
The notion that phonological features are organized into contrastive hierarchies has been entertained at different times in the history of linguistics. My main focus will be on the motivation for such hierarchies: what principles govern the ordering of the features? I will show that they have been motivated by three different principles: a) Activity: to identify the contrastive features that are relevant to the phonological computation, b) Minima…
Old English and the Theory of Phonology
First published in 1985. This title is a study in the synchronic and diachronic phonology and morphology of the Mercian dialect of Old English. It is particularly concerned with issues in the theory of phonology that have been the subject of the ‘abstractness controversy’, which developed in response to the theory of phonology put forward by Chomsky and Hale. This title will be of interest to students of English language and linguistics.
Pausal Forms and Prosodic Structure in Tiberian Hebrew
Vincent DeCaen and Elan Dresher investigate the reasons that pausal forms in Tiberian Hebrew, which are expected to occur at the end of ‘intonational phrases’, at times appear where Tiberian accents are conjunctive rather than disjunctive. They challenge an earlier opinion that such mismatches represent different traditions or stages of interpreting the biblical text, maintaining instead that these mismatches are due to limitations inherent in th…
The road not taken
This article examines a turning point in the history of the theory of phonological distinctive features. In Morris Halle’s (1959) The Sound Pattern of Russian , features are organized into a contrastive hierarchy designed to minimize the number of specified features. Redundancy rules, however, ensure that the resulting underspecification has no real phonological consequences and, in subsequent generative approaches to phonology, contrastive hiera…
The foot in the history of English
Dresher & Lahiri (1991) propose that Old English displays ‘metrical coherence’: different phonological processes are sensitive to the same metrical structure. We consider how English has dealt with challenges to metrical coherence. We show that the resolved moraic trochee, assumed to characterize the early Old English foot ( Bermúdez-Otero manuscript ; Goering 2016a , b ), became untenable after the shortening of unstressed vowels, arguing that t…
The Germanic foot
Contrastive feature hierarchies and Germanic phonology
I discuss an analysis of changes in the Scandinavian runic alphabet, or futhark, by Jørgen Rischel (1966) . Rischel’s article accounts for some puzzling changes in the futhark by employing contrastive feature hierarchies represented as branching trees. Feature hierarchies can be traced back to the work of Roman Jakobson and his colleagues. They enjoyed a brief period of prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, but then disappeared from mainstream phono…
On the poverty of the stimulus in phonology
Archibald’s excellent keynote article argues for the importance of mental representations in modelling the acquisition of a second and third language. In this commentary, I elaborate on his observations concerning the ‘poverty of the stimulus’. I argue that there is a fundamental incommensurability between the input data and the acquired mental representations. Through the lens of the projection problem I show why a rich theory of Universal Gramm…
Philosophy (25 obras) · Linguistics (24 obras) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (19 obras) · Psychology (17 obras) · Computer Science (16 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (15 obras) · Phonology (14 obras) · History (10 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (10 obras) · Linguistics and language evolution (9 obras)