Phonotactics and morphonotactics of Polish and English. Theory, description, tools and applications (2025)

Classification of the lexicon of modern Polish according to the structure of consonant clusters

2011

The aim of the project this paper reports on is to identify and analyze the correlation between Polish consonant clusters and the semantic categories of the words that contain a given cluster. The material studied is a large corpus of Polish newspaper text. A common characteristic of sets of words is whether or not they contain an identical consonant cluster, which is understood here as a contiguous string of consonants not interrupted by a vowel. The aim of the study is to find other common characteristics of the words, that is the identification and analysis of a correlation between the cluster and the semantic categories that the words containing the cluster belong to. The semantic categories considered in the model pertain to the following properties of the words featuring a common cluster: derivation, part of speech, inflection, and morphotactics.

A dynamical-systems approach to the evolution of morphonotactic and lexical consonant clusters in English and Polish

Yearbook of the Poznan Linguistic Meeting , 2016

Consonant clusters appear either lexically within morphemes or morphonotactically across morpheme boundaries. According to extant theories, their diachronic dynamics are suggested to be determined by analogical effects on the one hand as well as by their morphological signaling function on the other hand. This paper presents a mathematical model which allows for an investigation of the interaction of these two forces and the resulting diachronic dynamics. The model is tested against synchronic and diachronic language data. It is shown that the evolutionary dynamics of the cluster inventory crucially depend on how the signaling function of morphonotactic clusters is compromised by the presence of lexical items containing their morpheme internal counterparts.

The study of Polish phonotactics: Measures of phonotactic preferability

Studies in Polish Linguistics

The goal of this paper is to investigate Polish phonotactics from the point of view of different measures of phonotactic preferability. The inventory of word-initial and-final clusters is extracted from a dictionary and analysed in accordance with two principles of phonotactic complexity, namely, the Sonority Sequencing Generalisation and Net Auditory Distance. Sonority entails measurements of distances between consonants expressed by the manner of articulation, whereas NAD uses the manner of articulation, place of articulation as well as the obstruent/sonorant distinction. These differences are likely to contribute to a different assessment of clusters, which is the main focus of this paper. Moreover, since a set of Polish clusters arise due to morphology, a distinction is drawn between phonotactic and morphonotactic clusters, i.e. phonologically and morphologically motivated. We are interested in verifying to what extent the principles under investigation reflect the relation between cluster preferability and morphological complexity. The analysis shows that NAD, as a more restrictive measure of phonotactics, rejects a larger portion of word-initial and-final clusters on well-formedness grounds. Secondly, we demonstrate that both principles generally show a strong relation between cluster preferability and morphological complexity. Keywords consonant clusters, morphological boundaries, phonotactic preferability, Polish Streszczenie Celem niniejszej pracy jest zbadanie polskiej fonotaktyki z punktu widzenia różnych modeli preferencyjności. Inwentarz zbitek spółgłoskowych występujących na początku i na końcu słowa został wyekstrahowany ze słownika oraz zanalizowany na podstawie założeń Zasady Sonorności oraz Zasady Audiodystansu Netto. Zasada Sonorności określa dystanse między spółgłoskami na podstawie sposobu artykulacji, podczas gdy Zasada Audiodystansu Netto bierze pod uwagę dystanse w sposobie i miejscu artykulacji oraz pomiędzy obstruentami a sonorantami. Ponadto znaczna część zbitek spółgłoskowych w języku polskim jest wynikiem działania morfologii. Drugim celem jest zatem zbadanie stopnia zależności między preferencyjnością zbitek a ich morfologiczną strukturą. Analiza pokazuje, że Zasada Audiodystansu Netto, jako bardziej restrykcyjna miara, odrzuca większą grupę zbitek. Obie zasady natomiast potwier

On the Shapes of the Polish Word: Phonotactic Complexity and Diversity

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia

The aim of this contribution is to identify the dominant shapes of the Polish word with reference to three criteria: cluster complexity (i.e., cluster size), saturation (the number of clusters in a word), and diversity (in terms of features of consonant description). The dominant word shape is understood as the most frequent or typical skeletal pattern, expressed by means of alternations or groupings of Cs (consonants) and Vs (vowels), e.g., CVCCV etc., or by means of specific features (of place, manner, voice, and the sonorant/obstruent distinction). Our work focuses on 2 aspects of Polish phonotactics: (1) the relation between cluster complexity and saturation of words with clusters, (2) the degrees of diversity in features of place, manner, and voice within clusters. Using corpus data, we have established that only 4.17% of word shapes have no clusters. The dominant word shape for a one-cluster word is CVCCVCV. The most frequent scenario for a word shape is to contain two cluster...

The acquisition of consonant clusters in Polish: a case study

The Emergence of Phonology

This paper examines the phonological processes affecting consonant clusters in the speech of a child acquiring Polish (1;5-1;9). Word-initial, word-medial and word-final clusters are discussed, and compared to word-initial singleton consonants in the data. The nature of the processes, as well as the wide range of variability within the child"s system, lead to the conclusion that articulation, attention and word-based processing are the main factors affecting the child"s production.

Phonetic syllabification and morphological parsability: the case of prefixed words in Polish

This paper investigates the interaction between phonological (i.e. phonotactic) and morphological factors in Polish, on the basis of the data from a phonetic syllabification experiment. The morphological factors which determine the parsability of derivatives include, among others, the transparency of complex words, their relative frequency, and the recognizability of the prefix. From a phonological point of view a special attention is paid to the Sonority Sequency Generalization. The results are based on an experimental study which was carried out on over a hundred native speakers of Polish . During the experiment, judgments were elicited concerning the surface syllabification of a class of morphologically complex words in Polish, namely prefixed formations. One of the aims of the study was to find out whether the informants respected the prefix-stem juncture in syllabifying the stimuli items. Another aim was to examine the interplay of phonological restrictions with the visibility ...

This paper examines the phonological processes affecting consonant clusters in the speech of a child acquiring Polish (1;5-1;9). Word-initial, word-medial and word- final clusters are discussed, and compared to word-initial singleton consonants in the data. The nature of the processes, as well as the wide range of variability within the child’s system, lead to the conclusion that articulation, planning and word- based processing are the main factors affecting the child’s production.

A Comparative Analysis of Consonant Clusters in English and in Slovak

2010

The paper presents the partial results of the research project verifying the proposed universal nature of the CVX theory of syllable. The character of the word-initial and the word-final clusters in English and in Slovak indicates that while in English all onset and coda clusters form a complex sound or can be explained by morphology, in Slovak the number of possible word-initial and wordfinal clusters is much higher, their structure is more heterogeneous and it seems that only a few of them can be accounted for by morphology.

The NAD Phonotactic Calculator – an online tool to calculate cluster preference in English, Polish and other languages

DESCRIPTION The paper describes an online tool to calculate cluster preference according to Net Auditory Distance NAD, called NAD Phonotactic Calculator, available at: http://wa.amu.edu.pl/nadcalc/

Consonant Clusters