Proceedings

Segmental phonology, gestural phonetics: Explaining asymmetries between phonetic and phonological operations

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Abstract

Generative phonology has traditionally asserted that phonological grammar is uniform (Chomsky & Halle 1968); where there is no substantive distinction between patterns that bear morphological restrictions and those that are fully general. In this paper, I have argued that this assumption of phonological uniformity is false. When we examine phonotactically general patterns and compare them to morphologically-conditioned ones, we find that there are typological gaps. General phonology never copies non-local consonants (Consonant Copying Gap), it never inserts voiceless obstruents between vowels ([t]-Epenthesis Gap), and it never reorders segments (Segmental Metathesis Gap). Together, these properties suggest that general phonology (a.k.a. phonetics) must largely preserve gestural and ordering information, and cannot overwrite it. By contrast, morphophonology exhibits each of these patterns, and so appears to be less fundamentally restricted in its transformations.

Keywords: phonetics-phonology interface, consonant epenthesis, metathesis, copy epenthesis, gestures, typology

How to Cite:

Mooney, K., (2026) “Segmental phonology, gestural phonetics: Explaining asymmetries between phonetic and phonological operations”, Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology 2(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/amphonology.3716