A Phonetically Based Account of English Reduplication

Abstract

The purpose of paper is to explore English reduplication within the Framework of Optimality Theory (OT, Prince and Smolensky 1993). It is Claimed in this paper that perception plays a role in motivating Constraints and the perceptually motivated constraints account for the Phonological process, reduplication. Focusing on English reduplication, this paper investigates how perception operates to motivate reduplication-related constraints. In doing so, constraints of MAXIMIZE OBSTRUENCY and MAXIMIZE DISTANCE, which result in perceptual distinctiveness, are proposed. Perceptually based theoretical accounts advanced in this paper are supported by statistical data analysis. And this paper claims that English reduplication operates to maintain the perceptual salience maximally. Finally, this paper demonstrates with the concrete data set of English that reduplication is a process to enhance perceptual distinctiveness maximally and that the perception-based constraints are necessary and valid in OT.