Quantity in Phonetics and Phonology: A Government Perspective

Anna Bloch-Rozmej

Anna Bloch-Rozmej The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

Keywords: quantity; quality; structure; stability; manifestation; interface

Abstract

The major aim of this article is to discuss the phonetic manifestation of phonological structure as regards the dimension of quantity. The model adopted in the analysis is that of Government Phonology which remains in sharp contrast with the generative framework that employed distinctive features and binary feature values to express the phonological opposition between short and long phonemic units. Government Phonology represents quantity on a separate autonomous level consisting of skeletal positions.

We shall pinpoint the major problems pertaining to the phonetics—phonology interface as regards the dimension of quantity. To this end, the linguistic systems of English, Irish or Japanese will provide us with examples depicting the existing mismatches between the phonological representations of quantity and their phonetic manifestations. Interestingly, what sounds short or long phonetically not always need to be the manifestation of the two corresponding structural configurations.

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