Velars and empty-headedness in Government Phonology

Daniel Huber (1)

1 CLLE-ERSS - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie

In government and licensing theories velars are usually considered to be headless consonants, that is, headed by the "empty element". It is argued here that the velars-empty elements connection is a promising line of thinking, but certain adjustments are needed to correctly interpret that connection. The ultimate conclusion is that velars only refer to the place elements I and U for phonological operations, that is, these only can be evoked on occasion, while any other independent velar place element is superfluous.

Keywords: government phonology; markedness; empty elements; element theory

Domains: Linguistics

Daniel Huber. Velars and empty-headedness in Government Phonology. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 2003, 28, pp.45-56. ⟨hal-00979911⟩