Research interests
Jennifer L. Smith
I work in the area of phonological theory. (What is phonology?) My research investigates the nature of the formal phonological system and how it interacts with domains such as phonetics and morphosyntax. While many projects are comparative or typological, some focus on the phonology of Japanese and other East Asian languages.
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Here are some topics that I am interested in, with links to relevant papers:
Phonology and its interfaces
A perennial question in linguistics is the nature of the relationship between phonology and phonetics, or more generally, between formal linguistic categories and functional or substantive pressures. I investigate this question from the perspective of Optimality Theory, looking at both formal and functional factors that determine the contents of the set of phonological constraints and the set of possible output candidates. Specific questions of interest include: Are phonological constraints phonetically grounded? Do constraints refer to symbolic phonological categories or gradient phonetic information?
I also investigate aspects of the interfaces between phonology and morphology and syntax, with projects on the role of lexical categories in phonology, and the intonational phonology of questions and focus in the Fukuoka dialect of Japanese.
Research topics that address various aspects of phonology and its interfaces include sonority and syllable structure, loanword phonology, positional effects in phonology (including noun faithfulness), and Fukuoka Japanese intonation.
Sonority and syllable structure
The search for a functionally grounded account of why onset glides are subject to different sonority restrictions in different languages has implications for the formal representation of syllable-internal structure and the constraints Onset and *Onset/X.
Loanword phonology
Loanword adaptation -- the phonological alterations that words sometimes undergo when they are borrowed -- is another area where the relationship between formal and functional factors can be explored.
Fukuoka Japanese intonation
The intonational phonology of WH questions in Fukuoka Japanese shows interesting patterns that bear on current debates about the nature of the phonology-syntax interface.
Positional effects in phonology
Sometimes, a markedness or faithfulness constraint is enforced only in a subset of the forms of a language. Such positional or domain-specific effects have implications for the phonology/phonetics interface.
One line of work in this area is concerned with positional augmentation, markedness requirements that are imposed exclusively on phonologically prominent or "strong" positions. I argue that positional augmentation always involves perceptually salient properties, so it is relevant for our understanding of the relationship between formal and functional factors in shaping the constraint set.
I am also interested in various aspects of positional faithfulness, one approach to the ability of strong positions to resist processes of neutralization that affect other positions. (The work on noun faithfulness described below also falls into this category, since I argue that nouns behave like phonologically strong positions.)
Noun faithfulness (and other lexical category effects in phonology)
While the morphosyntactic differences between nouns, verbs, and adjectives have long been important in linguistic theory, there are also intriguing differences in the phonological behavior of words of different lexical categories. In many cases, nouns appear to show positional faithfulness effects, maintaining phonological contrasts that are not permitted in verbs. This topic is part of the more general research area of positional effects, discussed above.
The phonology of Japanese and other East Asian languages
I am interested in various aspects of Japanese phonology. In addition to my work on Fukuoka Japanese intonation, several of the papers on loanword phonology and noun faithfulness focus on data from Japanese.
In addition to Japanese, I have also worked on phonological phenomena in Chinese languages and Korean.
Phonology and reading
A joint research project with Gary Feng and Elliott Moreton, looking at phonological factors in reading, reading acquisition, and reading difficulties.