Phillip Backley
List of John Benjamins publications in which Phillip Backley is involved.
Articles
2020 Conditions on the variable interpretation of |U| in Japanese Variation in phonology, Szigetvári, Péter (ed.), pp. 84–101 | Article
This paper examines the historical and phonological properties of h in Japanese. It shows that, by analysing a specific case of segmental variation, we not only deepen our understanding of the sound which varies but also shed light on some general characteristics of the sound system as a whole.… read more
2017 English /au/: An acoustic explanation for a phonological pattern Sonic Signatures: Studies dedicated to John Harris, Lindsey, Geoff and Andrew Nevins (eds.), pp. 1–16 | Chapter
When a consonant follows the English diphthong /au/, it must be coronal, e.g. loud, count (cf. *loub, *counk). This is a robust pattern but also an unnatural one, as there is no obvious synchronic link between /au/ and coronal place. A diachronic approach fares better, where historical changes… read more
2012 Variation in element theory Linguistic Variation 12:1, pp. 57–102 | Article
This paper introduces the Element Theory approach to segmental structure, and describes the variation that exists between different versions of the theory. Elements are unlike traditional features in several respects: they have only positive values, they represent categories motivated solely by… read more