Spelling out enclitics and giving their tone a voice: Cyclic clitic incorporation in BCS and breaking the cycle

2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Talić
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Complex Pattern ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Structure Building

Abstract This paper examines previously unnoticed facts about prosodic interactions between enclitics and their hosts in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS). I show that there is a three-way split between BCS enclitics in this respect: (i) enclitics that always interact with the accent of their host; (ii) enclitics that interact with the accent of their host in some contexts, but not in others; (iii) and enclitics that never interact with the accent of their host. It is shown that this rather complex pattern can be accounted for in its entirety by a condition on prosodic incorporation of enclitics that holds at the point when syntactic structure is mapped to prosodic structure, which essentially requires the clitic and the host to be in the same spell-out domain in order for the clitic to incorporate into the prosodic word of its host, a prerequisite for the clitic to interact with the accent of its host. I also discuss certain idiosyncratic phonological properties of the auxiliary clitic je ‘be.3sg’ and the particle se ‘self’ that cause reordering of enclitics in PF. It is shown that this PF movement can have an effect on whether a clitic is spelled out in the same domain as its host, which in turn affects the prosodic interaction between the two. Based on the prosodic interaction of enclitics with the accent of their host, I argue for a phase-based approach to prosodic structure building (see also Dobashi 2003; Kahnemuyipour 2004, 2009;Kratzer and Selkirk 2007; Sato 2012; Sato and Dobashi 2016; among others).

scholarly journals Is Word-Level Recursion Actually Recursion?

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Taylor L. Miller ◽  
Hannah Sande
Keyword(s):  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phase Boundaries ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
Word Group ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Clear Cases

There is a longstanding debate in the literature about if, and where, recursion occurs in prosodic structure. While there are clear cases of genuine recursion at the phrase level and above, there are very few convincing cases of word-level recursion. Most cases are—by definition—not recursive and instead best analyzed as different constituents (e.g., the Composite Group, Prosodic Word Group, etc.). We show that two convincing cases of prosodic word-level recursion can easily be reanalyzed without recursion if phonology and prosody are evaluated cyclically at syntactic phase boundaries. Our analysis combines phase-based spell-out and morpheme-specific subcategorization frames of Cophonologies by Phase with Tri-P Mapping prosodic structure building. We show that apparent word-level recursion is due to cyclic spell-out, and non-isomorphisms between syntactic and prosodic structure are due to morpheme-specific prosodic requirements.

Lexical government and tone group formation in Xiamen Chinese

Phonology ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo-wang Lin
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Tone Sandhi ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
The Past ◽  
Syntactic Information

The study of the relation between syntactic structure and phonological representation has attracted the attention of many phonologists in the past few years. One important contribution to this field of study is Chen's (1987) work on Xiamen Chinese tone sandhi domains. He suggests that the syntax–phonology relation appeals to syntactic information such as category types and the edges of syntactic bracketings. This insight has been further elaborated in the general theory of the syntax—phonology relation of Selkirk (1986). In this theory, the relation between syntactic structure and prosodic structure above the foot and below the intonational phrase is defined in terms of the edges of syntactic constituents of designated types. More precisely, this theory incorporates two hypotheses. One is that there are designated category types in syntactic structure with respect to which one end (Right or Left) of the designated category is relevant in the formulation of a prosodic constituent C, which extends from one instance of the appropriate end (R/L) of the designated category to the next. This hypothesis has been called the End Parameter.

The Foot is not an obligatory constituent of the Prosodic Hierarchy: “stress” in Turkish, French and child English

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Öner Özçelik
Keyword(s):  
Regular Word ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Opposite Edge ◽  
Early Child ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Foot Structure ◽  
Edge Stress ◽  
Phonological Phrase

AbstractThis paper proposes that the presence/absence of the Foot is parametric; that is, contra much previous research (see e. g. Selkirk, Elisabeth (1995). Sentence prosody: intonation, stress and phrasing. In J. Goldsmith (ed.)The handbook of phonological theory. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. 550–569., Vogel, Irene (2009). Universals of prosodic structure. In S. Scalise, E. Magni, & A. Bisetto (eds.)Universals of language today. Dordrecht: Springer. 59–82.), it is argued here that the Foot is not a universal constituent of the Prosodic Hierarchy; rather, some languages, such as Turkish and French, as well as early child languages, are footless. Several types of evidence are presented in support of this proposal, from both Turkish and French, as well as child English. A comparison of regular (word-final) and exceptional stress in Turkish reveals, for example, that regular “stress” is intonational prominence falling on the last syllable of prosodic words in the absence of foot structure. Both acoustic and formal evidence are presented in support of this proposal, as well as evidence from syntax-prosody interface. The paper also presents evidence for the footless status of French, which, unlike Turkish, is proposed to be completely footless. Several arguments are presented in support of this position, such as the fact that, in French, the domain of obligatory prominence is the Phonological Phrase (PPh), not the Prosodic Word (PWd); in a PPh consisting of several PWds, therefore, nonfinal PWds can surface without any kind of stress or prominence, suggesting that, at least for non-final PWds, one cannot assume stress or foot structure. Finally, the proposal is extended to additional languages, such as those demonstrating Default-to-Opposite Edge stress.

scholarly journals The Syntax and Prosody of Weak Pronouns in Chamorro

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Chung
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Mutual Interaction ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Austronesian Language ◽  
Independent Components ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Phonological Phrase

In the modular linguistic theory assumed by many generative linguists, phonology and syntax are interconnected but fundamentally independent components of grammar. The effects of syntax on phonology are mediated by prosodic structure, a representation of prosodic constituents calculated from syntactic structure but not isomorphic to it. Within this overall architecture, I investigate the placement of weak pronouns in the Austronesian language Chamorro. Certain Chamorro pronominals can be realized as prosodically deficient weak pronouns that typically occur right after the predicate. I showthat these pronouns are second-position clitics whose placement is determined not syntactically, but prosodically: they occur after the leftmost phonological phrase of their intonational phrase. My analysis of these clitics assumes that lexical insertion is late and can affect and be affected by prosodic phrase formation-assumptions consistent with the view that the mutual interaction of phonology and syntax is confined to the postsyntactic operations that translate syntactic structure into prosodic structure.

Domain modelling in Optimality Theory: Morphophonological cyclicity vs. stepwise prosodic parsing

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-43
Author(s):  
KAROLINA BROŚ
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Input String ◽  
Domain Specificity ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
Harmonic Serialism ◽  
Chilean Spanish ◽  
Insight Into

This paper examines opaque examples of phrase-level phonology taken from Chilean Spanish under the framework of Stratal Optimality Theory (OT) (Rubach 1997; Bermúdez-Otero 2003, 2019) and Harmonic Serialism (HS) (McCarthy 2008a, b, 2016). The data show an interesting double repair of the coda /s/ taking place at word edges. It is argued that Stratal OT is superior in modelling phonological processes that take place at the interface between morphology and phonology because it embraces cyclicity. Under this model, prosodic structure is built serially, level by level, and in accordance with the morphological structure of the input string. In this way, opacity at constituent edges can be solved. Stratal OT also provides insight into word-internal morphological structure and the domain-specificity of phonological processes. It is demonstrated that a distinction in this model is necessary between the word and the phrase levels, and between the stem and the word levels. As illustrated by the behaviour of Spanish nouns, affixation and the resultant alternations inform us about the domains to which both morphological and phonological processes should be assigned. Against this background, Harmonic Serialism embraces an apparently simpler recursive mechanism in which stepwise prosodic parsing can be incorporated. What is more, it offers insight into the nature of operations in OT, as well as into such problematic issues as structure building and directionality. Nevertheless, despite the model’s ability to solve various cases of opacity, the need to distinguish between two competing repairs makes HS fail when confronted with the Chilean data under examination.

Anatomy of a grammatical tone

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-218
Author(s):  
Mimi Tian
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
High Tone ◽  
Left Boundary ◽  
Prosodic Word ◽  
Comprehensive Account ◽  
Grammatical Analysis

Abstract “Induced Creaky Tone (ICT)” is a grammatical tone in Burmese. It is the result of a process by which Low or High tone is changed into Creaky tone. This alternation is multifunctional, and one of its functions is possessor marking. This paper demonstrates several well-distinguished conditions of different nature and different domain for this tonal alternation. ICT is primarily induced by syntax, varies due to pragmatic factors, occurs only on the shared right boundary of phrases and stem forms, and its phonological condition has a domain stretching to the left boundary of the prosodic word. A comprehensive account of such conditions provides the basis for a grammatical analysis which tests the theoretical options for representing a tonal morpheme in the morpho-syntactic structure of a sentence. It also sheds light on other issues such as the interfaces between phonology and grammar, and between tonal morphology and tonal syntax.

scholarly journals Phonological phrasing and ATR vowel harmony in Akan

Phonology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Kügler
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
General Process ◽  
Sensitive Analysis ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Phonological Phrase

This paper examines phonological phrasing in the Kwa language Akan. Regressive [+ATR] vowel harmony between words (RVH) serves as a hitherto unreported diagnostic of phonological phrasing. In this paper I discuss VP-internal and NP-internal structures, as well as SVO(O) and serial verb constructions. RVH is a general process in Akan grammar, although it is blocked in certain contexts. The analysis of phonological phrasing relies on universal syntax–phonology mapping constraints whereby lexically headed syntactic phrases are mapped onto phonological phrases. Blocking contexts call for a domain-sensitive analysis of RVH assuming recursive prosodic structure which makes reference to maximal and non-maximal phonological phrases. It is proposed (i) that phonological phrase structure is isomorphic to syntactic structure in Akan, and (ii) that the process of RVH is blocked at the edge of a maximal phonological phrase; this is formulated in terms of a domain-sensitive CrispEdge constraint.

scholarly journals On the Left-/Right-Branching Asymmetry in Mandarin Tone 3 Sandhi

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Restricted Version ◽  
Strong Start ◽  
Prosodic Structures ◽  
Match Theory ◽  
Mandarin Tone

In Mandarin, a left-/right-branching asymmetry is observed when the Tone 3 Sandhi (T3S) process interacts with the syntactic structure of an expression: while expressions that have a left-branching syntactic structure only have a non-alternating sandhi pattern in which all but the rightmost T3 is changed to the sandhi tone, for expressions that have a right-branching syntactic structure various sandhi patterns are possible. This paper proposes that T3S applies cyclically bottom-up on a prosodic structure matched from the syntactic structure of an expression, along the lines of the Match Theory of syntactic-prosodic constituency correspondence (Selkirk 2011). The interaction of Match Phrase constraints and Strong Strong Start, which is a more restricted version of Selkirk’s (2011) Strong Start constraint, predicts that different prosodic structures are possible outputs for a right-branching expression, while for a left-branching expression the only possible output is a left-branching prosodic structure. The various possible sandhi patterns for a right-branching expression and the non-alternating sandhi pattern for a left-branching expression are derived when T3S applies cyclically bottom-up on the proposed prosodic structures.

scholarly journals White matter pathways for prosodic structure building: A case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Sammler ◽  
Katrin Cunitz ◽  
Sarah M.E. Gierhan ◽  
Alfred Anwander ◽  
Jens Adermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Structure Building

Susceptibility to interference: underlying mechanisms, and implications for prediction

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Healthy Young Adult ◽  
Aging Research ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Increased Susceptibility

Over the years, models proposed for second-language (L2) processing have been remarkably parallel to those proposed for Broca's aphasia. Differences between agrammatic and unaffected language processing have been explained, e.g., in terms of lack of detailed syntactic structure building (Grodzinsky, 1995), resource deficits (Haarman, Just & Carpenter, 1997), slow syntactic processing (Burkhardt, Avrutin, Piñango & Ruigendijk, 2008), or slowed lexical access (Love, Swinney, Walenski & Zurif, 2008). Each of these approaches have their homolog in L2 processing (e.g., Clahsen & Felser, 2006; McDonald, 2006; Dekydtspotter, Schwartz & Sprouse, 2006; Hopp, 2013, respectively). It is therefore not surprising that Cunnings's proposal (Cunnings, 2016) parallels another idea in aphasia and aging research, namely that deviations from healthy young adult monolingual sentence processing can be attributed to an increased susceptibility to interference (e.g., Sheppard, Walenski, Love & Shapiro, 2015).

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