| ROA: | 532 |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Prosodic Structure of Simple Abbreviated Loanwords in Japanese: a Constraint-based Account |
| Authors: | Laurence Labrune |
| Comment: | published in: Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan vol. 6 no 1 April 2002 |
| Length: | 28 |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide a principled account of the morpho-phonology of Japanese simple (=non-compound) abbreviated loanwords such as ana < anaunsaa 'announcer', kosume < kosumetikku 'cosmetic', baito < arubaito 'Arbeit' within the framework of Correspondence Theory (McCarthy & Prince, 1995, Benua, 1995). Focusing on the constraints that govern the prosodic organization and the length of the abbreviated form, the study is based on a thorough analysis of an extensive body of original data, which constitutes the empirical and statistical evidence for the proposed analysis. The main argument is that the length of an abbreviation (whether apocope or aphaeresis) can be predicted from the prosodic structure of the base. We provide evidence that truncation generally occurs just before the accented mora of a base. It is argued that a small number of general well-formedness constraints, among which BIN and *H# (banning heavy syllable at the end of the output), as well as the alignment constraint ALIGN(Abbreviation, edge, HeadFoot of Base, Left) demanding that simple abbreviated loanwords be cut just before the head foot of the base (containing the accented mora) are sufficient to account for the prosodic diversity and the length variation observed in apocopes as well as in aphaereses. The proposed analysis provides a consistent account of more than 70% of simple abbreviated loanwords. Furthermore, it should be noted that interestingly, exceptions to the proposed treatment involve epenthetic vowels and, to a lesser extent, the liquid r. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | Phonology, Morphology |
| Article: | Version 1 |