| ROA: | 88 |
|---|---|
| Title: | On affix allomorphy and syllable counting |
| Authors: | Rene Kager |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 13 |
| Abstract: | On Affix Allomorphy and Syllable Counting ROA-88 (13 pages) allomorph.word6, allomorph.rtf, allomorph.ps Rene Kager University of Utrecht kager@let.ruu.nl This paper analyses prosodically governed affix allomorphy in Estonian, arguing that selection of allomorphs depends on the metrical well-formedness of the complete base-plus-affix combination as determined in the output. Output targets are stem-foot alignments, and correlations between stress and syllable weight (Pk-Prom). Derivational analyses cannot capture this conspiracy since the principles that determine allomorph distribution are incapable of 'looking ahead' to the output they create. I argue for an analysis of prosodically governed allomorphy as output optimalisation (McCarthy and Prince 1993, Mester 1994, Bolognesi 1995, Anttila 1995). For each form 'Gen' generates all logically possible base-plus-allomorph combinations as candidate outputs. Among candidate outputs 'Eval' selects the optimal candidate (c.q. 'optimal allomorph') by universal output constraints which are ranked in a language-specific manner. The interest of the Estonian case is that the same prosodic constraints that are active in selecting the allomorphs are independently motivated in the stress system (cf. Kager 1994, ROA-35). Prosodically governed allomorphy is essentially another instance of the emergence of the unmarked. Wherever the lexicon supplies multiple allomorphs leading to outputs that are evaluated differently by prosodic constraints, the allomorphs are selected that best fit the requirements of prosody. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |