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When accent preservation leads to clash

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2017

QUENTIN DABOUIS
QUENTIN DABOUIS*
Affiliation:
Université François-Rabelais de Tours, Département d'anglais, 3 Rue des Tanneurs, 37041 Tours CEDEX 1, Francequentin.dabouis@gmail.com
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Abstract

In English, some complex words can display exceptional accent preservation (EAP): they can preserve an accent from their base even when this would violate a general restriction against adjacent accents (e.g. retúrn → retùrnée). This article analyses EAP both empirically and theoretically. The analysis of a set of 291 derivatives from Wells (2008) shows that this phenomenon can be partially attributed to the relative frequency of the base and its derivative and partially also to syllable structure, and that these two factors have a cumulative effect. It is also shown that the existence of a more deeply embedded base (e.g. colléct→ colléctive → còllectívity ~ collèctívity) can increase the likelihood for a derivative to display EAP. A formal account of the phenomenon is proposed building on Collie's (2007, 2008) ‘fake cyclicity’ analysis, using weighted constraints (Pater 2009, 2016) and Max-Ent-OT (Goldwater & Johnson 2003). Finally, a model of lexical access building on Hay's (2001, 2003) model and integrating more deeply embedded bases is proposed.

Keywords

Englishstressaccentfaithfulnesspreservationclashfrequencycyclicitylexical access
Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 363 - 404
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

I would like to thank the audience of the Thirteenth Old World Conference in Phonology, which was held in Budapest in January 2016 and where an early version of this research was presented. I am also indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. Finally, thanks to Sabine Arndt-Lappe, Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, Christophe dos Santos, Jean-Michel Fournier and Nicola Lampitelli for remarks and discussion.

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