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Exceptional prosodification effects revisited in Gradient Harmonic Grammar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2019

Brian Hsu
Brian Hsu*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*
E-mail: hsub@email.unc.edu.
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Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of exceptional prosodification effects, in which exceptional lexical items appear to follow a regular pattern that is found in a different prosodic context. These patterns have been analysed as cases of prosodic prespecification, where morphemes select a non-default prosodic representation. I argue that prespecification approaches should be reconsidered, and that such patterns are predicted without morpheme-specific prosody in Gradient Harmonic Grammar, a weighted constraint system with gradiently active symbols. Exceptional prosodification effects result from the interaction of two influences on constraint penalties: (i) scaling of constraint violations by prosodic context and (ii) contrastive activity values in underlying forms. This interaction is illustrated with the distribution of French nasal vowels and linking [n]. This approach reduces the amount of structure posited for URs, and provides new arguments for a more uniform syntax–prosody mapping.

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Phonology , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 225 - 263
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

For their helpful discussion at various stages of this work, I thank Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, Jennifer Boehm, Mykel Brinkerhoff, Matt Goldrick, Emily Moeng, Elliott Moreton, Charlie O'Hara, Katya Pertsova, Amy Reynolds, Nicholas Rolle, Brian Smith, Caitlin Smith, Jennifer Smith, Paul Smolensky, the P-Side Research Group at UNC-CH and audiences at WCCFL 36 and AMP 2018. I am particularly grateful to Karen Jesney and Rachel Walker, who guided me through the earliest iterations of this project. This paper has also been greatly improved by three anonymous reviewers and the editorial team at Phonology. This research has been supported by the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity at UNC-CH. All errors are my own.

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