Phonological phrasing in Spanish
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Pilar Prieto
Abstract
This article investigates the role of syntactic and prosodic markedness constraints on the construction of phonological phrases (φ- or p-phrases) in Peninsular Spanish. The data come from a reading task of a corpus composed of 85 utterances with a wide variety of structures and constituent lengths. Four speakers read each sentence at three different speech rates (normal, slow, and fast). It is shown that the construction of prosodic structure in this language cannot rely solely on syntactic information but has to refer to prosodic markedness constraints which regulate the size and balance of phrase constituents. The proposal will be cast in a constraint-based OT approach (McCarthy & Prince 1993a), where the notion of edge alignment from Selkirk (1984) and constituent wrapping from Truckenbrodt (1995, 1999) are considered to be ranked and violable constraints. Specifically, phonological phrasing in Spanish is determined by the interaction of right-alignment of syntactic and phonological phrases (Align-XP,R) with a maximal requirement on the length of p-phrases (Max-Bin) and a minimality constraint on the prosodic parsing of utterances (Min-Bin). Other Romance languages (and English and recently Egyptian Arabic) have also provided critical evidence in favor of the importance of prosodic restrictions on phrasing prediction (see Ghini 1993a, 1993b for Italian, Prieto 2005 for Catalan, Sandalo & Truckenbrodt 2002 for Brazilian Portuguese, Selkirk 2000, 2005 for English, and Hellmuth forthcoming for Egyptian Arabic; see also Elordieta, Frota, Prieto & Vigário 2003, D’Imperio, Elordieta, Frota, Prieto & Vigário 2005).
Abstract
This article investigates the role of syntactic and prosodic markedness constraints on the construction of phonological phrases (φ- or p-phrases) in Peninsular Spanish. The data come from a reading task of a corpus composed of 85 utterances with a wide variety of structures and constituent lengths. Four speakers read each sentence at three different speech rates (normal, slow, and fast). It is shown that the construction of prosodic structure in this language cannot rely solely on syntactic information but has to refer to prosodic markedness constraints which regulate the size and balance of phrase constituents. The proposal will be cast in a constraint-based OT approach (McCarthy & Prince 1993a), where the notion of edge alignment from Selkirk (1984) and constituent wrapping from Truckenbrodt (1995, 1999) are considered to be ranked and violable constraints. Specifically, phonological phrasing in Spanish is determined by the interaction of right-alignment of syntactic and phonological phrases (Align-XP,R) with a maximal requirement on the length of p-phrases (Max-Bin) and a minimality constraint on the prosodic parsing of utterances (Min-Bin). Other Romance languages (and English and recently Egyptian Arabic) have also provided critical evidence in favor of the importance of prosodic restrictions on phrasing prediction (see Ghini 1993a, 1993b for Italian, Prieto 2005 for Catalan, Sandalo & Truckenbrodt 2002 for Brazilian Portuguese, Selkirk 2000, 2005 for English, and Hellmuth forthcoming for Egyptian Arabic; see also Elordieta, Frota, Prieto & Vigário 2003, D’Imperio, Elordieta, Frota, Prieto & Vigário 2005).
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
- Spanish complex onsets and the phonetics–phonology interface 15
- Phonological phrasing in Spanish 39
- Hiatus resolution and incomplete identity 62
- Depalatalization in Spanish revisited 74
- Upstepping vowel height 99
- The phonology of nasal consonants in five Spanish dialects 146
- Optimality-theoretic advances in our understanding of Spanish syllable structure 172
- Exceptional hiatuses in Spanish 205
- The Spanish stress window 239
- Morphological structure and phonological domains in Spanish denominal derivation 278
- Gender allomorphy and epenthesis in Spanish 312
- A paradigm account of Spanish number 339
- Prefix boundaries in Spanish varieties 358
- Optimality Theory and language change in Spanish 378
- Duration, voice, and dispersion in stop contrasts from Latin to Spanish 399
- The interaction between faithfulness constraints and sociolinguistic variation 424
- Sonority scales and syllable structure 447
- Foot, word and phrase constraints in first language acquisition of Spanish stress 470
- Acquistion of syllable structure in Spanish 497
- Constraint conflict in the acquisition of clusters in Spanish 525
- Subject index 549
- Index of constraints 559
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
- Spanish complex onsets and the phonetics–phonology interface 15
- Phonological phrasing in Spanish 39
- Hiatus resolution and incomplete identity 62
- Depalatalization in Spanish revisited 74
- Upstepping vowel height 99
- The phonology of nasal consonants in five Spanish dialects 146
- Optimality-theoretic advances in our understanding of Spanish syllable structure 172
- Exceptional hiatuses in Spanish 205
- The Spanish stress window 239
- Morphological structure and phonological domains in Spanish denominal derivation 278
- Gender allomorphy and epenthesis in Spanish 312
- A paradigm account of Spanish number 339
- Prefix boundaries in Spanish varieties 358
- Optimality Theory and language change in Spanish 378
- Duration, voice, and dispersion in stop contrasts from Latin to Spanish 399
- The interaction between faithfulness constraints and sociolinguistic variation 424
- Sonority scales and syllable structure 447
- Foot, word and phrase constraints in first language acquisition of Spanish stress 470
- Acquistion of syllable structure in Spanish 497
- Constraint conflict in the acquisition of clusters in Spanish 525
- Subject index 549
- Index of constraints 559
