Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection
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Barbara E. Bullock
Abstract
Theoretical linguistic treatments of Dominican [s]-hypercorrection all assume the hypotheses, advanced by Terrell (1986), that lexical forms in popular Dominican Spanish no longer contain any trace of coda or final /s/ and, thus, speakers randomly insert them into syllable- and word-final position (Terrell 1986; Núñez-Cedeño 1988, 1989, 1994; Harris 2002; Bradley 2006; Vaux 2001, 2002). We demonstrate that Terrell’s premises ensue from an inadequate description of Dominican [s]-insertion and, as a consequence, phonological theories based on them cannot account for the range of actual, as opposed to hypothesized, exemplars that occur in Dominican speech. Using natural data, we argue that [s]-hypercorrection is inaccurately described as a rule that targets the syllable coda and is instead much more complex.
Abstract
Theoretical linguistic treatments of Dominican [s]-hypercorrection all assume the hypotheses, advanced by Terrell (1986), that lexical forms in popular Dominican Spanish no longer contain any trace of coda or final /s/ and, thus, speakers randomly insert them into syllable- and word-final position (Terrell 1986; Núñez-Cedeño 1988, 1989, 1994; Harris 2002; Bradley 2006; Vaux 2001, 2002). We demonstrate that Terrell’s premises ensue from an inadequate description of Dominican [s]-insertion and, as a consequence, phonological theories based on them cannot account for the range of actual, as opposed to hypothesized, exemplars that occur in Dominican speech. Using natural data, we argue that [s]-hypercorrection is inaccurately described as a rule that targets the syllable coda and is instead much more complex.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
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Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
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Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
-
Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
-
Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
