Plural formation in Galician
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Sonia Colina
Abstract
This paper offers an optimality-theoretic analysis of synchronic Galician plural formation that explains the distribution of allomorphs in the standard dialect as well as the patterns of dialectal variation. Gliding serves to parse a nasal or lateral coda in the nucleus, thus avoiding the complex cluster that would have resulted from plural attachment. Epenthesis takes place in the plural of l-final singulars when gliding would otherwise result in an unstressed extra heavy coda or a violation of minimality. The plurals of singulars ending in a nasal avoid epenthesis if this requires parsing of a velar nasal in the onset. Non-normative dialects such as the Eastern varieties also repair clusters through vocalization of the singular-final nasal, but a front nasal is preferred to the back unrounded one of normative Galician; Southern dialects resort to nasal and lateral deletion in the plural.
Abstract
This paper offers an optimality-theoretic analysis of synchronic Galician plural formation that explains the distribution of allomorphs in the standard dialect as well as the patterns of dialectal variation. Gliding serves to parse a nasal or lateral coda in the nucleus, thus avoiding the complex cluster that would have resulted from plural attachment. Epenthesis takes place in the plural of l-final singulars when gliding would otherwise result in an unstressed extra heavy coda or a violation of minimality. The plurals of singulars ending in a nasal avoid epenthesis if this requires parsing of a velar nasal in the onset. Non-normative dialects such as the Eastern varieties also repair clusters through vocalization of the singular-final nasal, but a front nasal is preferred to the back unrounded one of normative Galician; Southern dialects resort to nasal and lateral deletion in the plural.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword and acknowledgements ix
- Editor’s introduction xi
- Theory and practice in Romance linguistics today 1
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Part I. Morphophonology
- On the origins of /ɨ/ in Romanian 17
- An acoustic investigation of nasal place neutralization in Spanish 33
- An acoustic study of rhotics in onset clusters in La Rioja 49
- Mid front vowel lowering before rhotics in Ibero-Romance 63
- Plural formation in Galician 79
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Part II. Syntax
- On bare subject relative clauses in Old French 101
- Directed motion in Medieval French 117
- An ergative analysis of French valency alternations 137
- Peninsular Spanish pre-nominal possessives in ellipsis contexts 155
- On the nature of nominal features 177
- On the nature of bare nouns in Afro-Bolivian Spanish 191
- Negative imperatives in Portuguese and other Romance languages 205
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Part III. Semantic interfaces
- Another look at Italian generic sentences 223
- The agreement of collective DPS in Romanian 239
- A multidominance account for conjoined questions in Romanian 257
- The Romanian verbal cluster and the theory of head movement 271
- New challenges in the area of semantic dependencies 287
- Polarity particles in English and Romanian 303
- Index 329
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword and acknowledgements ix
- Editor’s introduction xi
- Theory and practice in Romance linguistics today 1
-
Part I. Morphophonology
- On the origins of /ɨ/ in Romanian 17
- An acoustic investigation of nasal place neutralization in Spanish 33
- An acoustic study of rhotics in onset clusters in La Rioja 49
- Mid front vowel lowering before rhotics in Ibero-Romance 63
- Plural formation in Galician 79
-
Part II. Syntax
- On bare subject relative clauses in Old French 101
- Directed motion in Medieval French 117
- An ergative analysis of French valency alternations 137
- Peninsular Spanish pre-nominal possessives in ellipsis contexts 155
- On the nature of nominal features 177
- On the nature of bare nouns in Afro-Bolivian Spanish 191
- Negative imperatives in Portuguese and other Romance languages 205
-
Part III. Semantic interfaces
- Another look at Italian generic sentences 223
- The agreement of collective DPS in Romanian 239
- A multidominance account for conjoined questions in Romanian 257
- The Romanian verbal cluster and the theory of head movement 271
- New challenges in the area of semantic dependencies 287
- Polarity particles in English and Romanian 303
- Index 329
