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Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism

The case of /s/ aspiration in Spanish
  • Francesc Torres-Tamarit
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Variation within and across Romance Languages
This chapter is in the book Variation within and across Romance Languages

Abstract

In this paper I defend the idea that prosodification in Harmonic Serialism is built in harmonically improving steps and propose that prosodic constituents higher than the syllable create opaque domains for syllable-building operations. Those assumptions prevent core syllabification to operate with adjacent segments belonging to different morphs if one of the segments, but not the other, is contained in a prosodic constituent higher than the syllable at some intermediate level of representation. The case of opacity by overapplication of /s/ aspiration in Spanish due to word- and phrasal-level resyllabification finds a straightforward explanation in those terms. The relative transparency of the aspiration process found in different dialects of Spanish is derived by the relative position that the markedness constraint CodaCondition occupies with respect to two families of constraints enforcing prosodification: Parse-Segment » Parse-ProsodicWord, and two morphology-prosody alignment constraints, Align-Left (Stem, ProsodicWord) » Align-Left (MorphologicalWord, ProsodicWord).

Abstract

In this paper I defend the idea that prosodification in Harmonic Serialism is built in harmonically improving steps and propose that prosodic constituents higher than the syllable create opaque domains for syllable-building operations. Those assumptions prevent core syllabification to operate with adjacent segments belonging to different morphs if one of the segments, but not the other, is contained in a prosodic constituent higher than the syllable at some intermediate level of representation. The case of opacity by overapplication of /s/ aspiration in Spanish due to word- and phrasal-level resyllabification finds a straightforward explanation in those terms. The relative transparency of the aspiration process found in different dialects of Spanish is derived by the relative position that the markedness constraint CodaCondition occupies with respect to two families of constraints enforcing prosodification: Parse-Segment » Parse-ProsodicWord, and two morphology-prosody alignment constraints, Align-Left (Stem, ProsodicWord) » Align-Left (MorphologicalWord, ProsodicWord).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.333.05tor

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
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