John Benjamins Publishing Company
Stress assignment in Makkan Arabic
Abstract
This paper examines stress assignment in Makkan Arabic. It investigates the different transparent stress patterns, morphologically conditioned stress, and opaque stress patterns. Various phonological processes in Makkan operate at different levels – lexical and post-lexical. Stress assignment is a cyclic process that takes place only at the lexical level. However, it gets assigned twice: once at the stem level, and another time at the word level. Makkan observes a 3-syllable window when stress is assigned. Heavy syllables attract stress, with end rule right. Makkan also exhibits some cases of opaque stress, where stress appears in unexpected positions. Opacity of stress is evident at the phrasal level after the application of postlexical level phonological processes such as syncope and initial epenthesis. Morphologically conditioned stress is also evident in Makkan where the feminine subject marker /-at/ ‘she’ is lexically stressed. The assumption of different strata is particularly important in accounting for both syncope and initial epenthesis where stress assignment precedes both of these processes. The paper lends evidence to the superiority of a stratal-ot analysis to that of parallel-ot in Makkan Arabic stress assignment.
Abstract
This paper examines stress assignment in Makkan Arabic. It investigates the different transparent stress patterns, morphologically conditioned stress, and opaque stress patterns. Various phonological processes in Makkan operate at different levels – lexical and post-lexical. Stress assignment is a cyclic process that takes place only at the lexical level. However, it gets assigned twice: once at the stem level, and another time at the word level. Makkan observes a 3-syllable window when stress is assigned. Heavy syllables attract stress, with end rule right. Makkan also exhibits some cases of opaque stress, where stress appears in unexpected positions. Opacity of stress is evident at the phrasal level after the application of postlexical level phonological processes such as syncope and initial epenthesis. Morphologically conditioned stress is also evident in Makkan where the feminine subject marker /-at/ ‘she’ is lexically stressed. The assumption of different strata is particularly important in accounting for both syncope and initial epenthesis where stress assignment precedes both of these processes. The paper lends evidence to the superiority of a stratal-ot analysis to that of parallel-ot in Makkan Arabic stress assignment.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgement vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Phonology and Morphology
- Geminate representation in Arabic 3
- Stress assignment in Makkan Arabic 21
- Investigating variation in Arabic intonation 63
- The Morpheme /-in(n)-/ in central Asian Arabic 91
-
Part II. Syntax
- Variations on the same theme 121
- Negation and heads 139
- On negative concord in Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic 159
- On the distribution and licensing of polarity-sensitive items in Egyptian Arabic: 181
- Modes of interrogatives entail modes of sluicing 207
- Index 229
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgement vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Phonology and Morphology
- Geminate representation in Arabic 3
- Stress assignment in Makkan Arabic 21
- Investigating variation in Arabic intonation 63
- The Morpheme /-in(n)-/ in central Asian Arabic 91
-
Part II. Syntax
- Variations on the same theme 121
- Negation and heads 139
- On negative concord in Egyptian and Moroccan Arabic 159
- On the distribution and licensing of polarity-sensitive items in Egyptian Arabic: 181
- Modes of interrogatives entail modes of sluicing 207
- Index 229
