Pons-Moll and Torres-Tamarit (2016): Prosodically-driven morpheme non-realization in the Minorcan Catalan DP

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1529_ponsmoll_1.pdf

ROA: 1278
Title: Prosodically-driven morpheme non-realization in the Minorcan Catalan DP
Authors: Claudia Pons-Moll, Francesc Torres-Tamarit
Comment: Handout of the talk presented at the 24th Manchester Phonology Meeting
Length: 16pp
Abstract: Minorcan Catalan has an intriguing case of morpheme non-realization that is prosodically-driven and that cannot be accounted for allomorphically. Kinship appositional phrases are generally realized with the structure Es the-M.DEF.ART conco uncle en the-M.PERS.ART Jaume James (‘uncle James’) when the personal name starts with a consonant, but with the structure Es the-M.DEF.ART conco uncle ? Ángel (‘uncle Ángel’) when the personal name starts with a vowel. That is, the personal article en fails to surface when the personal name starts with a vowel. The same path, with non-realization of the personal article, is detected before feminine personal names. In this paper, we show that these asymmetries can be formalized straightforwardly within a parallel and global OT framework through the interaction of standard (morpho)prosodic constraints (McCarthy & Prince 1993, Selkirk 1996 / 2003; Prince & Smolensky 1993 / 2004) with morpheme realization constraints (see Selkirk 2001, Kurisu 2001, among others).
Type: Paper/tech report
Keywords: phonology, morphosyntax, morpheme non-realization, prosody-morphosyntax interface, recoverability, alignment constraints