<OT> New Posting: ROA-663

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 663-0504

Weak Function Word Shift

Ralf Vogel <rvogel at ling.uni-potsdam.de>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=663


Abstract:
The fact that object shift only affects weak pronouns in
mainland Scandinavian
is seen as an instance of a more general observation that
can be made in all Germanic languages: weak function words
tend to avoid the edges of larger prosodic domains. This
generalisation has been formulated within Optimality Theory
in terms of alignment constraints on prosodic structure
by Selkirk (1996) in explaining the distribution of prosodically
strong and weak forms of English function words, especially
modal verbs, prepositions and pronouns. But a purely phonological
account fails to integrate the syntactic licensing conditions
for object shift in an appropriate way. The standard semantico-sy
ntactic accounts of object shift, on the other hand, fail
to explain why it is only weak pronouns that undergo object
shift. This paper develops an Optimality theoretic model
of the syntax-phonology interface which is based on the
interaction of syntactic and prosodic factors. The account
can successfully be applied to further related phenomena
in English and German.

Comments: draft version, submitted, comments very welcome
Keywords: syntax, syntax-phonology interaction, function words
Areas: Phonology,Syntax
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=663