<OT> New Posting: ROA-927

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 927-0907

Prosodic Phrasing in Catalan Dislocation Structures

Ingo Feldhausen <ingo.feldhausen at gmx.de>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=927


Abstract:
Introduction: The talk is concerned with the prosodic phrasing
of clitic left-dislocation (CLLD) and clitic right-dislocation
(CLRD) constructions in Catalan. Interestingly, there are
no analyses so far for embedded and long-distance CLLD and
applying the existing analyses to such complex structures
shows their insufficiency. My empirical data, for which
I recorded 11 speakers of Central Catalan, shows that CLLD
does not build a prosodic phrase of its own (contrary to
received opinion on this matter, cf. Frascarelli 2000 for
Italian). Instead, embedded CLLD is phrased with the matrix
clause, leaving out the embedded clause in a separate prosodic
phrase, thus signaling a strong right boundary. CLRD is
always separated prosodically from the preceding clause.

Analysis: In order to account for the phrasing in complex
structures, I will expand the OT account by Prieto (2005)
by adding the high-ranked constraints ALIGNTOPIC and *P(ROSODIC)-
P(HRASE). ALIGNTOPIC is a disjunct constraint requiring
the right alignment of prosodic phrases and topic phrases,
which are left-dislocated (CLLD), and left alignment of
prosodic phrases and topic phrases, which are right-dislocated
(CLRD). *P-P is a constraint which reduces the number of
prosodic phrases in reliance on the syntactic length of
the clause.

Background: Up to now there are three relevant Optimal Theoretic
(OT) constraints to describe the prosodic phrasing of Catalan,
with the following ranking: MAXBINEND >> ALIGNXP,R >> WRAPXP
(Prieto 2005). MAXBINEND requires that each prosodic phrase
which contains the nuclear stress consists of maximally
two prosodic words. ALIGNXP,R (Selkirk 2000) requires that
the right edge of an XP is aligned to the right edge of
a phonological phrase and WRAPXP (Truckenbrodt 1999) demands
that each XP is contained in a phonological phrase. This
ranking accounts for the fact that size of constituents
plays a role in Catalan phrasing within root clauses: (S)(VO)
phrasing if object is short; (SV)(O) phrasing if object
is long (cf. Prieto 2005, D'Imperio et al. 2005). However,
consideration of clitic left-dislocation (CLLD), (1), shows
that this paradigm is insufficient. CLLD leads to a violation
of MAXBINEND, because CLLD always has a right boundary,
i.e. (CLLD)(VO), regardless of the size of the object. The
above ranking would predict that the CLLDed constituent
would behave like a subject in a sentence with a long object,
resulting in the phrasing as seen in (2a), hence (CLLD V)(O).
However, the actual phrasing has to be as in (2b). Frascarelli
(2000:63) posits that CLLD and CLRD are minimally and exhaustivel
y contained in a prosodic phrase. When it comes to embedded
CLLD (3) this claim does not hold. Frascarelli (2000) would
expect the phrasing in (3b), whereas the actual phrasing
is as in (3c).

(1) Clitic Left-Dislocation (CLLD):
    [Les taules, les porto al pis de la Maria]CP1
    "The tables, I bring to Mary's flat"


(2) a. (Les taules les porto)(al pis de la Maria) = (CLLD V)(O)
    b. (Les taules)(les porto al pis de la Maria) = (CLLD) (VO)

(3) Embedded CLLD
    a. [La Maria va dir [que les taules, les va portar al
pis]CP2 ]CP1
       "Mary said that the tables, s/he brought to the flat"
    b. *(La Maria va dir que)(les taules)(les va portar al pis)    
    c. (La Maria va dir que les taules)(les va portar al pis)

D'Imperio, M. et al. (2005). "Intonational phrasing in Romance:
the role of syntactic and prosodic structure". In: S. Frota,
M. Vigário and M. J. Freitas (eds.), Prosodies, 59-97.
Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Frascarelli, M. (2000). The Syntax-Phonology Interface in
Focus and Topic Constructions in Italian. Kluwer.

Prieto, P. (2005). Syntactic and eurhythmic constraints
on phrasing decisions in Catalan. Ms. UAB Barcelona. To
appear in: Merle Horne and Marc van Oostendorp (eds.) Special
issue of Studia Linguistica. Blackwell.

Selkirk, E. (2000). "The Interaction of Constraints on Prosodic
Phrasing". In: Merle Horne (ed.). Prosody: Theory and experiment.
Dordrecht: Kluwer, 231-261.

Truckenbrodt, H. (1999). "On the Relation between Syntactic
Phrase and Phonological Phrases". In: LI 30, 219-255.

Comments: Talk given at GoingRomance! 2006 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Keywords: Prosodic Phrasing, Catalan, CLLD, CLRD, AlignTopic
Areas: Phonology
Type: Conference Handout

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=927