[Author Login]
[Home]
ROA:445
Title:The Emergence of Fixed Prosody
Authors:Adam Ussishkin
Comment:Files removed at author\'s request.
Length:276
Abstract:This is a dissertation about prosodic structural
restrictions in language. It investigates in detail
the prosodic structure of Modern Hebrew, using the
framework of Optimality Theory to analyze
nonconcatenative word formation in prosodic morphology.
Semitic languages have for some time been assumed to
involve so-called 'root-and-pattern morphology',
whereby words are productively formed by interdigitating
vocalic affixes among consonantal roots.
In this dissertation, I provide a detailed examination
of the structure of the Modern Hebrew verbal paradigm
in order to explain both the minimality and maximality
effects evident in prosodic size. Other empirical domains
studied include the verbal paradigm of Arabic and the
active and passive verbal paradigms of the Austronesian
language Mukah Melanau.
A major finding examined in this dissertation is that
the consonantal root is reduced to an epiphenomenon of
more basic principles having to do with the prosodic
restrictions imposed on words in these languages.
From a theoretical standpoint, this move results in
another major consequence: the elimination of so-called
templatic constraints from OT, thus simplifying the
theory. Rather than resulting from templatic requirements,
I argue that templatic effects in Modern Hebrew are a case
of fixed prosody, a term which refers to the bisyllabic
nature of surface forms in the verbal paradigm of the
language.
Type:Dissertation
Area/Keywords:Phonology,Morphology
Article:This article has been withdrawn.