Eulàlia Bonet

Feature structure of Romance clitics

The combination of pronominal clitics in Romance often triggers the appearence of unexpected (opaque) form, which always coincide with clitics that exist independently in the language. In this article, which analyzes opaque forms in Italian, Spanish, and, especially, Catalan, it is proposed that pronominal clitics constitute hierarchical structures of monovalent morphological features. This hierarchy reflects markedness relations. Most opaque forms are obtained through morphological rules that delink or insert morphological features, thus rendering the target structure identical to the structure of another clitic. Morphological rules take place within the Morphology Component, between S-structure and PF (cf. Halle 1990, 1991). Phonological information, not present in the syntax, is introduced by spell-out rules very late in the Morphology Component and provides the input to PF. Clitic order is determined through mapping to a template. Some other opaque forms arise at that point.

More on Alignment as an Alternative to Domains: The Syllabification of Catalan Clitics

Abstract In Catalan vowel epenthesis and consonant deletion seem to have a different conditioning in simple words, in verb-clitic or clitic-verb sequences, and in clitic-clitic sequences (where an emergence of the unmarked effect with respect to syllable structure is found). In this paper, it is argued that, in spite of these domain effects, which would suggest the need for a serial analysis, all the facts concerning epenthesis and consonant deletion can be accounted for in a parallel optimality-theoretic approach. The differences in behavior are the consequence of the different ranking of morphological Alignment constraints with respect to other constraints and an Alignment constraint that makes reference to subsyllabic constituents.

A challenge for Harmonic Serialism with Optimal Interleaving

This paper examines two related phenomena from Catalan that pose a challenge to a proposal in McCarthy ( 2012 ) that combines Harmonic Serialism (HS) with the theory of Optimal Interleaving (OI) of Wolf (2009). The first phenomenon, found with stems ending in a sibilant, is the selection of a marked masculine allomorph only before the plural morph, also a sibilant, which prevents an OCP violation. The second, phrasal, phenomenon is restricted to one dialect of Catalan: the plural morpheme is not realised in prenominal position only when it would surface between two consonants. It is shown that, with some crucial modifications on the way spell-out proceeds, HS/OI can account for the two phenomena when they occur separately, but when they co-occur within the same phrase, wrong predictions are made, due to the one-change-at-a-time basic property of HS. These problems do not arise in a parallel OT approach.

Fricative–affricate alternations in Catalan

Abstract Catalan has a [ʒ] ~ [t͡ʃ] alternation that has traditionally been viewed as the consequence of final affrication of an underlying /ʒ/, a fortition operation, followed by general devoicing of obstruents. This interpretation has been held in classical generative rule-based approaches and also in autosegmental models, amounting either to a highly specific process or, when an attempt is made to generalize it, to wrong predictions; these shortcomings are also applicable to optimality-theoretic analyses. Following ideas in (Wheeler, Max W. 2005. The phonology of Catalan. Oxford: Oxford University Press), we propose that underlying affricates are subject to intervocalic lenition triggered by independently motivated general constraints. Sequences of a stop followed by a fricative can become affricates but cannot be affected by lenition. The interaction between affricates and gemination is also discussed.

(In)Direct Reference in the Phonology-Syntax Interface under Phase Theory: A Response to Modular PIC

Although in many interface theories, the domains of phrasal phonological processes are defined in terms of prosodic constituents, D’Alessandro and Scheer (2015) argue that their proposed modification of phase theory, Modular PIC, renders prosodic constituents superfluous. Phrasal phonological domains can instead be defined directly in the syntax. In this response, we argue that Modular PIC does not provide a convincing new approach to the syntax-phonology interface, as it is both too powerful and too restrictive. We show that the analysis offered of raddoppiamento fonosintattico in Eastern Abruzzese does not justify the loss of restrictiveness Modular PIC brings to phase theory. We also show that Modular PIC is too restrictive to account for phenomena, from Bantu languages and others, that have received satisfactory analyses within interface theories that appeal to prosodic constituents. We conclude that Modular PIC does not successfully replace prosodic constituent approaches to the interface.

Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan: An output-based analysis

In some Romance languages second person singular imperatives often surface with an added extension, an accretion, when they are followed by enclitics. This paper examines this phenomenon in Formenteran Catalan, where the accretion has different shapes depending on the verb. We argue that the appearance of the accretion is caused by a phonological constraint requiring a right-aligned moraic trochee. The form of the imperative with the accretion coincides with the inflectional stem that is found in other forms of the imperative paradigm. We propose an output-based analysis in which Lexical Conservatism (Steriade 1999, 2008) and Uniform Exponence (Kenstowicz 1996, 1997, 2005) play a key role.