A unified model of Proper Government

Abstract

This article aims at unifying the various devices handling vowel-zero alternations in Government Phonology. Two sets of data are analysed: French schwa-zero and Czech [E]-zero alternations. It is shown that both function identically with respect to the number of consonants that surround the alternation site. The standard analysis requires four different theoretical devices in order to account for those alternations, that is Proper Government, Constituent Government, Interconstituent Government and Government-Licensing. Crucial to the standard analysis is the observation that governing domains intervening between the governor and the governee block Proper Government. I introduce an alternative account of Proper Government the main feature of which is a strict CVCV syllable structure exclusively allowing for a consecution of non-branching Onsets and non-branching Nuclei. The CVCV-analysis offers the following advantages: first, it provides a straightforward explanation for the blocking effects of intervening CCs. Second, the devices needed to account for the alternations boil down to one, that is Proper Government. In a second step, Czech [r]-[ř] alternations are discussed. I argue that what is typically assumed to be a branching Onset must be viewed as a consecution of two Onsets separated by an empty Nucleus. It follows that the model of Proper Government that capitalises on the blocking effect of governing domains such as branching Onsets is not available for Czech. Hence, if Proper Government is to be viewed as a device of UG, as is suggested by its crosslinguistic stability, there must be a unique version of Proper Government for all languages.