Abstract
The distinction between function words and content words poses a challenge to theories of the syntax–prosody interface. On the one hand, function words are “ignored” by the mapping algorithms; that is, function words are not mapped to prosodic words. On the other hand, there are numerous accounts of function words which form prosodic words and can even be analysed as heads of larger prosodic units. Furthermore, function words seem to be a driving factor for the formation of prosodic structures in that they can largely be held accountable for the non-isomorphism between syntactic and prosodic constituency. This paper discusses these challenges with a focus on a particular function word, and the first-person nominative pronoun in Swabian, a Southern German dialect. By means of two corpus studies, it is shown that the pronoun occurs in two forms, the prosodic word [i:] and the enclitic [ə]. Depending on clause position and focus structure, the forms occur in complementary distribution. Occurrences of n-insertion allow for the establishment of a recursive prosodic word structure at the level of the phonological module. The findings support a new proposal in the form of a two-tier mapping approach to the interface between syntax and prosody.
Highlights
A majority of theories (a.o., Nespor and Vogel 1986; Selkirk 2011; Truckenbrodt 1999) assumes that function words are ignored by the mapping constraints at the interface: In contrast to content words, function words are not mapped to prosodic words per se
1998), the conclusion is that the host and clitic form a recursive prosodic word structure, and not, for example, a structure where the prosodic word and the following clitic are placed within a phonological phrase
If the pronoun’s clitic form is selected based on the satisfaction of the subcategorization frame, we find ourselves in a circular discussion: The recursive structure cannot be assumed unless a clitic is present, but the clitic can only be selected over the default (!) strong form if there is a recursive prosodic word structure
Summary
As will be discussed in more detail, the occurrence of n-insertion allows us to infer that the enclitic [@] is placed within the outer shell of a recursive prosodic word (ωmax ), while [i:] can form the head of a recursive prosodic word itself (ωmin ) These recursive structures are not predicted by syntactic structure and the mapping algorithms at the interface between syntax and prosody, but are determined by principles native to the phonological module alone (where they are often referred to as “wellformedness constraints”).
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