Phrasing and postlexical phonology

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that the unmarked pattern in phrases is for the right hand constituent to be the strongest as opposed to the left strong pattern of traditional word stress. But there are systematic exceptions; there is regular deaccenting of words belonging to certain morphosyntactic categories relative to words from other categories. Furthermore nouns following adjectives in Icelandic definite noun phrases are also systematically deaccented. So‐called emphatic re‐phrasing can strengthen non‐initial syllable in words, seemingly creating non‐initial word stress patterns. Furthermore, contrast, focus and deaccenting of given information can give phrasal stress patterns other than the unmarked ones. The chapter also investigates the phonological consequences of phrasing, describing some cohesive laws or sandhi‐rules in Icelandic and Faroese. There is also a section on demarcative signals, such as glottal onset at the beginning of stressed phrases beginning with vowels and phrase final devoicing in Icelandic and truncation in Faroese.