Restructured phonological phrases in French: evidence from clash resolution

Abstract

Abstract In common with English and German and many other languages, French has an accentual configuration that arises in clash contexts, here referred to as clash resolution. Experimental research has shown that clash resolution is bounded by the phonological phrase. Moreover, the optional application of clash resolution has provided evidence for the restructured phonological phrase. However, the conditions on restructuring that have been proposed in the literature have been found to make the wrong predictions in a number of cases. In contradiction to earlier claims, perceptual and acoustic evidence shows that lexical heads can also be restructured with their branching complements. In addition, an analysis of the phonetic evidence shows that clash resolution is characterized by the absence of a final pitch accent, while the simultaneous realization of an initial pitch accent on the stress-shift item is optional. In our conclusions, we will discuss the implications of these findings for a phonological account of clash resolution.