The distribution of superheavy syllables in Standard German

Abstract

The present article offers an Optimality-Theoretic analysis capturing the distribution of 'superheavy (=VXC) syllables' in Standard German, i.e., syllables consisting of a long vowel + consonant(s), diphthong + consonant(s) or short vowel + two or more consonants. VXC is restricted to surfacing either (i) in word-final position, (ii) before a compound boundary, or (iii) before a consonant-initial suffix; by contrast, VXC is typically non-occurring in other environments. The following theoretical claims are made. First, VXC is analyzed as trimoraic. Second, environments (i)-(iii) describe the right edge of phonological word. The distibution of VXC is captured with the constraint ALIGN-3μ, which ensures that the third mora in a syllable right aligns with a phonological word. Third, ALIGN-3μ is violated in certain (predictable) word-internal contexts, e.g., in morphologically complex words. Such data will be accounted for by ranking a PARADIGM UNIFORMITY constraint ahead ALIGN-3μ. Finally, certain (predictable) word-internal VXC sequences will be argued to be bimoraic as opposed to trimoraic.