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The Syntax of Direct Object Mutation in Welsh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Ian Roberts
Ian Roberts*
Affiliation:
University of Stuttgart
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Abstract

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The central hypothesis of this article is that Welsh direct object mutation—the only instance of mutation in the Celtic languages not triggered by a specific lexical item—is the PF-realisation of AgrO’s accusative Case as the floating lenition-triggering phonological feature L (cf. Lieber 1983 and Zwicky 1984). The analysis proposed in this article is an empirically adquate analysis of initial consonant mutation in Welsh, which fully integrates direct object mutation with other cases of mutation, relates mutation to phonosyntactic processes found in other languages, notably Southern Italian /u/-propagation (Rizzi and Savoia 1991) and French liaison (Manzini 1983), and fits naturally into a non-checking-theoreticconception of Parametric Variation of the sort outlined in Roberts and Roussou (1997a).

Résumé

Résumé

L’hypothèse centrale de cet article est que la mutation de l’objet direct en gallois— le seul exemple d’une mutation dans les langues celtiques qui n’est pas déclenchée par un item lexical donné—est la réalisation en Forme Phonologique du Cas accusatif d’AgrO comme le trait autosegmental L qui déclenche la mutation (cf. Lieber 1983 et Zwicky 1984). L’analyse proposée dans cet article est une analyse empiriquement adéquate de la mutation en gallois, qui intègre la mutation des objets directs avec les autres cas de mutation, qui relie la mutation aux processus phonosyntaxiques observés dans d’autres langues (notamment la propagation du /u/ dans les dialectes italiens méridionaux (Rizzi et Savoia 1991) et la liaison en français (Manzini 1983)), et qui s’intègre bien dans une conception de la variation paramétrique du type élaboré dans Roberts et Roussou (1997a), qui se passe de la théorie de la vérification des traits.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 42 , Special Issue 1-2: Topics in Celtic Syntax , June 1997 , pp. 141 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1997

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