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Recursive phonological phrasing in Basque*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2015
Abstract
This paper presents data that force a revised account of the distribution of downstep and pitch reset in Lekeitio Basque. In the light of these data, previous analyses of pitch reset in Lekeitio Basque make wrong predictions. On the one hand, pitch reset is predicted where downstep occurs, and on the other, an ordinary reset is predicted where a large reset occurs. The occurrence of downstep and pitch reset, as well as the amount of pitch reset observed, is best accounted for under the assumption that languages possess a hierarchical prosodic structure that roughly matches the surface syntactic structure of a sentence, including levels of embedding or nesting of syntactic constituents. The analysis proposed in this paper is that pitch reset in Lekeitio Basque applies at the left edge of a non-minimal phonological phrase, i.e. a phonological phrase that dominates at least another phonological phrase.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015
Footnotes
I am most grateful to my native informants, without whose generous contribution this paper would not have been possible. My deepest gratitude also goes to Lisa Selkirk for her continuous support, feedback and help in various respects, as well as to two anonymous referees for their insightful comments and constructive criticism. Xabier Artiagoitia, Arantzazu Elordieta, Urtzi Etxeberria, Leland Kusmer, Seunghun Lee and Jabier Ormazabal also provided important help along the way. An earlier version of this paper was presented as a plenary talk at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, and I want to thank the organisers and the audience there for their feedback. This work benefited from financial support from the following agencies: National Science Foundation (grant BCS-1 147083), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project FFI2012-38064-C02-01), Department of Universities and Research and Department of Education, Linguistic Policy and Culture of the Basque Government (group IT769-13 and travel stipend MV_2014_1_38 respectively) and the University of the Basque Country (UFI11/14).
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