Poznan09

Introduction to phonological phrasing

Charles W. Kisseberth

In this course we explore the idea that the phonology of a language is structured such that its "rules" or "constraints" operate in terms of a hierarchy of prosodic domains (the so-called "prosodic hierarchy"). We are concerned with the portion of this hierarchy that moves from a level known as the "prosodic word" up to the level of the "phonological phrase" and finally to the level of the "intonational phrase". Our primary emphasis is on the intermediate level of the phonological phrase.

We will focus on the dominant theory of such phrases, Selkirk's 1986 edge-based, indirect-reference model of the syntax-phonology interface. The Bantu languages of sub-Saharan Africa (along with Chinese) have played perhaps the most crucial role in the elaboration of this theory, and they will be the focus of this course. Kisseberth and Abasheikh's 1974 paper on Chimwiini (a Bantu language closely related to Kiswahili) phrasal phonology is perhaps the starting point for much of this research, and Chimwiini was a cornerstone of Selkirk's 1986 paper. Much new work on Chimwiini will be incorporated into the course in order to expand on Selkirk's proposal as well as subsequent developments, particularly in the work of Truckenbrodt 1999.

In the end, the phrasing of sentences will be seen to involve the interaction of syntactic phrase structure, information structure/focus, style, phonological considerations. We model this interaction within the framework of Optimality Theory, but in the end only wish to establish the facts about phrasing that must be explained by any theory.

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