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German Glide Formation converts /i/ to [j] before vowels, e.g. ‘Spain’, but the rule is consistently blocked in neologisms containing the suffix – esk, e.g. hippiesk [hrpiℇsk] / *[hrpjℇsk]. It is argued below that the underapplication of Glide Formation in such examples follows from a requirement that the stem in a derived word must be identical to the unaffixed base. The base in such examples will be shown to be a free-standing morpheme as opposed to a bound root. The analysis proposed will be shown to be supported in additional examples in which Glide Formation is blocked from applying to the [i] preceding the suffix – aner, but only if the suffix follows a free-standing morpheme, e.g. ‘adherent of Schumi (Michael Schumacher)’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article offers an Optimality-Theoretic analysis capturing the distribution of ‘superheavy syllables’ in Modern English, i.e, syllabics consisting of a long vowel + con- sonant(s), a diphthong + consonant(s), or a short vowel + two or more consonants, e.g. feel, farm. It will be shown that superheavy syllables are restricted to surfacing either (i) in word-final position, (ii) before a compound boundary, or (iii) before a consonant-initial suffix. By contrast, superheavy syllables are typically non-occurring in other environments. In the present article the following theoretical claims are made. First, superheavy syllables are analyzed as trimoraic. Second, environments (i)-(iii) above describe the right edge of a phonological word. The distribution of superheavy syllables is captured below with the constraint ALIGN-3μ, which ensures that the third mora in a syllable be situated at the right edge of a phonological word. Finally, ALIGN-3μ will be shown to be violated in certain (predictable) word-internal cases, e.g the syllable [aun] in mountain, such facts will be accounted for by various language-specific constraint rankings. The present surface based analysis will be argued to be superior to an earlier one proposed for Modern English in a derivational framework by Borowsky (1986, 1989). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]