1. On the existence of root-initial-accenting suffixes: an elicitation study of Japanese [-zu].
- Author
-
Kawahara, Shigeto and Wolf, Matthew
- Subjects
- *
AFFIXES (Grammar) , *STRESS (Linguistics) , *JAPANESE language , *PHONOLOGY , *PHONETICS , *MORPHEMICS , *LINGUISTIC typology , *MODERN languages -- Phonology , *LANGUAGE & languages - Abstract
Most known cases of affix controlled accentuation patterns involve local accent assignment: prefixes assign root-initial accents whereas suffixes assign root-final accents. In this article we document the nonlocal accentuation behavior of [-zu], a recently emerged suffix in Japanese which an elicitation study reveals to be productively root-initial-accenting. We present a phonological analysis of the [-zu] data, showing that standard theories of morpheme realization predict the existence of such a suffix. The existence of [-zu] therefore fills what would otherwise be an undesirable typological gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
- View/download PDF