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This article presents the main tenets of the Parallel Structures Model, a recently new autosegmental model, and applies it, for the first time, to the analysis of some phonological phenomena in Spanish. In particular, the paper illustrates the explanatory advantages of adopting the Parallel Structures Model in the analysis of the realizations of /s/ in coda followed by a voiceless stop within a word, because the wide range of realizations reported for such contexts in aspirant varieties of Spanish poses an interesting challenge to representational theories concerned with the internal structure of segments.

Recent metrical studies have proposed that, under certain circumstances, a weak syllable may be adjoined to a binary foot, giving rise to a minimally recursive foot. Adding to a growing body of research from metrical stress and foot-conditioned phenomena in various languages, the goals of this paper are twofold. First, we aim at providing empirical evidence for internally layered feet based on the distribution of three foot-conditioned processes of Dutch: vowel reduction, glottal stop /ʔ/ insertion and /h/ licensing/deletion. Second, we explore a less studied theoretical and descriptive advantage of internally layered feet: their potential to predict phonological strength distinctions that go beyond the traditional weak vs. strong dichotomy. In support of this view, we will argue that all three above-mentioned foot-based processes of Dutch distinguish between two types of unstressed syllables. We will demonstrate that the metrical representation that best captures this dual patterning of unstressed syllables necessitates internally layered feet.

En este trabajo se presenta una panorámica de las principales aportaciones y avances de los estudios en fonología métrica, desde la década de los ochenta, cuando surgieron las primeras investigaciones métricas centradas en analizar el papel que desempeña la categoría prosódica del pie métrico en la acentuación de las lenguas, hasta la actualidad, en que numerosos estudios de índole fonética, fonológica y morfológica han puesto de relieve la necesidad de hacer referencia en sus explicaciones a este constituyente fonológico para poder esclarecer la na- turaleza y motivación lingüística de gran variedad de fenómenos fonológicos y morfofonológicos que, de otra manera, no podían explicarse, ni entenderse ade- cuadamente. This article presents a general overview of the main contributions and advances in metrical phonology studies since the eighties, when the first investigations on foot structure arose, which mainly focused on studying the role played by the prosodic category of the foot on stress assignment, up to the present, in which numerous studies on the phonetics, the phonology and the morphology of languages from different linguistic backgrounds have highlighted the need to refer to this phonological constituent in order to clarify the nature and motivation of a wide range of puzzling phonological and morphophonological phenomena that otherwise could not be explained or were poorly understood.

Reseña del libro "Enacción y léxico" de Ángel López García-Molins y Daniel Jorques Jiménez (eds.)

This article presents a reanalysis of the foot-based phonology of Chugach Alutiiq (henceforth CA), a language that displays a complex mixed ternary–binary rhythm, as well as metrically conditioned distributions of pitch, fortition and vowel lengthening. Elaborating on earlier analyses of CA that had posited some kind of ternary constituent (Hewitt, 1991, 1992; Leer, 1985a, 1985b, 1985c; Rice, 1992), we propose CA should be analyzed by means of the Internally Layered Ternary (ILT) foot, a minimal recursive foot (Prince, 1980; Selkirk, 1980), which was recently revived in a typological study of binary–ternary stress (Martínez-Paricio & Kager, 2015). It will be argued that ILT feet capture CA’s puzzling dual behavior of unstressed and stressed syllables straightforwardly by referring to the status of syllables as heads or dependents of minimal or non-minimal feet. After showing the value of ILT feet in the analysis of CA rhythmic and segmental patterns, we turn to our analytical focus, the distributions of high and low pitch. This distribution is arguably metrically conditioned, yet an analysis based on stress or standard binary feet cannot capture it, whereas the ILT approach can. To highlight the advantages of our approach, we end by offering brief comparisons with previous analyses of CA., Este artículo presenta un reanálisis de diversos aspectos fonológicos de la lengua esquimal Chugach Alutiiq (de ahora en adelante, CA): la asignación de acentos rítmicos (binarios y ternarios), la distribución de los tonos alto y bajo, el fortalecimiento de algunas consonantes y el alargamiento de determinadas vocales. Influidos por análisis previos de la lengua que postularon la existencia de algún tipo de constituyente prosódico ternario en CA (Hewitt, 1991, 1992; Leer 1985a, 1985b, 1985c; Rice, 1992), proponemos que la fonología métrica de CA debe analizarse por medio de un pie Ternario Mínimamente Recursivo (TMR); estas estructuras fueron originariamente propuestas por Prince (1980) y Selkirk (1980), y han sido recientemente retomadas en un estudio tipológico sobre el ritmo binario y ternario (Martínez-Paricio & Kager, 2015). A lo largo del artículo se demostrará que todos estos procesos pueden recibir un análisis fonológico sencillo si se incorporan, entre las posibles representaciones métricas del lenguaje, los pies TMR. Concretamente, se demostrará que el pie TMR permite dar cuenta del comportamiento dual de las sílabas tónicas y átonas en CA mediante la referencia al estatus específico de estas sílabas bien como núcleos o dependientes de un pie mínimo o no mínimo. Tras resaltar el papel que desempeñan los pies recursivos en diversos patrones rítmicos y segmentales de CA, nos centramos en el análisis de la distribución de los tonos alto y bajo en esta lengua. El artículo se cierra con una breve comparación con otros análisis alternativos.

This article presents a reanalysis of the foot-based phonology of Chugach Alutiiq (henceforth CA), a language that displays a complex mixed ternary–binary rhythm, as well as metrically conditioned distributions of pitch, fortition and vowel lengthening. Elaborating on earlier analyses of CA that had posited some kind of ternary constituent (Hewitt, 1991, 1992; Leer, 1985a, 1985b, 1985c; Rice, 1992), we propose CA should be analyzed by means of the Internally Layered Ternary (ILT) foot, a minimal recursive foot (Prince, 1980; Selkirk, 1980), which was recently revived in a typological study of binary–ternary stress (Martínez-Paricio & Kager, 2015). It will be argued that ILT feet capture CA’s puzzling dual behavior of unstressed and stressed syllables straightforwardly by referring to the status of syllables as heads or dependents of minimal or non-minimal feet. After showing the value of ILT feet in the analysis of CA rhythmic and segmental patterns, we turn to our analytical focus, the distributions of high and low pitch. This distribution is arguably metrically conditioned, yet an analysis based on stress or standard binary feet cannot capture it, whereas the ILT approach can. To highlight the advantages of our approach, we end by offering brief comparisons with previous analyses of CA. Este artículo presenta un reanálisis de diversos aspectos fonológicos de la lengua esquimal Chugach Alutiiq (de ahora en adelante, CA): la asignación de acentos rítmicos (binarios y ternarios), la distribución de los tonos alto y bajo, el fortalecimiento de algunas consonantes y el alargamiento de determinadas vocales. Influidos por análisis previos de la lengua que postularon la existencia de algún tipo de constituyente prosódico ternario en CA (Hewitt, 1991, 1992; Leer 1985a, 1985b, 1985c; Rice, 1992), proponemos que la fonología métrica de CA debe analizarse por medio de un pie Ternario Mínimamente Recursivo (TMR); estas estructuras fueron originariamente propuestas por Prince (1980) y Selkirk (1980), y han sido recientemente retomadas en un estudio tipológico sobre el ritmo binario y ternario (Martínez-Paricio & Kager, 2015). A lo largo del artículo se demostrará que todos estos procesos pueden recibir un análisis fonológico sencillo si se incorporan, entre las posibles representaciones métricas del lenguaje, los pies TMR. Concretamente, se demostrará que el pie TMR permite dar cuenta del comportamiento dual de las sílabas tónicas y átonas en CA mediante la referencia al estatus específico de estas sílabas bien como núcleos o dependientes de un pie mínimo o no mínimo. Tras resaltar el papel que desempeñan los pies recursivos en diversos patrones rítmicos y segmentales de CA, nos centramos en el análisis de la distribución de los tonos alto y bajo en esta lengua. El artículo se cierra con una breve comparación con otros análisis alternativos.

This thesis presents a principled theory of bounded recursive footing. Building on previous research on metrical stress, and couched within the framework of Prosodic Hierarchy Theory, I argue that the rehabilitation of recursive feet in phonological representations leads to an improvement of our theory of prosody. I investigate the major driving forces that may cause recursion at the foot level and demonstrate that reference to recursive and non-recursive feet in various related and unrelated languages (e.g. Wargamay, Yidiɲ, Chugach, English, Dutch, German, Gilbertese, Seneca, Ryukyuan, Tripura Bangla, Cayuvava) allows us to provide a unified account of a wide range of prosodically-conditioned phenomena which would otherwise remain unexplained. In particular, I demonstrate that the assignment of binary and ternary stress, certain tonal distributions, some puzzling cases of vowel lengthening, consonant fortition, vowel reduction and consonant weakening all clearly benefit from recursion-based analyses. In arguing for the need for recursive feet in phonological representations, I identify new strength relations in prosodic systems. Besides the well-established strength dichotomy between the head of a foot (i.e. the strong branch of a foot) and the dependent of a foot (i.e. its weak branch), I show that languages may distinguish between further metrical prominence positions. These additional required positions do not need to be stipulated as they come for free in a framework that allows recursion at the level of the foot.