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Foot and word in prosodic morphology: The Arabic broken plural

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Abstract

This article proposes a theory of prosodic domain circumscription, by means of which rules sensitive to morphological domain may be restricted to a prosodically characterized (sub-)domain in a word or stem. The theory is illustrated primarily by a comprehensive analysis of the Arabic broken plural; it is further supported by analysis of a number of processes from other languages, yielding a formal typology of domain-circumscription effects. The results obtained here depend on, and therefore confirm, two central principles of Prosodic Morphology: (1) the Prosodic Morphology Hypothesis, which requires that templates be expressed in prosodic, not segmental terms; and (2) the Template Satisfaction Condition, which requires that all elements in templates are satisfied obligatorily.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, MA

    John J. McCarthy

  2. Linguistics and Cognitive Science Program, Brandeis University, 02254-9110, Waltham, MA

    Alan S. Prince

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  1. John J. McCarthy
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  2. Alan S. Prince
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Additional information

We are indebted to Mark Aronoff, A. R. Ayoub, M. G. Carter, Morris Halle, Michael Kenstowicz, Armin Mester, and three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on this article. Special thanks go to Linda Lombardi for a very close reading of the entire manuscript that contributed much to the content and exposition.

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McCarthy, J.J., Prince, A.S. Foot and word in prosodic morphology: The Arabic broken plural. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 8, 209–283 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00208524

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