Atelier de Phonologie - Francesc Torres-Tamarit

Francesc Torres-Tamarit

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre de Lingüística Teòrica

 

This paper assesses the data on Peninsular Spanish diminutives against an articulated theory of nominal classes in Spanish within Stratal Phonology (Bermúdez-Otero 2013). As opposed to many previous monostratal approaches (see Smith 2011:§2), the analysis developed in this paper upholds a high standard of modularity. First, no morphological (e.g., nominal class) or syntactic property (e.g., dim), is named in the statement of the phonological constraints, except for ‘stem’ in alignment constraints

(Indirect Reference Hypothesis, Bermúdez-Otero 2012:77). Secondly, the high standard of modularity is also grounded in cyclicity: morphosyntactic structure determines the cyclic domains in which allomorph selection is resolved by controlling the size and stratal affiliation of domains for phonological computation.