Colloquium with Natalie Weber, Yale University

Title: Cyclic interpretation of prosodic structure inside of polysynthetic words

Abstract:  Over the last decade there has been a renewed interest in domain-delimited phonological processes and their correspondence with syntax (cf. overviews in Bennett & Elfner 2019; Elfner 2018; Elordieta 2008, Scheer 2011), though theories of prosody-syntax correspondence remain poorly tested on polysynthetic languages (Elfner 2018). This talk focuses on phonological processes within the verb in Blackfoot (Algonquian), a polysynthetic language. I argue that Blackfoot requires two types of mismatches from prosody: constituency mismatches and edge mismatches, which exist in a feeding relationship, as in (1) (see similar ideas in Itô & Mester 2019; Kratzer & Selkirk 2020; Lee & Selkirk 2023).
(1) Syntactic structure  Prosodic structure  Cyclic phonology
Root alternations provide evidence for two distinct prosodic constituents within Blackfoot verbs: the Prosodic Word (PWd) and the Prosodic Stem (PStem). Each constituent is associated with distinct resolutions of onsetless syllables and left edge restrictions, requiring different phonological grammars. This talk focuses on the cyclic application of phonology within a prosodic structure, and what this tells us about the correspondence between syntactic and prosodic structure. Key points:
1. The interpretation of prosodic structure is cyclic, from lower levels to higher levels (e.g., Sande et al. 2020; Kiparsky 1982, 2000) rather than representational (e.g., Bellik et al. 2023). The evidence is that there are opaque interaction between PStem edge constraints and PWd (re-)syllabification.
2. Syntactic structure is translated into prosodic structure, maintaining indirect reference and modularity (e.g., Scheer 2011; Nespor & Vogel 2007/1986; Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988; Selkirk 1984). The evidence is that every prefix prosodifies as a PStem adjunct, even though the prefixes do not form a syntactic class.
3. The syntax within the word is phrasal, suggesting that prosodic structure “within the word” may arise from the same kinds of correspondences with syntax that occur at the phonological phrase level (cf. arguments Weber 2022).