morphological? - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

Some questions which will not be addressed here:
relationship between stress and duration
stress and foot structure
stress and glides
The data presented may apparently be ‘marginal’, but precisely these data escape lexical
pressure, and the external, non phonological, influences to which the well attested lexicon is
submitted.
2. Lexical vs. phonological principles
Lexical pressure may override phonological principles. This idea has been applied to
phonological variability, to mismatches between the phonology and the semantics of a
construction or to cases of affixal substitution (cf. among others Roché 2007; Lignon & Plénat
to appear), but, at my knowledge, never to prosodic facts.
Velar palatalization in Italian
(3) elásti[k]o elásti[t]i elasti[t]itá elasti[k]íno
‘elastic-M SG’ ‘elastic-M PL’ ‘elasticity’ ‘small rubber band’
antí[k]o antí[k]i anti[k]itá
‘ancient-M SG’ ‘ancient-M PL’ ‘antiquity’
opá[k]o opá[k]i opa[t]itá
‘opaque-M SG’ ‘opaque-M PL’ ‘opacity’
Various authors (Dressler 1985, Celata & Bertinetto 2005, Krämer 2006; van der Veer 2006)
have more or less explicitly admitted that velar palatalization is a morphologized / lexical
phenomenon in Italian. Velar palatalization is the reflect of a phonological rule which was
active at some point in Romance languages, but is no more active in present day Italian (the
sequences // and // are possible and frequent). Yet, the relation between /k/ and // in
some contexts may still be perceived by speakers and have some effect on lexical
construction, though not via a phonologically general rule, but rather by analogy, lexical
pressure or whatever label we want to give to this dynamics.
(4) palatalization no palatalization
cúbi[t]i cári[k]i
‘cubic-M PL’ ‘loads’
elásti[t]i ába[k]i
‘elastic-M PL’ ‘abacuses’
austría[t]i antí[k]i
‘Austrians’ ‘ancient-M PL’
sínda[t]i ubriá[k]i
‘mayors’ ‘drunk-M PL’
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