LINGUIST List 14.664

Sat Mar 8 2003

Books: Phonology: Kraska-Szlenk

Editor for this issue: Dina Kapetangianni <dinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM.EUROPA, The phonology of stress in Polish: Kraska-Szlenk

Title: The phonology of stress in Polish
Series Title: LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 23
			
Publication Year: 2003
			
Publisher: Lincom Europa
 http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/
			
Availability: Available
		
 
Author: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk, University of Warsaw 
				

Paperback: ISBN: 389586725X, Pages: 120, Price: USD 48 / EUR 44 / GBP 33

			
Abstract:
			
This book examines the Polish stress system within the theoretical
framework of Optimality Theory. Two aspects of stress, its position
and its relative prominence, are discussed in a broader context of
domain structuring in Polish. General theoretical questions are also
addressed, e.g. the formal treatment of clitics, lexical exceptions,
analogy.

The introductory chapter 1 outlines the principles of Optimality
Theory and the basic facts of Polish morphology and syllabification
relevant to stress. Chapter 2 presents a discussion of a general foot
pattern within a domain of the word, including compounds, lexical
exceptions and acronyms. The most elaborated chapter 3 is devoted to
an intricate problem of stress patterns in clitic groups. A complex
interaction between the position of metrical feet, syllabification and
sandhi effects (final devoicing, voicing assimilations) necessitates a
novel approach to the issue of prosodic domains in Polish, which are
assumed to be constraint-based. Peculiar behavior of some clitics
argues for their preferable unstressability which may be, however,
violated under a higher demand. The foot pattern in proclitic groups
calls for a recourse to analogy for which an OT analysis if given
(additionally motivated by examples of paradigmatic leveling and
reduplication). In the final chapter 4 a grid representation is used
to reflect relative differences between primary, secondary and
subsidiary stresses. A four-way stress contrasts attested for Polish
phrases are predicted by a grid-building family of constraints which
coexists with a foot-building family of constraints discussed in the
previous chapters. The Polish data are examined in detail, but some
comparison to other languages is also made in order to argue for the
universal character of grid constraints.
			
Lingfield(s): Language Description, Phonology
	
Subject Language(s): Polish (Language Code: PQL)

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)