Gaps in Word Formation
Renate Raffelsiefen · Publication Server of the Institute for German Language (Institute for German Language) · 1996
Introduction1Focusing on verbs derived by -t'ze-suffixation, I will argue that gaps in word formation result from the interaction of phonological wellformedness conditions and conditions on phonological transparency between derived forms and their bases.The relevant transparency conditions require identity of surface structure, including non-distinctive phonological features such as stress.While the data lend themselves to a description in terms of constraints, specifically the type of identity constraints introduced in McCarthy and Prince (1995), they cannot be described by models of the morphology-phonology interface in which morphological rules have access only to distinctive phonological information.In section 1.1 I discuss some evidence that gaps in t'ze-formations reflect an irresolvable conflict between an identity constraint and a constraint against stress clash.In section 1.2 I present a constraint-based analysis of "truncation" in i'ze-formations arguing that, counter to Goldsmith's (1990) analysis, the pattems in question also reflect sensitivity to stress clash.In section 2 I investigate the interaction of identity constraints with the constraint against stress clash in English word formation involving suffixes other than -ize. Gaps in -/ze-formations Cases which do not involve allomorphyTable (1) lists a few of the several hundred attested verbs formed by suffixing -ize in English.Although the rule is generally productive, it almost never applies to monosyllabic or iambic words (cf.(lb)) ('X -> Y' means "X can be formed based on Y"): (1 )a.rändomlze -> random föreignlze -> föreign shepherdize -> shepherd b. *Xize -> corrüpt *Xize -> obscene *Xize -> polfte *Xize -> secüre sälmonize -> sälmon sfsterize -> sfster rhyth[a]mize -> rhy'th[a]m *Xize -> apt *Xize -> firm *Xize -> tense *Xize -> calm 1 I thank an anonymous referee for comments and Bruce Straub for proof-reading.