Prosodic and segmental unmarkedness in Spanish truncation

Abstract

This paper deals with the two main truncation processes that occur in Spanish. Type A and type B hypocoristics represent two different degrees of emergence of the unmarked. Whereas type A hypocoristics achieve unmarkedness at the prosodic level only (e.g. a minimal prosodic word), type B hypocoristics further achieve unmarkedness at the segmental level (e.g. onset and nucleus optimization). Spanish hypocoristics are equivalent to a MinWd because they must contain no more than a single binary foot. When the source form (SF) exceeds this limit, some of the segmental material may not be preserved. In type A hypocoristics faithfulness to the initial part of SF is enforced by the constraints ANCHOR-L and I-CONTIGUITY, whereas in type B hypocoristics faithfulness to the head of the PWd is secured by HEAD(PWd)MAX. Type B truncated forms display an additional tendency toward unmarkedness by favoring CV syllables with optimal peaks and margins. In addition to causing the deletion of certain segments, this tendency toward greater unmarkedness yields the selection of low-sonority segments to fill the syllable onset and high-sonority segments to fill the nucleus. There are also certain sound substitutions that take place in type B hypocoristics (e.g. [č]<[s], [p]<[f], [k]<[x],[l]<[r]). These are analyzed as a way to optimize the syllable by parsing segments that are more harmonic with the onset position.