Stress Domain Effects in French Phonology and Phonological Development.

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss two distinct data sets. The first relates to the so-called allophonic process of closed-syllable laxing in Québec French, which targets final (stressed) vowels even though these vowels are arguably syllabified in open syllables in lexical representations. The second is found in the forms produced by a first language learner of European French, who displays an asymmetry in her production of CVC versus CVCV target (adult) forms. The former display full preservation (with concomitant manner harmony) of both consonants. The latter undergoes deletion of the initial syllable if the consonants are not manner-harmonic in the input. We argue that both patterns can be explained through a phonological process of prosodic strengthening targeting the head of the prosodic domain which, in the contexts described above, yields the incorporation of final consonants into the coda of the stressed syllable.