Prosodic and Morphological Factors in Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh) Stress Assignment by Ruth Anne Dyck B.A., University of Alberta, 1990 M.Sc., University of Alberta, 1993 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Linguistics We accept this dissertation as conforming to the required standard Dr. E. Czaykowska-Higgins, Supervisor (Department of Linguistics) Dr. S. Urbanczyk, Department Member (Department of Linguistics) Dr. S. Gessner, Department Member (Department of Linguistics) Dr. J.J. Tucker, Outside Member (Department of English) Dr. P.A. Shaw, External Examiner (Department of Linguistics, University of British Columbia) © Ruth Anne Dyck, 2004 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without the permission of the author. Supervisor: Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins ABSTRACT This dissertation is an investigation of the stress system of Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), one of ten languages that make up the Central division of the North- west Coast branch of Salishan, a linguistic group indigenous to the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Although other researchers have previously investigated aspects of stress in the language, this work provides the first integrated account of the Squamish stress system as a whole, couched in an Optimality Theoretic framework. The first two chapters are introductory, with Chapter 1 supplying a contextual background for the undertaking within linguistics, and especially within Salishan linguistics, while Chapter 2 provides a thorough grounding in the phonology and phonemics of Squamish in particular. Chapter 3 begins the formal analysis of stress in Squamish by examining the way stress surfaces in free root morphemes, which tend to stress penultimate syllables whenever they contain either a full vowel or a schwa followed by a resonant consonant. Given this outcome, Chapter 4 continues the investi- gation of basic stress patterns by looking more closely at the interactive roles of schwa, sonority, weight, and the structure of syllables and feet in Squamish stress assignment. With the basic stress pattern established, the remaining chapters look at the outcome of stress in morphologically complex Squamish words. Thus, Chapter 5 is an analysis of stress in words involving prefixation, especially those resulting from CVC and CV prefixal reduplication, since non-reduplicative prefixes are unstressable; and Chapters 6 and 7 investigate the occurrence of stress in polymorphemic words resulting from the addition of lexical suffixes and grammatical suffixes, respectively. While stress in roots is generally predictable on the basis of phonological factors alone, that in polymorphemic words may also be influenced by morphological factors, as when a root or suffix has underlying lexical accent, and such factors then take precedence over phonological factors. In addition, prosodic domains play an important and interactive role. Examiners: Dr. E. Czaykowska-Higgins, Supervisor (Department of Linguistics) Dr. S. Urbanczyk, Department Member (Department of Linguistics) Dr. S. Gessner, Department Member (Department of Linguistics) Dr. J.J. Tucker, Outside Member (Department of English) Dr. P.A. Shaw, External Examiner (Department of Linguistics, University of British Columbia) iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................ ii Table of Contents ....................................................iv Abbreviations ..................................................... viii Acknowledgements ................................................... x Chapter 1. Introductory concepts 1.0. Overview ................................................... 1 1.1. Organization of dissertation ..................................... 3 1.2. Language basics .............................................. 4 1.2.1. Language background .................................... 4 1.2.2. Inventory of sounds ...................................... 5 1.3. Descriptive and theoretical contexts ............................... 7 1.4. Previous work on Salishan stress systems and syllable structure .......... 7 1.4.1. Researchers and languages ................................ 8 1.4.2. Types and tendencies .................................... 9 1.4.2.1. Salishan stress systems .............................. 9 1.4.2.2. Salishan syllables ................................. 11 1.4.3. Syllable structure ...................................... 12 1.4.4. Stress and sonority ..................................... 13 1.4.5. The status of schwa ..................................... 18 1.4.6. Stress and the morphology ............................... 19 1.5. Previous work on Squamish stress ............................... 24 1.6. Current issues and motivation for this undertaking ................... 27 1.7. Theoretical assumptions ....................................... 30 1.8. Chapter summary ............................................ 31 Chapter 2. Language basics: phonemics and phonotactics 2.0. Introduction ................................................ 32 2.1. Phonology and phonemics ..................................... 32 2.1.1. Consonants ........................................... 32 2.1.1.1. Resonants ....................................... 33 2.1.1.2. /h/ ............................................ 35 2.1.2. Vowels .............................................. 37 2.1.2.1. Full vowels ..................................... 37 2.1.2.1.1. Surface variations of full vowels ................ 38 2.1.2.2. Schwa ......................................... 39 2.1.2.2.1. Surface variations of schwa .................... 42 2.1.2.3. Diphthongs ..................................... 43 2.1.2.4. Vowel length .................................... 46 iv 2.2. Phonotactic constraints on syllable structure ........................ 46 2.2.1. Root shapes ........................................... 47 2.2.1.1. Roots with one vowel .............................. 48 2.2.1.2. Roots with two vowels ............................. 51 2.2.1.3. Roots with three vowels ............................ 54 2.2.2. Minimizing adjacent consonant sequences ................... 57 2.2.2.1. Roots with more than four adjacent consonants .......... 58 2.2.2.2. Roots with four adjacent consonants .................. 61 2.2.2.3. Roots with three adjacent consonants .................. 62 2.2.2.4. Roots with two adjacent consonants ................... 64 2.2.3. Constraints on syllable structure ........................... 65 2.2.3.1. Constraints on syllable onsets: evidence from root onsets . 65 2.2.3.2. Constraints on syllable codas: evidence from root codas . 68 2.2.3.3. Root-internal evidence for simple syllables ............. 70 2.2.4. Syllabic nuclei ........................................ 71 2.2.5. The basic syllable in Squamish ............................ 71 2.2.6. Section summary ....................................... 72 Chapter 3. Stress in Squamish roots 3.0. Introduction ................................................ 74 3.1. Penultimate stress in Squamish roots ............................. 78 3.1.1. Disyllabic roots ........................................ 79 3.1.1.1. Disyllabic roots with two full vowels .................. 80 3.1.1.2. Mixed disyllabic roots and the role of resonants .......... 85 3.1.1.3. Schwa-based disyllabic roots ........................ 97 3.1.2. Trisyllabic roots ....................................... 99 3.1.3. Section summary ...................................... 107 3.2. A phonological analysis of stress in polymorphemic words falls short . 109 3.2.1. Prefix$root combinations ............................... 110 3.2.2. Root$suffix combinations ............................... 113 3.2.3. Prefix$root$suffix combinations .......................... 115 3.2.4. Section summary ...................................... 117 Chapter 4. On weight, sonority, and syllabicity 4.0. Introduction ............................................... 119 4.1. Restrictions on segment moraicity and the relationship between weight and sonority .............................................. 123 4.2. The structure of syllables ..................................... 131 4.2.1. Evidence for CV ...................................... 132 4.2.1.1. Simple nuclei ................................... 132 4.2.1.2. The requirement for onsets ......................... 133 4.2.2. Resonant as coda ...................................... 136 4.2.3. Syllable types in Squamish .............................. 147 v 4.3. The structure of feet ......................................... 148 4.4. The parsing of underlying glottalized resonants .................... 152 4.5. Chapter summary ........................................... 155 Chapter 5. Stress in polymorphemic words involving prefixation 5.0. Introduction ............................................... 157 5.1. Stress in words involving non-reduplicative prefixes ................ 165 5.1.1. Unstressable prefixes .................................. 165 5.1.2. Stressable non-reduplicative prefixes or bound roots? .......... 170 5.2. Reduplicative prefixes ....................................... 171 5.2.1. CVC- reduplication .................................... 175 5.2.2. CV- reduplication ..................................... 200 5.3. Chapter summary ........................................... 209 Chapter 6. Stress in polymorphemic words involving