Shortening as a window on phonological grammar
- Words originating from shortening, including acronyms and clippings, constitute a treasure trove of insight into phonological grammar. In particular, they serve as an ideal testing ground for Optimality Theory (OT) and its view of grammar as an interaction of markedness constraints, which express (dis-) preferences regarding phonological structure in output forms, and faithfulness constraints, which require output forms to correspond to input structure (Prince and Smolensky 1993). This is because shortenings are characterised by a sharply diminished role of faithfulness, allowing for markedness constraints to make their force felt (“The Emergence of the Unmarked”). This article aims to demonstrate the heuristic value of shortening data for testing the OT model and for shedding light on various controversies in German phonology. A particular concern is to draw attention to the need for properly sorting the shortening data, to identify influences on phonological structure due to internal domain boundaries or to special correspondence effects potentially obscuring the view on the maximally unmarked patterns.
Author: | Renate RaffelsiefenORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-119594 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110721461-004 |
ISBN: | 978-3-11-072129-4 |
ISSN: | 1861-4302 |
Parent Title (English): | Linguistic preferences |
Series (Serial Number): | Trends in linguistics : Studies and monographs (358) |
Publisher: | de Gruyter |
Place of publication: | Berlin/Boston |
Editor: | Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna, Laura Catharine Smith |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Year of first Publication: | 2022 |
Date of Publication (online): | 2023/06/21 |
Publishing Institution: | Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) [Zweitveröffentlichung] |
Publicationstate: | Zweitveröffentlichung |
Reviewstate: | (Verlags)-Lektorat |
Tag: | phonological grammar; shortening |
GND Keyword: | Akronym; Deutsch; Grammatik; Kurzwort; Optimalitätstheorie; Phonologie |
First Page: | 71 |
Last Page: | 108 |
DDC classes: | 400 Sprache / 400 Sprache, Linguistik |
Open Access?: | ja |
Leibniz-Classification: | Sprache, Linguistik |
Linguistics-Classification: | Grammatikforschung |
Program areas: | G1: Beschreibung und Erschließung Grammatischen Wissens |
Licence (German): | Urheberrechtlich geschützt |