The Stipulation of Extraprosodicity in Syllabic Phonology

Abstract

Though the role of extraprosodicity has been thoroughly integrated into metrical theory, it has played a decidedly less pervasive part among the rules of syllabic phonology. Under Itô's(1986,1989) 'codafilter' account of syllable formation in certain types of languages, however, extraprosodicity of a word-final consonant is crucial both for maintaining the generalization that consonants in clusters must be homorganic and, when they are not, for determining the site of epenthesis. But in lieu of the coda filter and its extraprosodicity requirement, syllabification can be subject to a well-formedness condition which rules against consonant clusters in which each member is specified for Place, with epenthesis then applying precisely where it does because that is the only site which serves to remove violations. In further view of CV phonology's prediction of melodically empty skeletal representation and certain general principles of syllabic licensing, it is concluded that the role of stipulated segmental extraprosodicity is properly restricted to the metrical component of phonological theory.