Phonologically Governed Allomorph Selection: The Choice of -ce /-cy in English based on Stress and Syllable Structure

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how English speakers phonological system plays a role in morphological selection. This study is focused on explicit investigation of English speakers intuition regarding English allomorph selection along with prosodic structure and stress pattern. Specifically, this study deals with the speakers preferences to the choice of the -ce/-cy ending nouns from their -ant/-ent ending English adjective bases. For instance, some -ant/-ent ending adjectives adopt –ce for their noun forms as in convenient to convenience (not *conveniency), while others adopt -cy as in efficient to efficiency (not *efficience). In this work, I suggest an Optimality Theoretic account of English stress rules and provide the general stress patterns of English adjectives, by discussing prosodic structures of the bases regarding syllable structure and weight. The account is evaluated with empirical survey data, which verifies English speakers selectional preferences in English noun allomorphy.