Remarks on Schwa Deletion and Epenthesis in French
نویسندگان
چکیده
Virtually all the literature on French Schwa assumes that schwa deletion and epenthesis are categorical phenomena. This paper is an attempt to challenge this traditional view. After reviewing the evidence in favour of the non-categorical nature of (word-final) schwa, we propose a novel account framed within representational Optimality Theory (OT). It is argued that non-categorical schwa emerges as an optimal output configuration to resolve the conflict between markedness and vocalic faithfulness constraints.
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