Output-output Faithfulness to Moraic Structure: Evidence from American English

Moraic theory has been successful in formally representing the distinction between long and short vowels and between single consonants and geminates (Hayes 1989). In this sense, the mora represents a timing unit – segments attached to two moras are longer than segments attached to one. Such a conception of the mora is also appropriate when length distinctions are not binary. Broselow et al. (1997) propose a theory of mora-sharing that accounts for multiple distinctions in length. In this paper I will extend the idea of morasharing to explain predictable variations in vowel length in monosyllabic words in English. I will furthermore show that polymorphemic outputs in English are sensitive to the moraic structure of their bases.