The accentuation patterns of nominal compounds in Japanese: A preliminary study

要旨

How accents are assigned in nominal compounds is a difficult question in Japanese generativist phonology. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a seminal overview of accentuation patterns observed in nominal (root-root) compounds in Japanese. Firstly, we provide descriptive overview of the phenomenon, and show what are the issues to be addressed Second, we summarize recent OT-analyses by Kubozono (1995) and Tanaka (2001) which show that this seemingly extremely lexical phenomenon can be largely accounted in terms of phonology. Last, we evaluate the OT-analyses. In particular, we show that analysis of deaccentuation as a requirement by a phonological constraint creates serious problems, and hence such use of constraint should be ruled out in the grammar of Japanese phonology.

主題