Introduction

Up to this point in the analysis of schwa I claim that a word-internal empty nucleus is realized as zero if it is properly governed. Moreover, in the preceding chapter I argued that a word, or more precisely a domain, universally ends with a nucleus. In French a domain-final nucleus can be underlyingly empty; if it is empty, it is licensed (i.e. it is authorized to remain without segmental content). Finally, a licensed domain-final empty nucleus is a government-licenser for its onset. These proposals seem, however, to encounter a problem with compounds. While in certain types of compounds the final nucleus of the first term is never manifested, it must be phonetically expressed in others. The question now is why the final nucleus of the first term behaves as in word-final position (i.e. it is never manifested) in one type of compound while in another type it behaves as if it were word-internal (i.e. it is realized as zero unless it is preceded by a consonant cluster). To account for these facts I argue that while the final nucleus of the first term of a compound occurs in word-final position and is therefore licensed, its behaviour is determined by stress assignment. Let us first consider the facts.

The facts

One type of compound has as its first term a word whose final nucleus is underlyingly empty and is preceded by a single consonant. The second term can either be phonetically monosyllabic or polysyllabic.